Videogame concept art. As we all know, it exists only to provide lazy devs with a cheap unlockable "reward" scheme when they can't actually be bothered to design any proper bonuses. Well that might as well be all it's for anyway. You see while the production artists of the games industry are supremely talented people with spectacular vision, all too often what they design just doesn't come through into the final game. At all.

Sometimes it's technical limitations. Sometimes it's a lack of appreciation of the colour and tone of a piece. Sometimes developers just don't seem to interpret the art as the designer intended at all. So read on and weep at what might have been, as we take you through some of the biggest artistic disappointments of recent years. So much design talent, so little in-game evidence...

The vision

A lusher than lush evokation of the hazy ambience of tropical forest land. Note how the soft light diffuses gently through the canopy, contrasting beautifully with the sparkling detail of the water.

The reality

Flat, muddy textures smeared across sharp, chunky objects. Jaggy intersecting green polygons do not a canopy make.

The vision

The intense, brutal reality of war, as focused through the lens of ground-level chaos. Friends and allies rally together towards the smoke-filled hell of battle as another potential harbinger of the end rises demonically against them.

The reality

Some little faceless blokes run around a pristine white background firing off technicolor toybox weaponry. Three miles away.

The vision

One man and his trusty machine face off against looming insurmountable death. Tangible depth of field brings about a sense of scale which impresses and intimidates in equal measure. Post-apocalyptic decay is the only witness to this final battle.

The reality

A Gundam action figure on a string, jiggled about over a sandpit full of discarded LEGO.

The vision

A lone hero, baptised red in the flames of war, rises messianic against the growing hellstorm of weapons fire swelling against him.

The reality

An Iron Man action figure on a string, jiggled about over a flat, empty rockpool.