Games with Beautiful User Interface!

Game UI is something I feel most of us take for granted. We often seek practical functionality (as we should) over any kind of artistically pleasing aesthetic; but what about the games that manage to have both? I know from personal experience that I dont really pay attention to game interfaces as long as they are logical and easy to use, but lets take a step back and discuss some of the games that do a great job of being both creative, attractive and practical.

Some examples of games I feel have really well done user interfaces are Dragon Age: Origins, Dead Space, The Witcher.

DA:O, although not really pushing beyond the standard RPG affair (Character, Journal, Map etc...), had some really beautiful design choices with swirls of darkness and blood that they worked into the Quest titles when they appeared on your screen, the pages of the codex, quest logs etc. These are things I took for granted on my first play through, but when you compare it to its successor -the much loved Dragon Age 2- You can really see the detail and art that went into Origins. DA2 on the other hand is very minimalist; Standard Text on a black background, pretty much all of the flair and attractiveness of origins stripped away.

Dead Space also has a brilliant interface. Projected into the environment and not being separate from the flow of the game really helped build suspense and add to the realism and the immersion. Being able to pan around your character as he looked through his inventory is just plain cool.

What are some game interfaces that you guys have enjoyed?

Dead Space is pretty much the best example I can think of, that was certainly one where it stood out at least. I also so thought Arkham Asylum was quite good, I'm not sure I like Arkham City's as much but in the grand scheme of things that is a very minor gripe.

I quite like the whole Animus thing in the Assassins Creed games. Not so much the 1st one but the 2nd and 3rd looked a lot better. I also like the whole story justification for the HUD and menus, even if it's not quite as seamless as Dead Space.

I have to agree with the Assassin's Creed games. I really like the whole Animus motif. The Dirt and GRID games have really nice UIs as well. And CoD:BO as well. It certainly isn't anything special aesthetically, but functionally it's great. From the fact that you can pretty much bypass the sluggish in-game Xbox guide/XMB completely to invite and/or join games, to the little touches like being able to boot up directly to the multiplayer menu or being able to back out your entire party when you're leader. No more repeating "back out" until everyone pays attention. As someone who plays CoD a lot, I'm really hoping MW3 will pick up a lot of these UI features.

Skyrim looks really slick in a really clean Apple iPhone sort of way.

@Vestigial_Man said:

I quite like the whole Animus thing in the Assassins Creed games. Not so much the 1st one but the 2nd and 3rd looked a lot better. I also like the whole story justification for the HUD and menus, even if it's not quite as seamless as Dead Space.

QFT.

Halo: Reach has a really clean, easy to use UI that provides a great amount of functionality.

I really like Forza 3 + 4's menu design

But Dead Space probably has one of the best UIs just because it's practical, looks nice and is believable, by that I mean it doesn't draw you out of the game and looks "real".

Any game where I can turn the HUD off.

Skyrim looks really slick in a really clean Apple iPhone sort of way.

Dirt 1 had pretty cool menu stuff.