What Grinds My Gears
You know what drives me absolutely nuts? When I pay $60 for a game to only find out that the text displayed is too small for me to read. Up until last Friday, I owned a standard definition television. Over the course of 2009 I had purchased several games (several being quite a few). I have been unable to play five of them. The reason behind this is that my TV was not capable of properly displaying them in a high enough resolution to render the text legible. According to a study conducted by Home Media Magazine, only 43% of households own a HDTV. If only half of the TV sets in America are capable of displaying HD, why are there games that can only be played in HD? Why is the text in these select games so small? Why can’t we have an option to enlarge text for those visually impaired?
When I finally upgraded to an HD set (Samsung 42” 720p 600hz Plasma), I popped in one of the games I had previously been unable to play, Star Ocean: The Last Hope. The first impression I had was that this game was absolutely stunning. It is a truly gorgeous game. Then I noticed that while I could now read the text, I still had to struggle with it. It was legible, but my poor eyes still had to strain. Over the past 20 years, I have read countless novels and played games religiously. I passed my last eye test a year ago with perfect vision. Technically, I should have no problem reading the text now, especially when my couch is only six feet away from the TV. Yet here I am, complaining to the internet.
I’m all for HD gaming, it is a beautiful thing. But when programming games, make the text large enough for me to read comfortably.
For the curious, the games were: Star Ocean: The Last Hope, Dead Rising, Infinite Undiscovery, Tales of Vesperia, and X Blades
When I finally upgraded to an HD set (Samsung 42” 720p 600hz Plasma), I popped in one of the games I had previously been unable to play, Star Ocean: The Last Hope. The first impression I had was that this game was absolutely stunning. It is a truly gorgeous game. Then I noticed that while I could now read the text, I still had to struggle with it. It was legible, but my poor eyes still had to strain. Over the past 20 years, I have read countless novels and played games religiously. I passed my last eye test a year ago with perfect vision. Technically, I should have no problem reading the text now, especially when my couch is only six feet away from the TV. Yet here I am, complaining to the internet.
I’m all for HD gaming, it is a beautiful thing. But when programming games, make the text large enough for me to read comfortably.
For the curious, the games were: Star Ocean: The Last Hope, Dead Rising, Infinite Undiscovery, Tales of Vesperia, and X Blades
Comments