EA Chief Says Games Boring People to Death

[Dippyskoodlez]

a lot of EA games do support widescreen, its just that EA refuses to add it to older games.

Battlefield 2 and Battlefield 2142 do NOT support widescreen - it stretches to fit. You can hack it, but its really using a 4:3 ratio and chopping off the top and bottom (while still keeping the hud/GUI on screen)

Theres a good reason why they don't.

widescreen gives you a different viewable area on screen.

Giving a widescreen option to a game where a large majority of players will be using 4:3 gives you an unfair advantage.

And it requires modifying the game engine sometimes.

Its not a problem for like.. say a racing game.. but a FPS can allow you to see stuff you shouldn't normally.

 

[Benpi]

How about being innovative and adding widescreen to your games.

OH MY GOD I HATE EA!~!~~ I Can't Fucking believe that 1158 x 864 is the maximum resolution in Battlefield 2142. They release an expansion pack without even upping the maximum resolution. So god damn retarded, and the game runs like shit on Vista 64 (i have conroe and HD2900 XT).

Also, the reason games are boring is because FPS single player is lame (with the ONLY exception being Half-Life 2). Gears of War singleplayer sucks, but I've spent countless hours on the multiplayer - not because it was easy, but because multiplayer is harder and harder. EA FTL!

Crysis is the last EA game I'll buy until they get their shit together. Notice that the only exceptional games listed by this EA guy were games not made by EA.

It's not that people are getting bored with games, it's the fact that people are getting bored with EA games because they are rushed and lack quality.

I'd rather wait a year in between HL2 Episodes, then get a BF2142 expansion with the original still buggy as hell, and before they allow widescreen support.

 

[Nemesis881]

Theres a good reason why they don't.

widescreen gives you a different viewable area on screen.

Giving a widescreen option to a game where a large majority of players will be using 4:3 gives you an unfair advantage.

And it requires modifying the game engine sometimes.

Its not a problem for like.. say a racing game.. but a FPS can allow you to see stuff you shouldn't normally.

Thats so stupid though. If you buy a widescreen monitor for gaming then you should be able to USE it. Thats just like saying since some gamers still have weak video cards (like mine) that the people with the high end ones are limited to 45-50fps.

 

[Benpi]

a lot of EA games do support widescreen, its just that EA refuses to add it to older games.

Battlefield 2 and Battlefield 2142 do NOT support widescreen - it stretches to fit. You can hack it, but its really using a 4:3 ratio and chopping off the top and bottom (while still keeping the hud/GUI on screen)

Actually, it isn't much of a hack. You just change the shortcut's command line. Also, it doesn't crop, it actually expands the Field of View to the left and right - you just need to put in the correct command line "+widescreen" I think.

Theres a good reason why they don't.

widescreen gives you a different viewable area on screen.

Giving a widescreen option to a game where a large majority of players will be using 4:3 gives you an unfair advantage.

And it requires modifying the game engine sometimes.

Its not a problem for like.. say a racing game.. but a FPS can allow you to see stuff you shouldn't normally.

LoL, you must use a 4:3 screen. The only game I've played that crops instead of expanding, is Gears of War. Games should incourage widescreen because widescreen is the future (and present). Widescreen is just better. You can cry about my viewing advantage all you want. If you want to do something about it, go to dell.com and buy their $200 1680x1050 monitor. It isn't half bad.

 

[m3lisk]

And I get not everyone is up for 100 hours of Final Fantasy/Elderscrolls/whatsoever.

Hells yeah. I have over 300 hours in Final Fantasy games, over 50 hours in Resident Evil games, and near 1000 in Morrowind and Oblivion. Hell, if a game is good, then play it. Not that CS: CZ counts, but I probably have over 200 in that. I know my Xfire doesnt say so, but I got it long after I had been playing. Once I stayed up 53 hours playing CS. w00t! Oh, and another time I played the Warcraft III campaign for 3 days with only about 3 hours of sleep. I couldnt stop playing it.

 

[Benpi]

Thats so stupid though. If you buy a widescreen monitor for gaming then you should be able to USE it. Thats just like saying since some gamers still have weak video cards (like mine) that the people with the high end ones are limited to 45-50fps.

Good point. That's also like saying, "Well since I only have a dial-up connection, all of the other people in here with better connections should be limited to what I have because I'm cheap and use old technology, and refuse to get with the times."

PC gaming is not for the cheap. If you're cheap, get a wii. PC is all about performance and high end equip. That's the whole point of upgrading.

 

[Dippyskoodlez]

Thats so stupid though. If you buy a widescreen monitor for gaming then you should be able to USE it. Thats just like saying since some gamers still have weak video cards (like mine) that the people with the high end ones are limited to 45-50fps.

Yeah, I have this here fancy direct x dll that lets me see through walls.

Can I use that too?

 

[kakazza]

I have all the NFS series and I can use wide screen in all of them ..theres a lil app that will set resolution to what ever you want...I play all my stuff at 1920x1080

Name of app?

 

[Zero Cool]

Name of app?

I had a similiar app a game but I cant romember the game of the app or the game lol

 

[ryboto]

funny, Nintendo was saying the same thing about games almost 2 years ago.

 

[Shyska]

one title - Civilization... Been playing series for what should be hundreds of hours to date, and still enjoying it A LOT.

 

[pt]

ii don't like civilization, and i'm a huge fan on the genre, i played it for a while, andi didn't like the mechanic of the game
don't know why

 

[Jonnycat]

LoL, you must use a 4:3 screen. The only game I've played that crops instead of expanding, is Gears of War. Games should incourage widescreen because widescreen is the future (and present). Widescreen is just better. You can cry about my viewing advantage all you want.

Yep, that's why companies like id software let the player control how much information is on the screen with cg_fov (field of view). In other words, it is NOT considered an unfair advantage to view as wide of an area as you can (and Q4 and derived games have several widescreen format options available).

Addionally, CAL sets cg_fov limits between 90 and 120, so the individual gamer most definitely has some lattitude to modify this parameter in competitive gaming events.

 

[newbielives]

Thats like Poo saying something else is stinky

 

[russianboy]

A game w/ a good story makes it so much more fun to play.

The best game stories I played was the half life series, and I like how its real time.

 

[DRDNA]

Name of app?

this one is for most wanted>>nfsmwres.exe
and this one for Carbon>> nfscres.exe
Not sure about the rest at the moment

 

[pt]

nfsmw = needforspeedmostwanted?
nfsc = needforspeed carbon?

 

[zekrahminator]

Erm, I do get there were few 'amazing' games recently and that people cry over failing in Farcry but... I do not want 5-7 hour games like Unreal 2 or Prey. That IS boring.

20-40 hours is awesome, if the story catches you. And I get not everyone is up for 100 hours of Final Fantasy/Elderscrolls/whatsoever. Just that hardly any game has a good story nowadays. Gears of War? Yeah, nice eyecandy but story fails so hard.

And of course you do not necessarily need a good story to sell a game, but it helps. (CS anyone?)

Agreed . I do not spend $50 on a game the day it's released simply to get through the campaign in 7 hours or less. Valve knows this, the original Half Life took me about three weeks to get through (on easy!), and Half Life 2 took me about two weeks. I enjoy playing a game with a sweet story in the single player campaign (Halo comes to mind).

nfsmw = needforspeedmostwanted?
nfsc = needforspeed carbon?

NSFW= not safe for work .

 

[WarEagleAU]

I get bored with games too. Some of my final fantasies were never finished for a year or two because I grew bored. Story is good, but it was a wasted effort on my part sometimes. This new guy sounds like he might revolutionize the industry, and I for one cannot wait.

 

[Dippyskoodlez]

Yep, that's why companies like id software let the player control how much information is on the screen with cg_fov (field of view). In other words, it is NOT considered an unfair advantage to view as wide of an area as you can (and Q4 and derived games have several widescreen format options available).

Addionally, CAL sets cg_fov limits between 90 and 120, so the individual gamer most definitely has some lattitude to modify this parameter in competitive gaming events.

If you actually had experience with changing the FOV and enforcing it, you would also know, FOV_120 != 16:9 widescreen viewable area.

 

[Casheti]

Agreed . I do not spend $50 on a game the day it's released simply to get through the campaign in 7 hours or less. Valve knows this, the original Half Life took me about three weeks to get through (on easy!), and Half Life 2 took me about two weeks. I enjoy playing a game with a sweet story in the single player campaign (Halo comes to mind).


NSFW= not safe for work .

Half Life 2 took me no time at all.. but gaming is all I do so that's expected. No games ever last long for me.. unless it's like GTA or something.

And why would you spend $50 on a game you can get for free?

 

[Grings]

i can understand what theyre saying, but coming from ea?, thats just irony, does this mean no more fifa/madden/nhl/nba/tiger woods/nascar 06/07/08/09etc?

i mean i can just imagine the design team discussing the latest of any of the titles i listed above (for arguments sake fifa)
game designer: 'i just had this great idea for the game, that weve not used before!'
ea man in suit: 'hey thats a good idea, but weve already made our default 5 changes already, well just put it in next years full price version of essentially the same game'

 

[Benpi]

Yeah, I have this here fancy direct x dll that lets me see through walls.

Can I use that too?

Bad comeback, and bad analogy.
Hacking is completely different from upgrading your internet connection, CPU, GPU or monitor.

If you actually had experience with changing the FOV and enforcing it, you would also know, FOV_120 != 16:9 widescreen viewable area.

Ok mr. Know-it-all, widescreen PC monitors are usually 1680x1050, or 1920x1200 - which is16:10 ... not 16:9. 16:9 is 720P or 1080P HD monitors.

 

[Mussels]

Theres a good reason why they don't.

widescreen gives you a different viewable area on screen.

Giving a widescreen option to a game where a large majority of players will be using 4:3 gives you an unfair advantage.

And it requires modifying the game engine sometimes.

Its not a problem for like.. say a racing game.. but a FPS can allow you to see stuff you shouldn't normally.

No, it doesnt. CSS and all steam games support it, and i have not seen a single complainer there. Stalker supports it, same deal. Lost planet is another one - the game has online play, and i'm yet to see a single complaint about widescreen being enable for it. Halo 2 has it. Again, no complaints there.

the Steam surveys say around the 15% of users have a widescreen monitor of some sort now, and ONLY the EA games and BF2 players whine about the extra view area.. well guess what. YOU stop cheating, due to the cropping i cant see as high vertically as you can, so you have more viewing area than me. EA should drop support for 4:3 users right now, because you see more than me and thats cheating!

Its a bullshit argument EA came up with, to find any excuse to not code it into their games. Seriously, go find a list of games that do and dont support widescreen, and almost all modern games support it - and you DONT see people bitching about it in forums.

 

[Dippyskoodlez]

No, it doesnt. CSS and all steam games support it, and i have not seen a single complainer there. Stalker supports it, same deal. Lost planet is another one - the game has online play, and i'm yet to see a single complaint about widescreen being enable for it. Halo 2 has it. Again, no complaints there.

Normal:

Wide.


My point exactly.

When you have a game where FoV is strictly controlled, adding it to something that people compete in provides an unfair advantage to some.

Bad comeback, and bad analogy.
Hacking is completely different from upgrading your internet connection, CPU, GPU or monitor.

See images above before insulting me.