NFTs are all the buzz lately in the world of art, and like any good thing, they’re currently being used and abused by an army of grifters looking to make the quickest buck possible with the most minimal of effort.

What if the worlds of Nintendo and Sony’s greatest games were merged though? You’d get a Mario Bros. game that I’d actually want to play, as imagined by David Romero. Using Bloodborne’s Gothic Victorian aesthetics as inspiration, Romero created several masterpieces that’ll have you yearning for someone to mod them into existence.

At this point of the year, Ubisoft’s usually preparing to show off the next big chapter in the Assassin’s Creed franchise in the flesh. E3 press conference announcements have long been the stage where the French publisher has unveiled the latest tour of history through an Animus session, artwork for the game plastered all over the Los Angeles Convention Center …

On March 20, you’ve got to ask yourself: Are you a DOOM Eternal fan, or will you be paying Tom Nook a visit in Animal Crossing: New Horizons? Well in the words of Zoidberg: Why not both? If there is one thing that the DOOM and Animal Crossing communities have going for them currently, it’s the wholesome fan art featuring the Doom Slayer interacting with Isabelle.

Art direction is the foundation of any game, the blueprint for how it’ll look and perform. These games then, are 2019’s greatest eyeball-popping slobberknockers whose every frame deserves a showcase exhibition in the Louvre.

There’s no shortage of things to do in Obsidian’s The Outer Worlds, a terrific slice of space-time action with a pulp feel that is crawling with beautiful design. If art makes a game, then The Outer Worlds was built through the hands of thousands of ideas, sketches and moody atmospheric world-building. From something as simple as a can of food to the more deadly weapons that players used, everything in The Outer Worlds has a handcrafted feel to it.

Ideas may give birth to games, but it is art that shapes those dreams into something tangible. Art that guides a project, that gives it a signature look and a style that sets it apart from other games. In an age where everything was browner than Midrand in summer, Borderlands was a revelation at the time. Colourful, cheeky and brimming with personality, it was the visuals that helped set this grand experiment apart from so many other games that were released at the time.

Bethesda has decided to provide a closer look at the art for the steel book case that will be available in the DOOM Eternal collector’s edition, and even though I’d bet that the included Doom Slayer helmet is rubbish shaped with thin ABS plastic, the art for the steel book fills me with all kinds of good feelings.