#2 Most artistic Game

In the number 2 spot we find a game that is relatively new (past 5 years) and in many ways is a sleeper hit. With a base game style that seems to be all its own Valkyria Chronicles possesses a style that both impresses and intrigues.
Released in early November 2008 by Sega, Valkyria Chronicles had a bit of work ahead of itself. Sega as of late has had poor reception for its games and since most of them have been rehashes of the Sonic Franchise or similar spin offs I was hopeful for this change.
Valkyria Chronicles is a hybrid FPS (first person shooter) strategy war game in a classic anime style but with a beautiful cell shaded twist. This game in all honesty boasts some of the greatest cell shading I have seen in a game which amplifies the lighter moments in the games while still bringing the range of detail not normally seen in this style of rendering. Bright colors illuminate urban battle fields and brings action to life in cartoon glory, and while the game does touch on several darker themes I do not feel that it loses its general tone set by the art style.
After its release Valkyria Chronicles gained quite of bit of attention getting high acclaim from4-TV, IGN, Gametrailers, and Gamespot however despite this acclaim its sales were less then stellar in the US which in many ways could have been predicted as the US market seems less inclined to buy Anime styled games (A prime example is the total drop out of the Sega Dreamcast game market).
Regardless of it's sales Valkyria Chronicles is a very strong title and boasts many awards such as "Best Artistic Graphics" from GameSpot, "Best Original Soundtrack" by GameSpy and Strategy Game of the Year 2008.
At the least Valkyria Chronicles has earned a spot on my shelf and a place in this countdown a great title that I would recommend to anyone looking for a stylistically impressive game with game play that they would not find anywhere else.

A great resource

So a while ago I stumbled upon the website known as the Escapist. It is in essence a web magazine featuring video games and related pop culture. It has the usual game reviews and massive library of trailers and teasers, but there was one thing the truly stuck out to me.

Its within the Escapists webisode library, it is a series called Extra Credits. Extra Credits looks at video games from a different perspective, the perspective of not only a designer but looking at it like someone would look at and analyze a piece of artwork. What they do on Extra Credits is something very similare to what I was to do with this blog. Look at and analyze video games in a mature manner looking at is as an artform rather then a toy. The guys over at Extra Credits are very experianced in the industry and can offer some great insight for those who think video games are more then a toy (which they are most certainly not toys).

#3 Most Artistic Game

In my number three spot we find a game that has a bit of age on it. Originally released for the Dreamcast (which I still believe was a very good console). Jet Grind Radio was released in June 2000 by Sega and developer Smilebit.

Jet Grind Radio brought a fun cell shaded adventure with light hearted punk undertones. A game devoted to the idea of using graffiti to defeat not only rival gangs but an oppressive government. With a colorful (literally) cast of characters perfect music pairings and an almost arcade fell Jet Grind Radio for me was an incredibly enjoyable experience.

We see in Jet Grind Radio a great portrayal of Japanese popular culture(J-pop. The outlandish wardrobes of the character made even more stylized by the bold color choices truly reflects the J-pop feel that the games' artistic style is drawn from. One main ass est of the game is the world design. Due to Jet Grind Radio's sandbox play style the environment needed to be not only incredibly interactive (from a game design perspective) but it needed to be more then a pretty backdrop. Given the games cell shaded style this was going to be a daunting task for developer Smilebit, but that pulled it off seamlessly. Buildings and cars seemed to be made from layers of cardboard drawn into the game with certain exaggerated details and brilliant colors. The layout of actual buildings were kept simple yet effective to make navigating them easy, a great help in game play especially when you graffiti artist was confronted with tank brigades invading the streets.

Overall Jet Grind Radio was a fun, light hearted experience that brought the vision of J-pop culture to a video game in design that was simple, effective, and stylized in a way to enhance the feel and experience of the game.

Working with torque 3D

Just a quick update post. I have recently been doing some work with Torque 3D on a small game design project. However I have been getting some sluggish performance from it when importing 3D models onto the stage. I have to admit I was a bit surprised considering how well my PC runs 3DS Max. Well regardless it may be time to start looking at updating at my graphics card or a new stick a ram.

Online 3D modelling and Animation classes

Taking a quick reprieve from the countdown to share something intresting I found while checking the articles today over on the 3D World Blog. A small company called Digital-Tutors has recently started up and has created quite a stir in the 3D art community. To celebrate their creation Digital-Tutors is offering several free beginner level classes. Check out the article on 3D World