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BioShock 2


Fan Art versus Official Art

A showdown between fan-made creations and their official counterparts

Words: Tyler Nagata, GamesRadar US

 

For the most part, official game art is limited to flat two-dimensional images, which is dumb because everyone knows that the third dimension is where all the fun stuff happens. Luckily fans are free from such constraints, giving rise to great game art done in a wide variety of mediums.
 

 
Game cakes may still taste great, but they’re so old hat. Today, game-inspired bentos are where it’s at, and when it comes to edible boxed lunches, Anna the Red is queen. The bento artist extraordinaire continues to impress with her detailed homemade lunches inspired by popular comics, movies, anime, and of course, video games. You can visit her blog for tons of pictures of her delicious creations accompanied by detailed explanations of her process for creating the complex designs featured in her geek-friendly cuisine. 
 

Fact: French fries, meatballs, and rice taste better when they’re shaped like a Big Daddy
 

Above: This official BioShock image looks great. But can you eat it for lunch?
 

Above: Anna’s first two-panel bento pit a Yoshi with a red pepper tongue against a potato salad Pikachu wrapped in an egg sheet 

 

When the film Final Fantasy VII Advent Children released, fans of the popular JRPG series got a healthy helping of fan service. Oversized swords clashed and cameos of loved characters were plentiful. But it was the film’s gorgeous visuals and awesome battles that sealed the deal for us.


Above: Every frame of Advent Children is full of eye candy and the action scenes are impressive. But the choreography in Monty Oum’s Dead Fantasy shorts (shown below) is amazing 

How could anything made by a single person compare to such an expensive production? Artist, Monty Oum found a way. Although his Dead Fantasy series can’t come close to Advent Children in terms of production value, we think his short films feature fight scenes that outdo the ones seen in Square’s full-length film.

If you haven’t seen Oum’s Dead Fantasy shorts before, you are in for a real treat. It’s like Oum took the best pieces from every action movie and game you’ve ever loved and smashed them together to create one of the most enjoyable and complex battles of all time.

Title: Dead Fantasy I
Artist: Monty Oum

             

Title: Dead Fantasy II
Artist: Monty Oum

             


Title: Haloid
Artist: Monty Oum

           

 
68 Comments
Order Comments: Newest First | Oldest First
EpicPale  - 6 months 18 days ago 
That Mario painting is beautiful, I would definitely play that :)
Cyberninja  - 6 months 18 days ago 
i love this art i think one of these will be my gamesrader wallpaper


first
thereaper52  - 6 months 18 days ago 
i like unofficial fan art better. ithink that thew bishock 2 fan art was very impressive and looked more official than the official art. although i would have added haloid in with the final fantasy short.
GamesRadarTylerNagata  - 6 months 18 days ago 
If you do, be sure to follow the links to the authors' sites. You'll often find higher res versions of the pics we've posted here.
Dualcarrot  - 6 months 18 days ago 
- Comment removed by Community
Reported
albinomonkey90  - 6 months 18 days ago 
Both of you guys know you're not first right?
Kehno  - 6 months 18 days ago 
That Monty Oum guy is amazing.
I mean, a battle on flying pieces of column inside a tornado?
Really?
Starplatinum  - 6 months 18 days ago 
YAY! Tyler Post! Prior to this article my knowledge of unoffical fanart was limited to hentai doujinshi. Thank you for the enlightenment!
JohnTheFisherman  - 6 months 18 days ago 
man,those death fantasy battles were killer
Hobojedi  - 6 months 18 days ago 
I don't know about everyone else, but I like the official and fan art versions of Gordon Freeman equally.

Oh, and
Recaptcha: Fontaine unborn
Romination  - 6 months 18 days ago 
I don't even really care about Final Fantasy and that first one Oum video is amazing. It's got so many things that too many movies take themselves too seriously to do...
Unoriginal  - 6 months 18 days ago 
Thoose Dead Fantasy vids, wow...just wow.
I'm still recovering from that.
Just...wow.

I hope Square hires that Monty Oum guy.
Corsair89  - 6 months 18 days ago 
Dead Fantasy has probably the greatest fight scenes I've ever seen. They blow everything else completely out of the water. Now imagine them with the production values of Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete!
GIJoe01  - 6 months 18 days ago 
Fan art Faith FACE + official art BODY = PERFECT
The_Zanger  - 6 months 18 days ago 
fanart is the best. I was trying to convince my art teacher that we should make some.
Xtapolapopotamus  - 6 months 18 days ago 
Good article, and that Mario image is just amazing. If Nintendo made a game like that... Or hell, any of the companies that he's made art for.. It would be beyond words.
Ravenbom  - 6 months 18 days ago 
Good article T-Nag.
I like your appearance on TalkRadar as well, don't be stranger to the podcast.
DeadGirls  - 6 months 18 days ago 
That Faith fan art is stupid. I consider it progression of the art from when game devs don't cater to horny, lonely, anime fans for a few extra sales.
Red  - 6 months 18 days ago 
I liked the fan's version of Faith's face better because the makeup looks stupid to me. Boobs are great and all, but I can't see myself playing another game with jiggling boob physics.

Could you imagine those things flopping up in her face in first person while she was running? On second thought...
jtslugmaster10  - 6 months 18 days ago 
i think im mixed about faith i think he could have left the bony checks and lost the nipple but thats just me...

secondly sex sells but how far do we have to go... i think it has gone far enough and the fan based art wasnt even that appealing for the reason i stated above so just adding some additional features doesnt always make the female char look better ... in fact she could have probably not even needed the increase in breast size or just less of an enhancment and she would have been even better looking
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