BioWare: No fix for Mass Effect 2 SDTV 'tiny text' issue

by Alexander Sliwinski on Feb 5th 2010 11:06AM

BioWare has stated that it can do nothing to alleviate Mass Effect 2's "tiny text" issue, which affects standard-definition television users. The company claims on its forums that after "investigating potential solutions," it has determined that it is unable to fix the text size with a patch. BioWare has taken note of the complaint, however, and will take it into consideration for "future games in the Mass Effect franchise." Um, how about all future BioWare games? SDTVs are apparently still quite prevalent.

Two famous case studies in "tiny text" syndrome are Dead Rising and Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, with two very different outcomes. Capcom used the same excuse as BioWare, while Rare actually fixed the problem.

Additionally, some Mass Effect 2 players are complaining that they're having difficulty reading the text on their 52-inch HDTVs. No, but really, it's time to see an optometrist.

[Via Eurogamer]

Source

Tags: bioware, ea, electronic-arts, mass-effect-2, tiny-text

Reader Comments (179)

Is anyone here really playing Mass Effect 2 on a SDTV? C'mon, raise your hand...

Wii fanboys?

When you can get a decent size/quality HDTV for less than the cost of a PS3 Slim, I think it's a worthy enough investment to consider.

And hell, they've only gotten cheaper with each new model. My 26" Samsung was $700 retail, $600 on newegg, and less than a year later a 32" Samsung 720p was around $600 or less.

Unfortunately, yes.

Someone from Digg said it best:

Playing Mass Effect 2 in SD is like painting your Ferrari brown

I played it on my 20" inch sdtv and I'm not afraid to admit it. At this point in my life, the cost of an HDtv is not worth the benefit that it would bring me. Don't get me wrong, I would love a 52" inch Samsung plasma, but I need to worry about my college tuition first and other things first.

I'm with the captain on this. ME2 has some of the best graphics and art in video games. If you're playing it on an SDTV you're screwing yourself over.

It's 2010. Seriously, if you're not playing HD games on SOME sort of HD screen then whats the point? Still on dial-up internet? Still don't have a cell phone?

SAVE money. Basic financial management.

I don't have a cell phone, but I do have a decent HDTV.

Not everyone can afford to blow $600+ on a new HDTV.
However, there is a cheap and cheerful solution to this. I play all my PS3 games on my 22" 1920x1080 ASUS monitor, which I got for $170 (NewEgg) and it looks incredible. In fact, I prefer it to my 52" Sharp HDTV.

Same with me. My "TV" is actually a 32 inch widescreen HD monitor. That was $300 on sale at newegg.com 4 yrs ago.

An HDTV is one of the few tech upgrades I've never been dissatisfied with. I've had awful cellphones, computers, MP3 players (looking at you, early oughts era Rio POS), and almost every other variety of tech, but an HDTV has never let me down. The first HDTV I ever got (parents anyway) was a 60" rear projection TV (CRT variety) many moons ago, and the thing still works beautifully.

If you are going to make one tech upgrade this year, and it's not going to be an SSD, it should be an HDTV. Especially if you are a gamer.

@ Hopper

You're going to spend most of your life in some sort of debt (home, boat, marriage), what's another $1200-$1500?

@CP

it's that kind of mentality that's gotten this country into the mess it's in today. Just stick it on the credit card and pay it off over the next 5 years...

You'd be surprised at how many people still play 360 and PS3 games on an SDTV. My roommate is one of them. Heck, even I played MGS4 back on an SDTV (that had the same tiny text issue as well). The issue with that was that we were all college kids (back in the MGS4 days I was in college at least, my roommate is still finishing up college right now). I personally don't mind playing on an SDTV because we can still enjoy the game.

The ironic thing about that is now I have one of those TV/PC Monitor combos in my room and I have a Wii connected to the component ports in the back. The more power intensive games I get are for PC, so I experience any "HD ready" game in HD anyways.

@Captain Planet

That's unfortunately true. I will definitely be buying one in the future and I certainly do appreciate HDtv's I just don't have any disposable income that I'm willing to put towards a new tv. Besides, I got used to sitting 4 feet from my tv and leaning in and squinting every time text appeared on the screen. Also, I've had my tv since 2000 and I've grown fond of it.

Relax snake, it was a joke.

@Hopper

Re-arrange your priorities. If you drink, stop drinking for a month. Same goes for smoking. There has to be some frivolous activity in your life you can stop spending cash on in the short term (as others have pointed out, HD computer monitors are cheap enough and work well for console gaming), and if it comes down to it, eating baloney sandwiches 3 times a day saves you a lot in grocery bills over a month.

I can sympathize for college students, as I graduated from a trade course last week, but I also understand that everyone has something they can give up in the short term to get more money on-hand. You won't need a lot for a decent monitor or small HD TV, it's all about priorities.

HDTV's dont cost $600. You can get an HDTV for less than a 360.

People just dont want to pay the money for a new TV since they think its unimportant compared to the other luxuries they buy like games, so they bitch and moan about things like this.

@ CP

Sorry, I'm testy today. Must be gaming withdrawal.

The unreadable game text was the final push that got me to upgrade TVs. I got a dirt cheap 20" LCD last year just to play games on for $200, then finally upgraded to a sweet, sweet 47" 1080p LCD over Christmas. Anyone saying they can't afford it clearly hasn't shopped around much.

Hopper has it right. Not everyone has a disposable income to blow on a new TV. And not everyone has nasty habits they need to cut out in order to get a new TV either. I can sympathize, having to pay all my tuition out of pocket. I don't drink, or smoke, or have a gambling problem or anything else that would drain my money besides food and essential bills. But even so I can't really afford a new TV.

Hell I just spent the last two weeks trying to find enough money to buy Mass Effect 2. : \

PS, it's nice knowing that I won't have student loans to pay off later because I decided to be a shithead and blow a few thousand on a new TV.

@freaparn

Good idea in principle, but whores will have their trinkets.

My first HDtv was a $700 42" Samsung DLP when I was after my 3rd year in college. I was paying for school myself (and working a co-op job 25 hours/week), but I didn't have the money to pay $8K+/year on tuition plus the cost of living. I had to take a loan for what I couldn't cover. Just because I spent $700 on a TV doesn't make me a shithead. I got 0% interest on it for a year and paid it in full in that time (not even $60/month). Things like that are good for your credit. I'd say I'm less of a shithead for buying a TV considering it helped aid me in the process of being able to buy a house at the age of 24 and secure car loans at 0% interest. $700 compared to $22,000 (student loans) is a drop in the bucket.

They should just get it for PC and wont be an issue, it runs great on
my 4 year old PC. Any $50-75 video card is sufficient to max out this
game. That been said, who the hell still uses SDTVs anyway? You can
get 26" 720p HDTVs for like $300 now if its kids and stuff. That's all most console games run at anyways besides select download titles and Blurays.

good graphics and art should nominally still be good in standard definition

@phinnvr6

I agree with CP on this one...

A few years back I would've understood but, now HDTV's are at the price point of what SDTV's were back in 2005. You can get a decent 32 inch for 300" or just hook your Xbox360 up to your PC monitor for $10. Even my grandma has an HDTV and she works at Big Lots. That tells you something about how much HDTV prices have came down.

The only way I can see not having a HDTV being justified is if your a kid and still live at home with your parents. If that's case you must have no father figure or you have one but, that bum on the couch needs to get a real damn job...

I bought an HDTV last week. My first. It cost me $638 after tax. I bought a "cheapy" 47" set from Best Buy and it was their brand, Insignia. After about a month of being hard pressed to find a better bargain online. I figured, it's still too much money to get a decent set and that this one would certainly be an upgrade from my 32" SD set. It was, and since it was cheap I'm still very pleased with it.

Sure, it could be thinner than 3" and it could have 120+ Hz, LED backlighting, etc. but with the current push for "3D" sets and what not (something that may or may not be successful in the next 4 years), I figured it'd be good enough for gaming. Which it certainly is and it has more inputs than the premium models, to my surprise.

My only fear is that once I get a PS3 and Blurays, that I'll regret the 60Hz choice, but if my eyes can't tell the difference I'm fine with it.

I guess my point is, I finally have one and now I won't be ridiculed as much. I also suspect that within 2 years many more people would have upgraded to HDTVs since the prices are only getting better, as long as people are willing to settle if their income is limited.

Yeah, skeet hit the nail on the head: if you're in college, you have a computer, and thus an HD monitor. Convertors of every type (even into a laptop through USB) are cheap and plentiful.

Seriously, you can get 32" HDTVs (with good reviews) for as little as $230 nowadays. Even many 50 inchers are around $500-$600 if you're willing to settle for 720p.

@Vcize

Actually a 720p TV isn't settling at all for gaming because there are no console games that run above 720p right now. If you really think about a few of the top games are less than 720p at this point so theres really no issue with this generation.

@Jedi Master

Agreed I'm a full-time college student, work a full-time job and I pay my student loans off as I go. A few months I disciplined myself to only go out 2 weekends a month and to stop eating out as much and I saved about 3-4 hundred dollars a month. A lot of people that complain about affording items 90% of the time could have it if they knew how to budget their money better.

I believe saying you can't afford to game in HD today is like saying you can't eat off the dollar menu at McDonalds. I know times are hard for people but, grab a monitor. If you don't have just spend $10 for an adapter and spend a few hours on craigslist searching for a monitor and you'll be gaming in HD in no time...

Okay. I can perfectly understand people out there not having enough money to buy an HDTV. That is perfectly acceptable.

BUT, the fact that you are buying $300~$400+ game consoles and video games for $60 a pop is nothing short of stupid. If you cannot afford a TV, you shouldn't be able to afford these either.

And maybe you should have gotten an HDTV before you spent easily the cost of one on a console and games.

I'm in the student boat as well. As a grad student I pay three times a year, as opposed to two. I'm making lots of money by teaching labs and research stipends, but unfortunately my number one hobby is playing in a band. I could have bought many expensive TVs by now but I chose to pay for custom built bass guitars and nice amps instead. I have priorities and I realize it and don't make excuses for it.

The problem is people using their disposable budget for other things and then bitching because they cant have everything, or worse saying they dont have disposable income like theyre living in poverty after buying a $60 game for their $300 console. If you dont think getting an HDTV is worth it because there are other things you value more then thats fine, just dont whine about it and expect other people to bend over backwards for you. If you spend the money on other things like going out or on games then its YOUR fault you cant get an HDTV and you have to deal with the downsides like not being able to read text. Its cheaper to get an HDTV than it is to get a game console, acting like they cost "thousands of dollars" isnt fooling anyone.

I didn't have an HDTV until December. Got a 32" 1080p 120Hz set for about $400. Prior to then, I was enjoying my 360 and PS3 games on an SDTV. Didn't bother me with the exception of Dead Rising.

Are HDTVs great? Sure. Should it be necessary? No. Sure the picture is clearer and whatnot, but it isn't overwhelming that people should have to run out and get a new TV just to read text when their current sets work fine.

And, try to tone it down with the preaching. You've got no right to say how others should be handling their money.

if you're going to invest in something for your gaming set up, i would say an HDTV should be at the top of your list. i actually went out and bought an HDTV the summer before the PS3 came out and then waited until the next summer until i actually had the money for the PS3. HD was that important to me, and it was worth it too. and when i bought my 27" HDTV for $500, i also got a new monitor for my PC and all my other consoles, which all hook up to it simultaneously.

i realize not everyone has disposable incomes, but i do feel that an HDTV is necessary to get the full next gen experience. so yea, if you have the money, you can't go wrong buying an HDTV for you set up.

I don't get the "if you have enough cash for a games console then you have enough cash for a HDTV argument". I have enough cash for a games console. I don't have enough cash for a games console PLUS an HDTV.

But that might be because HDTVs are so stupidly expensive over here. US consumers rarely realise how lucky they are when it comes to prices.

I had the same problem w/ Tekken 6. I had a small 13-14" Toshiba SDTV w/ component output a few months ago, and I just recently got a 26" Panasonic Viera HDTV after Christmas and the text difference (and everything else) is like the difference between night and day, as it should be.

A lot of people (obviously) either can't afford or just don't want HDTVs right now.

Some of you people are just unbelievable.

The national unemployment rate in the US is 14%. People have made cuts across the board in their budgets; I know my wife and I have. I'd love a second HDTV for my bedroom (I just can't see the damn thing--accursed astigmatism!!), but I have higher financial priorities--mortgage, food, utilities, gas, etc. All the money coming in is accounted for; I can't cut anymore. I have no cell phone, I have no cable, I don't even have a car loan. Heck, I buy video games using money I get doing odd jobs for friends and family.

College kids have even tighter budgets than me.

Now I'll grant that Bioware doesn't *have* to support SDTVs with their resolutions. For that matter, the 360 and PS3 can dump SDTV support altogether if they so desire. But it just seems like stupid business to me. HDTV penetration is far from 100%. Ya gotta support as many potential consumers as possible . . .

Its Bioware's way of saying, "Its the 21st century. Buy a _____ HDTV already!"

No, it's Bioware's way of sloppy game development. If they knew this was going to be an issue and didn't fix it, they just failed at finishing their game before releasing it. If they didn't know about it, they failed to test adequately. Either way, there's been a failure on their part - and their refusal to admit/fix a problem is just a dick move.

And no, I'm not playing Mass Effect 2 in SD, or at all since I haven't finished ME1, but when I do it will be on a nice 1080p computer monitor.

I agree. Bioware is really pushing the envelop with ME2. First they add in the Cerberus Network for those who buy the game new, discouraging used game sales. Now it's illegible text on SDTVs, encouraging people to buy HDTVs.

Bioware is paving the road to the future.

People are downvoting KeenCommander for stating the truth? Blech.

Either that or get a new monitor. I love playing on my ASUS HD monitor. has HDMI, VGA, and DVI input. excellent choice for me and only cost $199. If you have an extra $300, you can get a 42 Inch tv from amazon.

No it's not a Bioware issue, it's a user issue.

Don't buy a console aimed at HD gameplay and then expect everyone else to lower the bar for your sake. It's because of that type of user that the hard drive-less 360 still exists and there's a disc swap in the game as it is.

HDTVs have been around for 10 years and are now dirt cheap. Upgrade or get out of the way.

If it's a user issue, why did they look into FIXING IT? If that were the case, they wouldn't have bothered (not that I think really bothered with it in the first place).

Dragon Age: Origins didn't have this problem, so I don't see why ME2 did. It smells of laziness to me.

Assassin's Creed 2 can get kinda bad, too...

*calling myself out

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BioWare: No fix for Mass Effect 2 SDTV 'tiny text' issue

Reader Comments (179)

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