Perched at his Newsweek blog, N'Gai Croal discusses modern problems with screenshots -- they just don't look as good as video. He cites shader and particle effects detracting from game images when still.We agree that screens don't always show the quality of a game; good animation also makes a major difference. The developers Croal interviews want HD video to become the screenshot replacement. That'll happen someday, but not in the short-term.
What annoys us most about game screens -- and videos -- is when developers render beyond what the game can produce. In that situation, game companies are either deceptive, trying to trick us into thinking the images match the actual game, or up-front, clearly saying that an in-development game should eventually reflect the marketing materials. But if they're honest about it, we're still skeptical about the game -- either way, they can't win with faked screenshots or video.
See also:
Riiiiiiiiiiidge Racer! Xbox 360 vs. PS3 screens
Careful with those ancient Zelda screenshots! You'll poke an eye out with images that sharp.
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(Page 1) Reader Comments
Video isn't immune either. Remember the Killzone 2 debacle? I don't know who made the call, but he/she ought to be fired for suggesting that the E3 trailer was *actual gameplay*. That is pure BS, it wasn't even in-engine.
I don't mind touchups usually. It's the equivalent of airbrushing a model. Adjusting exposure, brightness, contrast, all fine in my books. But when you're like EA and you start laying magnificent pre-rendered explosions over the flimsy real-time explosion you ACTUALLY have, that's a problem.
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But I kid. Square still makes excellent RPGs even with the false advertisements and such.
This also rings of a news post a while back where Activision was forced to pull its ads of Call of Duty 2 in Britian because they didn't show actual gameplay footage. This law should exsist everywhere.
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I don't care if the video is HD or not. Model detail is great and all, but I care more how the game plays and how the characters interract, not if I can see the pores on their nose by sitting 3 feet from the TV.
-p-
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http://slashdot.org/articles/01/03/18/2222252.shtml
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Of course, as I type this, I can't help but think how unexcited I would be for Portal if Valve had just used screenshots.
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Oh, internet fame, when will you be mine?
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Of course, when you supersample, you end up with screenshots that make the game look sharper due to the added resolution. So it is representative, and yet not... oh well.
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