Following the release of the Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts demo, it came to light that the text in the game appears unclear on standard-def TVs. And unfortunately, Rare says it's not likely to be fixed, either.
Rare initially said it was looking into the issues, following complaints that game's text was near unreadable on normal CRT TVs. But Rare's community manager George Kelion has come out to admit that a fix is unlikely.
"Unfortunately, this is an issue that doesn't look like it will get changed. I don't want to bore you with the technical side of things (I really don't understand it all myself), but the long and the short of it is that the text you see in the demo will be the same as that which you find in the retail version of the game," said Kelion.
"I'm sorry that we weren't able to address this issue as nothing would please us more than turning all your complaints into gleeful responses, but it's simply something that's too expensive in terms of time, resources and money to alter," he said on the NeoGAF forums.
It's ironic that such a fundamental flaw could be in one of the biggest 360 games of the year, especially considering MS dictates that XBLA games have to playable on a 14-inch CRT TV as a rule of thumb for all games on the service, as we reported last month.
Indeed! No plans to fix! Rare better pray that this game doesn't flop or I think MS will be 'streamlining their operations'.
I've kinda got the feeling that's on the cards for Rare. They seem to be pumping a lot of money into games that really aren't doing that well proportionally.
Microsoft's rules mean jack. Fable II has an achievement that can only be obtained by having Fable II Pub Games, when their rules state that all 1000 points must be available from the game's original content. This is just another thing they'll ignore because it's 1st party and a small minority now.
This really bugs me, at the end of the day its fundamental bad design.
Im studying Graphics Design at one of the top unis in the world, and things like this are really lazy. If your job is to work on the huds/labels/subtitles etc one would expect the first fundamental thing to get down would be a font style that can be eligible in expected conditions.
I got so p**sed off when playing GTA and just not having a clue what the things on my phone said, or even what the dots were on the map. Its daft to think that it was easier to read things back in the Megadrive/Snes days, rant over.
This really bugs me, at the end of the day its fundamental bad design.
Im studying Graphics Design at one of the top unis in the world, and things like this are really lazy. If your job is to work on the huds/labels/subtitles etc one would expect the first fundamental thing to get down would be a font style that can be eligible in expected conditions.
I got so p**sed off when playing GTA and just not having a clue what the things on my phone said, or even what the dots were on the map. Its daft to think that it was easier to read things back in the Megadrive/Snes days, rant over.
You've got to ask yourself, though, at what point do developers start to make sacrifices to the appearance of games on CRT screens in order to continue the progress on newer TVs?
There are going to be stages where developers compensating for old TVs are going to find they are limiting the possiblities of the new technology. This includes making visuals based on resolution, contrast, widescreen ratio etc.
It's all very easy for you to say it's lazy, but increasing the text size to fit the screen could have other knock-on effects that could damage the gameplay even further.
That point must be approaching soon and I reckon we'll continue to see this sort of problem occur a lot more frequently over the next few years.
This really bugs me, at the end of the day its fundamental bad design.
Im studying Graphics Design at one of the top unis in the world, and things like this are really lazy. If your job is to work on the huds/labels/subtitles etc one would expect the first fundamental thing to get down would be a font style that can be eligible in expected conditions.
I got so p**sed off when playing GTA and just not having a clue what the things on my phone said, or even what the dots were on the map. Its daft to think that it was easier to read things back in the Megadrive/Snes days, rant over.
being at uni doesn't make you understand how the real world works, i think you have proven this in your comment as product managers decide what goes into a product not graphic designers. no-one ever releases a perfect product as there is never enough resource to do so. if the requirements state it has to work on a crt standard def tv then they would do it but in this day and age i wouldnt bet on this being a requirement as it would be in the test plan and marked as a failure.
it is a limitation but one that has a work around - buy an HD TV!
This really bugs me, at the end of the day its fundamental bad design.
Im studying Graphics Design at one of the top unis in the world, and things like this are really lazy. If your job is to work on the huds/labels/subtitles etc one would expect the first fundamental thing to get down would be a font style that can be eligible in expected conditions.
I got so p**sed off when playing GTA and just not having a clue what the things on my phone said, or even what the dots were on the map. Its daft to think that it was easier to read things back in the Megadrive/Snes days, rant over.
being at uni doesn't make you understand how the real world works, i think you have proven this in your comment as product managers decide what goes into a product not graphic designers. no-one ever releases a perfect product as there is never enough resource to do so. if the requirements state it has to work on a crt standard def tv then they would do it but in this day and age i wouldnt bet on this being a requirement as it would be in the test plan and marked as a failure.
it is a limitation but one that has a work around - buy an HD TV!
haha if i wasnt a student i could afford one, hopefully soon though! You dont need to change font size to make things appear clearer, a clever use of color pallet/contrast, and font type can make a world of difference (although there is always a risk of hampering the design theme) it is a balance, but one I believe could have been addressed. In no way do i want to be seen as slagging off rare, they are an awesome developer and i love their games. I'm probably making a mountain out of a mole hill.
Another game that suffered from this was ... ah crap wat was its name! the dawn of the dead rip off one, awesome game tho.
This really bugs me, at the end of the day its fundamental bad design.
Im studying Graphics Design at one of the top unis in the world, and things like this are really lazy. If your job is to work on the huds/labels/subtitles etc one would expect the first fundamental thing to get down would be a font style that can be eligible in expected conditions.
I got so p**sed off when playing GTA and just not having a clue what the things on my phone said, or even what the dots were on the map. Its daft to think that it was easier to read things back in the Megadrive/Snes days, rant over.
being at uni doesn't make you understand how the real world works, i think you have proven this in your comment as product managers decide what goes into a product not graphic designers. no-one ever releases a perfect product as there is never enough resource to do so. if the requirements state it has to work on a crt standard def tv then they would do it but in this day and age i wouldnt bet on this being a requirement as it would be in the test plan and marked as a failure.
it is a limitation but one that has a work around - buy an HD TV!
haha if i wasnt a student i could afford one, hopefully soon though! You dont need to change font size to make things appear clearer, a clever use of color pallet/contrast, and font type can make a world of difference (although there is always a risk of hampering the design theme) it is a balance, but one I believe could have been addressed. In no way do i want to be seen as slagging off rare, they are an awesome developer and i love their games. I'm probably making a mountain out of a mole hill.
Another game that suffered from this was ... ah crap wat was its name! the dawn of the dead rip off one, awesome game tho.
b******s if i wasn't at uni wouldn't of been able to afford one! whats a student loan for!
Most people should have an HDTV in this day and age. You can pick a decent one up for around Ł300 these days and if you're a student, use that loan or simply hook it upto your PC screen instead. As for why they can't change the text, I think the same thing happened with Dead Rising and they gave some logical excuse, although I can't remember what it was... ^_^
There is no excuse. This is simply an oversight, it has bugger all to do with any technical issues other than "Oh s**t, we forgot about that & now don't have time to fix it".
There is no excuse. This is simply an oversight, it has bugger all to do with any technical issues other than "Oh s**t, we forgot about that & now don't have time to fix it".
yep that just somes up M$ attitude to quality control amd QA.
"oh year we know the console overheats and melts after a months use, and sounds like a jet turbine but who cares, release it already screw the people"
There is no excuse. This is simply an oversight, it has bugger all to do with any technical issues other than "Oh s**t, we forgot about that & now don't have time to fix it".
yep that just somes up M$ attitude to quality control amd QA.
"oh year we know the console overheats and melts after a months use, and sounds like a jet turbine but who cares, release it already screw the people"
microsoft...........LOL
As opposed to Sony with their legendary firmware QA department and 10 Year "potential" lifecycle PR department.
Sony Management:
"Oh yeah, we know it's a massively overpriced Blu-Ray player, but we need to shift some movies whether they like it or not, and at least it's quiet...just release it NOW even though there aren't any games for it and the on-line is s**t, it's a Playstation FFS, those suckers will lap it up like they always do!!"
There is no excuse. This is simply an oversight, it has bugger all to do with any technical issues other than "Oh s**t, we forgot about that & now don't have time to fix it".
yep that just somes up M$ attitude to quality control amd QA.
"oh year we know the console overheats and melts after a months use, and sounds like a jet turbine but who cares, release it already screw the people"
microsoft...........LOL
fix what? if they never intended for it to work that way then it isnt broken. the 360 cant play bluray discs but it isnt broken as it isnt meant to!
this is a problem of requirements rather than something being broken, it is an oversight whether intended or not. to me it is not a big deal as why would you buy a ps3 or 360 to hook it up to standard def tv, surely it would be better to stick with the ps2? i tried my 360 on a standard def tv and i cant stand it after using hi def for so long.
A lot of people bought a 360 as games were no longer being released for the original xbox - not all of those people were (or are) bothered about Hi-Def, but now have an HD source which can be connected to SD equipment. While the HD capabilities are great, they are not the sole reason for upgrading from the original xbox - unlike the PS3, where the PS2 still enjoys a significant amount of support from developers and publishers.
What I was trying to express is that "blurry text" problems isnt a hardware problem, but something that appears to have been a design oversight.
As for not buying an HDTV with my student loan, I really am not comfortable using credited money to buy a luxury item in the current financial climate, especially considering there are plenty of other things I need more. And my mac keeps buggering up (it is 4 years old though) so theres every chance i'm going to be needing to get a new one.
It's a huge mistake considering the game is heavily text based (no voice acting, nothing). Basically, those with an SDTV will not be able to understand the story, read the tutorials, understand menus. I wouldn't underestimate what a problem this is for the large number of Xbox 360 owners that do not yet own an SDTV, so much so that it could even be a dealbreaker for them.
This isn't actually true. Rare are currently trying to fix this issue and they hope to have a patch out in a few weeks. Not that it matters to me as I thought the demo was rubbish and I own a HDTV, but I thought some people might like to know.
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Rare better pray that this game doesn't flop or I think MS will be 'streamlining their operations'.
