Videogames were born into a flat, two-dimensional perspective and they are bound to an inherently two-dimensional delivery system, but, from their inception half a century ago, they have been trying their damndest to simulate a bonafide world of depth. For half their lifetime, games have let us move into a world instead of just on it and, today, the simulation can be almost unsettlingly real. The racing tracks of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, the jungles and glaciers of Crysis, not to mention Far Cry 2’s African savannah, all feel like our world, even when they don’t behave exactly like it. After all, cars tend to crumple when they run into other cars, and grass tends to bend and warp when you step on it. (Not to mention the lack of robots and aliens in real life. Oh, and getting shot will kill you, not force you to hunt for a medpack.) But even full fantasy landscapes like the lush solar-systems-in-miniature of Super Mario Galaxy create a familiar sense of space. It has been a long, difficult journey to get to this point, though. Edge Online is running a fascinating, densely technical, history of 3D in games and it’s an eye-opening read. The only thing missing from the overview is a footnote in gaming history, but is important all the same.
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