Games can be more than just a fun timesink; at times they are a thing of true beauty. This biweekly feature is dedicated purely to demonstrating the beauty of modern day gaming. So every other week another Screenshot Spotlight will appear featuring some sort of beautiful, or otherwise interesting, screenshot I recently acquired.

However, rather than simply posting some pretty picture and leaving it at that, I’ll include a bit of information about the game it was taken in - and the circumstances of the screenshot. Think of it as an optional background story for you to read. If you don’t care for any of that you can of course simply admire the picture and be done with it!

Background:

This screenshot was made several days ago as I got my first bit of singleplayer action in with the brand new RTS, World in Conflict. It’s a shot of one of the early-game cutscenes, entirely using the in-game engine without any retouching. Needless to say the graphics this came pushes out are beyond amazing. Character models are of the level you’d see in first person shooters only a few years ago - and the special, and particularly smoke, effects are top-notch. This is one pretty game - and it’s got gameplay to match too!

Game:

World in Conflict is a recently released strategy game, which wasn’t particularly the most awaited RTS this year, but looks dead set to grab Best Strategy Game of 2007 awards all over, completely unchallenged.

Releasing a month after the widely popular and critically acclaimed BioShock… this World in Conflict already manages to completely blow that out of the water. Scoring similar reviews across the board - and delivering an all-around stellar product, rather than purely a stellar singleplayer product. In fact, in some regions it’s even ranked amongst the top 5 of best PC games of all-time… They rank it right up there with Unreal Tournament.. and strangely, as a UT fan and someone who generally disagrees with GameSpot reviews: I cannot disagree!

So to recap: missing out on World in Conflict would be the biggest mistake you could make in this lifetime. My beta test preview actually turned out to be fairly mild in contrast to the enjoyability of the final version, and the singleplayer campaign is - amongst - the very best in the entire history of the RTS genre. We have one serious contender for Game of the Year (or Millennium).. right here. More to follow in the upcoming review…

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