Gears of War should look great on your crap TV
by Ludwig Kietzmann 
{ Sep 25th 2006 at 8:55PM }
Gamers will be pleased to learn that all missions in the upcoming Gears of War should be easily accomplished without the need for excessive squinting or unanswered pining for a better television set. According to an entry on the official Epic Games forums, the upcoming, Unreal-powered and unbelievably macho tale of man versus monster has been tested on "small, non-HD TVs, to make sure you can read the writing." Presumably, the legible on-screen text in Gears of War will not be conveyed by a lonely security guard who calls at the worst possible times.
Though this news will allay the fears of those still confined to the realms of standard definition, developers shouldn't expect a pat on the head whenever they cater to a huge part of their audience. This just in: Gears of War will totally work on your Xbox 360. Thanks for going the extra mile, Epic!
[Via 1UP]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
qbix @ Sep 25th 2006 9:02PM
Saints Row did a good job at making their text and other visual elements like the map very legible. Props go to all developers thinking of the lowest common denominator.
lekko @ Sep 25th 2006 9:11PM
Okay... so then on an HDTV is the text unnecessarily huge? It better be interchangable....
V1L3 @ Sep 25th 2006 9:10PM
I don't see why developers can't have settings for text to cater to BOTH audiences. A lot of games give you the option to turn subtitles on/off, so how difficult would it be to add in a large/small option?
Hell, if Internet Explorer can do it...
Zachary @ Sep 25th 2006 9:14PM
I hate to play the devil's advocate here but I think that Epic does deserve a "a pat on the head" they shouldn't have to go out of their way to ensure you can read the text on your 20" b&w magnavox. I believe Capcom's Yoshinori Kawano said it best when asked by EGM : "Whats up with the supersmall font? Why not include a font that's legible for non-hdtv owners?"
Yoshinori Kawano:[laughs] "People should definitely have an HDTV before buying an Xbox 360"
Blink @ Sep 25th 2006 9:17PM
This just in: Gears of war will not work unless you use 5.1!!!
Really, it's ridiculous how much some companies are pushing HD and 5.1. A requirement, yes, but it shouldn't be the main focus. I for one am glad to see that Nintendo's not forcing anything. I mean yes, it totally sucks for me as an HD Widescreen gamer to get 480i 4:3, but it means they're focusing on some of the more important aspects, and I still have a blast with Smash Bros on my widescreen, even though it doesn't support it.
Chris Taran @ Sep 25th 2006 9:22PM
@5 Blink
Not to nit-pick, but Nintendo has confirmed support for 16:9 on the Wii. Zelda is one game confirmed to work in the widescreen format.
Wulkar @ Sep 25th 2006 9:29PM
i just pissed myself that picture is so great
Josh @ Sep 25th 2006 9:34PM
Who would buy an Xbox 360 without owning an HDTV? It's a waste of money.
As for Wii, it will support 480p and 16:9, just like GameCube, but again, just like GameCube, it's up to individual developers to support the features. You know, I've always wondered WHY some games don't support 480p. I can't imagine it would take any more than the coding equivalent of clicking a check box that says "Support 480p". 16:9 I can understand not supporting, but not 480p. Anyone have an explanation?
Nintendo has said recently, I think, that all first party games (not sure about second party games) will support 480p on Wii (as they did on GameCube) and 16:9, so that's a good model for third party developers to follow.
What I find really odd is that GT Pro Series for Wii supposedly supports 16:9, but NOT 480p. That just makes widescreen totally useless, as pretty much the only TVs that are designed with a 16:9 aspect ratio have at least a 480p resolution and have to upscale a 480i signal, which would create lag...
Chris Taran @ Sep 25th 2006 9:37PM
And, just because I'm a bit anal and can't stand the fact that I used the word "confirmed" twice, here's an redo of tha prior post.
@5 Blink
Not to nit-pick, but Nintendo has confirmed support for 16:9 on the Wii. Zelda is one game set to work in the widescreen format.
Speaking of Gears of War, here's a bit of trivia for you:
The main character, Marcus, is named after Marcus 'djWHEAT' Graham, the first pro video game commentator in North America.
A Reader @ Sep 25th 2006 10:11PM
This should be expected, not the exception. As the article even says, we shouldn't be patting the companies on the head for doing what they were supposed to do all along. So why on earth does this warrant an article in the first place? Spread the word if another game screws up like Dead Rising and doesn't look good on non-HDTVs, sure, but can we expect articles on every game from here on out? "Breaking news: This game works!" I'll let you guys get back to the rodeo.
killploki @ Sep 25th 2006 9:57PM
@#8
sorry we cant all run out to buy new tv's with our game systems. but have you ever played 360 on a non-hd tv before. it looks good still, believe it or not the more powerful 360 can still produce a next gen quality image on a lower resolution tv. you dont need to spend the extra money right away to get a graphics improvement from last generation to now. that being said, it is also nice to play in hd, just not mandatory.
IcebergSlim3000 @ Sep 25th 2006 10:12PM
Who would have thought my little thread would have made news. Go figure.
Paul Roberts @ Sep 25th 2006 10:18PM
Gears of war staff member comments on svideo/SDTV quality on xbox360.
Go to 6 min mark.
http://www.gamespot.com/pages/video_player/popup.php?sid=6133388&pid=928234
??? @ Sep 25th 2006 10:38PM
...and don't forget Marcus has a ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-chainsaw!! Arrrr!
s00pcan @ Sep 25th 2006 11:07PM
@5 Blink
Adding hd takes no real effort.
*points to pc games*
That excuse is retarded.
SnapperDragon @ Sep 25th 2006 11:18PM
What's with Epic? They go around saying to everyone that the Wii cannot run the unreal 3 engine like it's supposed to and then you get a game like this that will run on standard def. Self-serving bo-bo's...
Wild Homes @ Sep 25th 2006 11:37PM
Joystiq, post something humorous about how bad the F.E.A.R. 360 demo is! please! it's pure badness, all three polygons on the screen at once are simultaneously, constantly bad! it's just a twitchy snoozefest, and I think I saw the framerate skip while I slid down the ladders! seriously! I'm pro-360 and even I have to admit that if this F.E.A.R. demo is the best Day 1 Studios can do, Microsoft needs to cut them out of any future Microsoft Games Studio plans.
Game Artist @ Sep 26th 2006 12:02AM
Great. So now we should have to dumb down the next-gen experience for people with crappy TV's. All that hardware and money spent wasted. One of my biggest pet peeves with consoles was the low res and giagantic menus to make text readable on a SD TV. I guess my hope to leave all that crappiness behind this gen was misplaced.
dsub @ Sep 26th 2006 9:35PM
Blink: Who said HD and 5.1 were the main focus of any game? 5.1 is extremely easy to do, and doesn't really take alot of development time. There are alot of software tools and middleware that streamline the audio process in alot of games. Say what you will, but having 5.1 audio in a game adds ALOT to the experience. You'd be surprised. I've been able to locate enemies in games like GRAW and COD2 countless times thanks to the realtime 5.1 audio.
What's that...I hear footsteps or gunshots over my left shoulder...I can quickly turn around and kill an enemy that would otherwise be unlocateable with stereo sound. 5.1 adds a whole nother dimension to playing games, and while I understand it can be easy to dismiss it as unecessary when your used to playing games with your TV's built in speakers, if you experience gaming with dolby digital on a decent home theater system...you'll see what I'm talking about.
HD may not be very necessary to alot of people, but Dolby Digital 5.1 audio is. Anyone can go out and pickup a cheap Home Theater in a Box for $99 these days and experience 5.1 audio.
Me @ Sep 26th 2006 12:52AM
F.E.A.R. is wayyyy better on PC and the demo for extraction point is already out too !!!
FSK405K @ Sep 26th 2006 1:34AM
This whole issue reminds me of the graphics development for Galactic Civilizations 2 (love it, anyone else?).
Stardock, the developer/publisher, wanted the game to work on any POS computer anyone could think of, so they designed the graphics to be completely scalable (resolutions possible at unbelievable small and large sizes) and also had everyone and their mother test the game on all sorts of crazy worthless laptops and others.
Once they were comfortable and released some betas, people were reporting that the game was causing their video cards to overheat and crash. Strangely, old systems were fine, and it was the uber-upgraded PCs that had this happen. Their investigation led them to the conclusion, "oh, we never enabled GPU throttling," which means "GPU, if you don't have anything to calculate, stop calculating." Thus, these expensive cards were continuously processing, even when the graphics were already maxxed out. Once patched, the game gave the cards the ability to stop working when not used, and everything worked out.
- - -
I have little experience with the 360, but must ask: don't most games have options or doesn't the system have options where it asks you what type of display you're using? Can't developers link text size and other GUI sizes to this? Not something I recall seeing in PC games either, oddly.
shivr @ Sep 26th 2006 8:32AM
Wow HDTV guys, calm down... Is it really a good idea to unnecissarily alienate a large part of the market (those with SDTVs) just so you can feel like part of the special tech club? Everyone I know with a 360 doesn't actually have an HDTV because they're -freakin expensive-, and they're just poor college kiddies (or college dropouts... actually one is a high school dropout but you get the idea).
The amount of time and energy it takes to make a game SD-friendly is likely a drop in the bucket against total time and effort on the game, and it probably significantly expands the amount of people who will buy the game, hell even the amount of people who will consiter buying a 360 but don't have $1500+ to invest. If it doesn't hurt you, then why the whining?
Null Infinity @ Sep 26th 2006 9:03AM
For those that can't afford an HDTV at the moment, I bought, and recommend the 360 HD/VGA cable. Plug it into any computer monitor, and you got crystal clear graphics. I thought Oblivion looked good on a regular tv, and almost cried when I saw it on the monitor. And multiplayer online is so much better, because standard tv pixelation always made things look like they were moving, not the case with the HD/VGA cable. DVDs look great as well.
http://www.gamestop.com/product.asp?product%5Fid=802129
just a suggestion. And no, I'm not affiliated with gamestop.
8
Sendai @ Sep 26th 2006 10:34AM
Uh, you can get a decent HD television today for under $1k, in some cases for $600. Yeah, that's still a lot of money, but get a job if you really want one.
Seth @ Sep 26th 2006 10:49AM
I recently upgraded to a 22" widescreen monitor with VGA cable after nearly a year of playing the 360 on a 27" SDTV. I am writing to defend playing the 360 on the SDTV. The graphics are better than previous gen consoles, even on an SDTV. However, the reason I am playing Dead Rising is not for improved graphics. It is for the full next generation experience. The amount of zombies on screen is still amazing regardless of your display type.
Condemned is still terrifying on an SDTV.
The thrill of killing Nazis in Call of Duty 2 is still completely awesome on an SDTV.
Of course I am much happier playing on my Westinghouse 22" widescreen monitor, but I was not able to afford it for a while. The 360 experience on an SDTV is still absolutley great, hands down.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to play great new games if you can't afford a large flat panel display and expecting developers to support that experience.
What is the adoption rate of HDTV? It is still incredibly low, right? A consoles success in 2006 can not bet on all gamers have an HD display. Maybe in 2012, but not today.
SuicideNinja @ Sep 26th 2006 4:38PM
What makes me sad is that so many people apparently don't have HDTVs and have really crappy SDTVs. My 27" Flat SDTV via component worked decently; I was using it up until I bought my 51" HDTV (new for $900, which isn't that expensive considering the size).
"Everyone I know with a 360 doesn't actually have an HDTV because they're -freakin expensive-, and they're just poor college kiddies (or college dropouts... actually one is a high school dropout but you get the idea)."
They could use a computer monitor. It makes a world of difference, and doesn't cost that much (and most people probably already have one!). You can get 19" CRT's for under $100 now.
Or for the price of a PS3, they could get a 24-27" LCD HDTV. But that's if $1000 is too much for a TV (which is understandable).
It's really no wonder people complain about the graphics; they can't even see them!
LongshotX @ Sep 28th 2006 3:17PM
Everyone has HD. Use that monitor you viewing these post on. Computers have been doing HD for years. If you got a 360 and you can't afford an HD set, get a VGA cable and play your games like there supposed to be played.
Tinsley-PR @ Sep 26th 2006 6:30PM
Best headline of 2006. Period.
Raybey1 @ Nov 29th 2006 8:49AM
"If you got a 360 and you can't afford an HD set, get a VGA cable and play your games like there supposed to be played."
Apart from the fact that Gears of war, PGR3 and Oblivion all have aspect ratio issues when using a 4:3 or 5:4 monitor.