People canceling preorders after PS3 demo

Neiteio · #1 10-03-2008

You don't have to look far on the Internet to see the gaming community growing very worried about the PS3 version of Bioshock. If you follow the link you'll see many people are already canceling their preorders. And it's not hard to tell why -- the demo is plagued with problems:

The game runs at sub-720p, but forces itself to display at 1080p instead of defaulting to the game's optimal resolution like other 720p games. Thus you have to manually change it to 720p in the Display Settings or you'll get nasty white bars on the bottom and right side of the screen during cutscenes, which ruins the immersion factor of, say, the underwater cutscene at the beginning. And frequently during play, traces of this white garbage will appear and linger on the outskirts of the screen until you pause the game. Terrible.
Many textures are a pixelated mess. Look at the dead Big Daddy up close; the textures are big, blocky pixels, like something out of a PS1 game. Or try pushing in the right analog stick (R3) to zoom behind the pistol, and look at the blocky mess of pixels on the barrel of the gun. Look at most walls. It hurts the eyes and in the case of the Big Daddy it hurts the heart. How could this happen to such an iconic character?
The framerate jitters along, especially during the submarine sequence. Look at the windows on the hive towers of Rapture as the bathysphere makes its descent; look at the stop-motion animation of the squid as it darts by; this lack of smoothness is distracting and steals the scene's power.

Now, people can say it's only a demo. But what does that MEAN? What we need to hear is the developers say the retail version does not have these problems. I hope this demo is an old build and the final build is better; I bought a PS3 for Blu-ray and Bioshock and I'll be sorely disappointed if four developers and a year of extra time couldn't deliver a polished port of one of their most important IPs. With a sequel and a movie on the horizon, this isn't the time to start sacrificing quality.

So, Elizabeth and the people of 2K Games: What's the deal? Is the retail version better? What concerns me is the fact the final game has already gone gold (meaning, it's DONE), and this was announced around the same time as the demo.

If the developers can assure us the final game will be good, I will gladly spread the word and lay the fears of NeoGAF and other gaming communities to rest. They're the people canceling the preorders; others will follow. 2K needs to act fast.

grode183 · #2 10-03-2008

would encourage you to check out the ps3 videos on ign. I was really bummed with the demo too however I think it's because the demo uses alpha code (hopefully). The videos on ign look great and back up there previews of the ps3 version looking good.

Neiteio · #3 10-03-2008

That's a good suggestion. Unfortunately, I don't have IGN Insider and so I cannot view their movies in the proper resolution. I think they have a video of a Big Daddy, though. It would be interesting to compare how the Big Daddy in the IGN videos looks compared to the Big Daddy in the demo, to see if it's still a pixelated mess. I'd also need to know whether they were playing the build on an actual PS3 and not a development unit as is often the case with preview builds.

At any rate, the simplest solution would be for 2K (they do listen to the fans, right?) to step in and answer the question: Is the demo an older build? Will the retail version look more polished than the demo?

If the demo is simply unpolished, I don't get why they released it in the first place. Why represent your game so poorly? It's caused nothing but trouble on the Net. They should've known this was going to happen, unless the actual game is just as bad and in that case they had no choice.

Kyburz · #4 10-03-2008

While I think it wouldn't be a bad idea for 2k to address some of these concerns, it should be noted that Neogaf is notorious for comically overreacting over the most minor of things. There is a running joke that damn near every game that has ever been released will have people on there complaining about frame rate issues or screen tearing or aliasing or some other completely minor issue that is invisible to the rest of the human race. So that the fact that some of the system warriors and fanboys over there are cancelling preorders over these perceived problems should not necessarily cause excessive alarm on the developers part. Especially when the professional sources are reporting no such problems.

I think the mainstream PS3 user who doesn't necessarily read Neogaf (or even this forum) are going to be wowed by Bioshock's obvious strengths and an incredibly strong demo that is in my opinion the greatest videogame demo ever made.

Neiteio · #5 10-03-2008

I understand what you're saying, but I think it'll be difficult for even the less-discerning gamer to dismiss the demo's technical shortcomings when they see direct-feed footage of it (which I have no doubt people at NeoGAF are recording right now). I don't consider myself a person obsessed with graphics -- in fact, up until last month I had been a Wii-only gamer -- but some of the demo's graphical blemishes (like the Big Daddy that looks so pixelated it's practically a sprite) are so glaring that they're ruining the experience.

Really, the best course of action right now would be for 2K to talk before this whole situation balloons out of proportion.

2K Elizabeth · #6 10-03-2008

hey guys,

we're looking into this, and i'll give you a full run down on everything when i get the full scoop. i just wanted to pop in and tell you that we're aware of what's been said and i'm going to give you a response!

thanks.

Frank Fountaine · #7 10-03-2008

Quote:

That's a good suggestion. Unfortunately, I don't have IGN Insider and so I cannot view their movies in the proper resolution.

Hope Youtube works for you, no need to thank me by the way...

Neiteio · #8 10-03-2008

Frank: I'll have to look at those videos later. The YouTube ones are useless because they're already at a poor resolution, but it looks like there are some high-def ones in there. Thanks.

At any rate, it's great that 2K is going to comment on the whole situation. Hopefully they'll clear up why the demo doesn't look so hot. I've already alerted NeoGAF to this thread so that they can see 2K's response as well. I'm sure there's a simple explanation, like the demo is an older build.

Slackjack · #9 10-03-2008

Liz has spoken,hopefully some good news to come soon about it being only a demo thing.Still can't wait to play the full game

2K Elizabeth · #10 10-03-2008

Hey guys,

First, I want to thank you for the acute attention to detail and the Spartan level of expectation our most devoted BioShock fans hold us to, and how excited you are and attentive to the BioShock PS3 demo. When we saw a post asking about issues found in the demo, we jumped on it immediately. And you know what, you're right. The texture in the PS3 demo of the downed Big Daddy does not match our level of quality either. This slipped by. We admit it. However, I want to assure you that this is an exception, and not a rule, and while I regret this oversight, we put a lot of love into making this game look amazing for the PS3 and I'm sure that when you play the rest of the demo you will agree that the textures are not all like this one instance.

As for the other issues and concerns, we are currently diligently working to replicate any bugs, and will report back to you with what we find. Thank you for your vigilance here and moving forward.

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