This post has not been edited by the GamesBeat staff. Opinions by GamesBeat community writers do not necessarily reflect those of the staff.
Editor's note: Judging from the screenshots Daniel has provided here, I can already answer the question in the title for you: absolutely yes. Read on and marvel at them yourself. -Brett
A little over a week ago, I stumbled upon a website called Dead End Thrills, filled with hundreds of images that blur the line between video game screenshots and legitimate photography.
Screenshots are a pretty big part of gaming media, but how many of us really spend time admiring them anymore? Does anyone have a favorite screenshot that you like to have pasted on your desktop or what have you? When is the last time you've looked at a screenshot and called it "pretty" on its own merits?
Like with machinima videos, games offer the potential for photographs that real life can't replicate, since they are realized fantasy spaces that you can influence at your leisure — lighting and environments already rendered. It just depends on how much you can manipulate those things. Given that, it's actually kind of insane that no one until now thought to take it this far.
What Dead End Thrills does is basically go through the PC versions of popular games with either the screen capture program Fraps or a game's own capture mechanic. They mod the game space so they can set up the shots they want, bump up the resolution and anti-aliasing, and then move the camera to frame pictures. None of these shots are otherwise doctored afterwards.
The results have already caused me to waste more than one night downloading their sets and organizing them into wallpaper playlists. The fact that most of the shots are in 1080p also makes them perfect for viewing on a PS3.
My favorite galleries have been the ones for the Mass Effect series, the Modern Warfare series, the BioShock series, Borderlands, and Max Payne 2. Be sure to check them all out. Unfortunately, most of Dead End Thrills' photography is limited to games that have PC versions.
One thing I've lamented about from time to time is the lack of a "photo mode" in so many pretty games that would definitely benefit from it. For the most part, the only games that have dedicated photo modes right now are racing games like Tourist Trophy and the sole console-only game that Dead End Thrills has done: Wipeout HD. I can only imagine what people might do with a photo mode for Shadow of the Colossus, the Ace Combat series (with their stylish replays), or Heavy Rain.
this was cross-posted with redswirl.1up.com