When the reclusive film director Stanley Kubrick was prepping Eyes Wide Shut, he sent his nephew, Manuel Harlan, on a research mission to photograph London, armed with a camera and a stepladder. From these 30,000 or so pictures, Kubrick was able to recreate vast chunks of West London as a photographic collage.

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Ubisoft Massive did something similar to make The Division

But thousands upon thousands of reference photographs were taken by Ubisoft’s World Texture Facility Team, which were painstakingly tagged and indexed, serving as the reference point for realising its bleak version of New York. The level of detail is immense, and having spent two days with the game, here are some of the most impressive little details I noticed.

1. Building Fictional Brands

The Division's Advertising 9 IMAGES

2. The Best Graffiti in Games?

The Division's Graffiti 6 IMAGES

3. Going to the Movies

Posters for Don't Tell Mom and V at a multiplex.

Large advertisements for the fictional movie V.

This graffiti obviously wasn't a fan of Don't Tell Mom, defacing the poster.

4. Check the Fine Print

Looking closely at posters in The Division will reveal a printed texture.

5. Missing Person Posters

Harrowing collection of missing person posters.

6. Intelligent Destruction

LCD screens break realistically when shot.

Sign shattering.

Advertising is a huge part of the personality of New York. Of course, real brands are off limits, so Massive has meticulously created a vast range of fictional brands – from coffee shops, fast food vendors, and competing soft drink corporations to jean manufacturers and slick purveyors of high-end electronics.You can take a closer look at some of the fictional brands in the slideshow below:There are around 230 pieces of fake advertising in the game, and each brand has its own identity, slogans, and advertising campaign, which you can see around New York.But look closer and there's even more detail in play. Lead environment artist, Chad Chatterton, tells me to really bring these brands to life, they extend beyond billboards. "There might be plastic bags connected to this store where you buy the jeans, and there's some branding that might be older than other branding you see in the world."I think The Division's graffiti might be the best I've seen in a game. There are 320 unique pieces of graffiti in the game. It's not simply cut-and-paste around the city.Check out some of the beautiful and varied graffiti from the High Line by swiping through the gallery below:Graffiti is also used as a narrative tool, from vandalised vehicles to the way in which, due to lack of order in New York, it has slowly crept into areas like Times Square. If you look around that area, you'll see abandoned scissor ladders, which have been used as painting platforms. The environmental artists asked graffiti artists what they do if Manhattan was abandoned and that was one of their first ideas.It's diverse too. Some of the graffiti is legitimate art, some of it is mindless scrawl, an act of aggressive vandalism......while some of it is more harrowing, predicting the end of the world.(Revelation 1:15, if you're wondering, is: "And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.")In addition to the fake brands and restaurants, there are fake movies promoted throughout Manhattan.My favourite is the comedy Don't Tell Mom, which looks like perfect family fodder around Thanksgiving. What we're not allowed to tell Mom is a frustrating mystery that might never be solved.There's also V, which appears to be a mash-up of Divergent and Tron.You'll see small advertisements on the subway to impressive displays in-and-around Times Square. Even though it's been largely abandoned, this is still a living world, and you'll see posters defaced too.Speaking of posters, if you take a closer look at any printed material in the game, the image will break down and you'll see dots per inch which make up that image, creating the illusion these are printed materials, not digital assets.There are 2326 missing person posters in Manhattan, and they create some of The Division's most sombre locations.This is a small thing, but when you shoot screens they react according to how they're made. If you shoot an LCD screen, this will happen:And if you shoot a sign: