When I’m stressed out, I take a big breath and exhale. Then I try to take in the beauty of nature–the nature that the city offers—around me. I love to see and hear a breeze brush up against the tree’s leaves in late summer. It’s like mother nature is also exhaling, blowing away her own stress and scattering it into the trees for my amusement. This is a beautiful sight and sound that most people only experience outdoors. But we have a secret.
Our secret is that we play video games, and we might stumble upon breath-taking moments in fictional worlds. One of my favourite things to look at in games is water; I love when game developers make beautiful and realistic water. The shimmering blue ripples and marine life beg for eyes to adore their beauty. Far from being a laughable copy of the real thing, this beauty in the game, regardless of the developer’s intent, reminds me of the beauty of nature. I love a placid lake so much that it makes me happy to see it even in a game.
The beauty of life and the beauty of nature in a video game are, of course, different. But they can both be beautiful, and I can appreciate them both.
When have you experienced nature’s beauty in a video game, if at all? How did it make you feel?
Video Games Nebula 
Walking simulators seem to be popular among players who enjoy soaking in a game’s environment. I focus so much on action that I often don’t notice the scenery. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons had a beautiful world. You can even sit on benches to admire the view.
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Yes, I have heard people talk about that aspect of Brothers before. I bought the game on Steam and have yet to play it, but I am looking forward to taking in the view.
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Wandering around ‘Shadow of the Colossus’. There was a sense of isolation in there, but it had an amazing world to explore. ‘Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker’ was kind of the same. Can’t think of many games from my childhood that would fall into this category though. Mostly because of timers or there being too many enemies.
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I think that sometimes never-ending enemies and timers can distract one from seeing all the beauty of a game. I guess it’s a good idea to play the game a second time, try to get away from the enemies and challenges, and to appreciate the beauty of it. We need to take a step back to do that; I think.
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As long as it lets you. 🙂 Been playing the first 2 God of War games and the scenery is great. Unfortunately, there are a lot of times where I have to give it a glance since the game is obsessed with long combos and enemies that don’t react to getting hit.
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Yup some games don’t give you much time to take bask in the beauty of their world.
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Makes me feel sorry for the programmers. Big, beautiful landscape that you can’t look at for more than a few seconds.
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True — but I bet they probably still feel proud of their work even if the average person doesn’t notice all of the details. And they get to do what they love for a living.
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Good point. We tend to overlook that last part when it comes to artistic careers.
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You’re right about that. 🙂
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Xenoblade Chronicles has taken my breath away on numerous occasions. Its worlds look both natural and unnatural, and extremely beautiful. I also love serenely roaming around the barren, out-of-the-way landscapes of Red Dead Redemption on horseback. I’ve never lived in a desert environment before, and I love being in that particular one because it’s quiet and isolated.
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Red Dead Redemption is a good choice. I also like that it takes you back to a specific time and place, so you can take in that environment in all its beauty. That’s not a time and place we could see otherwise. Well, not unless we had a time machine.
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I pan my camera around a lot, or try to move up close to things so I can check out the detail of the textures. I particularly like wild scenery with mountains. When I watch other people play I realized that not everybody does this. They run through with their attention focussed elsewhere, but they’d probably notice if the detail was removed because it all adds to the immersion of the world. It requires so much skill and art to put together that there is definitely a beauty to it. I also enjoy dramatic scenery in real life.
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I also appreciate the beauty and all the hard work and skill it takes to create a beautiful world in video games. Mountain scenes are something I find beautiful too, and Skyrim did that well in my opinion. I wish real life allowed me to see the beauty of an exotic locale as easily as video games do.
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