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Game reviewers - busted! (Thanks Bioware)
Gyrus
Member UncommonPosts: 2,413
This thread is in relation to this interesting piece of news that is currently setting any SW: TOR forum alight:
SW:TOR is in low rez.
That's it. There is no other setting in game.
The cut scenes and a couple of other small bits of the game are High Res - but the game is low rez.
During development and testing of The Old Republic, our priorities were to ensure the game looked great and performed well. In testing, we discovered that using our 'maximum resolution' textures on in-game characters during normal gameplay could cause severe performance issues, even on powerful PCs.
...
The textures you're seeing in the course of normal gameplay are optimized for that mode of play. The textures you're seeing during cinematics are also optimized for that mode of play. They are higher resolution, but that's because we're able to control cinematic scenes to ensure good performance in a way we can't during normal gameplay.
We understand the passion and desire for people to see the same textures you see in our cinematic scenes in the main game. Because of the performance issues that would cause for the client, that's not an immediate and easy fix; we need to ensure we're making choices that the majority of our players will be able to benefit from.
- Stephen Reid | Senior Online Community Manager
So then it occured to me that SW:TOR had a lot of game reviews... and those reviews seemed to disagree with the users (remember us reviewers? those people who actually pay for the games and thus keep you in work?)
Well... I decided to do some checking. I went to Metacritic.
This is a "name and shame" thread. You guys are busted.
AusGamers 9.5/10 Review By Khel @ 03:54pm 21/12/11
Easily the most graphically impressive MMO to date, with some truly stunning environments.
I don't speak spanish either but I speak enough
Gráficos 9
DarkStation 9.0 Posted 09 Jan 2012 in PC, reviews by Allen
The Old Republic adopts the similar visual style used for both Knights of the Old Republic and Knights of the Old Republic II. Everything in the game, from character models to the environments are incredibly slick and polished. Characters, whether they be NPCs, companions or yourself, are very detailed,despite their cartoonish appearance.
Visually The Old Republic isn't too far off from Knights of the Old Republic which is a plus frankly because it didn't fall into the trap of trying to be as realistic as possible, only to look stupid. Instead we get a vibrant atmosphere with characters and locations crackling with sci-fi effects and designs.
The final point I’m going to mention is how beautiful the game looks. Whether it was the collision detection on my cape that kept it from randomly entering odd polygons, or the brilliantly rendered landscape, this game is gorgeous. Granted, it nearly blew up my Asus N53 when I set it to the highest graphics, but it was worth it. The game really is breathtaking, and it has graphics that I can see staying relevant for the next five years.
The graphics are a definite step up from everything else on the market,...
4.7/5 Graphics
From the cutscenes to the in-game world, no other MMO comes close visually.
Digital Spy 4/5 StarsPublished Friday, Jan 6 2012, 9:51pm EST | By Mark Langshaw
Visually, Star Wars: The Old Republic is a powerhouse. It boasts the kind of production values that George Lucas himself would be proud of, and as well it should with a record-breaking budget somewhere between $125 million and $200 million (£80.6 million and £129 million). The opening cinematic is a jaw-dropping feast of Jedi versus Sith action, setting the standards for what follows.
The gameplay visuals themselves are highly polished, and virtually unhampered by the bugs and glitches you might expect to find in a newly launched MMO. Couple this with a score that does justice to the John Williams original and we have an authentic Star Wars experience on our hands.
So these reviewers above completely missed the fact that the game was in Low Rez?
How did they do that?
I suspect that either they didn't play the game at all - and simply cut and pasted from developer journals and looked at a few screenshots OR maybe they played in Beta?
But what they obviously didn't do is play the retail release.
Yet according to the dates of their 'reviews' they were published after the retail release.
So, do their Editors know? What were they supposed to be reviewing?
I sure hope those cheques haven't cleared.
As a gamer who looks to you guys in order to make good purchasing decisions - you guys are a waste of space.
Hmmm.... not sure...
A few reviewers do not commit. It's quite possible they simply didn't mind the low rez settings (some people really do prefer gameplay to graphics!)
In some cases I simply cannot read the review.
I like the game’s graphics style—very reminiscent of the Knights of the Old Republic series—though the light-hearted look won’t be to everyone’s tastes.
I would be interested to know if those screenshots are beta or not?
Meristation 9 (Review in Spanish)
Gamereactor Sweden 9/10 (review in Swedish)
Grafik:8 - personally I think that is too high and I should have put them in the category above... but as reviewers seem to think 8 is an 'average' score I put it here. Saved because I don't read Swedish.
Graficos 8.5. Again - only saved by my inability to read Spanish
Falling somewhere in between the fantastic reality of the films and the cartoon whimsy of the animated television series, The Old Republic presents a sharp stylized silhouette that pulls double duty as a resource light game with plenty of hardware scalability. Even the most modest of rigs should have little difficulty rendering the busy aerial highways of Coruscant, though expect a touch of "framey-ness" if you're running on the low end. The visuals paint a vibrant and picturesque rendition of the Star Wars universe, though it isn’t completely impervious to the occasionally unflattering glitch. Animations also teeter from convincing to humorous, though for the most part, we’re impressed by the overall effort.
GamingXP 86 Grafik got 82% I don't read German
The A.V. Club 83 by Samantha Nelson January 9, 2012
The graphics look great most of the time, but occasionally you’ll wind up talking to empty chairs, or watching NPCs addressing an invisible character, who then abruptly pops back into view. Companions can turn in the results of a gathering mission, but they still don’t actually appear beside you until you get back into the fray.
Eurogamer Sweden. In Swedish.
The graphics are occasionally stunning – with long draw distances rendering outdoor and space locations particularly effective and, so far, relatively lag and glitch free – an achievement in itself for most MMOs.
When you get indoors things can feel a bit more generic at first but patience is the lucrative key here, and the developers have peppered your first 20 levels or so with regular standout cut-scenes, locations and surprises.
- If by "occasionally stunning" he means the cut scenes then this is High rez
gameblog.fr 8 In French - although I think he mentions "Direction artistique qui divise" in the negatives?
Eurogamer.it 8 In Italian.
And the good
These reviewers seemed to notice? (I gave the benefit of the doubt in some cases)
AtomicGamer By Jeff Buckland, 1/7/2012
Yes, there are some issues with The Old Republic, and while none of the are remotely bad enough to ruin the experience, it's still important to go through them. ... Second, the system requirements are just a tad steep, and I found some weird performance issues in this game, and conventional solutions, like lowering detail and resolution settings, may not always work.
IGN US, January 7, 2012
8.5 Graphics
It won’t push your machine very hard, but the style is consistent and recognizably Star Wars.
Ten Ton Hammer * Posted Thu, Dec 22, 2011 by Sardu
One of the key building blocks of MMO accessibility is serving up a game client that can run smoothly on the widest array of system configurations. There’s a certain sweet spot you need to aim for. Shoot too high and you’ll leave gamers with lower end systems out in the cold. Shoot too low and hardcore PC gaming enthusiasts will quickly begin searching for a game that pushes more pixels or shades more cells per microsecond.
In terms of the graphics to performance ratio, BioWare no doubt knew early on that hitting the graphical bar of its Mass Effect or Dragon Age series would likely cripple most mid-range PCs in a massively multiplayer environment. But even if SWTOR lacks a bit of high end sparkle, it still looks and plays exceptionally well considering the amount of detail found in most areas of the game.
*Gave the graphics "8.5 very good" which considereing the comments is more than a bit odd?
Gamestar In German - but "Grafik 7/10" tells me they noticed something.
Edge Magazine 8 Actually talks about the game experience not the graphics.
gamesradar 8 Focus on gameplay.
gameplanet 8 Focus on gameplay.
GameSpot 8.0 By Kevin VanOrd, GameSpot Posted Jan 7, 2012 12:33 pm AEST
That doesn't mean that The Old Republic sets new standards for graphics engines. Facial features are flat, hair looks more like glued-on plastic than actual hair, and textures are plain. So don't come to the game looking to show off the capabilities of your fancy new video card. But The Old Republic was built to look good on as many computers as possible--even those that aren't state of the art.
GameSpy By Leif Johnson | Jan 4, 2012
The Old Republic may not blow your mind (or videocard) with its vaguely cartoony graphics, but it works well with what it has.
incgamers.com 8 Focus on gameplay.
Eurogamer.net 8/10 By Oli Welsh Published 3 January, 2012
It's as a Star Wars game that The Old Republic is hardest to judge. Some of the content - whether it stems from MMO tradition or BioWare's tastes - is jarring. And although the game has a tidy interface and clean looks, no Star Wars universe should be this drab.
A few famous locations aside, the world-building effort has produced a procession of oversized, cut-and-paste brown wastelands and purple jungles, populated with formless monsters and dotted with cavernous, empty, symmetrical buildings. Oh the disappointment when the moon of Nar Shaddaa - purportedly a Hutt-run mix of Blade Runner and 1920s Shanghai - turns out to be a few indistinguishable blocks of grey boxes behind the neon.
mmorpg.com 8.7 Reviewed By: Michael Bitton Reviewed On: January 06, 2012
On the upside, characters do look great in cutscenes, but visual quality is noticeably reduced while out and about. I understand the desire to scale detail downward to maintain acceptable framerates, but Star Wars: The Old Republic isn’t incredibly taxing as it is, and I imagine users with rigs like mine would be able to handle (and appreciate) squeezing out some additional visual quality.
Nothing says irony like spelling ideot wrong.
Comments
If you love the low quality armor textures, imagine how the game would look if it implemented actual high textures then.
You compiled all of this together to, 'prove', the graphics are, 'bad', because you personally don't like them?
Well A+ for effort but my eyes can cope without your ground breaking research thanks...
This looks like a job for....The Riviera Kid!
i've noticed the blocky shaped shadows and now i can't stop getting annoyed by them. they look like leftovers from space invaders games.
having said that, the actual textures of my character and the world don't bother me so much. i don't mind the look of it, actually.
The game was high-res in beta, all the time, not just in cutscenes.
Since most of the reviews came out just after the early-access (where high-res was disabled), they are accurate and describe the game how it looked for them at that time (because most reviewers probably played the beta)
Is this misleading in the review?
Yes, sure is and those companies should go back and re-review the game for the now reduced graphical settings.
But nobody got "busted" over anything.
You are welcome to like the graphics as they are.
Personally I play most of my MMOs on low rez simply because I either like the game or I don't - the graphics are not that much of an issue to me.
But you miss the point here. It's NOT about SW:TOR - it's about the shonky reviewers.
Look at the Dark zero comments for example:
The final point I’m going to mention is how beautiful the game looks. Whether it was the collision detection on my cape that kept it from randomly entering odd polygons, or the brilliantly rendered landscape, this game is gorgeous. Granted, it nearly blew up my Asus N53 when I set it to the highest graphics, but it was worth it. The game really is breathtaking, and it has graphics that I can see staying relevant for the next five years.
O'rly?
So, he set it to the "highest graphics" and it nearly blew up his graphics card?
Interesting that... especially since even Bioware have admitted that this is not possible.
Nothing says irony like spelling ideot wrong.
i think what s/he is trying to prove with this thread is that:
A) the game reviewers who reviewed the game... cant tell north from south on graphics
C) wanted to wall-o-text people rofl
though i dont play the game my self.. it looks nice even if the graphics are low end @_@ i frankly dont see what the problem is.. even low end the graphics look good least its not all grainy and washed out like alot of low end graphics tend to be
Read the thread folks.
FWIW I never buy any MMO straight after release. Never have... never will.
Do I like or hate SW:TOR? Don't know yet.
But this thread is about shonky reviewers.
Nothing says irony like spelling ideot wrong.
You realise that this kind of exagerated view is what allows developers to get away with providing low quality services or in this case a severe shortcut. Aion, a game years older has vastly superior looking armor and comparable visuals to SW:TOR. Rift is newer, but again the visual quality of the avatars is leaps and bounds better. And what is still in production line is absolutely stunning and puts to shame anything available today. Archage, Blade and Soul, The Secret World and more, are more than ample proof that you can make great looking MMOs that can scale down if necessary.
I love what Bioware did with the personal story and the RPG element of SW:TOR, but both the avatars look cheap and muddy and the world static and fake.
Just to be fair the "reviewers" probably based this on the Hi Res texture client. Look at all the screenshots, videos, ect on these sites and they are all in Hi Res.
Something that we dont have the option to change on the release / public client. Mid range is the new " high" setting now for SWTOR. Basically what you see on the review sites is not " actual" in game footage and should be labeled as such IMO. As these settings are disabled for the consumer.
my lol for the day, thank you OP!
op !you are wrong,ony in cutscene will you notice the resolution being low,from normal distance it looked fine,
but they still have the loading issue , ill grant you that ,at 25% the bar stop progressing and take about 20 second for it to resume smoothly this one one of my main concern.if you use direct memory access(almost all modern computer do)then you need to disable chimney offloading.on speedguide.net they recommend to activate both!DONT!check on microsoft site they will mention that you activate chimney or direct memory access!i didnt take chance i reinstalled gpu driver ,and swtor.since then game look very good .but the cutscene are still very low res to look at!.
Do you love pulling numbers out of your ass? Games with a lot more characters in one place than SWTOR is ever going to handle are using high-res graphics and still running well with decent gaming PCs.
Of course the fact that SWTOR's graphics engine is coded by monkeys might explain why they have disabled the high graphics, but stop pretending good graphics and smooth framerates with a lot of players cannot be done.
I'd say for most of the reviewers, the gameplay and story world they found themselves was enough for them to rate the graphics as good, even if they aren't "high rez".
I first started PC gaming on a CGA four color monitor, to me any new game looks great, so if I were to right a review, I'd probably fall into the trap of overpraising graphics. I liked WOW's graphics, yet people slam them constantly.
It's not a secret plot to destroy our lives, in the end you should be reading reviews to try and determine if the game might be fun for you or not, not look for in depth analysis on every game mechanic.
Although my wife bought SWTOR for me this Christmas I haven't broken the seal yet, because I'm just not sure I'll enjoy the end game to it. (I'm sure the leveling up/storylines will be good).
In fact, I just returned to L2 this week, as it has an end game I've always wanted to experience and seems worth working towards. Not so much with SWTOR.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
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Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
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"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
SWTOR is not a low quality MMORPG and to use this as a reason to imply this, the cat is out of the bag on the anti SWTOR-bias. Anyone who chose SWTOR because of the "high-quality" graphcs didn't do their homework. It's a cartoony game - it always has been. Anyone who buys an mmo based on what they 'hope to implement' is a fool. I went into SWOTR with eyes wide open and I'm having a blast. Plus, again, I really like the graphics.
This is my point.
If these "reviewers" reviewed the game in Beta - they should say so.
I buy a magazine and they have a section called "Engine Room" which clearly refers to Betas and "preview" which is also clear.
As a matter of fact that Magazine does review SW:TOR this month and they make it quite clear that the review is based on a demo and their Beta experience.
That is quite fair.
But when you release a review after the retail release customers have a reasonable expectaion that it is the retail release being reviewed.
Nothing says irony like spelling ideot wrong.
Thats probabl the same row I sit in . My first game really was pong. And I played the heck out my early Atari console.
I remember an amazing looking "Alien" game on my brother's commodore 64.
So I tend not to look at every pixel, every shadow, every texture with a magnifying glass. One thing I've also noticed is that "good graphics" never "wow" for long.
When I got my dx 10 card I put lotro on the highest everything and it looked amazing. A few months into it I was thinking "did I really put everything on high?" Check the next lowest settings and saw a slight difference. But too quickly did I get used the the graphic quality to eventualy lose that wow factor.
I like SWToR's art design and the graphics server it reasonably well with some issues here and there. I have a very good computer but at one point I was having a lot of issues rendering things on screen. This seems to have been fixed in the last patch.
My guess is that these reviewers liked the art design, probably having the same issues with their computers so assumed it was the graphics rendering.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
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Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
I'm always a performance over graphics type mmo player. The graphics are fine for me.
Some of us can actually afford both graphics AND performance. It comes with the freedom of choosing what you do when you are not playing games.
Of course with SWTOR, we can only select performance, because the developer thought we'd be playing it with our netbooks.
Is it at all possible, that primarily they based most of there testing on Beta, then when retail came out, they mainly focused on the launch aspects, the servers, and the overall way the game felt afterwards, so not really paying attention to the games "look". Not saying it's a good excuse, but who would even suspect a graphics degrading right after launch? Just to be fair to those reviewers who were trying to get the "scoop".
You just proved my point that the guys in Bioware suck in coding. If the engine is solid their usage of it must be horrible.
Er... Excuse me guys... this thread is NOT actually about Bioware or SW:TOR... if you want to argue about that there is a sub forum.
This thread is about dodgy game reviewers.
thanks
Nothing says irony like spelling ideot wrong.
Pot calling kettle black here.