Phew! It's good to know that the end of the world will be running a little smoother in no time.
Darksiders patch to sew up Xbox 360 screen-tearing issue
by James Ransom-Wiley 
on Jan 7th 2010 5:40PM
55
Phew! It's good to know that the end of the world will be running a little smoother in no time.
Reader Comments (55)
Posted: Jan 7th 2010 6:06PM Ballistic H said
Awkward as the PS3 version doesn't have that issue. See the reviews:
http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/action/darksiderswrathofwar/review.html
http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/darksiderswrathofwar/review.html
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http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/action/darksiderswrathofwar/review.html
http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/darksiderswrathofwar/review.html
Posted: Jan 7th 2010 5:53PM MarkezJM said
I've got a $50 Best Buy gift card burning a hole in my pocket and this is starting to seem like an intriguing game. For whatever reason I'm not too into a bunch of the big games out now like AC2 and all that, but I like what I've been hearing on this game.
It'll be a miracle if I make to ME2 release with this gift card :P
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It'll be a miracle if I make to ME2 release with this gift card :P
Posted: Jan 7th 2010 5:53PM thatguythatflys said
Just curious, how do us Xbox owners who live in basements with no internet connection get these game updates? Do we just have to deal with the problems or does Microsoft have another solution for us? I just got the game, haven't played it yet, but if it's unplayable maybe I will return it.
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Posted: Jan 7th 2010 8:42PM armageddon said
Take your 360 to a friend with an internet connection and set up an account real quick so you can patch a few games. I set up accounts like this every now and then so I can play 3rd party multiplayer games with my nephew. I wish more 3rd party games offered system link like so many 1st party games (hell I've seen a few indie games even do it too).
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Posted: Jan 7th 2010 6:00PM atrimus said
would've been nice if someone could've done something similar for the problems that plague PS3-Bayonetta. but given the slew of issues that probably would've required an entire rebuild of the game. i have a choice and will go with the superior 360 version, but games like Bayonetta scream for my Dualshock controller.
anyways, good stuff on Vigil's part for addressing the issue so soon. kinda reminds me of the attentive care Criterion puts in their games post-release.
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anyways, good stuff on Vigil's part for addressing the issue so soon. kinda reminds me of the attentive care Criterion puts in their games post-release.
Posted: Jan 7th 2010 6:03PM (Unverified) said
How on earth do you go through a 2-3 year dev cycle without noticing that v-sync is turned off?? Sounds like they thought they could get away with having it turned off.
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Posted: Jan 7th 2010 6:29PM AirIntake said
Um, what are you talking about? Screen tearing is almost always about vsync, and eliminated by enabling it. Please, vsync expert, please tell all of us stupid people what vsyncing would do to this game? (other than eliminating the tearing and losing a couple FPS)
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Posted: Jan 7th 2010 6:37PM knighty said
Darksiders, from what I can tell visually, looks like it runs a little under 60fps most of the time and sometimes drops a bit lower. You stick on vsync in a game that can't maintain 60fps constantly and you're stuck at 30fps. Now, plenty of next gen games run at 30fps, this is fine, but games like Darksiders, Bayonetta, DMC etc are all much much better the better the frame rate (naturally all games look better at 60fps, I'm just saying that high paced action and driving games are much more in need of higher framerates). You suddenly go from 50fps to 30fps and losing the vsync is a small pro for losing almost half your frame rate. When did I say it wasn't to do with vsync? It's everything to do with vsync.
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Posted: Jan 7th 2010 7:46PM AirIntake said
Vsync and locking the FPS to 30 or 60 isn't the same thing. You can vsync and still have any FPS, it just means that some of the frames are going to be doubles (or triples etc if the frame rate gets low enough). If you vsync and are only able to get 45fps, then 15 of those frames are going to be doubles, no big deal. The biggest effect of vsync is that you add a few ms of delay because it will wait until the next frame to draw instead of drawing a partial frame right now.
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Posted: Jan 7th 2010 8:02PM knighty said
That requires triple buffering because you need the front buffer, back buffer and a third buffer to render the next frame into while you duplicate the previous one. And I'm fairly certain the 360 doesn't support triple buffering (hell, many PC gpus don't). Maybe the 360 does, I can't be 100% sure on that, but even if it does, adding an extra frame buffer to an HD game is no trivial task when you've probably just squeezed the game to run in 512mb of RAM.
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Posted: Jan 7th 2010 6:03PM (Unverified) said
I've been playing games for over 28 years now, and I've never had a headache before this game. Nice to see something will be done. I'm just hoping soon is really soon, as in before I finish the game.
For those still on the fence, this game is definitely a great start to the year. No regrets purchasing this, given the fix eliminates my headaches.
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For those still on the fence, this game is definitely a great start to the year. No regrets purchasing this, given the fix eliminates my headaches.
Posted: Jan 7th 2010 6:13PM OwningXylophone said
Yep, playing my review copy now... I can tell you the tearing is minor but noticeable, a patch will definately be appreciated!
Very good game by the way, the setting and story have a real Spawn feeling about them.
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Very good game by the way, the setting and story have a real Spawn feeling about them.
Posted: Jan 7th 2010 6:18PM Mal F4cti0n said
How does that happen? Did they ever play the game during testing?
Not sure how bad it is, but you would think that paid (professional?) testers would have caught it.....
Reply
Not sure how bad it is, but you would think that paid (professional?) testers would have caught it.....
Posted: Jan 7th 2010 11:54PM Mal F4cti0n said
Okay....like I said, not sure how bad the tearing is.
But if the users notice it.....why didn't the testers?
I'm just saying.
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But if the users notice it.....why didn't the testers?
I'm just saying.
Posted: Jan 7th 2010 6:22PM Faceless Troll said
Thank Cthulhu. I almost thought something was wrong with my new TV when I started playing this game. For those on the fence about deciding to buy this, imagine if God of War and Gears 2 got together and had babies. That's Darksiders in a nutshell and it is awesome.
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Posted: Jan 7th 2010 6:27PM Puertoricarious said
...what? how is this game at all related to gears 2?
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Posted: Jan 7th 2010 6:28PM Faceless Troll said
@David: The visual style is similar, and the fact they both make use of the Havoc engine.
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Posted: Jan 7th 2010 6:47PM Puertoricarious said
except that gears uses the unreal engine, it being epic's baby and all.
and i wouldn't really say that darksiders is visually indebted to gears of war, joe madudeira has a style all his own. the closest similarity i could see is the "beefy" main character, but joe was drawing characters like that long before gears of war ever came around.
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and i wouldn't really say that darksiders is visually indebted to gears of war, joe madudeira has a style all his own. the closest similarity i could see is the "beefy" main character, but joe was drawing characters like that long before gears of war ever came around.
Posted: Jan 7th 2010 6:48PM Puertoricarious said
and if you're talking about a physics engine, i believe gears 2 uses PhysX.
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Posted: Jan 7th 2010 7:18PM Puertoricarious said
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreal_Engine#Unreal_Engine_3
Epic has used this version of the engine for Unreal Tournament 3, Gears of War and an improved version for Gears of War 2. Midway Games has also used this generation of the engine for Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe.
and yes, the researcher in me is in tears for using wikipedia as a source, but whatever.
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Epic has used this version of the engine for Unreal Tournament 3, Gears of War and an improved version for Gears of War 2. Midway Games has also used this generation of the engine for Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe.
and yes, the researcher in me is in tears for using wikipedia as a source, but whatever.
Posted: Jan 7th 2010 8:52PM andsoitgoes said
I say God of War has a threesome with Devil May Cry and Prototype.
And you can frickin' throw CARS.
CARS!
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And you can frickin' throw CARS.
CARS!
Posted: Jan 7th 2010 8:37PM Drakkenfyre said
Do you understand what screen tearing is? It has nothing to do with the "system's power". No, you are just trolling.
Here's a hint for you. I can take a pc game, run it on a pc with specs far beyond the requirements, and have VSync turned off, and get screen tearing. I turn VSync on in the game, and there is no screen tearing.
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Here's a hint for you. I can take a pc game, run it on a pc with specs far beyond the requirements, and have VSync turned off, and get screen tearing. I turn VSync on in the game, and there is no screen tearing.
Posted: Jan 7th 2010 8:12PM (Unverified) said
too bad i'll prolly have beaten it by the time this comes out lol... sick ass game!
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Posted: Jan 7th 2010 8:54PM andsoitgoes said
I'm in the same boat. There's no way in hell I'm going to wait for a patch to fix something that, honestly, I probably wouldn't have even noticed if no one had mentioned it in the first place >.<
So far I enjoy it. The gameplay isn't as inventive as Bayonetta, but this gives me the "cool story" fix that I was missing.
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So far I enjoy it. The gameplay isn't as inventive as Bayonetta, but this gives me the "cool story" fix that I was missing.
Posted: Jan 7th 2010 8:24PM theWillard said
will it let me comment if i just type some random crap instead of what i wanted? let's see...
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Posted: Jan 7th 2010 8:38PM theWillard said
i was trying to mock how all the PS3 fanboys would use this as some kind of definitive evidence that the PS3 is better just like Xbox fanboys try to do with the ports of Orange Box, Bayonetta, etc. Apparently the almighty Joystiq comment system will allow me to write anything but that.
On a related note, i often find myself wishing i had the power to turn irritating pieces of software/technology into people that i can kick in the nuts.
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On a related note, i often find myself wishing i had the power to turn irritating pieces of software/technology into people that i can kick in the nuts.
Posted: Jan 7th 2010 11:13PM Colostomeboy said
what armor is war wearing in that screenshot? i haven't seen that anywhere before.
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Posted: Jan 8th 2010 4:35AM juggalotusmx said
if you collect 10 pieces of armor you get a new one, that might be it i have 8 so far...
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Posted: Jan 8th 2010 8:29AM (Unverified) said
@avan: dude, you're an animal. I'm just before the Tiamat fight. I'm trying to stretch this out to enjoy it that much longer. Awesome game, having a blast. There aren't enough Zelda clones out there. But a Zelda clone with combat that lies between Zelda and Ninja Gaiden, now that's a blessing. The controls could be a little tighter, but they still feel pretty good...
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Posted: Jan 8th 2010 9:43AM SolidSnakeEyes said
If screen tearing is an easy fix, can we get one for Assassin's Creed 2 on PS3?
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