BioWare Can't Patch Unreadable Text for Non-HD TVs in Mass Effect 2

[Chewster]

I'm glad that all the people saying "just buy an HDTV already" are rich enough to afford such luxuries.

I am not, however, so I guess I will have to deal with small text, because BioWare is lazy. Maybe Mass Effect 3 could come bundled with an HDTV or something.

 

[Woodsey]

They need to patch in a better menu system and colours that are actually readable. This is just more evidence that game designers are either complete idiots who need to go actually see what programmers in the wider computer world are doing, or they are smart people who need to go actually see what programmers in the wider computer world are doing.

What's wrong with the colours and menu?

And I'd hardly call the people at Bioware idiots.

 

[DaxStrife]

Wasn't this an issue 3 years ago with "Dead Rising" being extremely hazy if you didn't have HD TV/cables? Funny how we seem to keep back-sliding in the history of games.

 

[ReverseEngineered]

Correction: they can't be bothered to patch it.

They most certainly could fix the problem. They could replace the entire game if they had to; perhaps make a new build and offer to replace discs for people who can't make use of it on their SDTV. It's software, and even more so it's graphics; they can change anything. It's really just a matter of how much it costs, and to them, it's not worth spending many man-hours to fix a problem that only affects a small portion of their audience.

That said, if I was one of those people (and let me tell you, even on my 42" SDTV, text in video games can be nearly illegible), I'd be demanding a refund. Sure, you don't have to fix the problem, but I still can't play the game; I want my money back.

 

[Ligisttomten]

Dead Rising had the same problem. Well, not like I would ever in a million years buy another FPS for console again anyway.

 

[shadow skill]

They need to patch in a better menu system and colours that are actually readable. This is just more evidence that game designers are either complete idiots who need to go actually see what programmers in the wider computer world are doing, or they are smart people who need to go actually see what programmers in the wider computer world are doing.

What's wrong with the colours and menu?

And I'd hardly call the people at Bioware idiots.

The contrast is very poor so for smaller text it starts to blend into the background causing eye strain. I don't even like to read the Codex because of it. The dialogue for conversations even even worse because so much of environment is fairly bright the white text disappears into the background becoming hard to distinguish. It's actually less bad on the PC version of the game because the text seems to be a bit bigger.

 

[FactualSquirrel]

However, we have taken note of this issue and will take it into consideration as we plan future games in the Mass Effect franchise.

I think that the "s" in that sentence is the most important, it means they're considering more after ME3.

Just sayin'

I hate to make any rumors or conspiracy theories, but I noticed during the credits of Mass Effect 2 that EA's RPG/MMO department had a hand somehow in the game.


Mass Effect MMO perhaps?

[sub]I know I would play it[/sub]

I would try it, I guess.

Although, (purely speculation) I'm pretty sure that the RPG/MMO department just means that it covers both RPGs and MMOs, and if it was in the credits, it would have had an effect on the game. Ergo, this is no proof that it is an MMO, but it's one of the (many) logical directions to take the series.

 

[David Bray]

Yeah, the reading's a bit of a pain on SDTV but the game really doesn't require you to do much reading. It does make the mining even more painful though.

 

[FiveSpeedf150]

So... imagine what would have happened if they release a game that, say, wasn't 1080p.

Those of you with old TV's best catch up to the times!

 

[mjhhiv]

So I'm screwed. Great. Better get to work on getting that HDTV...

I can say from experience that this isn't a big deal. I have a standard definition television, and after playing through the entirety of ME1 with subtitles, I started ME2 with them -- I couldn't read the subtitles, so I turned them off. End of story. In normal dialogue, it's fine. Occasionally the white text of the wheel is set to a white background, and that is hard to read, but that is a problem that trancends my wimpy TV.

 

[shadow skill]

So I'm screwed. Great. Better get to work on getting that HDTV...

I can say from experience that this isn't a big deal. I have a standard definition television, and after playing through the entirety of ME1 with subtitles, I started ME2 with them -- I couldn't read the subtitles, so I turned them off. End of story. In normal dialogue, it's fine. Occasionally the white text of the wheel is set to a white background, and that is hard to read, but that is a problem that trancends my wimpy TV.

Yea it has to do with how the human eye works. Different people are going to have differing levels of vision so if Bioware was smart they would have included options to change the text size and/or the colour so users could have options that might have fixed the problem.

 

[dududf]

Ha ha!

Poor console gamers, us PC gamers are unaffected.

Join me HDTV and PC gamers in our manacle laughter.

*Bwuahahahahahahaha*

 

[era81]

I remember when I first played dead rising on an sdtv couldn't read a fucking thing.

 

[deleted_scifidownbeat]

DELETED

 

[Bagaloo]

I had the exact same problem with Assassin's Creed 2, and it really dampened the experience.

Well, that and the utterly bonkers final act.

 

[MurderousToaster]

Makes me happy I hooked up my 360 to my monitor in place of my SDTV.

How'd you do that?

Female adapter for the monitor's VGA cable and a special 360 VGA cable in place of the RGB.

 

[RanD00M]

Why do people buy bioware games on consoles? I'll never understand their logic.

Because not everyone has a gaming PC.And some just prefer console gaming.

OT:Good thing that i´m getting it on the PC then.

 

[Twilight_guy]

That's a bit like complaining that it won't work on Windows 2000. It seems like this is only a problem in the drastic set of circumstances caused by an old, small TV with the text set to a small font. You can't build your technology to work on everything ever made so you have to set a backwards compatible hard-line.