Look,
Dead End Thrills isn't here to forward the games-as-art "debate." It's simply a group of game enthusiasts (no doubt) that love turning their lens on digital environments and bringing out the best in those images. Dead End Thrills is a gallery and doesn't portend to be anything more. There's no Photoshopping done to their images, but mods are acceptable in their submissions, because they're about
gaming, not just games.
With the news of Valve
filing a trademark for Half-Life 3 (which will undoubtedly turn out to be a fake), I perused Dead End Thrills and revisited
their Half-Life 2 album. The game's simple art style is still stunning, especially with how rooted in reality its architecture feels, even when it breaks out the hard sci-fi edges.