I haven’t had a whole lot of time to play Cloud, a game where you’re a boy flying freely through the air interacting with clouds. From what I’ve seen, the game itself is simply beautiful, and includes hand painted graphics, somewhat like the ones seen in Final Fantasy VII and VIII. Actually, this whole game reminds me of the Square games. The music is peaceful, with a flair of Nobuo Uematsu.
What else is neat is that it’s produced by the Division of Interactive Media at the University of Southern California School of Cinema and Television, and they’re giving it out free. EA Games also helped them get this game out. I think these types of collaboration between industry, academia, and art is where the interesting games will be coming out. I’ve seen enough first person shooters. Give me something thats different, and perhaps a little more peaceful and poignant like Cloud.