Megalongcat | Design in the Presence of Idiocy. -

Taking screenshots in video games has been around since 16bit color console and PC games. It’s nothing new and we all take it for granted that every time we frag someone in Halo, or do an awesome stunt in Gran Turismo that we can screenshot the moment and plaster it over the internets. However, what if taking screenshots in video games was something..more? Avid gamers, artists, and other innovative individuals have taken it upon themselves to compose intense scenes during their gameply to screenshot and share with the world as their own form of Photography; yet video game companies paid no attention to this small group of individuals and added in no features to make their screenshot experience any better.

Now you might be thinking, well didn’t the game “Linger in Shadows” offer people great screenshot material on the ps3? Indeed, Linger in Shadows lets you make and record video game art, but that’s the primary purpose of the “game”. I would argue that the new edition of Wipeout – Wipeout HD for the playstation 3 has finally added in something that will attract non-gamers to a particularly polarized gaming genre: racing.

I just recently purchased a 1080p high definition screen to replace my old crappy 17 inch CRT monitor that finally died and to test it out I hooked up the ps3 to through HDMI to see if there was actually a visual difference in games, and of course I needed a game that was also rendered in high-definition quality to test it on. For the price of $20 I set myself into a world of fast cars, asian designs, and glowing lights that might make the weak of heart feel sick. As I won my first race I saw a strange option: “hit square for photo mode” Photo mode? What the hell is Photo Mode?. Apparently this is Photo Mode:

It allows you to take pictures at any point during the game, and not only are these screenshots but you can edit them as you would in Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop, or even on a real camera with options like Aperture, Depth of Field, Motion Blur, Exposure, Saturation, etc. ** Also, all of the pictures that you see in this post from Wipeout HD are ones taken by me.**

I was also really amazed at not only the game’s but the Playstation’s ability to crunch HD images into small JPEG files without losing any quality. It’s like having the Adobe air App – Shrink O’Matic inside your video game console. If you have a Playstation 3 and you can blow $20 dollars, I suggest you get this game for its high-octane races and creative content.