It is July 26, 2019. Parisians flock to public fountains and air-conditioned museums. The temperature has just reached 42 degrees Celsius (107 Fahrenheit) and the sidewalks are nearly vacant. It`s the hottest day in Paris history.In a conference room in Montreuil, a commune on the city`s Eastern side, Benoit Martinez has his work cut out for him. He`s speaking to a group of English-speaking journalists, myself among them, each still glistening with sweat from our walk to Ubisoft Paris. We`re here to see Ghost Recon Breakpoint, and Martinez is here to show us Auroa, the fictional world that couldn`t feel farther from the sun-baked streets we just escaped.`Sense of place is important,` Ubisoft Paris` art director tells us. `Sense of place is key.`On the screen behind Martinez, screenshots show a lush, green landscape, speckled with crimson flowers and laid out beneath a layer of clouds. In the distance, a heavy rain falls on sloping hills. It`s hard not to think of New Zealand. But of course, this is not New Zealand. It`s Auroa.An aerial view of Liberty, Auroa`s largest cityIn this sense, Breakpoint marks a turning point in the long-running franchise. Since 2001, every mainline Ghost Recon has taken place in a real-world setting, ranging from Russia, to Mexico, to East Africa, to Russia again. The series has long staked a claim on realism and authenticity, and these digital versions of actual places have only heightened that pride. For Breakpoint to veer into the realm of outright fiction is no small feat.Nonetheless, after 18 years, the leap feels necessary. In 2017, Ubisoft Paris drew pointed criticism for its depiction of Bolivia in Ghost Recon Wildlands, a game portraying the South American country as a narco-state overtaken by a Mexican drug cartel. The Bolivian government itself threatened legal action--which it has yet to pursue--and Ubisoft, as is now customary, reiterated that Wildlands is a work of fiction, and `imagines a different reality than the one ...
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