Bioshock Widescreen: More Wide, Less Screen
I don't know about anyone else, but I played Bioshock in widescreen and didn't notice a thing other than how breath-taking it was. According to some vary angry posters on the 2k Forums the widescreen isn't exactly widescreen. Rather than extending the viewing angle out to the full widescreen (16:9) aspect ratio, the game simply crops the screen from SDTV ratio (4:3).
Now I'm sure that most people won't care about this. There is no real loss in play ability of the game as the cropping only removes part of the ceiling and floor. The main complaint is that rather than being able to see MORE, you can see less. 25% less infact. Some people are so upset that they are actually saying that they will not buy the game until the problem is resolved.
Will the developers fix the problem? Only time will tell! Either way, who can resist digging into a good old fashioned flame war.
Widescreen messed up ... [2K Forums] [via Kotaku]
Asterick
Posted to Video Games on 21 August 2007
· Comments (11)
Other stuff like this: angry, bioshock, flame war, forums, widescreen
for some reason, i keep thinking "always something there to bitch about", of course to the tune of "Always Something There to Remind Me Lyrics" by Naked Eyes...
Well, in defense of the whiners, this is sort of disappointing, if true.
I sort of thought top-tier, next gen, $60 games such as this wouldn't employ "workarounds" for people who have invested a lot in a nice widescreen tv and game system, but whatever. I am still getting it, but I have to admit it's sort of lame.
I for one am excessively angry. I mean, wtf. WTF!??!?!?! It's way too much work to twitch my fingers slightly on the analog stick to see the extra four centimeters that are being cut off. TOO FREAKING MUCH WORK.
THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!
No... THIS... IS... INTERNEEEET!
/sarcasm
oh lord *rolls eyes*... well those people can complain and not enjoy the wonders that is bioshock... god forbid i can't see a few inches above and below the viewpoint on my widescreen tv
Hmmm. The widescreen view in the game feels just fine, and seems to have the same Field of View as any other FPS. I could see this as a valid complaint if the 16:9 framing felt cramped or cropped, and made it hard to play the game.
Honestly, I'm pretty sure that, if this game was made as most other next-gen games are made, it was designed for HD first, and re-framed for 4:3 after the fact. If so, all they did was choose to extend the vertical view a little bit instead of cropping off the sides, and giving up the edges of the view, like most games do.
If so, all the whining ammounts to is. "It's unfair that our expensive HDTV's don't get the most picture information, and those commoners with their SDTVs don't get an inferior version." When all the developers did was go with the least destructive option. More picture isn't always better though. Look at all the movies that do this for the 4:3 TV versions and end up with stuff like boom mics in the frame.
I don't really understand the fuss.
I mean, with a movie, you're losing information because it's a fixed image that's being cropped off. But with a game, you're in charge of your viewpoint, and it changes constantly. You're not necessarily seeing less information on your screen, it's just that the shape of your viewscreen is different. You want to see what's up there? Look up, you lazy cuss and stop whining.
As far as I know, this is not uncommon. I was told by people in the game industry that it's standard to put all important information in the middle of the screen because not everyone will be able to see what's going on around the edges.
A bit annoying, but not something that's gonna destroy the game for me. I didn't notice any cramped feeling when I played the demo before on my widescreen TV, and I'm not going to let something like this ruin the game.
If it were a movie, I'd be a little irked, but for games, not so much. It's not like in Dead Rising or Half life 2 where you actually do see a lot more around you on a widescreen display, after all.
I personally think this is better, I mean, in alot of thigns these days 4:3 people have a dissadvantage because they can see less... granted it makes no real difference to bioshock, but you can see where im coming from.
i heard that gears of war is like this as well... did anyone complain about that? no because no one found out about it... i bet you ANYTHING that if no one said anything about this... all those whinning little brats would be playing this on their widescreen TVs and enjoying it... this is why i hate people most of the time
Speaking as a lover both of the art of video games and of the art of movies, I can understand the fuss. For me, the issue is whether I am getting the experience intended by the auteur. I'll never watch a "fullscreen" movie if I can help it, because that ratio is created by chopping off the sides of the original picture. So if the original intention with Bioshock were to have a 4:3 ratio, then I understand the fuss. However, I have a hunch that there wasn't much of an "intention", since the video game display is more of a window into a 3-dimensional art-world, whereas the display of a movie is like a picture frame, and you only ever see what is shown to you.