The representation of liquid in video games is a fairly niche topic of interest, I'd say, most usually noticed by the Average Gamer in anything that involves the ocean or, uh, a bottle of whisky. I am not here today to talk about either of those things, though, I am here to talk about something far more important: big cold beers.
At time of posting, if you polled folks and asked them what they thought the best booze physics were in video games, most would--and with very good reason!--say the winner was Half-Life: Alyx, with its assortment of sloshy bottles:
Those are very good booze physics! I do not for one second want to sit here and imply that Valve did not absolutely knock this out of the park. I do want to sit here, though, and say that while Alyx does a great job with an assortment of alcoholic beverages, I think a more recent game has it beat for one drink in particular.
Take a look at this footage below from Infinite Wealth. It's very early in the game, so no spoilers:
Here's some more, though this one is from the very last cutscene, so big spoilers:
Look at those beers slosh! With a proper, foamy head and everything! Those glasses look ice cold, the beer moves accurately as they swig and, in what I think is the nicest touch of all, if you look real close you'll see that there's even residue left down the inside of the glass as they drain their brewskis.
Examined in isolation like this, it's impressive! But set against the rest of the game it's hilarious. I've already written about how so many of Hawaii's shopfronts are so devoid of detail that their signs come dangerously close to using Comic Sans, and how many of its cafes are little more than empty shells. For the team to just say "ahhh, whatever" to huge swathes of the game's environment then double down in one incredible particular instance to produce the best-looking beer the medium has ever seen is, to me, a sign of excellent resource prioritisation.
These beers transcend the visual experience. They look so good I can smell them. I can feel the cold radiating against my hands. I can taste them.
If one thing in this game was going to go above and beyond the series' visual expectations--which with almost annual releases now tend to be pretty predictable, we know what the people and places are generally going to look like--I'm glad that of all things it was a nice, tall frothy one. For a game about friendship, and especially friends catching up over a drink, it's fitting.
