LogInThere were a lot of beautiful games release this year, however only one will go down in history as the prettiest.
If you’ve followed Naughty Dog’s artist talks carefully, you couldn’t have missed the wonderful sessions of the lead technical artist Andrew Maximov (read the interview here). Andrew spoke about the way artists shape the virtual reality of Uncharted series, following their own original artistic vision. With Uncharted 4 they moved this concept of ‘artistically augmented reality’ to a whole new level.
The latest entry of the acclaimed series is a pretty and technically advanced game, but it’s also a piece of art. Some of the screenshots of the environments, where the main characters live their action-packed lives, look like paintings. These environments move beyond just games, they sort of become bigger than Uncharted itself. They show the life beyond shooting and jumping, the envisioned life of a man, we’ve never actually known.
Our pick for the ’80 Level’ Environment of 2016 goes to the house interiors from Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. These were originally posted on Artstation by lighting artist Boon Cotter, but actually, a lot of people worked on these ones. Specifically the elusive environment lead Christian Nakata, who did an astonishing job (sorry if we missed the other people involved – leave names in the comments and we’ll add them!). These environments will probably forever stay a pinnacle of 3d visual in games. A golden standard of environment creation.
The secrets of these interiors is not the stunning quality, but pure human warmth. Looking at these scenes with photos, colorful pillows, carpets and sweet warm lighting, we secretly want to have at least vaguely similar end to our own stories. With a loving special someone, kids and that gorgeous sea.
Thank you, Naughty Dog. That was quite a ride.