Poll: I HATE SMALL, WHITE TEXT! (also Arcania: Gothic 4 Demo review)

[KasaiOkami]

Ok, this is somewhat of a rant and something I'd like to share with everyone.

I recently was playing the Xbox 360 demo for Arcania: Gothic 4 because my girlfriend wanted to know my opinion of it, and lemme first of all start by saying I HATE SMALL, WHITE TEXT IN ANY VIDEO GAME! Its a real annoyance when your sitting on your comfortable couch, playing games on ANY sized television, HD or not, and playing your favorite games, but when the game has SMALL, WHITE TEXT, you can't see it unless your face is literally right at the screen. And honestly, I don't want to get off my comfortable couch and sit in front of the screen, mainly cause I've had back pains cause of the way I sit, but that's beside my point. The point is, it pisses off me, and maybe many others, when a game uses small, let alone WHITE TEXT!

Also, the game is pretty decent. I hate how you can't run, which nearly pulled a Resident Evil 4 moment on me, where I played through half the game not realizing that I could actually run, but thankfully I realized that this game was a "You can't run" game. The combat seemed slow really. I could hit the enemy four times and easily dodge an enemies attack. And the enemies are so kind enough, that they even signal off "Hey, this is an un-blockable attack! What are you going to do about it!?" with a shiny glow that makes them even brighter than Michael Jackson and Edward Cullen combined. (Always wanted to say that)

Anyways, post you comments or complaint's about small, white text in games, and I might respond!

 

[phenity]

White is simply the highest contrast color in 99% of situations. If there was an option to vote for LARGE white text I would've picked that.

 

[DustyDrB]

Yes, I wrote about the text in the Arcania 4 demo on a thread a week or two ago. It is the worst I've ever seen. And that's a game where you're going to need to read a lot (for descriptions of loot, for crafting, for item management, for dialogue options, for map locations, for quest descriptions). It might be readable on an HD TV, but why make TEXT such a hassle for anyone? I mean it literally when I say I could not read half the things on that demo. I had to walk up to my TV and squint to decipher the parts I read successfully.

Another game that had a bad moment in text issues is Mass Effect 2. The text is pretty small in the game but still readable except if you talk to Anderson in the Presidium. Here the text is white (or bright yellow) over a white background...

 

[DustyDrB]

Yes, I wrote about the text in the Arcania 4 demo on a thread a week or two ago. It is the worst I've ever seen. And that's a game where you're going to need to read a lot (for descriptions of loot, for crafting, for item management, for dialogue options, for map locations, for quest descriptions). It might be readable on an HD TV, but why make TEXT such a hassle for anyone? I mean it literally when I say I could not read half the things on that demo. I had to walk up to my TV and squint to decipher the parts I read successfully.

Another game that had a bad moment in text issues is Mass Effect 2. The text is pretty small in the game but still readable except if you talk to Anderson in the Presidium. Here the text is white (or bright yellow) over a white background...

Was it as small as Sacred 2's text (on consoles)?
That's got my vote as this gen's winner for most squint worthy text. When they coloured the text (especially red and green) it becomes completely unreadable (even standing 1 inch from the screen).

I can't say, having never played the game. It just seems like such a silly thing to screw up in a game. Even if people say, "We're years into this console generation, you should have the right equipment (HD everything) by now"... it's text.

As per your question of whether you should try this game out or not: It depends on how much you're willing to deal with a game's flaws. I played the demo and I can say it has potential. It may frustrate the hell out of you or it may be right in your niche. If you have a friend with a 360, then try out the demo. I can't give a recommendation based on my experience, both because it was limited and because it was very mixed. I won't be buying the game, and a lot of that has to do with the text issues. It is a big problem in this game if you can't read.

 

[Ryan Rosensweig]

I don't care about the color as long as it's fucking big enough. It's not like there isn't enough room on the screen and if the reason why the text is small is because it's not important then they shouldn't put it on the screen at all. There's no fucking excuse. I've played four fucking games with this problem and I just wanna hit someone.

 

[hazabaza1]

I don't care about the color as long as it's fucking big enough. It's not like there isn't enough room on the screen and if the reason why the text is small is because it's not important then they shouldn't put it on the screen at all. There's no fucking excuse and I just can't fucking wait until InFamous 3 comes out and I literally DO HAVE TO BUY A MICROSCOPE to read the god damn text. So far I've played 4 fucking games that I've had this problem with and ?whoever thought of the idea of microscopic text? needs to be punched in the face until the sense gets knocked into them or the life gets knocked out of them, whichever comes first.

dat 3 year necro

Also this:

ULTIMATE SOLUTION

 

[Ryan Rosensweig]

I don't care about the color as long as it's fucking big enough. It's not like there isn't enough room on the screen and if the reason why the text is small is because it's not important then they shouldn't put it on the screen at all. There's no fucking excuse and I just can't fucking wait until InFamous 3 comes out and I literally DO HAVE TO BUY A MICROSCOPE to read the god damn text. So far I've played 4 fucking games that I've had this problem with and ?whoever thought of the idea of microscopic text? needs to be punched in the face until the sense gets knocked into them or the life gets knocked out of them, whichever comes first.

dat 3 year necro

Also this:

ULTIMATE SOLUTION

Yeah, exactly, but the color of the text doesn't matter if it's too small, besides it doesn't have to have an outline if it's always gonna be in its own box like in Batman: Arkham Asylum. Besides, I find small, red text to be much more eye irritant than small, white text.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Why not just have the option to change text color in all games? PROBLEM FUCKING SOLVED.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I recently was playing the Xbox 360 demo for Arcania: Gothic 4 because my girlfriend wanted to know my opinion of it, and lemme first of all start by saying I HATE SMALL, WHITE TEXT IN ANY VIDEO GAME! Its a real annoyance when your sitting on your comfortable couch, playing games on ANY sized television, HD or not, and playing your favorite games, but when the game has SMALL, WHITE TEXT, you can't see it unless your face is literally right at the screen. And honestly, I don't want to get off my comfortable couch and sit in front of the screen, mainly cause I've had back pains cause of the way I sit, but that's beside my point. The point is, it pisses off me, and maybe many others, when a game uses small, let alone WHITE TEXT!

You keep saying "you" but I've never had that problem in my life.

 

[shadow skill]

Why not just have the option to change text color in all games? PROBLEM FUCKING SOLVED.

That would take effort. Doing this properly would require console manufacturers to provide the subsystems for doing this. Developers simply don't care enough to take the time to do things like that.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Why not just have the option to change text color in all games? PROBLEM FUCKING SOLVED.

That would take effort. Doing this properly would require console manufacturers to provide the subsystems for doing this. Developers simply don't care enough to take the time to do things like that.

A lot of games already do it, just not enough.