| Loud_Hot_White_Box said: So no one sees the point of my post on the first page? The game probably looks nothing like these fucking screenshots. Why didn't IGN mention 'blurry'? They just said there were some more damage effects on the 360. Why is all this being ignored? |
There’s been a lot of hype on the N4G News postings/comments section with various allegations against Lens of Truth’s methods and credibility. We take pride in our work and constantly strive to be the unbiased news site that you, as a video game consumer, come to in order to answer the one basic question we all ask ourselves whenever a new multi-platform game is released: “Which of these games is worth my $60?”. With that being said, we’d like the opportunity to address some of the various claims against the Head2Head we performed on the new Ghostbusters game.
CLAIM: “This post on Polycount from Terminal Reality’s lead character artist explains why there was so drastic difference between the PS3 and 360 versions texture quality. Lens of Truth made the comparison using the pre-release copy of the game which had texture quality lowered.”
http://n4g.com/News-347268.aspx
RESPONSE: We were fortunate enough to be sponsored by Play N Trade for this particular Head2Head and were able to snag their customer demo copy of the game before the release date. This does not, however, mean that we used a “pre-release copy” or some other beta of the PS3 version of the game. The version we used is the same retail version that is being sold in stores.
Furthermore, we’re not sure it’s fair to accept a forum post as authoritative evidence on any matter, regardless of what forum it is and whose name is in the signature.
CLAIM: “MS paid them to do that because Ghostbusters is one of the biggest games of the decade and a huge threat for the 360’s succes[sic]. ”
http://n4g.com/News-347268.aspx
RESPONSE: The “Lens of Truth” website is an independent site, primarily funded by a group of game developers/enthusiasts and generous donations from our fans. Aside from user-submitted content, our site is built during our SPARE time. While it would be a glorious (and blasphemous) event if Microsoft paid us to skew our Head2Head, the truth is best stated by another N4G commentor:
“LoT is not that big of a website, not that well known. It is more something like the HHG site. Why would MS waste money on that?”
CLAIM: “…as a lot of the time on these comparisons, they don’t look like what they do on my TV.” Some have even claimed that it’s our AV setup that leads us to draw “faulty conclusions”. We’ve been accused of skewing our TV settings or in-game video settings in order to make one system look superior over another.
RESPONSE: Take a look at a diagram of our capturing setup:
All of our Head2Head captures are done via component cables @ 720p. The reason that our comparisons are done with component video is because of the PlayStation 3’s HDCP on the HDMI output. HDCP is a form of digital copy protection which makes it impossible to capture with our hardware. In order to neutralize the possible processing effect that various TVs could have, we place the capture device between the gaming systems and the TV. The only settings that could affect the quality of the video are the in-game video settings, which are always left as default.
Additionally, several other sites have come to the same conclusions that we have:
http://www.gamezine.co.uk/news/ghostbusters-ps3-960-by-540-360-720p-$1304198.htm
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/06/ghostbusters-graphically-youll-want-to-stick-with-the-360.ars
Even IGN mentions that the PS3 “graphics seem to be a touch dumbed down…” (http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/992/992699p3.html)
UPDATE: Game Trailers just recently uploaded their comparison video of Ghostbusters. While we feel the video is good for showing the overall feel of Ghostbusters on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, they failed at focusing on the issues between the two versions. It should also be noted that the video that Game Trailers is displaying on their site is sub 720p (960×540) whereas our video is full 720p (1280×720). To show that we’ve achieved the same quality of capture on the PlayStation 3, we’ve taken two shots from their video that match up with our footage. Note that our images had to be sized down to match the resolution of the Game Trailers images. Also note that these images are pulled directly from the high quality download versions on both sites (Game Trailers = Quicktime, Lens of Truth = H.264 AVI).
In conclusion, our goal is not to mislead gamers. Every member of our staff is a gamer too, and we believe that every gamer has a right to know which console sponsors a better finished product. Every aspect of our site is designed in such a way so as to compare two very different systems in a completely unbiased way. If you feel we’ve made a mistake, please let us know. We have no problem with admitting when a mistake has been made. With that being said, after several re-verifications, we firmly stand behind the conclusions previously published in our Ghostbusters Head2Head.
We hope this addresses some of the various concerns regarding our Ghostbusters Head2Head and the quality of our work in general.
