#Long Island Landscapes

[alexmurison]

Sunset hues. Skomer Island, Pembrokshire Coast National Park

[jarredspec]

Moeraki, Aotearoa.

📷: Fujifilm GFX100S & GF 45-100mm + Kase ND64

Instagram | YouTube

[nordsea-horizons]

pictures i want to save from my unfinished grandmacore/fairytale island! this is the second time ive started this theme and then given it up so i guess it really wasnt meant to be🥲 but maybe these can inspire me or someone else and lead to other ideas😌💛

[livesunique]

"Haut Bois," Brookville, Long Island, NY, United States

Originally built by Ogden Codman Jr. in 1912,

Landscape was designed by Jacques Greber

[jaggedlensphoto]

Long Island//NY

[devcoll41]

Beach trail

[carmen-art]

The White Cottage - Suðuroy, Faroe Islands 2023

/ Instagram

[jvstinderosa]

Let your light shine

[orendarling]

Jersey Shore

Long Beach Island, New Jersey

December, 2023

[nwalthall]

Long Beach Island

© 2024 ned walthall

[gent-illmatic]

Sag Harbour, NY✨ (open house)

[pangeen]

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“ Dhigurah “ // © NATIONAL TROPIC  

Music:  thealbor - sped up cover

[iyinisle]

I am a Menace to my neighbors

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

Paul Sandby (English, 1731-1809) The Castle from the Long Walk ca.1765 Royal Collection Trust

[gemsofgreece]

This may be a question someone has already asked, but what are your thoughts on the landscapes in Assassin's Creed Odyssey, if you have played it?

I have answered a similar question but not this one! I have actually not played the game but because of the previous ask and the aesthetics and the frequent greece representation discussions here, I am somewhat acquainted with it.

AC Odyssey is actually quite accurate, with some pros and cons. One thing we can all agree upon is that the developers worked their asses off to create a beautiful world, genuinely inspired by or representing Greece. While watching it, I can also tell they wanted to show some little known facts about Greek geomorphology. In order to achieve this, they overdid a bit in some aspects and they deviated from other, more known characteristics, which they perhaps incorrectly ditched as stereotypes . In short, some elements are accurate, some are idealised and some are overlooked or undersold:

+ By watching relevant videos on YouTube, navigating your character does feel like exploring the Greek landscape. Many of the locations , although digital and fantastical, feel very oddly familiar.

+ The developers emphasized most on a little known fact about the country; it is very rugged, mountainous and rocky. This thing where your character goes up, down, up, down, up, down, up and again down and then up an irregular hill, well that's the genuine painful but also very rewarding experience of walking in the Greek countryside.

+ They nailed it with the vegetation, if they took inspiration from South Greece. This combo of sparse forest with low vegetation, sometimes interrupted by rocky terrain was beautifully done.

+ Some criticise it a bit for adding architectural elements of different ancient eras but I actually like this. It is a game, it blends elements beautifully and they are still Greek, so what's the problem... Although it surely could do with less wood and more stone in its place.

+ The light is beautiful in this game. They knowingly played with it as Greece promotes this as one of its attractions: the whole Greek sun, Land of Light etc. But, yeah, the way light is used in this game often reminds me of beautiful sunlit or sunset views in the country.

+/- It is beautiful but of course idealised how in AC Odyssey apparently all seasons co-exist in Greece. It's an eternal spring with spots of vibrant autumn and there's always winter in the mountains. Summer ironically got the short end, you can perhaps see it in the occasional brownish low vegetation at best. It is however a nice change from everyone thinking Greece is a tropical country. It's a temperate country, it's just that it doesn't experience the seasons all at once lol And of course if someone wants to visit the Greek countryside in its most AC-like time, they have to come to Greece in spring, ideally April and May, and not in July and August like most tourists. Someone might say "thanks Captain Obvious" to this but I have received plenty comments under photos wondering why the grassland wasn't flowery like in the image when they went in August so I feel like I have to say this.

(-) It is wonderful when you're navigating your character but I watched a video with the game's map in the eagle's eye view and I realised that the AC Odyssey Greece is a tad repetitive and less diverse. Essentially it's a bunch of islands that are VERY rugged with a snowcapped mountain and a few bays. While, again, this is part of what Greece looks like, the country is actually way more diverse.

(-) Namely, the rugged emphasis was overdone after a while. If Greece is over 80% rugged and mountainous, which is the official estimation, AC Greece is like 101%. Greece has flatter islands, wider valleys and smoother hills as well. Again, what AC shows is very accurate but overexaggerated. I already talked about how good the vegetation is. However, it resembles the south mainland. Some islands have less vegetation. Northern and central mainland as well as many islands have actually quite denser vegetation than the one depicted in the game. Again, the game is accurate but way less diverse.

(-) The map is not accurate. There’s just Athens, right? And then islands after islands, which all have mainland characteristics. But they clearly weren’t going for accuracy there.

(-) The biggest foul IMO was surprisingly the beaches. AC Odyssey did the Greek beaches no justice at all. The most accurate thing about them is that AC coastline is very indented with bays and coves. That's accurate. However, I was disappointed by the repetition again as well as the sea colour which I found nice but much plainer than that of the actual Greek waters. It was always a little turqoise in the first couple meters and then a regular blue. Greek waters can be turqoise for much longer distances or have a striking azul or sapphire or darker blue colour, all of which were greatly missed in the game. I missed the famous - if stereotype-y - blue and white aesthetic of the country. Of course the houses are modern so they couldn't be in the game but the blue&white also feature in the sea / waves and sky / clouds so...

Ignore the town but this type of blue is greatly missed in a game about Greece IMO.

Also some beaches looked way too tropical. Greece has a few subtropical beaches but the AC ones didn't look very accurate. Sometimes I thought it was a small bay in a Caribbean island. This is quite odd coming from the guys who worked so hard on other less known facts about the country's geomorphology.

(-) Elysium might be stunning but it is not Greek looking. Unfortunately, the Niagara falls are in Canada. The rock formations however, as well as several others in the game, seem to be inspired by Meteora.

So below I did some comparisons between AC Odyssey and real Greece. Keep in mind that these are just similar-looking images I managed to find on google. I do not know where the developers actually based their inspiration.

South Pindus

Ancient Olympia

Meteora

Mt Pelion

Cape Sounion

Dimitsana

Lake Plastira

Kerkyra (Corfu) island

Vikos gorge

Kalavryta

I found many other familiar looking locations but they were too generic i.e a small stream, a hill, a farm, and I got a little lost with all this searching because there are many places that could look like that. Lol I just realised I didn't use even one AC beach - AC beaches get rekt

Anyway, in short, I believe AC Odyssey does a very solid and hard work in its Greece portrayal - all my complaints are basically nitpicking that doesn't bother me (save for the beaches). Of course there is also the gamification and colour filters that create all these otherwordly vibes but those are to be expected from a game of course.

[jaggedlensphoto]

Long Island//NY