BioWare: We Can't Fix Tiny Text on Your TV

[trowsersnake]

I think it's safe to say that BioWare doesn't give a rat's *** about SDTV owners, and you know what? Neither do I. Quit whining, pull your knuckles off the ground and get a second job if you need to and go buy a cheap PC monitor. Sort it out. I mean why did you buy and HD console? Stick with a Wii....pathetic.

 

[trowsersnake]

I'm also not sure what word would be better to sum up an SDTV owner in 2010 AD. Maybe troglodyte our Luddite. I prefer troglodyte. Oh and a quick question for all SDTV owners....do you set your Xbox above or below your VCR? Do you turn on the lights in your straw huts or do you burn whale's oil in a lamp for light and crank a dynamo for electricity?

 

[thething2]

It makes me laugh when people here suggest buying a new TV or PC Monitor just because BioWare was too lazy to make the text just a bit bigger or at least put the option to change the size.

 

[thething2]

There are also people that buy an Xbox 360 just to enjoy the new games. Playing in HD for them would be an extra or bonus. But they buy it strictly for enjoying there games.

 

[trowsersnake]

Zero sympathy....

 

[matt87_50]

Wow, games companies are incredibly arrogant and lazy these days!

 

[derstarke]

I'm surprised how boldly all of you are missing the point. This isn't a debate between HDTVs and SDTVs. People have said here that they can't afford an HDTV. Okay, fine. But these same people did not complain in their post that they couldn't read the text. I have an SDTV (36") and the game looks and plays beyond fine. I'm going to venture a guess that the SDTVs in question are actually quite small. In fact, so small the "19" monitors are too small" comment is equally dumb. It's hard to say and I hate to make assumptions, but I think this article, or the report from wherever, needs to mention exactly which SDTVs are affected by this. In the end, I don't blame Bioware for not initially testing for this issue. I think it's silly to own a TV that would OBVIOUSLy have this problem, then complain like you didn't see it coming anyway.

 

[neiroatopelcc]

Can't really blame bioware for their customers remaining in the dark ages. That'd be like demanding games for windows me and the newest server software to run on a 2.4 kernel ....
If you can only afford half a system wait a bit longer before you buy anything at all.

 

[Vampyrbyte]

No Neiro you are wrong, it is not like that at all.
Its like going out, and buying the latest game because you see it supports "Windows ME" on the box, getting home and it fails to run.
Or
Buying the latest server software for your 2.4 kernel server, choosing this paticular software becuase it supports your aging kernel and yet when you load it only half of it works.
Its not really about HDTVs or SDTVs or whatever, its a rather simple matter of a lack of advertised hardware support.

 

[aziraphale]

PC FTW!

 

[neiroatopelcc]

[citation][nom]VampyrByte[/nom]No Neiro you are wrong, it is not like that at all.Its like going out, and buying the latest game because you see it supports "Windows ME" on the box, getting home and it fails to run.OrBuying the latest server software for your 2.4 kernel server, choosing this paticular software becuase it supports your aging kernel and yet when you load it only half of it works.Its not really about HDTVs or SDTVs or whatever, its a rather simple matter of a lack of advertised hardware support.[/citation]
Does the box specificly say SDTV being sufficient? If not, it's not really advertising it at all. I haven't seen the box, so I wouldn't know. But if it doesn't say, then it's the customers fault for making ignorant assumptions and not the vendor or manufacturers. Like buying a new bmw expecting you can replace the radio with your favorite pioneer one - if it isn't specified as possible you can't blame bmw if it doesn't work.
Or let's take another example - I'm sitting here with a hp dc7900cmt system that advertises 2x pcie x16 slots - one of which is fully wired and one with an x4 connection. HP didn't mention that the x16 slot is actually not usable for double width devices or those longer than about 4 inches - that sucks, but it's our fault for buying it anyway. They didn't after all claim that the socket was usable with such devices. We simply didn't check properly before buying. (and sadly we bought over 450 of em)

 

[psycho sykes]

Again.. The Modern Warfare 2 drama!

 

[Vampyrbyte]

Thats very unfortunate for you Neiro but you missed my point entirely.
Mass Effect 2 is advertised as a Xbox 360 Game. This relationship guarantees a compatibility with the Xbox 360. Since the Xbox 360 IS compatible with Standard Definition Televisions one can infer that any game supporting the Xbox 360 will function on their SDTV. Now, there may be cases where some games deny support for some types of Television, i believe Gears of War 2 only has support for 60hz SDTVs. The crucial point here is that in the case of GoW2 this is explicitly made out to the customer by the packaging (if this is not the case with GoW2, see Metroid Prime 2, same case).
Now seeing as Mass Effect 2 does not show an incompatibilty with SDTV or types of SDTV the customer is within his or her rights to presume the relationship of compatibilty between the game, xbox 360, and television.

 

[neiroatopelcc]

[citation][nom]VampyrByte[/nom]Thats very unfortunate for you Neiro but you missed my point entirely. Mass Effect 2 is advertised as a Xbox 360 Game. This relationship guarantees a compatibility with the Xbox 360. Since the Xbox 360 IS compatible with Standard Definition Televisions one can infer that any game supporting the Xbox 360 will function on their SDTV.[/citation]
So because the game is for a specific console you assume that any periferial attachable to that console has to work in the game?
I'm not aware of many current generation games where the specifications say it has to run on a 17" or bigger screen to run well, despite the fact that you CAN run windows 7 on a 12" screen at 800x600 @ less than 60hz vertical refresh.
You simply assume compatibility with something that isn't mentioned anywhere. It really is the consumers responsibility to check what it is they're about to buy. Not the manufacturers.

 

[lowguppy]

Dragon Age text is unreadably tiny even on a 42" HDTV, why don't they address that?

 

[eccentric909]

[citation][nom]jurassic1024[/nom]When using that VGA cable, did the XBOX detect your monitors native resolution? I'm assuming 1680x1050.[/citation]

Yes, it sure does detect native resolutions.

 

[eccentric909]

[citation][nom]AdamB5000[/nom]The argument that "if you can afford the 360 and a game then you can afford a 19" monitor" is stupid. First, why would someone want to go out and buy a 19" screen when they already have a perfectly good 32" set in front of their couch? That's money that could be spent on another game! [/citation]

I thought this way too at first (originally played on a 32" Toshiba), until I hooked it up to my 23" 1680x1050 Samsung monitor and saw what a huge difference it was. From then on, until I bought my current LCD TV, I used my monitor to play my 360. The detail was just that much more crisp and color was that much more vibrant, that it was well worth it to play on a smaller sized display. I could sit at basically the same distance and could still see a major difference.

Your and everyone else's mileage may vary... but after looking at the 360 on an HD display, I could not imagine ever using it on a non-HD display again.

It's basically like going from an old VGA display to a SXGA display back in the day and thinking "Wow, how did I ever deal with 640x480?"

 

[eyemaster]

Well, if you already own a TV and don't see why you need to spend more money on an HDTV, I can understand that. Not everyone falls into the "I need a new one cause it's better" category. It works, so they keep it.

 

[neiroatopelcc]

[citation][nom]eyemaster[/nom]Well, if you already own a TV and don't see why you need to spend more money on an HDTV, I can understand that. Not everyone falls into the "I need a new one cause it's better" category. It works, so they keep it.[/citation]
That's the point isn't it? It DOESN'T work ... it can display an image, sure, but it can't do so in quality needed to be usable.
Your argument is valid if we're talking about people switching from a 32" to a 42" lcd that doesn't have any new features except size... but it doesn't really seem valid if the thing just doesn't work with the periferials attached to it.

 

[tommysch]

SDTVs, whats that anyway?

Screw them, next they will whine because the game wont play on their Windows 98 SE, or worst, Windows XP??