You could check out the Spellchrome RPG.
Spellchrome: A Pen and Paper Roleplaying Game - Homepage
The first Draft is up and is currently being proofed.
The online version is free for anyone to view.
Your comment reminds me of my old RPG group's first Shadowrun adventures. The GM set it in the same city we lived in. We had only played DnD up to that point, so it was kind of neat to talk about getting around town using certain streets, etc.
I don't know if d20 failed or not. I know I bought the book because it seemed quite cool in the book store, but I never did end up getting a group together to play it.
What I noticed about D20 Modern was it often leaned towards the general over the specific. You could use this setup, or this...