Yup :)

Have you guys heard? Apparently this game looks like crap now and is a visual disappoint because some resolution analyzers seem to have come to the conclusion that the game is, in fact, not running at 720p native, and is instead running at 960x540

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2080973...

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=39289...

Now I haven't bothered to read all the posts, but I think I've seen enough to know what the pattern will be. There is probably now an influx of individuals paying the game attention who probably didn't care before, and are now emboldened enough to go around finding all sorts of visual imperfections about the game that, for some strange reason, they couldn't find at all until they saw a few people state the resolution to not actually be 720p.

I love seeing things like this because I always I find it fairly entertaining how it ends up working out. 20 people like how a game is looking and fake excitement, then one guy comes in and gives some numbers that have no real consequence to the quality of the game those 20 were absolutely gushing over before, and immediately those 20 are now bashing the game's visual look, as well as the talent of the developer. The Alan Wake thread on GAF is now getting more attention than it has ever gotten, but for all the wrong reasons hehe :D

Apparently a Remedy dev and a community manager have both said the game is 720p in response to this recent dust up, but of course that, whether true or not, means nothing. Some were searching for their openings to bash one of the 360's most visually impressive exclusives, and now they have that opening haha :)

360 team do the exact same thing /discussion

Of course, this is a 360 exclusive that matches Games like UC2 and Killzone 2. Not to mention certain PC fanboys are still butthurt about it not coming to their platform. So you have a double threat of trolls taking digs at the game.

Both have multi player..

And killzone 2 is rather meh to be honest, its all about the multiplayer, single player was lacking in...something.....controls?
The fact you jump in and accuse pc players of been butthurt puts you in a xbox fanboy group, but yet you call other fanboys? kettle and pot momment there.

Whether or not 360 fans do the exact same thing, which they do, isn't really the point I'm trying to make.

I'm also proud to say that I don't fall into the category of doing that for either side. I give credit where credit is due on great looking 360 and PS3 titles alike, and have never failed to do so.

I am, however, just genuinely fascinated by this phenomenon where so many can be so utterly impressed and excited by a game for months, even years on end, all the way to the point where the game is practically a month away from release, and here comes one or two forum posts regarding certain technical aspects of the game, ones in which they wouldn't know or care about otherwise if they were already thoroughly impressed with the game, and all of a sudden here come the out of nowhere critiques by the very people who were gushing prior about disappointment they are with the game's visuals or how they'll cancel their pre-order lol.

I'll say this much, I'm just glad I'm not as foolish as some individuals out there appear to be. It begs the question, why and for what reason do people play videogames in the first place? Is it for reasons like the resolution? Or is it for the very basic reason that the game's features, visual style, subject matter, characters and gameplay actually genuinely intrigue you?

I know this much, the first developer to release a game titled "1080p with 8x Antialiasing" is going to have themselves the best selling game of the generation.

Considering there are pc gamers hoping the game fails or that Remedy goes under because they aren't bringing it to the pc, I'd say a mention of angry pc gamers is certainly appropriate. This isn't true for all disappointed it isn't coming to pc, but there are enough of them for it to be noteworthy. Who wishes for one of their favorite developers to go under for making the best possible business decision for their company?

I mean, for example, would I have liked Last Story to be a 360 or PS3 title, you know, just have it on a system much more powerful than the Wii is? Hell yes, I would. But I just understand that perhaps that may not be the best thing for Sakaguchi and Mistwalker, and so I support their decision to go to the Wii and Nintendo with that particular game, especially if it gives him an opportunity to see greater success in Japan and elsewhere. I'm definitely buying that damn game, and if I didn't have a Wii already, I would've bought one just to play it. You support your favorite developer regardless of what platform they make their games on, and to do anything else makes you an idiot in my book.

That doesn't mean you should go out and purchase whatever platform they're making their game for, because let's face it, not everybody can afford to do such a thing. But, at the very least, if you can't afford to pick up another platform, the least one can do is to support the developer and hope for their continued success, since they're obviously a developer that they consider to have made quality products that they've enjoyed in the past.

As do the PS3 team.

Really now? Well aside from the fact that i own a PS3 and 360 and the fact that i never once put down a PS3 exclusive just because it's not on my console of choice. I would say that i am not anywhere near in the "fanboy group" I do however have eyes and i have seen many threads on the Gaf and sites like Gametrailers where the is game is trolled to hell and back by butthurt PC and PS3 fanbots. For the simple fact that they praise a 360 exclusive for looking as good as the games on their console, nobody was putting down the PS3 but i am putting down fanboys. They are not gamers, not even close. When you feel the need to zoom in on a friggen TV antenna or some other such trivial object in a game, in order to count pixels? You need to get your priorities straight and remember why we play games in the first place.

What resolution is Mario Bros 3?

For me its one of the most stupid discussions I ever read or heard in my gaming life,hell I dont even know what some of those tech stuff is nor I want to,that got nothing to do wheter the game is good or not.

Alan Wake looks insane and on par with some PS3 exclusives not that I care but I found that debate silly as hell.

Oh well some people dont have anymore to do apart of that.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy the work the pixel counters do. I love to occasionally jump onto beyond3d and just take a look at resolutions for games I own and enjoy, and just look up a game like Blue Dragon, and take a look at the numbers and just think to myself, "Kickass! Way to go Sakaguchi, Mistwalker and Artoon! :P"

There are times when that game honestly looked to me as if it had better than 4XAA, and it's nice to go back and see what they got out of the system and learn more about how they did it, and what tricks they may have taken advantage of. I mean, that's where I think it should stop, at mere amusement and curiosity, but to think that these, in my view, meaningless things can literally make or break an entire gaming experience for some folk is just astounding to me.

But, hey, they'll do them, and I'll do me :)

It just amazes me the amount of hate and drama directed at this game. Unbelievable...

I will be honest I prefer not knowing anything of that,why? because sometimes it ruins my enjoyment of games,sometimes Im thinking when Im playing oh look behind that there is nothing just geometry or some horrible textures to fill my game world and I hate it,I hate so much playing games with that tought in my head.

So the less I know about the technical stuff of my games the better,thats why I said those people have nothing more to do to discuss resolutions what kind of FSAOO or whatever a game has,what benefit that gives you in your mind? what good you get for that? that the company did a awesome job like you said?
Why not thinking that company did na awesome job because the game is awesome for what its is? a game? not because of some big resolution textures or insane lighting effects?

Im sick of all that.

Resolution is overrated. I'v always said this, and I still feel that way. Sure, like everything, there must be a minimal level of quality in there. For instance, if Alan Wake would be 360p, that'd be disturbing. But if it's just sub-720p, the difference is hardly noticable (hence why these things only come out after the pixel counters had their go at it). I mean, it says it all that they need to look so deep to find a game is or isn't sub-HD.

This gen, with it's current available tech benefits far more from postprocessing fx, lighting, physics, animations etc, than a higher resolution picture. You take a game with ugly textures, art, animations and lighting and I bet you that in some cases, it'll look better at a lower res purely because the higher res only magnifies those imperfections. It is why I prefer my games with a healthy dose of blur and DOF. It masks those ugly 'hard edges' often visible in games.

Having said all that, from a marketing standpoint: Having a top of the line next-gen (HIGH DEFINITION GEN!) exclusive game that has got a budget and development time/freedom like very few others, to be SUB-HD is kind of...embarassing. But, the devs already confirmed the game to run at 720P, so that point is mute.

This kind of thing is easy to understand Optimus its one of those situations like when people build a famous person up and can't wait to knock him back down again, everyone likes drama.

I did have the feeling that the game wasn't running in 720p and tbh I do kind of feel cheated about the way devs do this, I didn't buy a HDTV to play at SD resolutions, that said the game does look very nice.

Personally I won't believe the dev's until I see it myself, you can see this kind of thing a mile away FF13 anyone..!, of course you have to be very picky to let it bother you to any real extent.

If dev's are really having problems getting their games to run perhaps its time to ask for new hardware, DX11 features yes please !!

Nah, they're pretty shitty.

No doubt, I was inititally stunned to read that it was running at 720p native with 4XAA while also looking and performing as good as it does. In fact, I thought it was too good to be true, but figured it had to be basically confirmed, since the dev came outright and touted that aspect of their game. It sounded pretty ironclad, basically.

Also can't disagree there, we surely did buy HDTVs with the intention to play games at HD resolutions, but I'm content in knowing that the HDTV has made a very big difference for me, and a lot of the games, true HD or not, still all look pretty good. Yea, I won't be surprised if it doesn't turn out to actually be 720p either. I'll only consider it shocking in the sense that a Remedy dev was pretty gung ho about this technical aspect of their game.

So, I guess if they happen to get a bit of crap about it, then the wound is probably greatly self inflicted. Still, I'll be judging the game based on how fun a game it is and how good the story is. Yea, there are some animations that look rough, but I guess that won't bother me too much.

I don't know, when your TV is inbetween 720 and 1080 pixels, every signal is already scaled;
the sub-HD resolutions can make it that much worse.

It's the lies that really get me though. Straight out lies

I've never heard an industry (other than Oil or Tobaccoo) that straight up lies to their customers so much as the gaming industry.
If it's not a straight out lie, it's sugar coating, or downplaying/damage control.

They are lucky games are so much fun, because it's not good customer relations there (for those who pay attention)

/Drama Queen

Yea, not good policy :D

I'm just blown away by all the people that were saying how good the game looked in videos -- not screens -- I mean videos, actual gameplay videos.

And then, of course, we have those that have had actual hands on time with the game as well, who have come away impressed.

But, I don't want to include those who have had hands on time currently. I'm just wondering, how in the heck do the individuals who have been looking at this game and loving every moment of it from videos, all of a sudden have these vastly opposite opinions now about how blurry and bad the image quality is? I certainly never heard these complaints before about this game :D

I'm stunned because this has got to be the most insane reversal of opinion I've ever seen with regards to a game, and that's saying something with all the crap we've seen this gen already lol.

I would be very much interested in seeing if those who are now so utterly disappointed with Alan Wake's visuals, would now say -- before pixel counters got involved -- that all the gameplay videos of this game that they had been watching before, now suddenly look terrible and are a blurry mess? Because, in essence, that's what they would have to be saying. This huge turnaround of opinion only leads me to one conclusion.

If the pixel counters had instead listed the resolution for the game as 1366 x 768 with 4XAA, every single person on gaf would've believed it. They would have ate it up.

It's a total placebo effect. They all loved it, they all loved it until they heard what the resolution actually was. Now, everyone and their mother is picking the game's visuals apart finding all the imperfections, and Alan Wake has now, in the blink of an eye, become one of the 360's worst looking titles :D

I'm impressed :)

i wanna know why all these 360 games are running sub-720p with a pretty pimp graphics card, seems pretty weirdo.

I'm guessing everyone just completely ignored this post ^^^

http://forum.alanwake.com/showthread.php?p=68521#p...

Developer choice, obviously. There are plenty of games that look pretty pimp and are 720p with AA and post processing applied with nice lighting up the yin yang :P (Blue Dragon being one of my favorites) It may not look the most flattering in screens, but that game in motion is a sight to behold. There are areas in that game that are too stunning for words.

That aside, it seems, however, that if a dev wants to do certain extra things with regards to their game, perhaps with regards to lighting and shadows or particles, then I guess they make the necessary sacrifices where needed, for their particular game.

Clearly there are devs that don't appear to need to make as many of these same sacrifices, but then there seems to be a general concensus, until today that is, that Alan Wake was easily one of the ocnsole's or this gen's most unbelievable looking games.

Funny how 2 or 3 posts on a forum can change all that, erasing all videos beforehand eh? :D

Jin, you should know better than that, he has been discredited already on forums as a community manager that doesn't know a thing about game development :P

Do I necessarily agree with such a thing? Not exactly, but you know how people get when they see red meat :D Then there was the head honcho at Remedy in charge of development that also said the game was 720p, but he was quickly ignored as well :)

The resolution doesn't really matter to me, though, if it's good it's good, and I suppose people are now talking about alan wake. Even bad publicity can be good publicity. This might be one of scoob's very rare posts about Alan Wake, and it's at just the right time haha :D

Don't mean anything by that, by the way. Just used it as an example as to how these kinds of things can get people really talking about a game. Shows we got priority issues :P

And, it requires noting, there are just as many, if not more ps3 titles that are sub hd as well. It might be easy to allow ourselves to be clouded by the truly impressive and more recent ps3 titles, namely the big exclusives, that don't have this problem, Uncharted 2, Killzone, God of War 3, to name a few.

Those aren't the only ps3 exclusives that are at 720p, but I think we are focusing on the system showcases, and, yes, I know I left off some graphically impressive ps3 titles that are 720p and came earlier in the console's life. You get the point I'm making, either way. I don't think it's necessarily the 360 itself that is the issue, more than it's developers simply making choices they feel best fit their game.

If we're looking for 360 games that look great and are 720p, they are certainly in abundance. You can't overlook the fact, though, that it has seemingly been the case that not many 360 first party titles do the best at exploiting the system's capabilities.

Resolution or not, I do not think that Alan Wake is one of those games that has a problem showing off the potential of the system.

LOL!! Yeah but judging by some of the comments made on that thread i think reading plain english period is a problem for the likes of idoits like them.

Love this post hahaha

http://forum.alanwake.com/showpost.php?p=68530&pos...

Wow....those Alan Wake forums are horrible....reminds me of the Halo: Reach forums. Despite the sub-HD rumour being dispelled early in the thread, people still kept talking about it like it was fact simply because they didn't read the earlier posts.