The Outer Limits

Journeys to the farthest reaches of interactive entertainment

- ALEX SPENCER

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.

The resulting picture is then saved to an in-game gallery, complete with — and this is the feature in question — a fast-travel button that teleports you to the exact spot the photo was taken, camera raised, with all of your settings intact. It seems like magic. The power to dive inside any picture, just like Super Mario 64 promised all those years ago! But after hours of wandering around inside Lushfoil's gorgeous little worlds, here's what I've learned: I'm never actually going to use that button.