TheRetroArcade
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Joined: Feb 2026
Joined: Feb 2026
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Welcome to FOV 90, an FPS column from staff writer Morgan Park. Every other week, I cover topics relevant to first-person shooter enjoyers, spanning everything from multiplayer and singleplayer to the old and the new.
Videogames: they're fake. So they say, but occasionally artists do such a bang-up job that you almost forget (or don't want to acknowledge) otherwise. When folks champion games for their artistic prowess, they tend to look down—gazing at detailed leaves, worshipping believable reflections or stretchy pores. What they do less often is look up and marvel at the wheels keeping the whole illusion on track: the skybox.
The skybox is an underappreciated contributor to oh-so-coveted immersion. The exact confines of a skybox may vary by game, but they're typically everything in the background that's too far away to be properly modeled: mountains, hills, highways, trees, and of course, the sky. Sometimes they're a static texture, other times they're animated.
The skybox is far from a lost art, but I sometimes worry if its best days are behind us in an age when big-budget games choose to chase photorealism. In some cases, a modern skybox is more of a collection of complex weather simulations than a cohesive composition. As the unfavorable comparison of a 2026 Call of Duty map remade from a 2012 Call of Duty map demonstrates, "realer" skyboxes do not equal better.
Sure, that overcast sky is a dead ringer for an April afternoon on Earth, but those bright sunrays blasting through the best two-dimensional clouds an Xbox 360 could render just look way better.
So let's look at some great FPS skyboxes, old and new. This is far from an exhaustive accounting of the genre—it's largely based on personal favorites and what I have installed—but they're all great examples of skyboxes that aren't only beautiful. They tell stories, provide context, establish a vibe, or leave me asking new questions about the spaces they inhabit.
There's a lot of Halo in this, so let's get it out of the way first. Not only are the original games classics that hold up to this day, but they established Bungie as the undisputed kings of the skybox. Like, do you ever just look up in Blood Gulch and go "holy shit."
My favorite throwback FPS of the moment is Boltgun, a game that doesn't just harness '90s chunk to make the same sort of environments 30 years later, bu...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?
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Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
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Every Friday
GamesRadar+
Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them.
Every Thursday
GTA 6 O'clock
Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.
Every Friday
Knowledge
From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.
Every Thursday
The Setup
Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.
Every Wednesday
Switch 2 Spotlight
Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.
Every Saturday
The Watchlist
Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we've got you covered.
Once a month
SFX
Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month!
Welcome to FOV 90, an FPS column from staff writer Morgan Park. Every other week, I cover topics relevant to first-person shooter enjoyers, spanning everything from multiplayer and singleplayer to the old and the new.
Videogames: they're fake. So they say, but occasionally artists do such a bang-up job that you almost forget (or don't want to acknowledge) otherwise. When folks champion games for their artistic prowess, they tend to look down—gazing at detailed leaves, worshipping believable reflections or stretchy pores. What they do less often is look up and marvel at the wheels keeping the whole illusion on track: the skybox.
The skybox is an underappreciated contributor to oh-so-coveted immersion. The exact confines of a skybox may vary by game, but they're typically everything in the background that's too far away to be properly modeled: mountains, hills, highways, trees, and of course, the sky. Sometimes they're a static texture, other times they're animated.
The skybox is far from a lost art, but I sometimes worry if its best days are behind us in an age when big-budget games choose to chase photorealism. In some cases, a modern skybox is more of a collection of complex weather simulations than a cohesive composition. As the unfavorable comparison of a 2026 Call of Duty map remade from a 2012 Call of Duty map demonstrates, "realer" skyboxes do not equal better.
Sure, that overcast sky is a dead ringer for an April afternoon on Earth, but those bright sunrays blasting through the best two-dimensional clouds an Xbox 360 could render just look way better.
So let's look at some great FPS skyboxes, old and new. This is far from an exhaustive accounting of the genre—it's largely based on personal favorites and what I have installed—but they're all great examples of skyboxes that aren't only beautiful. They tell stories, provide context, establish a vibe, or leave me asking new questions about the spaces they inhabit.
There's a lot of Halo in this, so let's get it out of the way first. Not only are the original games classics that hold up to this day, but they established Bungie as the undisputed kings of the skybox. Like, do you ever just look up in Blood Gulch and go "holy shit."
My favorite throwback FPS of the moment is Boltgun, a game that doesn't just harness '90s chunk to make the same sort of environments 30 years later, bu...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?