How Not to Learn a Lesson
December 10th, 2007You’d think that with all the controversy surrounding media hype, inaccurate previews, publisher pressure and the internet’s eagle-eyed denizens who, among other things, are able to discern the number of pixels actually used in games, that publishers would wise up about releasing doctored gameplay photos of their games.
You’d think that this would be even more the case with Guerilla, the team responsible for Killzone 2, since they were already criticized for trying to pass off a CG trailer as gameplay footage back in 2005 and actually given somewhat of a reprieve this year when they showed a real gameplay trailer that actually came somewhat close (according to media reports anyway) to matching the fake 2005 one. But some people apparently just don’t learn from their mistakes, as Guerilla has admitted that recently released screenshots are “the tiniest bit touched up.” Here’s the comparison shot provided:
Does this look only the “tiniest bit touched up” to you? To me the doctored screenshot looks much crisper, colorful, and detailed. The textures on the walls, for instance, look far more interesting and the shadowing more distinct. Guerilla claims that there was just minor “color correction” done, which the Joystiq author apparently accepts and claims that difference could probably be achieved by changing the color/contrast settings on your TV set. I can accept that some of the blurring is the effect of snagging a screenshot from a video rather than directly from gameplay, but I’m not sure if I’m ready to accept that most of the difference in the results above are achievable just by changing your TV settings. That would mean that I should be able to change my current monitor settings to make the first picture look like the second one, (which would make the second one look… even better?) It doesn’t seem possible.
It does bring up an interesting point, though. What exactly is an acceptable level of “doctoring” for developers, publishers, or even media (particularly print media) to perform on in-game screenshots? All 3 of them have a reason to want the screenshots to look as good as possible. Should they make these “minor” changes that can theoretically be achieved with a TV screen?
My own feeling is that this is still basically unacceptable in most cases. Screenshots are typically a raw image from the screen buffer, so if the game is supposed to look like that, then that’s what it should look like in the screen buffer. If the effect of “doctoring” is the same as just adjust the color controls on your TV, then why wouldn’t the game simply just look like that pre-doctoring? That is, if the game actually looked “better” with those minor adjustments, that’s what the game would already look like without the need to doctor it in the first place. Everyone is going to have different settings on their TVs and monitors, so the “correct” color is going to be whatever the image is produced internally, which is an unaltered screenshot.
It’s too bad that this had to happen, as they had come close to erasing the ill will that they generated with their first fake trailer. These kinds of stunts make me think that the developers don’t have confidence that their game will be as good as they hope.
Posted in Commentary, Idiocy, Jeff, PS3, Sony |
December 11th, 2007 at 2:21 am
“It’s too bad that this had to happen, as they had come close to erasing the ill will that they generated with their first fake trailer. These kinds of stunts make me think that the developers don’t have confidence that their game will be as good as they hope.”
It makes ME think that they don’t give 2 sh#ts about how good or bad it is, they’re gonna lie about it either way and everything they tell us needs to be verified before its taken seriously. Then again I’m a cynical old crank.
I mean c’mon, you don’t pull what they pulled in 2005 and then just turn over a new leaf of honesty and respect for the consumer. They took us for fools then and they do now. Its just a matter of what they think they can get away with.
December 11th, 2007 at 2:26 am
cisco-
I think the actual developers of most games never set out to make a bad game. The really bad crap that comes out is often likely due to an inexperienced team with no time or resources.
That’s certainly not the case with this game, and I think the developers probably do genuinely want to make a good game… but maybe it’s not looking quite as good as they hoped, or maybe this was just a genuine screw-up.
December 11th, 2007 at 8:34 am
“I think the actual developers of most games never set out to make a bad game.”
I agree, I used poor phrasing. I think they set out to make a good game in the beginning, but no matter what the final result is, they intend to doctor it no matter what. I don’t think they only doctor games that turn out less than they hope. This game is a good example. When they released the CGI as real time game footage, I doubt the game was even far enough along to BE a disappointment. I think their default stance, good game or bad is “doctor our output to the public as long as we feel it won’t be noticed in a bad way”. That being said, I’m not even sure its the developers behind a stunt like this. I think the publisher and marketing probably pressure people into these behaviors, coming to developers and saying things like “we need something spectacular to show at E3 this year!” or, “these screen shot really need to pop!”.
December 11th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
What I wonder is that if Killzone 2 is as aweosme as we’ve been lead to believe….why do they need to touch it up? If it looks SO good, then why do they even need to make it look better. This reminds mne very much of Lair before it came out, how so many previews talked about the great graphics and how the controls weren’t a problem.
What makes this so suspicious is the shot itself. It’s from a section of the trailer whihc itself was obviously doctored. If you wathc it, the sequence where the guy vaults over the railing is noticeably faster and smoother than ANY other bit of footage shown. Almost as if it were artifically sped up somehow…