History ShownTheirWork / VideoGames

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfvQLFVtlJY Obligatory film link here]]. And when Spidey says "That's not in my online wiki entry." he isn't even lying. As per typing this, his parents' names[[note]]Richard and Mary[[/note]] are not in the Spider-Man article.
* In ''VideoGame/Splatoon2: Octo Expansion'', all of the passengers of the Deepsea Metro are based on animals actually found in the deepest parts of the ocean, such as gulper eels, sea angels, blobfishes, siphonophores, and tunicates. Of particular note is the ping pong tree sponge woman, a species that was discovered not long before ''Octo Expansion'''s release.

* In ''VideoGame/CoffeeTalk'', the lunar cycle is accurate to that of real life, since there is a full moon on October 2, 2020, [[spoiler:the day Gala turns into a wolf]]. Episode 2 also has an accurate lunar cycle, with the full moon on September 29, 2023.

* ''VideoGame/ShadowHeartsCovenant'' has the Gallery of the Dead, which could also be called "Learn Cyrillic! With Princess Anastasia".

* ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'' is a franchise that is known for using UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheories as an ExcusePlot for HistoricalFiction. The games generally make use of a lot of DatedHistory information, but places all of it in a background and map that is heavily researched, with correct period architecture, general layout and a broadly accurate chart of historical events and figures, although the recent games that are moving closer to contemporary times have had far more ArtisticLicenseHistory than before.

* ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' knew its UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheories. Not only is it chock full of every conceivable conspiracy theory from MJ-12 to TheIlluminati to aliens at Area51, but it's also crammed full of real philosophical concepts and ideals, from Santayana to Nietzsche. Visit the AI in Morgan Everett's base if you need a small example of the research involved.

* Everything in ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'' that can be based on real-world ecology is. The world has a clear food chain, everything from herbivores and insects up to apex predators, and there are not MorePredatorsThanPrey. HerbivoresAreFriendly is averted, as even the softest meatbag might take a swipe at you before running, most have adapted to their harsh environment to have thick hides and natural weapons, and one of the most notoriously aggressive species in the game (the Diabolos) is a highly territorial plant-muncher. Monster species that are based on real animals take obvious cues from their behavior, and this has been known to evolve as real-world understanding does (such as the discovery of dromaeosaurids likely having feathers - a new species of Bird Wyvern was promptly introduced, sporting brightly-colored plumage). While there are plenty of fantastical elements, these are accounted for with FantasticScience, and creatures that completely defy classification are acknowledged as an enigma at the center of much study.
** Brought to another level with Turf Wars, which were added in ''World''. If two large monsters encounter each other, they may get aggravated and get in a Turf War, fighting each other, with the losing party getting dealt a lot of damage. However, like in real life, fights between two large predators rarely end in death, as a predator is often more trouble than they're worth compared to prey, so it's far more likely is that the losing beast will concede the fight and run away. Only a few monsters like the Nergigante and the Deviljho, that are undeniably at the top of their ecosystem's food chain, actually have other weaker predators as their preferred prey, and they will kill their opponent or chase it until it dies.
** Despite being a game about killing giant monsters and dragons with proportionally huge weapons, the game is surprisingly accurate in representing the hunting habits of humans, especially prior to the invention of the gun. Humans are persistent and opportunistic hunters, and the game rewards you for acting exactly like that: hunting in groups, placing traps, using other animals as hunting companions, attacking your prey while it's sleeping and whittle down their endurance untill they fall from exhaustion - this is how in real life, humans managed to hunt animals much bigger, stronger, and faster than them, to the point of being so effective we drove several animal species to extinction before we even concieved of guns.

** Apparently writer/director Creator/HideoKojima is excessively fond of this trope, as his prior work ''VisualNovel/{{Policenauts}}'', in addition to being unavailable in English, deterred fan translations because of the precise technical terminology used in the Japanese release of the game, including the results of research in biology, astronautics, and history. In fact, an independent translator named Marc Laidlaw ([[NamesTheSame not to be confused with]] the Creator/ValveSoftware writer), spent time with a number of textbooks and other sources of research in an attempt to decipher the decidedly native-centric text dump which included college level colloquialisms and kanji.

* ''[[VideoGame/LEGOAdaptationGame LEGO Batman]]'' does a lot of it, the Bat Computer has a lot of information on it, showing facts about the RoguesGallery and even facts about Villains you don't even ''know'' about, such as Penguin's father dying from pneumonia on a rainy day, and Penguin's mom forcing him to carry an umbrella.

* The first game of the ''Outpost'' franchise had according to Wiki/TheOtherWiki as developer an ex-UsefulNotes/{{NASA}} scientist, and it shows. Among other things: no [[FasterThanLightTravel FTL]] to speak of, a realistic interstellar ship powered by a fusion drive, a nuclear weapon launched against the asteroid Vulcan's Hammer which sought to divert its path instead of breaking it apart[[note]]Most RealLife ideas to defend against asteroids revolve about changing their trajectories, not destroying them[[/note]], the stars where you can go being RealLife ones (the planetary systems are [[ScienceMarchesOn totally fictional]]), and the planets are basically RealLife Solar System bodies -- [[spoiler: all terrestrial planets (except Earth), the Moon, Ceres (the largest body in the asteroid belt, now a minor planet), Phobos (the largest moon of Mars), Pluto, and as uncolonizable ones Jupiter and Saturn]] -- with the SerialNumbersFiledOff.

* Being a simulator of sorts, ''VideoGame/WorldOfTanks'' is filled with little details that would almost certainly be absent without all the care and hard work that Wargaming.net puts in. The developers are known to do things like observing in-game tanks in person at museums and the like, then making slight adjustments to the game models and armor values to better reflect the actual vehicle.
** This level of detail extends to the sister game, ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarships''. In the models alone you can see all the bits and pieces you'd expect on a combat ship. American ships for example have a chute of helmets for the crew, as well as a first aid kit at each anti-aircraft station on the ships that partook in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. The configurations of the ships are also accurate. The Japanese Battleship Kongo has very little armor at the start, and almost no AntiAir weapons[[note]] Being developed from the British Lion Class of Battlecruisers before UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, aircraft weren't viewed as a major threat.[[/note]]. The final configuration turns the ship into an anti-aircraft hedgehog, since by 1944, it was clear that [[DeathFromAbove Carrier Aviation was clearly superior to any Battleship.]]

** Similarly, the UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC settings in the game are duplicated with surprising fidelity, down to the [[http://www.examiner.com/x-14946-DC-Video-Game-Trailers-Examiner~y2009m6d30-Invasion-on-the-Blue-Line signage for the Metro subway system.]]

* The original ''VideoGame/{{Age of Empires|I}}'' allowed you to click on any unit, piece of rock, shrub etc -- then expand into an encyclopedic background history of said unit/rock/shrub. From a longboat to an elm tree, every item was meticulously mapped out in depth. The game's manual also had historical information on the civilizations themselves, including when they ruled, their rise and fall, their economy, religion and battle tactics. In addition to the expansion's manual doing this, [[UpToEleven the edges of the pages had factoids for anything ranging from Roman Shield Wall tactics to the earliest discovered human tools]].

** And the fandom takes this UpToEleven, with doujinshi plots often hinging on or driven by more obscure pieces of the lore about the youkai characters.

* ''VideoGame/BrothersInArms'' series, the games show off an incredible amount of historical documents in their extras section, on-site photo of rural France areas (and comparison between their own in-game buildings and their real life counterparts). The military advisor for Gearbox Software is a retired veteran general.

* ''VideoGame/{{Apotheon}}'' is a 2D action platformer embedded entirely within the world of Greek Myth.

** In addition to the demon/persona designs mentioned above, the mythologies are often worked into the plot; for instance, one sidequest in ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiStrangeJourney'' involves [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hariti Hariti]] getting a hankering for [[EatsBabies babies]] and requesting that you find a pomegranate to keep her cravings in check, since she's sworn off them. And the person who gives you said fruit for Hariti? Why, it's none other than [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persephone Persephone]]. And they're just two of ''[[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters many]]'' denizens in the ''Shin Megami Tensei'' universe. Additionally, the series as a whole uses a fair bit of actual Gnostic mythology.

* ''VideoGame/TokyoAfterschoolSummoners'', a.k.a. Housamo, is a CrossoverCosmology not unlike the aforementioned ''Shin Megami Tensei'', and thus many of its playable characters are also derived from mythologies all around the world as well as modern fiction such as Franchise/CthulhuMythos. Compared to SMT though, Housamo isn't very strict on referring to its source materials, however there is still one or two accurate mythological references per character. For example, Typhon in Housamo is a BigFun SurferDude shark BeastMan, a far cry from TheDreaded EldritchAbomination he was in the original Myth/ClassicalMythology. However, he has a FearOfThunder, which nicely ties into the tale of his mythological self's defeat by Zeus, the god of ''thunder''.