rAge 2009 is done and dusted and for the most part was incredibly awesome with new games, booth babes and giveaways galore.
As much as we love and appreciate what rAge is for South Africa, we also have a concern with regards to the games that were being shown off at some of the stalls. The problem stems from the fact that the Playstation 3 does not ship with HD Cables and a lot of exhibitors hadn’t bothered to buy HDMI cables for the consoles at their stands.
Now with the Xbox 360 also becoming HD cable-free, we realise that next year may become even more of a problem.
Anyone who follows this site will know that I have had my eye on Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising for quite some time now. Lo and behold I was walking around the show when it caught my eye at a NAG stand.
Eager to see what it was like I rushed over to it, only to get closer and wonder if the wrong game was running on the machine.
It dawned on me that while this supposed-to-be-magnificent looking game was running on a big and beautiful HDTV, it was running at standard definition. Any of you who have set their Nintendo Wii up on their HDTV’s will know that running SD on an HDTV looks considerably worse than when running on a standard SDTV.
When you take a game like Operation Flashpoint, with high levels of geometry and textures, the visual flare of the game is destroyed completely. The image was so blurry that most of the text was barely legible and the game itself looked absolutely horrendous. I peaked around the corner to see the upcoming title “The Saboteur” running in SD as well, and it was even worse.
Now graphics aren’t what make a game but when it comes to a show where thousands of potential customers are walking around, you just can’t have your game looking that bad. It makes the game look bad and also makes the console it’s running on look bad. Should someone have just come from a stand running Xbox 360’s at HD and then made their way over to that stand, they would be under some strange impression that the PS3’s visuals are only on par with a Playstation 2.
This stand wasn’t the only guilty one though, there were quite a couple of them and I cannot fully understand how this issue was not picked up.
As I said before, Xbox 360’s have also had the inclusion of HD cables dropped as well which means that this may become even more of an issue at next years show as we may have even more consoles running at SD.
Hopefully some awareness can be made of this situation so that the same issues do not rear their ugly SD heads in future.
Did any of you see anything similar at rAge 2009? I know we had a few comments about it in Geoff’s roundup article yesterday.
Last Updated: October 6, 2009
janrik
October 6, 2009 at 13:47
Yeah all teh comments I had about rage was about teh SD cable fiasco.
Who sets these things up? Why do they not employ people that at teh very least know wtf cable to use?
Tinman
October 6, 2009 at 13:48
I noticed that as well, in particular with Operation Flashpoint 2. A terrible first impression.
Wasn’t that at the NAG stand?
spl0it
October 6, 2009 at 13:53
UBER FAIL from NAG, what a letdown
Dark
October 6, 2009 at 14:01
All I can say is the all the Megarom games were setup @ HD res.
Nick de Bruyne
October 6, 2009 at 14:09
Not good enough! We want to see games in 3D running at 19,280p super duper ultra HD with free games that fall from the sky.
Oh, and some cheese spring rolls.
janrik
October 6, 2009 at 14:14
No, we just want people that gets paid to do things, to know what the hell they doing.
Heard good things from Megarom stand. Big Up.
Geoff
October 6, 2009 at 14:18
ESPECIALLY, the cheese spring rolls.
*droolyface*
tifutu
October 6, 2009 at 14:54
Other the lack of uber cheese spring rolls.
It was a pretty rad experience. Although the layout was done by the 5 year old, slightly retarded son of a carpenter, which led to having to mission around several times, hoping to wonder past something new. The amount of games being displayed was wonderous! There were some awesome random stalls – anyone else get that T-shirt with the axed zombie?! 😛 … and there were some random stalls, that just seemed out of place… gaming while diving anyone? :/ It felt special though, to know someone went through all the effort to really make the visitors feel like they were experiencing something others wont, at least for a while, like Borderlands, SC:Conviction, Brutal Legend, etc…
But the following needs to be said:
All the hype with having some international guys here was well worth it, but, I never once saw a single list of the times that they would be one the main stage discussing their titles! I walked in late on the Avatar presentation, thinking to myself “sweet game, I wonder what it is…” there was no screen dedicated to the presenters name, the company or the title he’s representing. I had to ask a Telkom marketing chick if she knew what game it was – after which, she wouldn’t stop harassing me to fill in her comp form. Then she kept chanting “go down the stairs, DOWN THE STAIRS! THE STAIRS!…” creepy :/
I think if Rage is trying to be a game/tech/geek expo, they need to take a few lessons from the big guys, maybe send a few lads to PAX and e3 and Gamescon, even let them take some notes to bring home and share those ideas.
Space was another issue, maybe if they didn’t arrange it on the same weekend as the sexpo, Gallagher Estate would be a good option, that way, many more gamers could attend the lan and they wouldn’t take up all the parking and all the floor space that additional companies could have used for their stalls.
I commend Rage and all those involved for the awesome event, there were loads of people, loads of rad things to see and try out(specially splinter cell: conviction), a lot of effort went into it, but after so many years of running, I think it’s time to step up a tad.
Anyways, that was my two cents. Thanks for the ticket guys! Really awesome!
Laters.
Krypty
October 6, 2009 at 14:56
If NAG (this includes all other parties) cannot even run games at the stand in the optimal resolutions they were made for, how can I trust anything they write in their magazine in regards to reviews etc.
Why must I spend my hard earned cash that I make on somebody that cannot do the job properly.
Nick de Bruyne
October 6, 2009 at 15:07
They did have a little printed booklet thingy with the times for the show, I got one when i first entered (albeit at a media entrance), it had all the events on. Also, during the presentations the side TV’s would swap between gameplay and then company and game logos.
Still, if you didnt get a leaflet, or didnt see the logos while they were up then its still maybe something for them to take into consideration
tifutu
October 6, 2009 at 15:17
Very true dude, my fault then, to my own pitiful defense, I’m not the tallest guy in town and was standing at the back, and was slightly distracted by the odd cosplay babe. But yea, I just think it could have been more in your face if you know what I mean.
But whatever, it was rad and I cannot wait for next years event!
NATO_US78
October 6, 2009 at 15:23
I agree.
tifutu
October 6, 2009 at 15:26
Very true, makes you wonder if they bought an HD cable to plug into that massive Tv they always paste a giant photo of at the begging of the review section…
MaxiViper
October 6, 2009 at 15:29
There where two screens at the Operation Flashpoint 2 stand one on top of the other
And the one on top, which was hung quite high up, was the one with a blur free image. I mean you’d think that they would put that TV on the bottom and the one in front off you on top. but no…
janrik
October 6, 2009 at 15:30
+1
Roland Browning
October 6, 2009 at 15:35
I heard the PS3 stand didn’t have HD cables because Howard Lonstein left them in his nappy bag.
Geoff
October 6, 2009 at 15:42
Indeed. It was the NAG hands-on where they showcased upcoming EA and Nu-Metro titles. In bloody SD.
RSA-Ace
October 6, 2009 at 18:41
Has there been any apology from them yet? I mean it sounds like a huge stuff up.
WitWolfyZA
October 7, 2009 at 10:10
it was some what dissapointing seeing the EA stand playing their latest and upcomming games on SD how pointless. Brutal Legend looked horrible on Sd witha LCD tv