ALEX SPENCER
The Outer Limits
Journeys to the farthest reaches of interactive entertainment
You might remember that in E410 I sang the praises of freezing momentary experiences into something crystalline – a photograph or a video or some other souvenir that can be taken away and revisited at any time. Well, shortly after submitting that column, I picked up the thing I had earmarked for the next instalment, only to discover that it takes pretty much that exact idea and literalises it into a game mechanic.
This is Lushfoil Photography Sim, the latest, and perhaps strangest, release from Annapurna Interactive. It consists of nine chunks of real-world geography, recreated in Unreal Engine 5, and a fully simulated DSLR camera with which to shoot them. You line up the viewfinder, fiddle with all the settings – playing that resource-management game photography enthusiasts know as the ‘exposure triangle’ – and snap the shutter.