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Dead Rising Unplayable in SD, No Solution Forthcoming by Chris Kohler

Flo_Evans said:
maybe you should spend all that time buying games and systems and playing them looking for a better job?

OH IF ONLY IT WERE SO EASY. I WILL DO THAT RIGHT NOW. THANK YOU FOR THE WONDERUFL ADVICE.
 

mattiewheels

And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
op_ivy said:
agreed. once again, this is just fanboys, er excuse me, game journalists, making a big deal over nothing.
yeah, but...

i still wouldn't mind if they made the text a bit bigger. this news is pretty disappointing, they're basically saying the only way is for me to buy a future version. lame.
 

GhaleonEB

Member
Flo_Evans said:
maybe you should spend all that time buying games and systems and playing them looking for a better job?
I make over $60k/year. I also have two kids and a mortgage. Buying a $400 game console was a big, big deal in my house. I plan to buy a mid-size HDTV in a couple of years when they are in my price range.
 

vitaflo

Member
future_pinoy said:
"the amount of text and the size of the patch necessary to change the text" made it impossible to solve the problem.

Impossible? Yeah right, most likely just not cost effective.
 
I have an HDTV but I still think this is unacceptable. Console developers should support the TWO whole resolutions they have to support. PC developers have been supporting many times that number of resolutions for years now so nobody can claim it's an unreasonable request. The whole point of buying a console is that it just works. Xbox 360 explicitly supports standard definition, so users should be able to read the text in games if they have an SDTV.
 

duckroll

Member
future_pinoy said:
hey, not all of us are rich like some of the spoiled brats here. Microsoft and Capcom should have taken into account how many 14" to 17" SDTV's are out there. High Definition will not be standard until 5 to 6 years from now.

While it's nice and all to complain about a flaw in a game, I don't think it'll do you any favors by calling everyone who has a better TV than you a rich spoiled brat. High Definition may not be a standard for broadcast for several years, but its the standard for the Xbox360 (and the PS3). If you're on a 14" to 17", I seriously advice you reconsider your priorities before whining. :D
 

Crisis

Banned
Unplayable, my ass. I've got the game on an SDTV, and I can read the text. It could be better, I'll admit, but still legible. And I think they should issue a fix of some sort for the problem.
 
Wow, I must be completely out of the loop, because I hadn't heard about this issue at all ... glad someone wrote about it; the game intrigues me but this pretty kills all my interest in it :\ . I have no intention of upgrading to HD any time soon.
 

Hayami

Banned
I don't get how someone can spend $500+ on games for six months and not just rent shit and buy a decent HDTV.
 

mollipen

Member
Crisis said:
Unplayable, my ass. I've got the game on an SDTV, and I can read the text. It could be better, I'll admit, but still legible. And I think they should issue a fix of some sort for the problem.

Maybe... MAYBE... different TVs have different quality levels when it comes to the displayed picture? That couldn't be the case, could it?
 
yeah i noticed the text was pretty damn small on my 24" LCD, i can imagine that on some SD sets it's unreadable...

i know if i had the game and it was unreadable, the store i bought it from would be giving me a full refund.

period.
 

Aaron

Member
shidoshi said:
Maybe... MAYBE... different TVs have different quality levels when it comes to the displayed picture? That couldn't be the case, could it?
But why play a next-gen console on a crap TV? Why not put that money into a better display?
 

Oldschoolgamer

The physical form of blasphemy
I've seen a couple of videos floating around, with people playing on SD TV's and, the text is ridiculously little.

I don't have a 360, but I will be getting (or my folks) an HD tv sometime in the near future. As much as I hate Walmart, my folks were there and spotted some HD's that were getting low in price. They are coming down. I guess it just depends on how big a set you want.

Throw me in the camp of people, who drop tons of monies on games and systems. I probably could have had half a down payment down on an HD set this year alone, if it wasn't for a certain handheld and PS2.
 
duckroll said:
I've been bitching to friends about the "unreadable" text on my SDTV too. So I was going to click on the thread and bitch, but..... MAN WHAT A MISLEADING PHOTO. There's no way in hell it looks like that on any decent SDTV. The text is small and pretty damn hard to read for me, but that's just a horrible exaggeration. :(
A photo of my TV screen is an exaggeration? That's what it looked like.

I figured everybody was just making a mountain out of a molehill until I dragged the 360 over to my old TV to see for myself. It's completely illegible.
 

Crisis

Banned
shidoshi said:
Maybe... MAYBE... different TVs have different quality levels when it comes to the displayed picture? That couldn't be the case, could it?

I'm playing on a pretty lackluster television myself. If your TV is worse than mine, it's probably extraordinarily shitty, and you needed to upgrade it anyway.
 

duckroll

Member
Kobun Heat said:
A photo of my TV screen is an exaggeration? That's what it looked like.

I figured everybody was just making a mountain out of a molehill until I dragged the 360 over to my old TV to see for myself. It's completely illegible.

I think this might be the problem ^^;

Edit: Now there is NO EXCUSE for the text problem. It's too small for any setup, HDTV or otherwise. It's 2-3 sizes smaller than ANY NORMAL FONT in a game. That being said I'm really sick of people bitching about HDTVs, or people with "better TVs" and "rich dudes" or whatever. It's stupid, it's uneducational. If you can't afford a better set up, that doesn't mean the set up is BAD. This problem is NOT about HD, it's about a font that's just TOO ****ING SMALL. Attack the correct problem PLEASE!
 

White Man

Member
shidoshi said:
Maybe... MAYBE... different TVs have different quality levels when it comes to the displayed picture? That couldn't be the case, could it?

The problem is that the text reads:

Game publisher Capcom indicated this morning that there is no solution forthcoming to the issues that cause their latest hit game, Dead Rising for Xbox 360, to be nearly unplayable on standard definition TV sets.

which implies that the game is unplayable on all SDTVs, which is 100% untrue. I have an SDTV, not even a big one, and the text is readable. Sure, it could've been a bit more legible, but I was certainly never squinting at the screen. My TV isn't even big.
 

Dilbert

Member
For those who agree with the article's position: What would you think if Capcom had released the game with an explicit "HDTV strongly recommended" or "HDTV required" sticker?

I'm trying to figure out if the issue here that you didn't realize the game might be suboptimal on your SDTV, or that certain games might not choose to support SDTV at all. At some point, supporting SD resolutions is going to hold things back -- it wouldn't surprise me to see companies not even bothering to consider that section of the market as the generation goes on.
 

.dmc

Banned
You can't excuse this shit by saying 'your fault for not having a better tv' or 'you should buy a new tv before you buy a 360'. A 360 + a new tv = what, $700+? So you could save all that money, or you could just buy a 360 to use with your otherwise acceptable (if shitty) tv RIGHT NOW. It's developer oversight that means that a significant portion of gamers can't play an otherwise fantastic game. If they can't fix it with a downloadable patch (and, you know, fair enough if that's technically not possible) then they should try to fix the problem for future print runs of the game + let people trade them in if it's a problem for them.
 
-jinx- said:
For those who agree with the article's position: What would you think if Capcom had released the game with an explicit "HDTV strongly recommended" or "HDTV required" sticker?

I'm trying to figure out if the issue here that you didn't realize the game might be suboptimal on your SDTV, or that certain games might not choose to support SDTV at all. At some point, supporting SD resolutions is going to hold things back -- it wouldn't surprise me to see companies not even bothering to consider that section of the market as the generation goes on.

That'd be better than nothing. :p

Still a font takes up SO LITTLE SPACE that it makes no sense for them NOT to support both resolutions... at least so people can read the goddamned game.
 

Oldschoolgamer

The physical form of blasphemy
Wow, I really don't get some of the responses. Yea, people should get an HD...thats besides the point. At the moment, since HD isn't standard, people should be able to play on their regular TV set. This isn't computer gaming...
 

sangreal

Member
This is what it looks like on my SDTV from closeup and far away. Annoyingly small, but not unreadable

drising.jpg

I took the pics with no flash so its a little overexposed
 

duckroll

Member
Oldschoolgamer said:
This isn't computer gaming...

I dunno, I feel the Xbox360 is more like a computer than any other console ever made. Just look at the different SKUs, the shitloads of hardware accessory upgrades, games running 720p and 480p at different framerates, etc.
 
this is such a retarded oversight... if this were Activision or some other cool to hate company, there would be flames of death all over it, but because it's Capcom, they get a free ride...
 

Flo_Evans

Member
GhaleonEB said:
I make over $60k/year. I also have two kids and a mortgage. Buying a $400 game console was a big, big deal in my house. I plan to buy a mid-size HDTV in a couple of years when they are in my price range.

ok, but you understand the budgeting of your worktime and you entertainment/hobby time right? I mean the 360 (hell any gaming machine) is a luxury item. If you had to scrape together enough cash to barely afford it, then you probably shouldn't buy it.

+ It is perfectly fine on my old SDTV (it was a $500 TV 4 years ago, but whatever).
 
-jinx- said:
For those who agree with the article's position: What would you think if Capcom had released the game with an explicit "HDTV strongly recommended" or "HDTV required" sticker?

I'm trying to figure out if the issue here that you didn't realize the game might be suboptimal on your SDTV, or that certain games might not choose to support SDTV at all. At some point, supporting SD resolutions is going to hold things back -- it wouldn't surprise me to see companies not even bothering to consider that section of the market as the generation goes on.

I think if the game basically requires an HDTV, some type of notification is definitely called for. That should standard for any game that requires some type of peripheral beyond the basic game set-up, e.g. N64 games that require the RAM expansion pack, or PS2 games that need a hookup for the hard drive (FF XI). In general, I'd say that console games are assumed to run on any version of that console. If a company is releasing a game that violates that assumption, it's appropriate to let people know because otherwise they'd have no idea.

If Capcom released Dead Rising as an HDTV-only game, I couldn't really complain; there have always been games that require particular hardware set-ups. I'd still be disappointed, because I couldn't play it, but it wouldn't come across as sloppy or half-assed, either.

I also have to wonder about the economics of this ... the minor graphical enhancement of a particular font might make the game more appealing to a few more HDTV owners, but it also leaves the large numbers of SDTV owners out in the cold. Seems like it would be a net loss of sales to me, but what do I know?

edit: I CAN read the text in that screen, but it's not easy and requires some effort and time. It would be OKAY during a paused screen, but there's no way I could decipher that during any kind of action scene
 

duckroll

Member
The Faceless Master said:
this is such a retarded oversight... if this were Activision or some other cool to hate company, there would be flames of death all over it, but because it's Capcom, they get a free ride...

Clearly you missed all the complaints on the Dead Rising thread and the threads all over the Capcom forums, the various Dead Rising forums, and so on. There is no "free ride" here. It's a ****ing stupid problem and everyone is pissed. The difference is that unlike a stupid lameass Activision game, Dead Rising is actually solid. :p
 

Oldschoolgamer

The physical form of blasphemy
sangreal said:
This is what it looks like on my SDTV from closeup and far away. Annoyingly small, but not unreadable

drising.jpg

I took the pics with no flash so its a little overexposed

I can hardly see that shit looking at my laptop screen. Its all blured to hell and back... I doubt that i could see it, sitting on my sofa...

No worries for me though. Soon as they get the HD set, i'm gettting...


Something lol.
 

RuGalz

Member
-jinx- said:
For those who agree with the article's position: What would you think if Capcom had released the game with an explicit "HDTV strongly recommended" or "HDTV required" sticker?

I'm trying to figure out if the issue here that you didn't realize the game might be suboptimal on your SDTV, or that certain games might not choose to support SDTV at all. At some point, supporting SD resolutions is going to hold things back -- it wouldn't surprise me to see companies not even bothering to consider that section of the market as the generation goes on.

Useability test probably just never came up during the tests (as testers are sitting 2 ft away from TV...). This is first time console developers have to think about supporting different resolutions which isn't the case in the past. There's really no way around it but support adjustable UI size in game like what PC games do well or just make text relatively big so that even on smaller TVs it's very legitable. Even on HDTV the text can be unreadable if the TV is small and the person sits relatively far away. I certain had to move up a couple feets in order to play this game this though I have a 26" HDTV...
 

sangreal

Member
Oldschoolgamer said:
I can hardly see that shit looking at my laptop screen. Its all blured to hell and back... I doubt that i could see it, sitting on my sofa...

Anyhow...you still zoomed in onto the image. I don't know a lot of people that sit with their eyes glued to the TV...

No worries for me though. Soon as they get the HD set, i'm gettting...


Something lol.


Well I can read it and thats all that matters. The photo is more blurry than it actually is for a number of reasons, but my point was just that it doesn't look like the photo from the original post:

drtxt.jpg
 

Wario64

works for Gamestop (lol)
sangreal said:
This is what it looks like on my SDTV from closeup and far away. Annoyingly small, but not unreadable

drising.jpg

I took the pics with no flash so its a little overexposed

That's about how it looked when I played it. Still readable if you got good eyes
 

Dilbert

Member
Greenpanda said:
I think if the game basically requires an HDTV, some type of notification is definitely called for.
For what it's worth, I agree...though there might very well be a fuzzy middle ground of "HDTV recommended" this gen.

It's been a while since I had an SD CRT television, but could some of the varying reactions to the game depend on how well they are calibrated? Most people tend to have their CRTs way too bright (which causes blooming), and also tend to favor a more washed-out look instead of a sharper image. Can anyone with a calibrated TV (even home calibration, like Avia) comment on how the game looks to them?

Finally, are the people having trouble with the text using component cables? S-video? Composite? Signal degradation also probably makes quite a difference.
 

Blackace

if you see me in a fight with a bear, don't help me fool, help the bear!
I have a 32" SDTV with d1... only Otis' calls presnt any problems with me.. but even on my friends HDTV the calls from Otis are hard to read
 

Wario64

works for Gamestop (lol)
Makes me wonder how this small font got past Capcom to begin with. You'd think at one point, one of the testers would complain about the small font
 

Choabac

Member
duckroll said:
I dunno, I feel the Xbox360 is more like a computer than any other console ever made. Just look at the different SKUs, the shitloads of hardware accessory upgrades, games running 720p and 480p at different framerates, etc.

I’m pretty certain that all games are rendered internally at 720P, and are then downscaled by the GPU for SD use. So there shouldn’t be a frame hit.
 

KingJ2002

Member
played it on my cousins 27inch flat screen CRT SDTV and the text was really small.. but readable.

but then again i have 20/20 vision.
 

RuGalz

Member
Wario64 said:
Makes me wonder how this small font got past Capcom to begin with. You'd think at one point, one of the testers would complain about the small font
Where do you think the testers sit? In conference room 10 ft away from TV? :p Most testers are probably on not that big of screen but sitting like 1-2 ft in front of it...
 
duckroll said:
Clearly you missed all the complaints on the Dead Rising thread and the threads all over the Capcom forums, the various Dead Rising forums, and so on. There is no "free ride" here. It's a ****ing stupid problem and everyone is pissed. The difference is that unlike a stupid lameass Activision game, Dead Rising is actually solid. :p
the free ride sure is in effect in this thread...
 

Aaron

Member
.dmc said:
You can't excuse this shit by saying 'your fault for not having a better tv' or 'you should buy a new tv before you buy a 360'. A 360 + a new tv = what, $700+? So you could save all that money, or you could just buy a 360 to use with your otherwise acceptable (if shitty) tv RIGHT NOW. It's developer oversight that means that a significant portion of gamers can't play an otherwise fantastic game. If they can't fix it with a downloadable patch (and, you know, fair enough if that's technically not possible) then they should try to fix the problem for future print runs of the game + let people trade them in if it's a problem for them.
Are all the 360s going to explode next year or something? All copies of Dead Rising vanish into the ether? No. What they are going to be is cheaper if you put that money into a decent TV right now and start saving up for them, enjoying your current system(s) in glorious size and color as they were meant to.
 

DDayton

(more a nerd than a geek)
There is something laughably funny about this, and it isn't the folks complaining that a video game is unplayable on the kind of televisions that dominate the American market... perhaps it is the fact folks appear to be blaming gamers for not being "worthy" of a game plagued with a fairly large design flaw.
 
Aaron said:
Are all the 360s going to explode next year or something? All copies of Dead Rising vanish into the ether? No. What they are going to be is cheaper if you put that money into a decent TV right now and start saving up for them, enjoying your current system(s) in glorious size and color as they were meant to.
the last time i checked every Xbox 360 comes with Composite out, and only some come with Component, and even with the Composite/Component cable, the default position on the switch is SD, so it looks to me like out of the box, 100% of Xbox 360 units display in SD... what is "meant to be" again?
 
DavidDayton said:
There is something laughably funny about this, and it isn't the folks complaining that a video game is unplayable on the kind of televisions that dominate the American market... perhaps it is the fact folks appear to be blaming gamers for not being "worthy" of a game plagued with a fairly large design flaw.
DUDE... you're not a REAL gamer unless your HDTV does 1080p60 (over DVI/HDMI *and* Component) and you have a 7.1 DTS HD compatible receiver and audio setup...

professionally calibrated of course
 

Tiktaalik

Member
GhaleonEB said:
No, it's not. YOU try playing the game when you can't read any of the in-game text.

All the plot is in voice overs, and yeah I beat the game without really reading the text.. sooooooo yeah.. This game is totally playable on an SDTV, although quite annoying.
 
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