Whoa, boy. Talk about causing an uproar. Rare, the development studio behind the forthcoming video game
Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, has decided to move forward with the game without fixing a glaring textual issue when playing on an SDTV. Essentially, the text in the game -- of which there
a lot -- is darn near illegible on standard-def televisions. When playing the game on an HDTV (even at 480p), it's relatively easy to make out what's going on; when attempting to play on an SDTV, things get ugly. As you can see above, we find it hard to believe SDTV owners will be able to stand the game-play for more than a few minutes, and amazingly, Rare has admitted that there are no plans to fix things before it goes gold. So, how do you feel about this? As a presumed HDTV owner, you probably couldn't care less personally, but should SDTV-owning gamers be given more respect here?
[Via
Joystiq]
posted Nov 6th 2008 7:04PM
they had a problem with text in that dead game i forgot the name of it,it was from capcom the text was wicked small,why companies do that is beyond me i guess they think people own magnifying glasses
Dead Rising for 360. Reading was IMPOSSIBLE on an SDTV.
Lost Planet was also another one.
The Fix = buy an HDTV.
Yeah, Dead rising was unplayable. I would have returned it if it was not a gift.
SD TV is so yesterday. This game is for a next gen console so I say you dont need to have support for SDTVs as long as they put it on the box.
Capcom syndrome hits England?
It's not the first game on any of the current round of HD consoles that have important game details that are illegible on SDTVs and it won't be the last.
These are HD consoles for HDTVs. Use a cheap computer monitor if you don't have an HDTV. I'd rather not have the game designers have to design for the lowest common denominator.
How many hardcore gamers are going to have a problem with this? If you give enough of a crap to be on a nex gen platform, you should be able to hit up craigslist and buy a 300 dollar TV.
Is Banjo Kazooie considered a "hard-core" game?!?
I always thought it was more aimed at the elusive family market (hence the cartoony graphics). If that is true, then they definately need to realize there are going to be alot of SDTV owners that are going to buy this game.
Yes, SDTV owners should be given more respect here. If they think all gamers have HDTV's now, they better think again. You must excuse us SDTV owners for keeping our old tv's, but we have much more important things to buy, like food and gasoline. Rare needs to fix this, they are screwing us SDTV owners.
Analogy time
XBox360:food/gas/SDTV as HDTV:luxury?
You know what, if SDTV owners are griping about the cost of HDTVs, the last thing they need to be spending coin on is Xbox and a bunch of games. No wonder you can't buy an HDTV! You're going to have to spend at least $40 next February, so hopefully since popping for a $200+ Xbox, you're also on your way to saving for an HDTV. Its not like they're releasing this game on the Wii or PS2 and a whole bunch of cheap gamers are going to be caught off-guard. Get in line this Thanksgiving and get yourself a $400 42" Vizio.
Right, you should be dictating to him which hobby is more important...the games, or the TV itself. It's the chicken and the egg....actually, it's not, the games are more important to a gamer than the TV. What if his only HD source is the 360? What if he lives with his parents and they don't let him use the HDTV for games? It never fails to amaze me that people can be so shortsighted when it comes to this stuff.
You wonder why the Wii outsells the competition despite not having HD capabilities?
And, by the way, he's not griping about the cost of the HDTV - he's griping about the cost of food and gasoline.
That's not the only game like that.
MLB 2k8 had a lot of text that was unreadable on my SDTV, and I had to stop playing Grand Theft Auto IV, because the radar showed all the various icons as looking the same - I had no idea where the heck I was going playing that.
I now have an HDTV and am revisiting games, but there's a definite slant towards HDTV with games and their text for sure.
Well if you own a PS3 and don't play it on a HDTV you're a cheap*** douche and shouldn't have bought the PS3 in the first place. Should have just stuck with a PS2. As for 360 owners, well, sucks to be you in the first place.
It sucks to be a 360 owner but not a PS3 owner? You're living in a dream world. Snap out of it!
My ps3 is occasionally attached to an SD set and sometimes the text is nigh on unreadable. Phone messages in GTAIV are the worst but there are other instances. I dread to think what LittleBigPlanet is like in SD with all of the popit icons and text. It boils down to inadequate QA or TRCs.
As for being "cheap", I don't see it that way at all. If a console has an SD output, then games should be required to adequately support it.
They need to be designing games with HDTV in mind instead of catering to SDTV.
The solution is to buy a new TV.
For something like this to be released with a problem this big is bad. The fact that they refuse to fix it is just showing how little they care about their customers. I really used to like Rare - I played Donkey Kong Country for years on the SNES - but this is just inexcusable. Since they don't care enough about their game to make it work correctly for everyone, I don't care enough to buy it.
I have a 32 inch HDTV now, but I still feel for those people that haven't upgraded. Hopefully prices around Black Friday will entice everyone to get an HDTV!
Does anyone else think the picture above isn't that bad? I'm looking at it and considering that it's a slightly out of focus photograph of an SDTV screen, I can still read the words relatively well. Seems like a mountain being made out of a mole hill.
I definitely felt the same way. I wasn't sure how representative of the problem the screenshot was, but if I can read it in a tiny little window on my computer monitor from a blurry and off-angle photograph, how hard is it to actually read in real life?
Maybe Rare has no plans to fix it because it really isn't the problem people are making it out to be.
For those saying run out and buy a new TV. Some of us were given these consoles. I'm not a kid living in my parents house. I was given a 360 by my fiance. The only thing I use a TV for is for the occassional gaming. I can't afford to drop $500+ on an HDTV so I can play a couple of hours of gaming a week. I have a 360 for CASUAL gaming, my life does not revolve around it...
Cash in that engagement ring and buy yourself that hdtv you deserve.;)
I may be weird, but I'm determined to be the last of my friends to get an HDTV.
I canceled my preorder on this game after I played the demo. I have a 568P (EDTV, essentially) plasma, and it has a good picture for what it is... better than DVD in either respect. But man, this game was the first game I've ever played where I had a problem reading the text (in the demo, anyway). It was aggravating, considering this whole game is text. For such a outgoing-ly cartoony game, for Rare to make such a small text size is ridiculous. I'm glad I canceled the preorder :)
Well, first of all, HDTV should already be the new SDTV, as it is now the "standard". We should probably have a contest to rename SDTV. I'm not as clever as most of you, but something along the lines of Ancient and Dead as the Fax Machine TV could get it done.
You don't need to drop $300 to $500 on an HDTV to enjoy the xbox properly.
Just buy a 17" computer LCD for $100 and your gaming quality will be improved significantly.
Chances are you already have a computer monitor lying around and even an ancient 19" crt is going to be loads better than any SDTV you would attach the console to (hell, many companies are giving away their old perfectly functional CRTs for free.)
@ DrXym
"If a console has an SD output, then games should be required to adequately support it.'
That is an EXCELLENT point :)
This happens to PC users all the time, you buy a kicking system for 2 g's and within a year games are released that your once proud system struggle with... Crysis. So every year or so you upgrade your video card for a few hundred plus more ram as bonus. When it comes down to it, if your setup can't handle the games you simply do without or upgrade. It is the game industry that pushes the hardware industry to higher and higher gains. Why should console gaming be different. Here you have a kick ass console like the 360 playing it on 50 year old crt tech. wtf. Granted I havn't upgraded my tv yet, still saving for a 61" dream. So that means I have to put off some games until I do. But on the plus side the games will be $30 cheaper by the time I can play them. Besides, try playing a few of these games on an hdtv and you'll never want to go back to your p.o.s. sdtv.
I think RARE is just doing their part to end the recession... This will probably inject more money than the stimulus package did. Thousands, No, Millions of people will be buying HDTV's to play this craptastic game... It's only a matter of time before we can all continue buying frivolous bullshit. Thank you RARE, keep up the good work.
(When i bought my 360 i had an SDTV, it took me all of three days to realize it wasn't gonna work, even just playing tony hawk! (couldn't much read the text there either))
And who cares about this anyway, Gears 2 comes out soon, why would anyone waste their time with this?!?!?!?!?!
Seriously, the problem with Dead Rising on a standard definition TV was NOT a problem on all standard definition TVs. Only TVs of a certain size, usually smaller than 27". My 360 was originally hooked up to a standard definition TV when I first bought it, and I played Dead Rising for at least two months that way. I did not have any problem reading the text.
Since then we picked up a 42" HDTV, but I ended up with my 360 on a 24" LCD display that I share with my computer. Works out pretty well and I can run in HD.
In the example they switched to a 16" (!!) SD tube TV. You'd be FAR better off using a 17" LCD monitor and it wouldn't set you back that much.
Microsoft released an announcement that the text issue on SD TVs will be fixed via a patch in the next 30 days. The game itself is scheduled to be released this Tuesday.