BAoTY (Box Art of The Year)

Left (left hand) 4 (4 survivours) Dead (mangled hand) :D

I like this one.

Sonir77

Wow. Sure beats the first one.

c'monMickeyTheNinja

autowin.

Fine then, this.

The Brawl Box Art is just Epic.

Och.. come on.. we both know the only reason you bash that cover is because I like it :D AdrianWerner

Finally, you actually said it after all these times. And now I get to reply back,

No, it's not because I'm here to spite you. It's just that you personally go out of your way to opine something whack, either just to feel unique or avant-garde or whatever I'm not sure. If I was truly out to get you, every single discussion we have together would've had conflict. But I can think of several places where you were actually agreeable. You were probably acting "normal" then, lol.

[quote="AdrianWerner"][QUOTE="FrozenLiquid"]

But really, it's not effective. How is it effective?AdrianWerner

It catches the eye, that's all it needs to do

All I can see it doing is trying to look "cool"FrozenLiquid

Anything can catch the eye. Is that all it needs to do? So if you put a naked chick for Crysis: Warheard's cover it should be nominated for Box Art of the Year? And why do you keep calling it "art", because honestly the way you're describing it is definitely not art. Art is expression of opinion. Opinion is informational. If it does not need any of those traits, then it's not "box art". It's "box advertisement". Advertisements catch the eye. Advertisments do not express opinions. Would you like your nominee to be called "box advertisement" instead? Somehow, I think you'll find that term derogatory.

Why not compare box art to movie posters?

FrozenLiquid

And a box like Dracula definitly stands out on the shelf more than yet another cliche platformer box like Banjo, especialy since it's not even pretty. At least LBP has very nice art on it.

No, they don't have different goals. They're in fact one and the same thing. Movie posters are turned into DVD cover art. Game boxart is turned into massive store posters (shock! horror!). So yes, they're both out to achieve the very same. Your argument is incredibly lame concerning where the boxart is placed. Just because there's a blurb at the back doesn't mean the cover has to lack. If that's the case, why do movie posters have to suffer independence when their blurbs are stuck on the cinema wall, the trailers on the television, or when they're turned into DVDs that are exactly the same layout as a video game case? Double standards.

And it looks like I might be the only adventure gamer still caring to go to the store to check out titles. Most have gone onto DD especially with the fantastic adventure distribution, but suffice to say, Dracula: Origin is not going to stand out in the rather small crowd of the PC shelf. Did you really think cropped faces with some sort of text was going to cut it? Diablo II, Warcraft III, Starcraft, Half Life 2 etc all uses faces (cropped and uncropped) with the name of the game on it. Games like Syberia have the same low production value covers as Dracula: Origin, but at least did something with it. And if you think Banjo-Kazooie has cliche written all over it, you think a video game with the title Dracula is going to fare well? Banjo Kazooie has the benefit of being a AAA video game series. Dracula has the age old problem of being a famous legend chopped, cut and screwed by anyone and everyone. People don't like to be treated like fools, and this looks like it pisses all over the legend with some new age crap that's been happening to Dracula for ages (it's far from what the game is like, but that's what the cover art does). Sure, Dracula's a playboy, but it doesn't mean you have to smother him in contemporary design.

I believe people will feel more safe knowing the NES cover art for Bram Stoker's Dracula attempts to at least service the legend. Or even better, that 1993 PC game.

Even the mediocre Dracula series (including the latest Dracula 3) that came out before this one had better boxart. It may have had a derivative version of Dracula, but at least it was very telling and effective about what the game was about.

And whoops I've mistaken Dracula: Origin for Dracula 3 somewhere. Dracula 3 had the latest tech vs myth thing. My bad, Dracula: Origin was the "faithful" adaptation.

See, I was tricked by the boxart ;). I don't see gothic anywhere on the front. Looks like Interview With A Vampire to me.

Dead Space

danishkhan

That Dead Space one looks pretty cool, if not simple. Resistance 2... eh, don't spoil it for me, but it looks as if the Chimera are suppose to be the twisted version of humans or something. Trigen 2.0?

STALKER's boxed tin is actually pretty bloody effective. There's no boxart, because the box is the art lol.

The PAL MGS4 boxart is pretty nice

[QUOTE="AdrianWerner"]

No, it's not because I'm here to spite you. It's just that you personally go out of your way to opine something whack, either just to feel unique or avant-garde or whatever I'm not sure. If I was truly out to get you, every single discussion we have together would've had conflict. But I can think of several places where you were actually agreeable. You were probably acting "normal" then, lol.FrozenLiquid

You really should stop acting so childish and learn to respect other people tastes. You might not agree with them, but this doesn't make them wrong.

Anything can catch the eye. Is that all it needs to do? So if you put a naked chick for Crysis: Warheard's cover it should be nominated for Box Art of the Year?AdrianWerner

And why do you keep calling it "art", because honestly the way you're describing it is definitely not art. Art is expression of opinion. Opinion is informational. If it does not need any of those traits, then it's not "box art". It's "box advertisement". Advertisements catch the eye. Advertisments do not express opinions. Would you like your nominee to be called "box advertisement" instead? Somehow, I think you'll find that term derogatory.

Box art is a simple term commonly used to describe artwork on a box, it doesn't have to be actual ART (altough here it's silly to argue about art, because there is no truly universal definition of what is art anyway). You could put a screenshot on the box and it still would be "box art"And really... exactly what opinion does the Banjo box art represent

No, they don't have different goals. They're in fact one and the same thing.FrozenLiquid

I disagree.

Movie posters are turned into DVD cover art. Game boxart is turned into massive store posters (shock! horror!). So yes, they're both out to achieve the very same.FrozenLiquid

Just because they can be used like this doesn't make them the same thing

Your argument is incredibly lame concerning where the boxart is placed. Just because there's a blurb at the back doesn't mean the cover has to lack. If that's the case, why do movie posters have to suffer independence when their blurbs are stuck on the cinema wall, the trailers on the television, or when they're turned into DVDs that are exactly the same layout as a video game case? Double standards.FrozenLiquid

First of all plenty of DVDs have diffrent covers than their posters, especialy the collectors edition. I guess according to you all collector editions have bad cover art. Second the reason why most DVDs use the same art as poster is because that poster is already well remembered by people from the cinema run and advertising campaign and it makes no sense to confuse the consumers with diffrent looking box, forcing them to make an effort of recognizing the movie.

Did you really think cropped faces with some sort of text was going to cut it? Diablo II, Warcraft III, Starcraft, Half Life 2 etc all uses faces (cropped and uncropped) with the name of the game on it. Games like Syberia have the same low production value covers as Dracula: Origin, but at least did something with it.FrozenLiquid

Neither has as clean and concentrated cover as Dracula: Origin. It's very simple, with lots of red and only part of the face. Yes I do think it's going to stand out.

And if you think Banjo-Kazooie has cliche written all over it, FrozenLiquid

I definitly do think that.

you think a video game with the title Dracula is going to fare well? Banjo Kazooie has the benefit of being a AAA video game series. FrozenLiquid

So now you go outside of cover and into the content and history of the games. I guess you can't back up the Banjo cover in any other way. And Dracula might be also a cliche, but in videogame realm it's definity a lot less cliche than yet another platformer cover with main hero and his sidekick

See, I was tricked by the boxart ;). I don't see gothic anywhere on the front. Looks like Interview With A Vampire to me.

FrozenLiquid

I like nice clean covers, I hate covers that put tons of little elements in them ( I guess the artists are forgetting the DVD case is a "little" smaller than a movie poster). To me the best box arts are those simple memorable ones. Dracula: Origin does that for me. It's clean, with strong colors, very nice quality of art and avoids the deadly fate of being filled with tons of useless background details.

To me this is still the best box art I've ever seen:

What I want from box is for it to look nice on my shelf.

Och.. and you're right about one thing: I would never nominate any 360 box art for best one, simply because no matter how good the art would be the terribly ugly green "Xbox" bar at the top destroys the whole beauty of the box for me, the same with "GFW" bar.

:)

I nearly forgot this.

It's alot bigger than it seems.

[QUOTE="AdrianWerner"]

this one

FrozenLiquid

My god is that incredibly lame. Sure, props for liking adventure games but hell that's just blatant advertising.

What does anything in that box art signify? Would you have known that the character on the cover is a vampire (Or is it? lol. Love how the game does the whole science vs myth thing but it's too obvious where they're going) without the words "Dracula" on it? Hell the red doesn't even call to mind blood or passion which is what red should stand for (especially with a vampire). It's like a stupid blockbuster poster you find in cinemas with a big picture of Tom Cruise's head. The only thing telling you abou the movie is the title itself.

1/10 (and it gets that mark coz it's an adventure game).

Seriously, the best boxart I've seen that actually does the job right is Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts

Here is a boxart that actually looks unique and explains what the game is about, which is what a real poster/boxart should do. If you guys want to see movie posters done right, look up John Alvin or Richard Amsel.

Sure, you can have something highly epic like this:

But it really adds up to nothing. What's the boxart telling you? There's a guy, and he's got a sword, and he probably has powers. That's it. Why is his face cropped? Probably coz it looks cool -- nothing else. I think the other version is more telling (the one with the image of the chained moon), and at least it looks like the image has ties with the title. This was just looks badass. How shallow.

But really, is the general concensus a telling tale that we're favouring sty1e over substance? No, I'm not saying sty1e as well as substance, because that's not what I'm really seeing here. It's seriously just a case of "Wow. That looks pretty. Yup, it's a winner". Using that sort of logic, it would be incredible box art if they put girl-on-girl action in the next WWE game.

EDIT: Wow that Motorstorm: Pacific Rift one looks really good. Another tell-tale piece of work that tells you what the game is all about.

a cover is just a cover. if you want to know what the game is about you look at the backside. The boxart, to me, is the first impression. Infinite Undiscovery has a epic boxart which made me interested in the game.

Not sure if this is finalized but I like it.

SMR-Venom

The best of the best all on one cover? Hellz yeah!

DeathScape666

This one owns.

Are you guys being serious about MegaMan 9's boxart? That crap is ugly -_-

But good game none-the-less.

Lots of good entries in this thread (LBP, Dead Space), and as a total Valve fanboy, I very much like the L4D art, but I would also like to nominate the Japanese De Blob box art:

fable 2

[QUOTE="danishkhan"]

Dead Space

XaeroGravity

WOW....dismembered metal claw FTW

The Darkness

Bad ass.

Edit: yes it's not this year but who cares, this game kicks butt.

i'm no expert on boxart but I can judge the boxart in this thread.

clear winner: Dead Space

pleasantly surprised: littlebigplanet

Disaster: Day of Crisis still great (:P)

---megaman 9 blew me away but it wears on me. A bit of a gimmick, and plus that's not even really boxart since consumers can't buy it (unless that's changed). Minus points

--- oh, and that gears 2 pose is very much copying Halo 3. Good call on to the guy who noticed that. Minus points

--- there's lots of generically cool covers out there. Minus points

OH MY GOD ITS GOTY 2008 FO SHO!

[QUOTE="XaeroGravity"][QUOTE="danishkhan"]

Dead Space

xXMcClaneXx

WOW....dismembered metal claw FTW

[QUOTE="DragonFlyJ"]Metal Gear Solid 4Nintendo_Ownes7

Seriously? That sucks ass.

Fine then, this.

wood_duck

This

Gears 2

imo

[QUOTE="wood_duck"]

Fine then, this.

Juggernaut140

This

epic win is epic

[QUOTE="Juggernaut140"][QUOTE="wood_duck"]

Fine then, this.

jaisimar_chelse

This

epic win is epic

Screw them for only releasing it in Europe.

[QUOTE="jaisimar_chelse"][QUOTE="Juggernaut140"][QUOTE="wood_duck"]

Fine then, this.

Juggernaut140

This

epic win is epic

Screw them for only releasing it in Europe.

half assed cardboard boxes FTL

[QUOTE="Juggernaut140"][QUOTE="jaisimar_chelse"][QUOTE="Juggernaut140"][QUOTE="wood_duck"]

Fine then, this.

jaisimar_chelse

This

epic win is epic

Screw them for only releasing it in Europe.

half assed cardboard boxes FTL

Man I hate cardboard boxed games :evil:

Gears 2 and Fable 2

MGS4 AND resistance 2 for worst boxart of the year

C4_yourself

i havent even seen resistance 2's art yet until this page on this thread and it is BY FAR the best ive seen this year. maybe this generation in box art.

I dont get whats people see in the left 4 dead and dead space boxart. I mean it just doesnt strike me and envoke any real emotion like MGS4 LE or have the authentic feel like STALKER.

I mean do u guys think land of the dead with the severed hand poster is the best movie poster?

Still like MGS4, MM9, STALKER, R2. in that order.

[QUOTE="jaisimar_chelse"][QUOTE="Juggernaut140"][QUOTE="wood_duck"]

Fine then, this.

Juggernaut140

This

epic win is epic

Screw them for only releasing it in Europe.

Only Europe?

I'm an Aussie and I got mine from my local Harvey Norman.

I dont get whats people see in the left 4 dead and dead space boxart. I mean it just doesnt strike me and envoke any real emotion like MGS4 LE or have the authentic feel like STALKER.

I mean do u guys think land of the dead with the severed hand poster is the best movie poster?

Still like MGS4, MM9, STALKER, R2. in that order.

XturnalS

I'm guessing that you're a fan of those games, or at least MGS4, which taints your view. MM9 is good in a cheesy way, and R2 looks good as well. The Stalker one looks interesting as well, but it would depend on whether there's texture on it, or just graphics on the box.