The Revolution in Resolution News

I used to think a nice game resolution was... well, nice. It fits across more diverse range of televisions or monitors, puts more detail into our games (and is the practically definition of HD), and the demand for it has even given us some nice little re-releases for fans or guys that missed out on certain games. I also recently went out of the way to aim so that both my usual televisions are able to make best use of the PS4's power to put out 1080p gaming. So why then have I become a little sick of hearing it, and specifically 1080p, quite a bit? Well because while there are some great people, and nice things out there on the internet, there's also a loud noisy obnoxious group that tries to put a horrible spin on nearly everything... and that has taken hold of the newest console generation quite well.

The issue hasn't died down since before the new generation launch. Rumors for a while circulated poking at the power between Xbox one, and the PlayStation 4 and people were reading up on their resolution knowledge preparing to argue at each other for another power struggle. Back in the PS3/360 days the 360 just did 720p mostly and the PS3 got 1080p so rarely (lair, all-stars, majin, and I think that's it) that it may as well not be a thing. Meanwhile as PC gaming kind of rose more, more people and info got around about what resolution, framerate, and whatnot is. While consoles awkwardly tried and messed around with 3D and motion controls people were hearing and starting to expect their games to get better resolution during the next line up of consoles. When Microsoft and their Xbox one disappointed in the 1080p area and people were raging, calling it overpriced, and PS/PC fanboys were dancing around it Journalist and Developers were giving away information on how the games were formatted in each console port. This seemed like a given for a game like Killzone or Ryse where the developers love their eye candy and put a lot of work into the engines, not to mention these were good bragging games for the console sellers to the respective exclusive. However now with Thief, Tomb Raider re-release, all the ubisoft games, and way more (including indie teams) all making it a standard practice to release their format its gotten a bit old and silly. Your doing the tech geeks jobs for them, in the past nobody cared too much about side by side images when they came by, now its the developers doing it for them with simple numbers which have become like business buzzwords. It was only a matter of time before one screwed up and made an even bigger mess of things.... oh hey, welcome to the position Killzone Shadow Fall. Its been all over the news lately that its actually more like 1080i in the multiplayer portion rather than naively 1080p for the whole game. It uses some kind of weird scaling gizmo in the system to trick the screen and format to seem like 1080p (and the campaign really is in 1080p). It was only until a few days ago someone was re-analyzing it and discovered this trick out and noted it, with the developers recently commenting back saying they thought it still counted as 1080p. Clearly this is an outrage. Heads up on the sarcasm by the way.

*Gasp* it was ugly this whole time!

I got pretty sick of these resolution discussions and went on a mini-rant on Dtoid back when thief announced its format. Now, after it was practically exposed that nobody can notice this big res hype, and still people bicker about it on the same article that should have been a wake-up call, it is just blatant proof that some people in this industry really don't know what fun is anymore. News flash guys, we came off of a console period where nearly everything to us console guys was practically in 720p or even upscaled sub-720p and 30fps. Heck I could make a whole article on the BS 60fps hype, but you know now the 1080p has gotten even worse and the news is still fresh and so I'm left disgusted more with that. 1080p was never an entitlement for the new generation, it was never something that assisted your games, and even best visual quality doesn't even come out of raw resolution as much as it does the models/textures/lighting. If all it took to make your games look better was a resolution bump, then the HD collection would have been competing along our triple A games quite some time ago. Instead its the models you want to look solid and polished, its the textures that will pop out and make surfaces look nice, and its the lighting and reflections that catch the eye and even add to the atmosphere and interactions of the virtual world you see.

Considering this is fixed hardware we're talking about, I wouldn't mind if they planned everything around 720 to work better on things that were more important... and with that mentioned I'll poke at 60fps to. Its just not needed for most games and you're missing out on potential quality with that. Why do you think the PS3 could do 1080p but didn't.... because it meant the quality took a dive and we wouldn't have ever been amazed at Last of Us or Killzone 2/3. Likewise that is why the multiplayer in shadow fall isn't actually 100% 1080p, because they didn't want to hold back other things that were more important. We ran plenty of games that looked fantastic in 30fps and 720p, and still hold up well today. I suppose the argument is that its time to upgrade, but you're still getting the upgraded experience. Every console, even the Wii U (oh and the vita has more ram than 7th gen consoles), is objectively an upgrade and can and will do more than what we've been getting. However that doesn't mean its time to start running around with some snobby standard to give to the developers to act like their game needs to become fun. The fun can be had and enjoyed a lot on sub-HD gaming if it needs to be. As it stands now, pretty much every game I've loved was below 1080p and some even dropped below 30fps frequently (Hi there Dark Souls). Meanwhile Assasins Creed 4 puts out 1080p on PS4, but why isn't that a treasured achievement? Because its combat is stupidly simple, its plot strange and not in my taste (pirates just aren't fun to me, sorry guys), the naval combat is an over-glorified clumsy artillery mini-game, and the game's missions weave in and out of hate or love it entertainment. Its not a bad game, but its not as fun as the series used to be and the fancy resolution helped it none. Now the draw distance is awesome, but that has nothing to do with 1080p, I'm certain xbox one's much feared 900p captures that just as well.

 Don't get me wrong now, I'm grateful when a game can put out 1080p and I'm not here to make enemies with it (even though I'd still question what can be gained out of its sacrifice). It can be a nice improvement, and it does help with what might be a tiny bit of blur or do AA's job better than it can at reducing jaggies, but honestly in general its not that big of a deal and its not something your going to really notice all that much. So what if I turn out wrong on this? what if you do notice it and its getting in your way big time? What if the age of high resolution has spoiled you beyond being able to play anything beyond a 7th generation era game, and what if you sit biting your nails in anxious hope that an upcoming game supports your necessary resolution? Well then I must ask... what the hell are you doing on consoles. That applies to more than just resolution as well. I even have to make fun of myself there because while I stress 30fps should be the standard for console games as it gives more power to the rest, I'm still at the mercy of whatever the developers desired and honestly I knew that ahead of time and consciously went with fixed hardware on consoles. I hate it when the smugness of the PC elitists comes into play, but they really are right to have the victory within the resolution argument, and honestly that just makes me more frustrated that these format labels and bickering over them has become common practice. Not only is it all worthless, but its irrelevant and missing the point to the platforms and trying to feel good about making the 1080p landmark is like feeling good about not failing too hard. While the PS4 can finally do native 1080p standard, at least for now, there are corners of the hardcore PC fanatics that have upgraded to a massive 4x resolution. If you highly prioritize pretty visuals, fancy numbers, and are in pursuit of the best output available... you need to leave the console market and go all out big time PC.

The other funny thing this whole matter has made me realize is that I actually feel kind of sorry for the PC userbase. Yeah that's something I wont say often considering the common smug elitism that is so out of hand that even the positive and neutral PC gamers have gone around spreading myths and finger pointing at consoles to find a scapegoat for something they didn't like. However think about this... console ports and lazy developers really have hurt their industry as developers have in some ways become careless and leave the PC options more bare bones or outright broken and don't take much responsibility on them anymore. Heck even the console port games on consoles are often in bad shape to be fairly honest. When it comes to options, a great massive chunk of the industry just doesn't care anymore... and that's especially sad for PC since it requires extra care put into it. The resolution options that it supports there does matter because it doesn't just magically corrects itself to your screen like a game does regardless of your 720p/1080p console and TV set up. So its best to have a range of resolution to support multiple monitor types, and for better scaling. Then there's FOV support since your closer to the screen, there's rebindable keys since there are too many set ups for a universal one or set in many cases, and there's mod support because you can, etc. Yet while we ridiculously see resolution news noted on every single new release for PS4 vs Xbox one there is next to zero reports or helpful people out there getting the word out on how many options you'll have within a PC game. The best thing they can do is pray that Totalbiscuit puts out a video on the game, or go digging in the steam forums for some answers. That is just sad. In the same world where people are arguing, stiring up trouble, and barking demands at the developer that their PS4 or Xbox one copy better have solid format, its just sad that the people who have needed it the most still aren't tossed a bone. I'm not even a massive PC gamer, but it'd be fantastic if someone could tell me what settings are available and give me a better idea of running the game. Also yeah I'm aware of the "minimum requirements" but lets face fact and start spotting how little that actually covers or even how inaccurate it is.

THIS.... is where visuals matter

Now okay so I think I covered what should have been obvious. Resolution in itself isn't a big deal, isn't something worth advertising, and isn't something to get worked up over. However there are some interesting side arguments around this topic, both the Killzone drama and the consoles. Here's the thing with the console discussion... the xbox one has been getting the flak for its lesser output but higher cost. Now I'm going to agree that everyone has a good point to poke fun at the overpriced status, but at the same time it doesn't make the console terrible if it has something you want. If the features or games (in other words, the important stuff) are in your favor, then yeah its still a great console to go for and the price per power isn't much of an obstacle if your going to end up enjoying it. Its not worth arguing and hating over months after we've all known this whole power vs price thing. Yelling at someone for buying a game console over its power is just a bit silly. Relax about it, and grow up already. The price drops on every system will eventually go lower, get rebundled, and will hit big sales and special deals over time. Now stop poking at the dead horse and move on.

Now as for the Killzone drama, I've been told this was important because it was exposing PS4 fanboy hypocrisy and that saying "who cares" is missing the point on this opportunity. I have to say that's one of the most backwards things I've heard in recent time. For starters, this isn't some golden opportunity, fanboy wars have always been full of crap and low credit insults with no source or no sense put into them. I guess this whole thing got out of hand because it was a real number to go by, but regardless if you were intelligent enough to not get involved.... well you wouldn't feel the need to go getting involved and using this even to attack a side. Fanboys are always talking crap with little to show for it. They've never had strong arguments to stand behind, this Killzone surprise isn't anything new. On top of that... even if you wanted to poke at their hurt feelings (assuming they were ever human and had any) well this isn't working because they're still "winning" if you want to say that. They still get to gloat about better 3rd party exclusives, and last I checked the xbox one still doesn't have a Killzone grade performance in numbers. Just telling them its not as good as they thought it was, isn't exactly winning you any medals. However if you want to really hurt fanboys or stand against a console fanboy war, you wouldn't give them any attention to begin with. Instead fighting them like this is beating a dead horse by making an event out of something for people to flock to, and look at all the Xbox and PC fanboys that came out to leave crap in the comments on these articles. The guys who don't care about this resolution discovery are the ones that "get it", the ones using it as a weapon are just keeping the flames of this dumb hate fest going.

Finally.... there's one last bit of an issue this Killzone thing exposes, and this I can sympathize with a bit more. How can you trust this team again after you feel lied to? After Sony told us it was native 1080p all around, and GG backed it up only to come clear with playful wording in recent events? Isn't that a terrible thing? Well... I have to say yeah it is, but yet its a bit strange because I don't feel truly betrayed or decieved like I should. Then I kind of realized why, and it honestly loops all the way back around to what I was saying to begin with and even reminded me of how this graphical stuff bugged me even before launch.... I don't care about the numbers. Every single time they were using that magical term of "1080p" or talked so proudly on their visuals, I kind of thought "that's nice, now what about the gameplay?". I just brushed it off. Yeah it was nice, yeah I tested the uncompressed video, and when I seen it I was very happy that one of my favorite games also happened to have some of the best available visuals, but overall I would have still went for it if it was still using Killzone 1's visuals if the gameplay was kept fun. Actually I have to say that I also naturally kind of have some doubt or distrust in the back of my head for visual hype. You can't just tell me it looks good and have me invested. I can't get invested in youtube quality, I can't tell you how breathetaking everything is in some still screenshot, and just about anything else (even uncompressed videos) you can do wont prepare me for what I will see on the TV screen when it gets here. So.... yeah its the sort of thing where I wont believe it until I see it, because you are talking about a sight thing afterall and your trying to get the info through a bunch of middleman sources. You can't earn my trust that way that the game will look fantastic based on whatever twitch, youtube, or the CEO says, it just doesn't work that way. I can't see it until I'm playing it, and then I'll not only appreciate it but I'll be immersed into it as the thing I'm actually a part of. Until that happens, I could care less what number you scale it at to look great, its not great until I'm impressed with what is on my TV running off of a disc in my console. Now I did feel betrayed by the team when they built up all this talk of custom games which helped multiplayer gameplay in Killzone 2 out so much, and in shadow fall it turned out they weren't actually doing it in the traditional server list style and instead fused it with matchmaking. This sucked as I wasn't going to be able to choose my actual match, it discouraged player creativity despite teasing it, and I couldn't tell how many people would be in the match I was getting into or what region it ran off of. However I got over that and still enjoyed the game. So by comparison hearing the graphical scaling was using tricks to fool a 1080p effect exclusive to multiplayer doesn't phase me one bit. I came, I saw, I loved the graphics, you can't just tell me that was a lie because I really did enjoy the graphics and again... that's all I got out of this thing. It all looped back to how unimportant and insignificant this all was. If your trust is now shaken, that's fair enough, but I'm not quite sure you should really care that the visuals were a lie. My advice is that you should be concerned over analyzing the gameplay details and mechanics more. That is what will determine the real good side of the team, and where your loyalty is due, not a promised number that scales to your TV.

Also I've got to point out again, this lie that sounds bad on paper is actually a brilliant test of showing how silly this whole topic of PS4 vs XB1 resolutions is. Now can we please stop with it already? It seems like with each new generation and as gaming grows up, the audience or developers seem to go backwards a bit more. We've always had issues with people bickering over who has more power, but never like this before, and its gotten possibly to the most childish level I've yet to see it. I was too young to hear the crap over N64 vs PS1, I was too careless about PS2/gabecube/xbox era, and the PS3/360 stuff was just easy to laugh off once the ill rumors were brushed off, but this.... this is numbers grading games and consoles and developers feeding people these discussions and consumers egging them on and making demands over them in this area. This is beyond the regular grades of stupid in usual console wars, and its gotten out of hand and needs to stop. Please... developers, stop giving out that information and instead start to give PC fans the info they deserve to know if they can get your game. Quit answering those annoying and flame bait twitter questions on framerate and resolution, and quite sending that to journalists who should be reporting on real news. Or better yet if you truly do care about these numbers in consoles, start opening up more choices in options, as it doesn't have to be as set in place as many games make it seem. Mag runner was just fine with an FOV slider, and Bioshock and Shadow fall's V-sync was nice, more of that and less of your flame baiting please.