Gears of War VGA bug fixed, set aside for future update
by James Ransom-Wiley 
{ Nov 30th 2006 at 3:55PM }
Mark Rein dropped into the Epic Forums last night to let VGA cables users know that the Gears of War aspect ratio issue has been fixed. Gamers playing on non-widescreen monitors have experienced squashed aspect ratios since the game shipped. A patch will be included in the next Gears update, which has yet to be scheduled. Rein added that Epic is still working on additional features for the update.Epic's vice president also made a direct apology to fans for the VGA oversight, explaining that the development team was only using widescreen monitors. A non-widescreen monitor has since been acquired for testing purposes.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Brandon @ Nov 30th 2006 4:09PM
Finally! It was starting to get in my head and I was starting to feel like all games had poor ratios!
Cowdisease @ Nov 30th 2006 4:14PM
'direct apologize'? C'mon, James, you need to do a little better with your copy editing.
Good news. My cousins played Gears of War on a non-widescreen monitor with the squashed aspect ratio, but they didn't seem to mind too much.
Hinkmania @ Nov 30th 2006 4:58PM
I'm certainly glad I have a widescreen monitor for my non-attached to the TV 360 play.
Fuzz @ Nov 30th 2006 5:07PM
What the hell . . . only had widescreen monitors? This kinda crap is unacceptable. Like it is so hard to find an "ancient old tv" to oh, I dunno, run a quick test on? Since 3/4 of people still have normal tv's, it boggles the mind that no one even though to try out different aspect ratios.
Balla360 @ Nov 30th 2006 4:26PM
Wasn't it here that I read that Microsoft QA was strangling creativity? I know that Epic wasn't first party, but shouldn't Microsoft's quality control team at least be checking for the very basics, like trying out the various classes of hardware their software might be run on? The development team needs to mix in some professionalism with their widescreen monitors.
Unimental @ Nov 30th 2006 5:24PM
Defeat General RAAM on undesirable aspect ratio - 25 gamer points.
Brandon Paddock @ Nov 30th 2006 8:31PM
#3 - to be clear, they're talking about 4:3 monitors over a VGA cable (not composite / component / etc) which probably is an extremely small minority of users. I'm not saying they shouldn't test it or shouldn't have been testing it all along - but it's not like they neglected a significant piece of their testing matrix. And it's great that they're fixing it.
dejon @ Nov 30th 2006 4:44PM
finally- i was wondering why all the people in the game looked like buff little dwarves.
Dracon @ Nov 30th 2006 5:06PM
Oblivion has the same problem, Ive just been running my 4:3 monitor at a wide screen res lately and making my own black bars through adjustments, its smaller but still worth the picture quality (21 Inch CRT)
JimmyHACK @ Dec 1st 2006 10:35AM
they shouldn't worry about additional features yet
how about fixing the audio chat in online games first, they make millions on the game yet can't get 8 people voice chat online right... come on now....
anyone i'm done bitching for now heh
Shawn @ Nov 30th 2006 6:30PM
Fuzz, he's talking about a non-widescreen monitor over VGA. How many "ancient old tv's" do you know which have a VGA input?
robrob @ Nov 30th 2006 5:38PM
"What the hell . . . only had widescreen monitors?"
they probably tested it in SD with regular cables. this issue only affects VGA cable users.
Exick @ Nov 30th 2006 6:22PM
"they probably tested it in SD with regular cables. this issue only affects VGA cable users."
Even so, it seems ludicrous to suggest that they didn't think that someone might use VGA cables with 4:3 monitor.
bouchert @ Nov 30th 2006 6:44PM
First text size issues in Dead Rising, then problems with the Saint's Row demo dropping to 480p in 4:3 mode, then evidence that nobody at Capcom was taking notes after another text size issue appeared in the Lost Planet demo, and now aspect ratio problems in Gears of War. Is this the "HD Era" that Microsoft promised us? Endless resolution incompatibilities and poor frame rates? It's not like there are thousands of permutations like on a PC. There are only a handful of settings possible, in each of which every game should be tested. If they aren't up to that very simple task, then maybe they need to shut up about things like 1080p and take a few steps back from the bleeding edge until they're ready to do a proper job of testing the capabilities they already have.
Hinkmania @ Nov 30th 2006 7:48PM
Funny, none of the problems you mentioned dealt directly with High definition displays, #13. In fact it seems to be the opposite, but thankfully none of those companies which you mentioned are wholly operated by Microsoft. If you expected a smooth transition by any company, Microsoft, Sony or any of the developers into the HD era, then you are a fool.
Yardarm51 @ Nov 30th 2006 7:30PM
[quote="joystiq"]A patch will be included in the next Gears update, which has yet to be scheduled.[/quote]
Huh? They have the fix (which I need) but they have no release info. Are they waiting to fix some other problem at the same time. As solutions come available for existing problems they should be immediately sent to MS for upload. Why do we have to wait for this. I have GoW but I haven't popped it into the machine yet. Guess I'll just have to continue on with CoD3 for a bit longer. C'mon Epic get with it and release the patch.
Hannibal @ Nov 30th 2006 9:24PM
I use a 5:4 monitor with the VGA cable, and I didn't even notice anything.
James @ Dec 1st 2006 12:39AM
thats strange, im not using a widescreen monitor, and I've been displaying the right picture ratio. 16:9 with the black bars....thats strange how it works for me.