Poll: several problems found in 99% of games

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Is there anybody out there who seems to find these problems with the games you buy?
First off, all text on the screen at any given point is so small that you need a magnifying glass to see it, and secondly, the dialogue is recorded at such a low volume that you need to have the speakers blaring to be able to understand what is being spoken
I find these problems especially bad when I need subtitles to see what the characters are saying but the text is too small to see

Does anybody else find these sorts of things a problem?

holy god yes, i fuckin HATE having to go to the menu's and screw with the music/voice/sound effects for hours, where the sword and jumping sounds will make an earthquake but the voices at the top of there lungs are barely whispers...then after the dialogue, there is a cataclysmic roar from your speakers as the game goes back to its "normal volume"

why dont they just amp up the font on the text, and make the right joystick a scroller for the text? is it really that hard? takes up the same amount of space but just bigger font

Why is the default option for subtitles always set on "off"?!

What? They're generally set 'on' - a total pain in the arse. Fire a game up for the first time, and have your eyes directed to the wall of text lined at the bottom.

what games are you playing? i ALWAYS turn them on, because they are always off, hell i do that through half of the movies i watch

What?! Films are even worse! xD

whats not to like about it?

because it takes away from the "immersion" of it?

if its a good movie, having subtitles at the bottom of the screen (when its a widescreen movie anyways) really doesn't bug me at all, you could say the same thing about a map or hotbar on any game, its there for a purpose, in which you look at both the main screen and the "legend" or "key" as you prefer

not argueing just comparing and contrasting between game and movie, they both serve their purposes

 

[Woodsey]

Is there anybody out there who seems to find these problems with the games you buy?
First off, all text on the screen at any given point is so small that you need a magnifying glass to see it, and secondly, the dialogue is recorded at such a low volume that you need to have the speakers blaring to be able to understand what is being spoken
I find these problems especially bad when I need subtitles to see what the characters are saying but the text is too small to see

Does anybody else find these sorts of things a problem?

holy god yes, i fuckin HATE having to go to the menu's and screw with the music/voice/sound effects for hours, where the sword and jumping sounds will make an earthquake but the voices at the top of there lungs are barely whispers...then after the dialogue, there is a cataclysmic roar from your speakers as the game goes back to its "normal volume"

why dont they just amp up the font on the text, and make the right joystick a scroller for the text? is it really that hard? takes up the same amount of space but just bigger font

Why is the default option for subtitles always set on "off"?!

What? They're generally set 'on' - a total pain in the arse. Fire a game up for the first time, and have your eyes directed to the wall of text lined at the bottom.

what games are you playing? i ALWAYS turn them on, because they are always off, hell i do that through half of the movies i watch

What?! Films are even worse! xD

whats not to like about it?

because it takes away from the "immersion" of it?

if its a good movie, having subtitles at the bottom of the screen (when its a widescreen movie anyways) really doesn't bug me at all, you could say the same thing about a map or hotbar on any game, its there for a purpose, in which you look at both the main screen and the "legend" or "key" as you prefer

not argueing just comparing and contrasting between game and movie, they both serve their purposes

I've always found that whenever subtitles pop-up my eyes are automatically drawn too them, thus not paying attention to what's actually happening (and I've always read what they're going to say before they say it).

With a HUD it's there for assistance - I see what you're saying, but maybe it's the fact that with a HUD I don't feel like if I don't look then I'm missing out on something.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Escort missions and timers.

Why the fuck are they still in games??

If done well I...quite enjoy timers, actually. They add a sense of urgency, raise my stress levels, and I preform better under stress and make me feel even better when I complete the task at hand. Escort missions though, range from acceptable to downright horrible, I don't think I've ever played a really fun escort mission, just one's that weren't very annoying at best.

Anyway, I'll join Yathzee in his quicktime event hate. Senseless button bashing is not skill you know.

 

[Arkhangelsk]

Games aren't colorful enough. I don't want to get depressed while playing!

 

[lacktheknack]

Why is the default option for subtitles always set on "off"?!

...I was just about to complain about the same thing, but not "off".

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Is there anybody out there who seems to find these problems with the games you buy?
First off, all text on the screen at any given point is so small that you need a magnifying glass to see it, and secondly, the dialogue is recorded at such a low volume that you need to have the speakers blaring to be able to understand what is being spoken
I find these problems especially bad when I need subtitles to see what the characters are saying but the text is too small to see

Does anybody else find these sorts of things a problem?

holy god yes, i fuckin HATE having to go to the menu's and screw with the music/voice/sound effects for hours, where the sword and jumping sounds will make an earthquake but the voices at the top of there lungs are barely whispers...then after the dialogue, there is a cataclysmic roar from your speakers as the game goes back to its "normal volume"

why dont they just amp up the font on the text, and make the right joystick a scroller for the text? is it really that hard? takes up the same amount of space but just bigger font

Why is the default option for subtitles always set on "off"?!

What? They're generally set 'on' - a total pain in the arse. Fire a game up for the first time, and have your eyes directed to the wall of text lined at the bottom.

what games are you playing? i ALWAYS turn them on, because they are always off, hell i do that through half of the movies i watch

What?! Films are even worse! xD

whats not to like about it?

because it takes away from the "immersion" of it?

if its a good movie, having subtitles at the bottom of the screen (when its a widescreen movie anyways) really doesn't bug me at all, you could say the same thing about a map or hotbar on any game, its there for a purpose, in which you look at both the main screen and the "legend" or "key" as you prefer

not argueing just comparing and contrasting between game and movie, they both serve their purposes

I've always found that whenever subtitles pop-up my eyes are automatically drawn too them, thus not paying attention to what's actually happening (and I've always read what they're going to say before they say it).

With a HUD it's there for assistance - I see what you're saying, but maybe it's the fact that with a HUD I don't feel like if I don't look then I'm missing out on something.

ha yeah i guess i used to do that too, i got so used to subtitles from language class (i speak english and was taking german, which its fucking impossible to understand them with how fast they talk) and through watching movies while people were asleep, so my brain just has that ability to look at both now ( hell i probably have crazy eyes without realizing it)

 

[sln333]

The sound is fine. The problem for me is the text. I play on an SDTV. It's 24 inches, which isn't that small, but I still can't read some small text without sitting close because games are made with HD heavily in mind.

 

[e2density]

Fecking THIS. They really fucked up with the volume levels for that game.

Oh yes they did...luckily my headset has volume adjust panel that I clip on my belt.

I find that games these days focus too much on graphics rather then captivating gameplay and good story.

AKA
Far Cry 2
Crysis
Operation Flashpoint 2 Dragon Rising
Resident Evil 5

 

[EmiteXX]

A decent level of entertainment.
I've been playing on the PC more intesively for the last few years, and in this period I have never played a game that had decent graphics AND was fun to play for more than 2 hours...
Everything gets so dull afer you've played it for the second or third time...

Games should be a challenge, not a repetition of button-patterns.

 

[Rock Beefchest]

I believe that both can be explained by the technology that the developers are creating the game for.

As for the text size I noticed a similar probem with dead rising, until I bought a 60 inch HD tv then all of a sudden i could read everything fine. They designed the text to be read on a large 16:9 aspect ratio television.

The sound similarly is designed to be played on a surround sound digital system. When i starting playing with one i found the voices to be massively clearer since the voice audio was processed and sent through the center channel, while the music was spread throughout the other speakers.

While i won't get into the assumption developers are making as to the tech there users are using. I think a better solution would be design options to customize the sound and text to whatever tech the user happens to have.

 

[Uber Evil]

Games today are too dark (Visually).

QFT. This problem really gets to me. It doesn't help that I have a CRT monitor on my computer which makes everything even darker. I have the brightness at 100 in most games, as well as my computer brightness, yet it still is hard to see sometimes.

 

[Shycte]

If something, they are to easy.

When I manage to complete the game on the hardest difficulty on my first playtrough, there is something wrong.

Ninja Gaiden 2, I salute you!

 

[ziggy161]

I think they're trying to force HD on people. Or is it the same on HD screens?

I remember Prototype being particdularly bad for it. And also the Dante's Inferno demo has stupid text...

 

[CloggedDonkey]

The dialogue thing is rarely a problem since most games allow you to balance the levels in the menu, but yeah that tiny text trend really grinds my gears. Frontlines: fuel of war is particulatly guilty of it.

someone else bought that game? I guess that makes 2 then.
but I do find text is a little to small or to big and that that volume is to low, like in borderlands and MW2.

 

[Jonny49]

Games today are too dark (Visually).

I agree.

 

[archvile93]

I hated Prototype for a lot of reasons, but making me crank my volume, so the speakers would explode at a pin drop, just so I could barely make out the dialogue is so NOT cool. That game should be shot into the sun.

Yeah, I've heard some quiet games but that one made me double my speakers' default volume to hear.

 

[boholikeu]

Games today seem a little too short.

The average game length is about 8-12 hours when they should be 18-20+

Funny, I think the exact opposite. Almost any game I play that lasts longer than 15 hours gets boring due to either filler levels or repetitive mechanics.

 

[Chancie]

No, not really. The only game I've ever had a problem with the subtitles was the demo of Dante's Inferno. Tiny letters. But otherwise, no, no problems.

 

[AkJay]

In most games I activate subtitles because there could be certain accents I don't understand, or background noise (yelling dad, dishwasher, laundry), and it's irritating when the people who talk don't keep up with the text on the screen. So they could be talking, and it would flip over to the next set of lines; leaving me in the dark.