What’s going on with developers lately?
The upcoming Playstation 3 shooter Haze will be yet another game that falls short of the true HD mark.
In a recent interview with Free Radical, the developers of Haze made it known that the game will not be hitting the 720p mark. In fact, this game will only be running at 1024×576. Why are so many developers creating their games in a resolution lower than true HD? I understand that many of them are dropping the resolution to allow the game to run at a smoother framerate but It’s becoming a popular trend lately.
In the interview, Free Radicals creative lead, Derek Littlewood says the following:
“Yes. Well, as you develop an engine you’re aiming for a certain thing, but as all the pieces slot into place, you end up realising what sort of resolution you can run it at and that’s where we ended up with for Haze.”
When developers set out to create a new title for one of the HD consoles, why aren’t they setting the goal of a true HD game from the beginning and then sticking to it? Now I know that in many previous cases such as Halo 3 on 360 and GTA4 on the PS3, the sub HD results have been perfectly acceptable. That’s no excuse though, many gamers are promised true HD gaming and that’s exactly what they should be getting.
Why is this happening? Why aren’t console manufacturers doing more to ensure that gamers get what they are promised? As mentioned previously, sub HD results have been acceptable but I still believe that 720p should be set as a target for the developers that must be reached. So many people have spent their hard earned cash to purchase TV’s capable of displaying 1080p but the money is going to waste if 720p televisions aren’t even hitting their full potential.
If you play a game like Halo 3 that runs at 640p on your 1080p TV, it will be upscaled by roughly 40%.
Forty percent!
It feels to me as if dropping the resolution is like a “get out of jail free” card for developers. Make your game the way you want and if it happens to run like a tortoise on tranquilisers, no problem, just drop the resolution.
How would you feel if you bought any other product only to find out you were only getting 90% of what you paid for? You might argue that the games have looked fine so far. But if you forked out a ton of money for a sportscar and then later realised that it had 10% less power than you were promised, you wouldn’t shrug it off.
We should feel cheated.
Free Radical Interview can be found here .
Last Updated: May 20, 2008
koldFU5iON
May 20, 2008 at 07:12
and you are “AngryGamer” 😛
BigDadDy
May 20, 2008 at 07:48
Is 576 not PAL SD?
fred
May 20, 2008 at 08:12
Pal SD is 575 lines interlaced , this is 576p. I still would like at least 720p though.
Miktar
May 20, 2008 at 08:53
Who cares? Resolution doesn’t make the game.
PillsburyDeeBoy
May 20, 2008 at 09:02
Agreed, but it’s a bit of a double edged sword, right? Though I have a hard time believing most people can discern between 576p and 720p, it is, I guess, for lack of a better term, a “value for money” thing. People are thinking, “I bought a 720p television so I could play my 720p games as was promised by MS and Sony and now I don’t get 720p”. It’s a legitimate argument, quite frankly.
LazySAGamer
May 20, 2008 at 09:03
To be honest 1080p was promised and over hyped by Sony… if I had gone out and bought a 60″ 1080p TV I would feel slightly shafted.
However I agree with Miktar, graphics don’t make a game.
BigDadDy
May 20, 2008 at 09:17
At the price of a 60″ 1080P Sony TV I would feel Arthur Browned!
PillsburyDeeBoy
May 20, 2008 at 09:32
I agree with you and Miktar both about graphics not making a game and people not really being able to count each and every progressive scanning pixel 🙂 , but hey, that’s how it goes, I guess.
Fox1
May 20, 2008 at 09:48
Majority of gamers are gaming at 720p so I think that should be the bare minimum for gaming resolutions.
I also agree with Miktar. Take a look at the games on the Wii. They all look so smooth although it’s only 480p 😯
BigDadDy
May 20, 2008 at 09:57
Well the reviews are coming in and this looks like a game I will avoid…
IGN 4.5/10
IGN: Haze Review
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/875/875229p1.html
Gamershell 6.5/10
Haze (PS3) – GamersHell.com
http://www.gamershell.com/ps3/haze/review.html
kay
May 20, 2008 at 10:20
Wii games all look like they’ve had a liberal amount of Gaussian blur applied on my 720p TV… 🙄
kay’s last blog post..Donald Knuth Interview
kay
May 20, 2008 at 10:28
I agree that it’s not ideal, but smooth gameplay beats resolution any day of the week.
It is easy to imagine how this might happen, especially on a brand new game. Your project plan is a couple of years in advance – you can only speculate how much you can do with the platform. By the time you have something running, marketing has promised X features, your textures are at a certain level, your 3D models have a certain amount of detail, your physics engine takes up resources and you can’t scale down because it’s essential to the game play. Pretty much the only thing you can do is turn down the visual fidelity to get a playable framerate.
kay’s last blog post..Donald Knuth Interview
Jinja
May 20, 2008 at 10:34
Ye, it doesn’t bother me.
Jinja’s last blog post..Bill O’Reilly Outburst: Behind The Scenes
fred
May 20, 2008 at 11:18
Resolution directly relates to the graphics quality … they are called VIDEO games , aren’t they?
JimBob
May 20, 2008 at 11:42
And what if the game has neither graphics nor gameplay, which seems to be where Haze is? (4 out of 10 from IGN).
doobiwan
May 20, 2008 at 12:15
I attribute it to nothing more than laziness. If developers can create things like Gears of War at true 720p or GT5:P at 1080p60, then there is little excuser for it.
Especially when it tanks as badly as Haze is doing at the moment.
kabraal
May 20, 2008 at 12:26
Well maybe not laziness but just general skill/resources. Some companies make better car engines than others. Some companies make better game engines than others.
AhmaD
April 1, 2016 at 12:51
I can’t think of a single torrents games type where a sub HD resolution would adversely effect the gaming experience…