The photo mode is one of this generation’s most interesting features.
Taking us out of the story or gameplay of whatever title we’re playing, a photo mode allows us to absorb ourselves in the beauty of our surroundings. Be it a beautiful vista in the distance or the epic realism of our vehicle or character, a photo mode gives us an excuse to appreciate just how much work has gone into creating a video game in terms of its visuals.
And while it’s a feature that’s appearing in more and more games, there are many that have missed out on a photo mode. Here are six games that we we’d love to be using photo modes in.
Yakuza 0
The Japanese streets in Yakuza 0 are so extensively detailed that a photo mode would suit this title perfectly. Photo modes can often allow players to get a closer look at objects and places that may easily pass them by, and in these busy Japanese streets players are likely to miss a lot while passively playing the game. There’s so much to look at in Yakuza 0, and so much we’d love to see in closer detail.
Tom Clancy’s The Division
Speaking of detail, Tom Clancy’s The Division stays highly regarded in terms of its visuals. This post-crisis New York presents us with a snowy and beautifully vacant city, and it’s not just the streets that heave with detail, but the interiors of the buildings too. Every inch of Ubisoft’s rendition of New York has been beautifully realised and is visually breathtaking – the perfect combination for a great photo mode.
Monster Hunter World
Most games that provide us with a photo mode are particularly spectacular in one aspect. Perhaps it’s the close detail shots of characters, or the impressive environment, or the action shots the gameplay allows us to capture. With Monster Hunter World, the textures of the environment up close might not be that spectacular, but with the incredible monster designs and the combat effects, it’d make for some epic action shots.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Though it may not have an in-built photo mode, that hasn’t stopped us from taking many, many screenshots in CD Projekt’s outstanding The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. For PC players, NVIDIA’s Ansel is available for this title, and great fun can be had taking screenshots with that, but we’d love to see what CD Projekt could do with a photo mode built right into the game. If it’s as finely crafted as every other aspect of this magnificent game, then it’d no doubt go down as one of the best photo modes of them all. Pairing that and Ansel together to take gorgeous 4K screenshots would be a real joy to behold.
Bloodborne
For almost a decade, FromSoftware has been known for creating beautifully sombre titles within the Souls series. Bloodborne is no different in its ability to create horrifically beautiful and majestically gorgeous environments. Across the game is extreme melancholic wonder. Telling large parts of its lore through the world that inhabits it is almost exactly what a photo mode should be designed for — looking at every intrinsic detail within a title’s world, trying to find more.
Ghost Recon Wildlands
Open world games are always going to be ones we’d love a photo mode in. Ghost Recon Wildlands is no exception, with its vast landscapes making the perfect playground for endlessly creative location shots. The fantasy Bolivia within this title is expansive but detailed throughout, with spectacular scenery and vistas that go on for days. Landscape shots taken in a photo mode within Wildlands would definitely be contenders for desktop wallpaper.
