ffxfan @ MindSay

Formerly known as FFXFan

I've wanted to write this blog for a while now, but I've never really been that arsed to. Until now.

The other day, I was thinking about whether video games these days could be classed as an artform. I'm not on about your stereotypical wrestling/sports/platform games, but the ones that really do want to create a believable environment. Something you'd get engrossed on.

The two franchises that spring to mind are The Elder Scrolls and Final Fantasy. In my opinion, these two lead the field. The Elder Scrolls games give the player a whole continent to explore, along with it's different cultures. You could go to the ruins of a forgotten past, or maybe the capital city and explore the country's modern pleasures. And wherever you look, the scope of the game is massive.

Bestheda, the developers, should be given more credit than they usually are. Sure, their games win "Best RPG" of many multiple gaming press magazines and websites on a somewhat regular basis (Oblivion, the new entry which came out on PC and Xbox 360, won "Best RPG at E3 2005"), but nobody has really looked further into it. Using Oblivion as an example, you're put into a world that looks believable. OK, so you're not gonna see human-sized cats and lizards, or Orcs, in the real world, but because everything else looks so real, you could imagine that a country like Oblivion's could exist.

Final Fantasy is the same kinda game, with an outstanding emphasis on making its world believable, but it's not on as big a scale as Oblivion. No matter which way you look at it, FF is a linear game, whereas Oblivion is free-roaming. With Final Fantasy, 9 times out of 10 you're at a town/city/ruin because you have to be there, not because you want to be there.

Another problem I've got with FF is that the camera angles do sometimes mask the true beauty of the game. In the PSone era, there was an excuse for it, as the locales were all pre-rendered backgrounds, but in Final Fantasy X, and Final Fantasy X-2 to an extent, a 360-degree camera could've been used. There are some places where a 360-degree camera would've made it so much better. I mean, in FFX, when you're on the Highbridge going up to Bevelle, who would've loved to have pulled the camera back behind Tidus, and actually see the Temple, as opposed to knowing that you're only approaching it. FFX-2 remedied it a little by letting you travel around the Temple a little, but I still wanted to see what it actually looked like. You could see the Temples in Besaid, Kilika, Djose, Macalania etc etc, so why not Bevelle?

There are other games that can be included into this blog entry, but I wanted to keep it to an acceptable length. However, I think the main jist of it is that RPGs are usually the games where the art really shines through, with exceptions. The original Ratchet & Clank had a brilliant camera, which could, at times, pull back and show you the whole level. God of War, also, is one of the pinnacles of PS2 gaming, removing load times so you're always in a Greek world, bathed in the mythology which enthralls kids of all ages. God of War II can only improve on it. And how can I post this entry without mentioning ICO and it's "sequel", Shadow of the Colossus, regarded as the two best PS2 games ever? Actually, lemme talk about SotC for a bit.

Shadow of the Colossus is another game that had no load times in it at all, but really, all we want to know about is why it's in a blog entry about art in gaming. Erm..have you seen it? For the PS2, a Grandad in the gaming world these days, to give you a world that is only bettered by two games (God of War and Oblivion..in my opinion anyway), is nothing short of amazing. OK, so it's at the expense of graphical quality (but that only dips a little), but when you've got monsters (or "monsters") whose height rivals the Oblivion ride at Alton Towers (those who've been there will know..for those who don't, it has a vertical drop of 150ft, and is in the Guiness Book of Records, or was, last I checked), then you can forgive and forget. Besides, they're so detailed. Their fur sways in the wind, and parts when your character (who is apparently called Wanda..the original title for the game was Wanda and the Colossus) walks through it. It's a PS2 beauty, and whilst it might be bettered by God of War 2, or anything the PS3/Xbox 360 produces, the experience it gives you sticks. And that's what counts.

What other games could we mention in closing? The MMORPGs, perhaps? Guild Wars, World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XI: Online? Or do we look elsewhere..first person shooters? Halo and Half-Life? Can we look at Call of Duty 2 and say that it's a realistic depiction of how World War II felt like for a soldier (except for that whole regenerating health thing..I'm sure they couldn't do that)?

Or...can games actually be considered modern art? In 50-100 years, people might not turn to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, or Shadow of the Colossus, and say that those two games in particular were the pinnacle of art in the mid-2000s, but they can still turn to Vincent Van Gogh, or Picasso and declare their paintings masterpieces (and I'm not trying to say they aren't, cos they are).

Opinions are very much welcome, but I'm done gabbling now. If you've read through all this and not skipped any, congratulations. Your hell is over