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DanielGK

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The Art Gallery

More and more, people are acknowledging the validity of video games as an artistic medium.  This has always been one of my favorite things to talk about when games come up, and here I'd like to compile a nice list of games throughout the years that serve as examples.  Exhibits, if you will, of the undeniable artistic choices the more talented game studios undertake when embarking on this unique, burgeoning form of creativity.
 
This list is still a work in progress.  Just saving it for now.  10-4-09

List items

  • To me, the entire Fatal Frame series is a triumph of the form. This franchise does things in the horror genre that no other medium can do. While of course centuries of terrifying literature and 100 years of unsettling film are widely accepted, the immersion a game offers is at its best in Fatal Frame. And of course, the effects of the game itself - the way the ghosts look, the moody lighting, the maddening sounds - are just about perfect for what "SCARY" can be.

  • From the early arcade era, I think Tempest is one of the most beautiful games I've ever seen. Simple as that. Also, there's something strangely morbid about this game. Supposedly, designer David Theurer based the game on a nightmare he once had, where he was standing above a bottomless hole in the ground where he had to fight an onslaught of monsters as they crawled up towards him. Yeah, Tempest is actually like that.

  • Shadow of the Colossus is a shoe-in for this list. The game actually seems concerned with little OTHER than art direction. While the gameplay is just fine, the music and landscape and general design are a glaring example of a well-made creative game. To avoid redundancy, Shadow of the Colossus also counts as ICO on this list.

  • I chose Patapon over Loco Roco, the spiritual prequel to this zany game. Basically because Patapon took a lot of ideas from Loco Roco, but added a more deliberate art direction and made it a much more complex game. Gameply does matter here, after all, and the darker, funnier streak of Patapon is a more interesting direction to me than Loco Roco's cuteness overload.

  • Allowing myself only one effort from Hideo Kojima to be listed here, I have to choose MGS 2. The fourth-wall-breaking tendencies of Kojima's direction are most obvious in this title, and that is an artistic strategy that is strictly unique to video games. The result for the viewer is a certain jaw-dropping mind-fuck that can not be found in any other medium. To break the fourth wall in a video game is a lot different that a protagonist suddenly mentioning he knows he's in a movie. Rather, questioning the player's role as player and game as game is to break the entire mechanic of artistic delivery, as if a book were to just shut itself while being read, without warning or consent. It is an unsettling effect, and the last hour of this game practically assaults the player with it.

  • Mentioned here for its constant and deliberate wreckage of the fourth wall, this is an unconventional and underrated horror game, better appreciated for its innovation that its fairly bad gameplay. Still, a must for this list.

  • A simple game that is nothing but pretty. Basically the Thomas Kincade painting of the art game, it really doesn't do much, but it's hard to hate on a pretty picture.

  • It is pretty easy to argue for the adventure game genre when it comes to art. In their inception, these games brought story and writing to the obvious forefront, making a game something your actually read, rather than try to rack up a high score in a test of skill. These game encouraged creative thought, and and their best were funny, quirky, and deep. I chose Monkey Island over the forerunner Maniac Mansion, because I just think it's prettier and more often imitated.

  • A personal favorite, I had to sneak this one in here. I find the Space Quest series to be the funniest of the adventure game genre, and who doesn't like a good sci-fi exploit? This entry in particular is a good one. Sorry King's Quest. Hilarity wins over generic fantasy for me any day.

  • From a long list of Castlevania and generally gothic titles to choose from, no other game succeeds in that vampiric presentation as well as this one. One can accuse a few of its music selections of being cheesy and pseudo-metal, but overall, the backgrounds, sprites, and general mood of this important game need to be acknowledged as an intentional artistic effort. It's also fun as hell.

  • I had the pleasure of playing this game from start to finish in one sitting. It took about six hours, and was probably the most enriching video game session of my career. From learning a startlingly original gameplay mechanic, to getting caught up in a very weird setting, and finally arriving at that unforgettable ending, Portal lived up to all of the hype I had heard. I consider it one of the best games of this decade. Also, I'm really glad I had NOT heard that song before I beat the thing.

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