Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood by Ubisoft Montreal

As graphic design matures alongside a robust digital culture, the two continue to become inexorably intertwined. Though graphic design, the art of visual communication, is as old as mans artistic mind, newer forms of communication and expression like filmmaking and motion graphics are still in their infancy. Beautiful films, the cornerstone of Mograph TV, are everywhere today. People love creating, consuming, critiquing, sharing and reviewing them. Video games have come a long way since their initial conception. They’ve developed from games of simple hand-eye coordination contests, to fully immersive worlds with enthralling characters and recognized economies that lure your emotional interest. That emotional investment is hardly something to take lightly either, since video games from decades ago still inspire questionable tattoos, and provide unique inspiration for more recent video projects.

Video games today are a testament to many art forms. Development of story and characters require both a research and writing process. Development of a truly unique gameplay idea requires nothing less than genius. Development of environments and characters require the talented hand of an artist to first create concepts. The modern day sculptor, a 3D modeler creates and breathes life into these concepts working long careful hours on characters, character animation, and environment architecture. Sound design is carefully crafted and scores are written and recorded. More and more video games today feel and play like movies. Cutscenes show more and more skill and care taken with cinematography and incredible camera work. Creating a modern day video game is an endeavour of art, the expression of imagination by a vast array of artistic disciplines.

Over the years there seem to have been as many developers as there are games. Some companies understand what it takes to evoke that emotional investment and continue to produce amazing titles. Square Enix comes to mind, it’s nearly synonymous with incredible storytelling. 20 years after the first Final Fantasy, their most notable franchise, they’ve come a long way and are at the front of the pack with both storytelling and cinematic cut scenes. With the release of two Final Fantasy films, which were on the bleeding edge of CG quality in their day, Square Enix is a company that will be around a long time and is worth keeping track of. Konami is another amazing company to look for. Metal Gear Solid 4 raised the bar for cinematic, technical, and gameplay standards. We’ll take a look at one of the cutscenes from MGS4 as well as an upcoming title by Kojima Productions, a subsidiary of Konami, in just a moment. Ubisoft has also been a contender for years. Favourites like the old Heroes of Might and Magic games, along with newer franchises like Assassins Creed or Prince of Persia are just a few of the great titles this company has produced.

Let’s take a look at some games today that push the envelope.

Metal Gear Solid 4 by Konami

Released just over a year after the launch of the Playstation 3, this game is a true cinematic experience. Accredited by GameSpot as “technically flawless”, it’s quite heavy on cutscenes. Check out this cutscene I’d love to highlight.

Final Fantasy XIII by Square Enix

This game is a visual masterpiece. The art direction of this title was designed to take your breath away, and makes that accomplishment look effortless. Each new environment, each new story-building video is a joy to watch. Few games match the amazing quality found in this title. The gameplay experience is adventurous as any Final Fantasy title in the franchise, but is heavily punctuated by in-game cinematic and full motion video. So far I’ve had the opportunity to experience a grand handful of what this game has to offer, and I’ve highlighted the most breathtaking cut scene so far in this video. Take note of the wonderful camera work, choice of shots, brilliant crisp colour. An amazing, content-rich game.

Wipeout HD by Sony

Wipeout is an experienced racing franchise title. The latest edition to the namesake is just a pleasure to look at. Everything is crisp, clean, fast, and over the top. The gameplay keeps you thinking faster and faster as speeds increase, and each new speed class changes the controls to a slightly different racing dynamic. Everything looks so beautiful in 1080p I find myself and my friends simply pausing to take a good long look at what we’re seeing. I’m not the only one inspired by this title, take a look at this interesting fan-created advertisement. The soundtrack compliments the title, awesome electronic music. Well worth your time.

Flower by thatgamecompany

This game is utterly unique. In this game, you play the wind. Tasked with revitalizing nature across the world, you blow flower petals from outcrop of growth to outcrop. A truly unexpected gameplay, with an awesome control style which uses the sixaxis motion detection of the Playstation 3 controller. Take a look at this serene style.

2010 promises to be quite the year for beautiful video game releases. Check out some of these titles upcoming in the near future:

Deux Ex: Human Revolution by Eidos Montreal

I loved the first Deux Ex game. It was an awesome first person shooter and role-playing game in one. Based in the future, where humans augment their bodies with advanced prosthetics, the room for very dynamic and specialized advancement was up to the player. This new title looks incredible. Just take a look at this trailer and judge for yourself.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow by MercurySteam and Kojima Productions

From a long line of Castlevania games comes the latest release. Observe an incredible art style in this trailer. Great care went into creating this video, it’s suspenseful, gives you a taste of an amazing title about to come out, and showcases some fun looking gameplay.

Call of Duty: Black Ops by Treyarch

Any gamer today is familiar with the call of duty franchise. I’ve always loved the way way the recent installments of this franchise play and feel like movies. It’ll get your blood pumping and raise your stress level. I used to play these games with my brother so loud we had to yell over the gunfire, what an experience. I can’t wait for the newest release.

Gran Turismo 5 by Polyphony Digital

This game is the most realistic game I’ve ever seen. And for that alone it deserves a mention. I’m not interested in hyper-realistic racing gameplay but the amount of care that has gone into this game for it’s graphics is incredible. The photographs and videos look real. We’ve come a long way from pong, and this game is a testament to that.

Portal 2 by Valve

Portal was an incredibly fun game. With an awesome gameplay idea they took a simple idea and made an incredible game. All I’m hoping for the second instalment is a longer game, it’s predecessor was much too short.

Little Big Planet 2 by Media Molecule

Little big planet took the average platform game and expanded on it to make it unique in it’s own right as well as incredibly fun. Check out this preview for Little Big Planet 2, it looks like they’ve done it again and we can expect a vast development from the first game to the second. I hope this gets all of you as excited for experiencing the great games of tomorrow as I am. Since the inception of film, people have been enthralled. Adding an element of interaction only makes the experience better. Video games are part of our generations culture. They’ve matured with us, and will continue to do so throughout our lives.

If you enjoyed what you read and saw here, throw up a comment and let me know! I’m eager to hear what the rest of you think about the art of video games, and if you’d be interested in reading some more in depth singe-title reviews from a design perspective.

Written by: Chris Savoie

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