Content

Video game reviews rely on a variety of images from the actual game as well as any promotional artwork that has been produced by the creators. To gather items I could use for my spread I went to the official website of Back to the Future: The Game and found some downloadable screenshots. I also sourced images from ign.com, gametrailers and google images.

Close-ups

These shots will be useful for balancing the spread against larger images. They can also be easily placed in column widths or next to columns as they can be scaled down without losing too much detail.

In-game Shots

These are direct screen shots from the game showing the playing environment, controls, typical scenarios etc. They're useful for showing the reader a more accurate depiction of the game. They can also be useful when explaining how the controls work in the review. They're usually considered to be long shots as they're designed to be shown on TV screens and not a magazine layout. So they should be set quite large in order for the reader to see everything that's going on in the image clearly.

Promotional Artwork

Promotional material can be really useful in a double-page spread as they have an eye-catching artist quality that can be used to draw the reader into the article. They can also often be used as cut-outs which add visual interest and variety to the spread because everything isn't contained in a box. Additionally promotional artwork is mostly designed to make the game look more exciting or more impressive whilst emphasizing important characters and setting the scene. This makes it a good idea to include in my spread as the characters in Back to the Future are one of it's most iconic features.

Depending on the layout and quality of the image, sometimes promotional artwork makes for a good background to the layout. It's one way to make the spread look like it's consistent with the same branding. This is something I will consider when designing this spread.