Rare Fails Intelligence Check, Disregards SDTV Users

[modeps]

http://sochl.com/resources/images/evav/banjo.jpg

Lets face it, the text in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts is pretty darn small, even on an HDTV, but its even worse for SDTV users. Gamers that have yet to join the HDTV fray have stated that while playing the demo, the text is straight up illegible and unfortunately CVG (http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=201084) is reporting that Rare has no intention of fixing the problem either. This rings strangely familiar to the Dead Rising fiasco.

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.

A $40 game with $40 worth of quality?

[Mr.Green]

Embrace the new millennium and get a new TV. Ebay a kidney if you have to.

I, for one, am happy they don't cater to the lowest common denominator for once.

You can burn me now.

[Rash]

That's deplorable. Not everyone who has an X360 has an HDTV. I know several people who still haven't joined the fray of HDTV owners. It's ridiculous to think that they won't be able to read the text.

And I played some of Dead Rising back when I only had an SDTV. Sometimes I wouldn't even bother trying to read the text. I can't even grasp the idea of it being worse in Banjo 3.

Also, is it just me or are the character designs in this game horrendous? That particular picture makes my eyes bleed.

[Lima Beans]

For what its worth I have a big HDTV and still found the text to be illegible.

[Demo_Boy]

Designing for SD TV is quite hard.
Minimum recommended font size is somewhere like 14 point. And you only have about 590 pixels of width to place text.
If you add it up, that means a player's name can take more than half your screen width

[lightguard]

Also, is it just me or are the character designs in this game horrendous? That particular picture makes my eyes bleed.

Heh. Gruntilda makes a comment to that effect in the demo;

"Is it just me or is your nose square? The fans will hate it, you butt-ugly bear!"

I'm of two minds on this. One is: I have a HDTV, everyone else can suck it.
The other is: Why isn't there voice acting? (Solving *most* of the small text complaints) The chatter's cute, and was fun back in the 64 days, but gets old quick on the 360.

Oh, and another thing. Comic Sans, Rare? Really?

[Snarboo]

You can burn me now. Okay.

Do you realize how trivial it would have been to implement a check for SDTVs that would have changed the font size? I'm pretty sure R&C uses vectorized fonts, which are really easy to change the size of.

When you consider that R&C is aimed at a broad target audience, including children, a move like this makes very little sense.

A person shouldn't have to own the best TV to play a game. Something better than black and white preferably, but not a 200+ HD TV.

[SacredWeasel]

Designing for SD TV is quite hard.
Minimum recommended font size is somewhere like 14 point. And you only have about 590 pixels of width to place text.
If you add it up, that means a player's name can take more than half your screen width

And yet somehow, nearly every other game manages to do it...This is just stupid and for me a reason not to buy it.

[RMan]

The other is: Why isn't there voice acting? (Solving *most* of the small text complaints) The chatter's cute, and was fun back in the 64 days, but gets old quick on the 360.
Agreed. Anyone confirm if it matters much? Like, is it lame text most players would skip through anyways?

[Syl]

Designing for SD TV is quite hard.
Minimum recommended font size is somewhere like 14 point. And you only have about 590 pixels of width to place text.
If you add it up, that means a player's name can take more than half your screen width
And yet i've been playing very heavy text based games my entire life on SDTVs.

Actually, I play extremely heavy text-based games on the SNES with its 256x244 resolution. Or hell, even the original gameboy and its 160x144 resolution.

Don't fucking bother telling me that the regular SD resolution is "too small" when i've been playing games that use it, or smaller, for years.

[grimgore]

I know my kids don't read text.so it won't matter if the game play is any good

[modeps]

I'm of two minds on this. One is: I have a HDTV, everyone else can suck it.
The other is: Why isn't there voice acting? (Solving *most* of the small text complaints) The chatter's cute, and was fun back in the 64 days, but gets old quick on the 360.

I agree. I wish their was voice acting... specially in this day. I understand stylistically why they're doing it, but that doesn't mean I'm into it.

[cppcrusader]

Hmmm, the demo is still sitting on my drive waiting to be played. I'll have to see how bad it looks.

[Pluvious]

I have a HD set and I even thought some of Fables II fonts where too small.. I agree this problem needs addressing. Dead Rising was unplayable for me on standard and almost playable on HD.

[wastedyears]

What about MS quality assurance? Don't they check for this kind of stuff?

[Wyrm]

I don't have an HDTV, so I don't buy games that don't support regular ass TVs.

Also, I played the demo for this and I was mildly amused for about five minutes, and then I was ready to stop, delete it, and move on with my life.

[Whimbrel]

I think it gets pretty bad when you have to admit that changing font size is too much of a technological challenge for your software company.

[Schnoogs]

Just buy an HDTV and stop crying!! ;)

[Demo_Boy]

So im not making excuses for them, but it is not just as easy to change the font size, since the size is being increased from the HD size, there will be overlap issues.
And in the case of word wrap, that too is tricky to implement.

Sure they should have developed their UI to 480i and then scaled it up to HD users. That is their real mistake.

[Panthera]

Also, is it just me or are the character designs in this game horrendous? That particular picture makes my eyes bleed.

They really are just plain bad designs. I'm a fan of the originals, but I don't expect it to look the same - just not horrible.

[Venkman]

They really are just plain bad designs. I'm a fan of the originals, but I don't expect it to look the same - just not horrible.

The originals were quite square:

http://www.unseen64.net/wp-content/gallery/banjo-kazooie/BETABK9.JPG

;)

[Exodus]

Embrace the new millennium and get a new TV. Ebay a kidney if you have to.

I, for one, am happy they don't cater to the lowest common denominator for once.

You can burn me now.

I have an hdtv but I likes me a good burning...you did say we could burn you though. :P

I'm not a fan of this kind of thinking. I can understand it but not everyone who loves games has the luxury I do and others. When you put final fantasy XIII or food to feed me for a year in front of me I will choose final fantasy XIII every time until things in my life change. Until then, I agree with mr. green because we're all about giving a shit about our situations only in north america. Fuck everyone else.

Did I miss anything mr. green?

[Rash]

Seriously, I thought this looked fine:

http://pressthebuttons.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/02/15/banjokazooie.jpg

[Chimpbot]

http://pressthebuttons.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/02/15/banjokazooie.jpg http://sochl.com/resources/images/evav/banjo.jpg

All they really did was make Banjo's eyes smaller and turn his nose into a rectangular prism.

He does look significantly creepier now, though...almost like a retarded pedophile.

He's too dumb to actually do it, but he's certainly going to try to touch you.

[Pretzel]

"I don't want to bore you with the technical side of things (I really don't understand it all myself)"

That's pretty lame, man. They've been making console games long enough that this kind of mistake is pretty surprising. And, yeah, it does matter, since there's still a LOT of old TVs out there, especially in kids play rooms where they have a hand-me-down TV. A big part of their market will play under that condition.

BTW, the technical reason that was too hard for him to wrap his brain around? It takes time to reformat text and Christmas is around the corner.

[ElfShotTheFood]

I like how the article ends by saying that all XBL arcade games have to be playable on 14" screens. ;)

[jacktion]

Rare has lost it. They just suck.
They ruined Perfect Dark and now they are ruining Banjo Kazooie.

Every game has modes for both SD and HD. So for Rare not to do it is so so stupid. And insulting as a consumer.

It is especially egregious in this case, since the game makes you sit around and read text for the first 10 minutes of the demo.
Don't they know that people just want to try the game out quick and see what it is? Not read a novel?
That demo sucked.

[Hellstorm]

I find it odd that everyone is yelling about fonts when everyone should be miffed that there is ZERO platforming in this game. None. Not even with vehicles.

[thomasc]

Designing for SD TV is quite hard.
Yeah I know. I don't know how they designed (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wii) games (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox) for (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamecube) SD (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ps2) televisions (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N64).

[Snarboo]

I find it odd that everyone is yelling about fonts when everyone should be miffed that there is ZERO platforming in this game. None. Not even with vehicles. I agree, it's disappointing they focused more on vehicles than classic Banjo Kazooie gameplay. Do you even hunt for jiggies and honey comb pieces in Nuts & Bolts?

[Mr.Green]

I have an hdtv but I likes me a good burning...you did say we could burn you though. :P

I'm not a fan of this kind of thinking. I can understand it but not everyone who loves games has the luxury I do and others. When you put final fantasy XIII or food to feed me for a year in front of me I will choose final fantasy XIII every time until things in my life change. Until then, I agree with mr. green because we're all about giving a shit about our situations only in north america. Fuck everyone else.

Did I miss anything mr. green?

Gaming is a luxury, period. If you bought a 360 then there's a good chance you have disposable income and actually care about HD. Otherwise you'd be waggling away a fucking Wiimote in front of a 13" WalMart TV.

It's not that I don't care about the rest of the world but you know, I doubt the lack of 480i support in Banjo & Kazooie affects many third world children. For fuck's sake.

Yeah I know. I don't know how they designed (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wii) games (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox) for (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamecube) SD (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ps2) televisions (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N64).

Yeah and why don't you fucking ride a horse (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse) to work tomorrow. That used to work too, genius.

[Snarboo]

Gaming is a luxury, period. If you bought a 360 then there's a good chance you have disposable income and actually care about HD. Otherwise you'd be waggling away a fucking Wiimote in front of a 13" WalMart TV. That's a weak argument when you consider that a console's main advantage over a PC is that it doesn't need to be upgraded, has a lower cost of entry and, most importantly, doesn't need the best equipment to play on. What you're espousing is no better than the harsh upgrade cycles PCs and consumers wallets have fallen prey to. If you can't design your game for the lowest common denominator, especially when said game is specifically targeted at families and children, it's kind of a slap in the face of your target market.

There is still a large market out there who are using older equipment. Why do you think the Arcade is billed so cheap and even comes with a wired controller?

[Mr.Green]

That's a weak argument when you consider that a console's main advantage over a PC is that it doesn't need to be upgraded, has a lower cost of entry and, most importantly, doesn't need the best equipment to play on. What you're espousing is no better than the harsh upgrade cycles PCs and consumers wallets have fallen prey to. If you can't design your game for the lowest common denominator, especially when said game is specifically targeted at families and children, it's kind of a slap in the face of your target market.

There is still a large market out there who are using older equipment. Why do you think the Arcade is billed so cheap and even comes with a wired controller?

Well it seems to me you're just splitting hair and bringing irrelevant arguments for the sake of arguing. At this point, let's just agree to disagree and move on.

[Snarboo]

Well it seems to me you're just splitting hair and bringing irrelevant arguments for the sake of arguing. It's not irrelevant when you consider that Microsoft is still targeting "low def" consumers by selling an SKU that is priced low, has no hard drive and even comes with a wired controller rather than a wireless one. Nuts & Bolts is also priced low at $40 and is targeted at families and children, which makes it all the more puzzling that it requires an expansive HDTV. Why then was Rare, a Microsoft studio, allowed to ship a game that would cut off such a large part of their consumer base?

Mixed messages, anyone?

[Snarboo]

I hate to double post, but I forgot to add that Nuts & Bolts doesn't specifically list that it requires an SDTV, so most consumers are expecting that it will have the same requirements as any other 360 title. That is, that it will be fully playable on an SDTV, something the 360 natively supports.

[Jotoco]

Embrace the new millennium and get a new TV. Ebay a kidney if you have to.

I, for one, am happy they don't cater to the lowest common denominator for once.

You can burn me now.

You know there are places in the world where one of the simplest HDTVs can cost at least some 1000dollars???

Well, I think I only have TWO kidneys... hardly enough

[thomasc]

Yeah and why don't you fucking ride a horse (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse) to work tomorrow. That used to work too, genius.
I'm not sure where you're going with this comparison. But its a weak attempt at telling me its an old technology and we shouldn't support it.

You're forgetting the 360 supports SDTV's though and games on the 360 that I have played (Mass Effect, Eternal Sonata) can be read very well on SDTV's.

Asking for the font size to be increased isn't much. It's just laziness on Rare's part and defending their position is incredibly stupid.

You're also carrying on like a douche.