Collection Cover Art

Cover art, I’ve been threatening to talk about this for a very long time now. I think it is something I need to get into. Let’s focus on the Collections that have been coming out for the PS3 recently. Now I like having the God of War Collection. I still want to get the Tomb Raider Trilogy and Sly Cooper Trilogy. But have you seen the cover art for these games? Let’s talk about some lazy design.

Here it is, this is the set that started it all. The God of War collection. There was a chance here to do something interesting. To have some fun with it. Instead we get the original covers of both games now sharing space on the same box. Who thought that this was a good idea? I want to know. This is ugly and lazy. These collections are awesome things. I like that they are coming out, but why can’t the studios try just a little harder?

Here is the sly Cooper Collection that I was talking about. Yes I want this set, but only for the same reason I got the God of War Collection. I don’t own any of these games. Now when I pick it up I’m going to have this absolutely hideous cover art to deal with.

Tomb Raider Trilogy? Same deal. It’s just the covers from the original games. This time they decided crop the original covers and slap on a lot of blank space.  It is a completely unattractive cover.

Now I do understand the logic behind them. What you see when you look at it is three distinct images. Already you begin to wonder, “How many games are in this set?” Then you can see the trilogy words and you begin to understand. Personally I wish that studios would take a little more pride and have more fun with this sort of thing. Why do the covers have to be boring?

I fully intend to replace these covers when I purchase the games. I want to find something that’s nicer to look at. Here’s an example from The Cover Project:

Now, ignoring the bizarre Blu-Ray logo on the front, I find this to be a far better cover. It tells me all I need to know. This game stars Kratos. It has the word Collection. The back tells me that there are mutlitple games in it. Now I need to change out the top border, but this is a pretty sexy cover. This is the sort of thing I will replace my game covers with.

Now there is one more cover that I want to talk about. This one is just completely unexcusable.

This is completely uncalled for from Ubisoft. Why they have hit such a level of lazyness with their games I do not know. I do not claim to understand the method to their madness. Now you may say, “It’s no different from the other games pictured here.” I will tell you that you are wrong. This cover is Ubisoft at it’s most lazy. And here is my proof.

Look at them. Look at the Prince on them. The pose is nearly identical. It wasn’t until I had the two next to each other that I learned there was a difference. It is almost like Ubisoflt slightly altered the background from Forgotten Sands, grayed out the Prince, and slapped three cover art pictures in front of it all. The Sands of Time is one of  my favorite games of all times, it deserved better then this. Better by a longshot.