Bayview (Need for Speed)

File:Need for Speed Underground 2 Bayview.jpg

The city of Bayview, as seen from Jackson Heights, in Need for Speed: Underground 2.

Bayview is a fictional city in Need for Speed: Underground 2 (2004), a racing computer and video game by EA Games. Bayview's design is a departure from previous Need for Speed installments, as it is portrayed as a large city that could be freely explored in the manner similar to cities in the Grand Theft Auto series, compared to closed, circuit like tracks in both Underground (2003) and earlier titles.

Location

Bayview is portrayed with a varied selection of districts, as well as a variety of roadways and landscapes. It is also only depicted at night in Underground 2, like the previous Underground installment. The surrounding flora, architecture, and subtropical atmosphere of the city suggests that Bayview is located in the southern West Coast of the United States, although several landmarks are also based on those in other areas of the United States and the world. A character in the game also hints about the city's West Coast location when the player buys a pair of rims. But a cut scene seems to imply that Bayview is actually located somewhere in Canada, as it reveals that the address of the player's garage includes a six-character postal code similar to that used in Canada, though not in the correct number-alphabet arrangement. However, if it were in fact in Canada, the palm trees and US interstate signs would be far out of place. The map of the city greatly resembles Vancouver, Canada, where EA has an office which was where the game was actually produced. Similarities with Vancouver are almost exact with the exception that the downtown core and Vancouver West are merged in the game, most likely to reduce the number of bridges. Garrison Heights, the more affluent neighborhood in the game, is in the same area as West Vancouver, both being the most desirable areas of their respective cities. Likewise, Vancouver contains an area called Coal Harbour, Vancouver which would explain the game reference. Also, Beacon Hill is a large park in the neighboring city of Victoria, British Columbia.

Bayview is mentioned in dialog in Need for Speed: Most Wanted as a city that exists alongside Rockport, that game's fictional setting. Also in Need for Speed: Carbon Bayview can be seen on the canyon course Eternity Pass when breaking the first barrier on the road, from there it can be seen on the left near Palmont (fictional setting for Need for Speed: Carbon) and Rockport (fictional setting for Need for Speed: Most Wanted).

Geography and city size

Bayview is mountainous (with steeper terrain in Beacon Hill and Jackson Heights at the north) and located on shorelines at the west. Palm Trees are also seen scattered around the city as roadside flora. Thus, the city's location is suggested to be in a West Coast state, such as California.

Bayview covers approximately 22.43 square miles (36.1km²) of land, containing approximately 38mi (60km) of drivable area. The city also has land elevations ranging from -459ft (-140m) to 1509ft (460m) - a total range of 1968ft (600m).

Geographical Relations to Real Cities

If Route 27 is meant to be an interstate, the City Core map is extremely similar to that of Lubbock, Texas, which houses the end of Interstate 27. Coal Harbour though, is comparable to Fresno, CA which is proposed to house Interstate 7.

The geographical layout of the city is comaprable to that of Vancouver, Canada.

Districts

Bayview is divided into several major unlockable segments, which are each divided into districts (with the exception of the Airport, which is only one district in itself). The segments are as followed, from north to south:

• Jackson Heights, a mountainous district housing Bayview's wealthy and their massive estates, an observatory and a polo country club. The best views of Bayview can be found here. Jackson Heights's thin roads are relatively steep and windy; it is the also only district where Downhill Drift events takes place. A coastal road at the west, an area east of City Core with skyscrapers (which can also be seen while traveling the east portion of the beltway) and an island with a small town and lighthouse is also visible west from Jackson Heights, but is not accessible. The top of the mountain houses a broadcast tower, as well as the Bayview Sign, a play off of the Hollywood Sign. It is the third segment of Bayview unlocked for access in Career mode.
  • Jackson Heights (includes the mansions at the mid-level section of the mountainside)
  • Palomino Valley (the polo country club and nearby ranches)
  • Bayview Summit (highest point in the city, home to the observatory)

• Beacon Hill, a bayside chic neighborhood and upscale shopping district, which boasts with a large park at the east, the beachfront at the center, and various waterfront recreational facilities at the west. The east of the district also houses Pigeon Park, (with a a sign referring to it as "Brad Lawless Memorial Park", who the game is dedicated to). A memorial statue in Pigeon Park reads: "To Brad Lawless: A memory of our friend". It is the second segment of Bayview unlocked for access in Career mode (it is also the district used for the demo of the game featured in Burnout 3). Much of the city's civic structures are located here.
  • Beacon Hill East (includes the city hall, shopping district and museum of art)
  • Beacon Hill West (home to the cruise ship port, pier, marina and beachfront)
  • Pigeon Park (also includes the city university)the university is not very well seen from there, though.

• City Core is Bayview's city center, financial district and entertainment district. There is a beltway of interstates circling around this borough. It is the first segment of Bayview alongside the Airport segment that is available for access in Career mode. The district is notable for its elegant avenues, vast skyscrapers and vibrant structures; it also houses a Hispanic district
  • City Core (includes the city's skyline and it's hoards of traffic)
  • Fort Union Square (premier shopping center of downtown)
  • El Norte (the Hispanic district of Bayview, including it's many cathedrals and taco eateries)
  • South Market (the "Strip", home to casinos, resorts and a covered thoroughfare, and a gritty, run-down area to the south and also home to the large roundabout)
  • Hotel Plaza (includes luxury spas, the convention center and resort hotels)
  • Stadium (consists of two of the city's major stadiums)

• Airport, Bayview's international airport, adjacent to the City Core and Coal Harbor from the west. Its runways are suggestively the site of several Underground Racing League (URL) tournament races and drag races. The Airport is the first segment of Bayview alongside the City Center segment that is available for access in Career mode; it is also the starting point of the player in Career mode, when the player has arrived to the city "by plane".

• Coal Harbor, Bayview's industrial district, housing the city's industrial population, train yards, seaports and nuclear power plant. It is the final segment of Bayview unlocked for access in Career mode. Streets in the district are not well organized, providing many shortcuts and alleyways.
  • Coal Harbor East (highways and a train station)
  • Coal Harbor West (the rally track and the old time town part in the west of Bayview)

Highway routes

Bayview features a number of fictional highway route with names commonly associated with North American highway names, the beltway surrounding the City Core is dubbed Route 27, while a spur route, Route 7 runs from the City Core to Coal Harbor although it meets Route 27 at an at grade diamond interchange and continues as an unumbered surface street. in the map it says most of the city core highway is in coal harbor east and the player can be in a bit of coal harbor east at the very start of the game.

Differences within Underground 2

Several Drag Race tracks clearly taking place in familiar locations of the city were modified, and differ from their actual Free-Roam counterpart, to maximize the amount of road needed for the races and straighten the track if necessary. Inconsistencies include the order or size of landmarks seen and open paths to new routes that were originally blocked in Free-Roam mode. Examples of such tracks include "Bayview Bridge" (which is completely different from the depiction in Free Roam mode) and "Tunnel Construction".

Spoof landmarks

Throughout the city are numerous spoofs of structures and buildings based on real-world landmarks, some of which are listed below:

Alamo Square, San Francisco, California American International Building, New York City, New York Balboa Park , San Diego, California Bal au Moulin Rouge, Paris, France (In two locations) Buenos Aires City Hall, Buenos Aires, Argentina Canada Place, Vancouver, British Columbia Central Plaza, Hong Kong, China Chicago 'L' elevated train, Chicago, Illinois Citigroup Center, New York City, New York Columbus Circle and Time Warner Center, New York City, New York (As a double tower hotel) El Teatro des Bella Artes, Mexico City, Mexico El Zocalo, Mexico City, Mexico Excalibur Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada Fremont Street Experience, Las Vegas, Nevada Griffith Observatory, Los Angeles, California Hearst Castle, San Simeon, California Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, California Hollywood Sign (known as the "Bayview" Sign), Los Angeles, California The Holmenkollen ski jump, Oslo, Norway Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong, PRC InterContinental Mark Hopkins San Francisco, San Francisco, California Jin Mao Tower, Shanghai, China Marriott Waterfront Resort Hotel, San Diego, California Mohegan Sun, Uncasville, Connecticut Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto, Ontario

One Liberty Place, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Oracle headquarters, Redwood Shores, California Ocean Drive, Miami, Florida Pirelli Tower, Milan, Italy Raffles Hotel, Singapore San Diego Mission, San Diego, California Santa Monica Pier, Los Angeles, California Shinjuku Park Towers, Tokyo, Japan Sky Tower, Auckland, New Zealand Sleeping Beauty Castle, Disneyland, Anaheim, California (although supposed to be Excalibur, it bears an odd resemblance to the famed theme park icon) Stahl House, Los Angeles, California Staples Center, Los Angeles, California Stratosphere Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada Sunshine Skyway Bridge, Tampa Bay, Florida Sutro Tower, San Francisco, California Taipei 101, Taipei, Chinese Taipei Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station, Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania Trump Tower, New York City, New York Via Rodeo Drive, Los Angeles, California Victoria Peak Tower, Hong Kong, PRC Washington Dulles International Airport, Washington, D.C. Wisma 46, Jakarta, Indonesia Winter Garden, New York City, New York Yokohama Landmark Tower, Yokohama, Japan

Advertising and real-life brandings

Throughout the city are numerous Cingular, Best Buys and Burger Kings business establishments. Numerous city billboards advertise Campbell Soup Company, Old Spice, ING Real Estate and Edge shaving gel. Like in Underground, such product placements were apparently done as a method of advertising real-life products in the game.

External links

• Official Need for Speed: Underground 2 website; contains a map of Bayview and its districts, assessable by selecting "Neighborhoods". Note that the map is only available after several attempts to view it.