Image via Complex Original
The sight of a game-ending glitch can bring sensations of dread, remorse, and outright despair to those who encounter them. However, if you take a step back and appreciate the digital chaos for a moment, they can actually be rather beautiful to look at. You probably won’t find any of these on a museum wall any time soon, but for those of us who can appreciate them, they sure are pretty.
Mother in Denial
Mother in Denial
Game: The Walking Dead (2012)
Developer: TellTale Games
Original Link: http://bit.ly/ZBIPpM
Pretentious Over-Explanation:
A core theme behind The Walking Dead and most other zombie media is learning to accept the temporary nature of all people, no matter how dear they are to us. Inevitably we all go and our refusal to accept the fact that during an apocalypse, everyone we love is essentially already gone is the greatest peril of all. This scene of Katjaa cradling her absent son thanks to a glitch is made even more poignant if you consider the implications of the original.
The Ghosts of Tank-43
The Ghosts of Tank-43
Game: Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad (2011)
Developer: Tripwire Interactive
Original Link: http://bit.ly/T2vt0N
Pretentious Over-Explanation:
War is hell, but the brotherhood formed by comrades in arms is one of the most powerful connections on the planet. With lives literally in each others' care, you learn to think and act as one. For the squad of this Red Orchestra 2 tank, this meant operating as a single entity in life. When a glitch destroyed their tank and cast them on the cruel battlefield, it was only fitting that their bodies would find rest in identical positions.
Icarus' Balloon
Icarus' Balloon
Game: Just Cause 2 (2010)
Developer: Avalanche Studios
Original Link: http://bit.ly/WiyzSN
Pretentious Over-Explanation:
In our youth we're taught to reach for the skies, that our ambitions are the only limit to our success. It's not until we grow old do we come to know the true order of the world; sometimes no matter how great your intentions are, the forces of the universe will fight to keep you grounded. Such is the case with this Just Cause 2 glitch. After a glitch caused while grappling the hot air balloon, the basket seperated, leaving the baloon to cast itself downward. However, despite this the basket continued to rise, suggesting that perhaps in times of greatest adversity, it truly is our internal selves that elevate us.
Golldir's Final Words
Golldir's Final Words
Game: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011)
Developer: Bethesda
Original Link: http://bit.ly/VLJ8r2
Pretentious Over-Explanation:
Words have power, Skyrim taught us that with its dragon shouts. The pained look in Golldir's eyes as a glitch literally tears him apart says that in his final moments of life, he had something to say. Those words however, we will sadly never hear. What mysteries could he have unlocked for us with his dying breath? What truths about the universe could he have been waiting to unveil? Maybe it was nothing, but the urgency in his expression dictates otherwise. Sadly, we'll never know.
Mrs. Hyde
Mrs. Hyde
Game: Dead Island (2011)
Developer: Techland
Original Link: http://bit.ly/Wi6pDr
Pretentious Over-Explanation:
The zombie outbreak presented in games like Dead Island gave us the chance to examine what it would look like if the world around us started turning into unfathomable monsters, but this bizarre glitch brought that realization to us in slow motion. The echoes of transformation are seen trailing behind the subject while her partially obscured face displaying a sinister expression reminds us that in the end, we were always the real monsters.
Barbie Brains
Barbie Brains
Game: Duke Nukem Forever (2011)
Developer: Gearbox Software
Original Link: http://bit.ly/VKWpjS
Pretentious Over-Explanation:
Duke Nukem Forever is one of the most misogynistic games ever to find mainstream success and this glitch shows us just what it thinks of women. With glitched bodies, it seems as if the lost mass of their heads have sunk down into the breasts of these girls. Perhaps this is a chauvanistic statement from the soul of the game saying that women forever can be one or the other; smart or buxxom.
Colliding Mass
Colliding Mass
Game: Mass Effect (2007)
Developer: BioWare
Original Link: http://bit.ly/VKYe01
Pretentious Over-Explanation:
Choice plays a large role in Mass Effect. One of the hardest choices within the game is deciding the outcome of the joined fates of Ashley and Kaiden. It's fitting then that this glitch shows us the two also physically conjoined, making the relationship between the destinies of all people painfully obvious.
Twisted Fishter
Twisted Fishter
Game: Team Fortress 2 (2007)
Developer: Valve
Original Link: http://bit.ly/Xx66Uq
Pretentious Over-Explanation:
Animal abuse is a very real thing in our world. However, that hasn't stopped the twisted souls at Valve from making the innocent corpse of a fish a weapon you bludgeon people to death with. It would seem that this particular glitch has something to say about that act though as if it had its own activist agenda. When players swing their fish too fast or against too many things, it twists up in a display of pure agony, reminding us all of our unspeakable cruelties.
This is My Rifle, This is My Gun
This is My Rifle, This is My Gun
Game: Deus Ex: Human Revolution (2011)
Developer: Eidos Montreal
Original Link: http://bit.ly/T1AfeS
Pretentious Over-Explanation:
Video games and the male ego have had a strong relationship since their inception. This glitch in Deus Ex: Human Revolution takes that to its logical conclusion by positioning one of the game's firearms to look like a giant phallus on the inviting corpse of a soldier. This display of masculine bravado says that - like our weapons - dicks are devastating devices that should be marveled at.
Waterbored
Waterbored
Game: Counter-Strike: Source (2004)
Developer: Valve
Original Link: http://bit.ly/VKNvmB
Pretentious Over-Explanation:
Our situation in the Middle East has brought about some very good questions regarding the ethics of torture, specifically water-boarding. Counter-Strike: Source may not give you the option to inflict such cruelty on your enemies, but it's painfully obvious that this glitch felt the need to make a statement anyway. We see our subject literally torn to shreds and in agony all because of a strange collision with the water. We also see that he's been derezzed from his original form, indicating that through this process he's been made to be less than the rest of us.
