Sure, you could say that video games get more beautiful every year. Graphics technology gets better, game developers get more adept, and as a result, games get more beautiful. All the same, 2014 felt like a special year for video game beauty.
This year, PC games looked as good as ever, while new consoles let us get our first sense of how much better console games will look in the years to come. We got a few redone versions of already good-looking games—hello, atmospheric smoke effects! 2014 was also the year that marked the rise of "photo mode," an in-game tool to lets users capture their own perfect screenshots. The screenshots that players made were almost always nicer than any of the promotional screens that publishers sent out.
Below, I've listed some of the most beautiful video games of the year:
Infamous: Second Son
Grand Theft Auto V
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Child of Light
Monument Valley
Far Cry 4
Lumino City
The Last of Us: Remastered
Fract OSC
Assassin's Creed Unity
Kentucky Route Zero
Mario Kart 8
Hohokum
Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition
Eidolon
Destiny
Dungeon of the Endless
The Long Dark
Bravely Default
Transistor
The LEGO Movie Videogame
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Valiant Hearts: The Great War
This is far from a complete list, so I'd love to see your own submissions (with screenshots or gifs!) below.
Top image by commenter Kopoop, Infamous screenshot by Kane1345
DISCUSSION
i want to be that guy, and remind that technological prowess =/= beauty. It's the art direction, the artists who do something beautiful with the tech, that make beauty, especially when they put more into the world than just colors and very high-res litter.
How often has a cod game been beautiful, despite the back of the box always calling its visuals "hyperrealistic?"