>Stub for letter to ea games.

[there are the points – I shall flush out the letter henceforth to forthwith, vis a vie.]

So I was very excited for two new recent game releases for PC. Both happened to be sequels and both were Electronic Arts (EA). I have never been a fan of companies that get so large they depend on formulas, plans, and financials to fuel their game decisions rather then ideals. I had seen it happen before, but couldn’t directly relate an actual example when prompted. No longer need I search — Crysis 2 and NFS Shift 2 are both prime examples of what happens when money makes the decisions.

They are actually two very good examples of game play, the engines themselves control and function very well but I think I need to go back and make sure that Shift 2 is actually DX 10/11, as I know that Crysis 2 was not. My problem is not necessarily with what the games are, Crysis is quite fun and lays out a decent story with some additional twists, but before EA bought them, they put out a phenomenal first game, and Far Cry before that (now that I think of it, Far Cry 2 was probably a warning sign). While waiting for Crysis 2 I had purchased Crysis Warhead since I had never played through it. On the official games explorer icon you have the gamut of DX 9, 10, and 32 or 64 bit mode for each. That is how it should be. You write on graphic engine that renders X accordingly, with additional effects and / or acceleration if your system supports it.

The problem is that consoles were the driving force with these gMes. You can see where they developed textures in both games at 1920 x 1080 and called it a day (who plays anything above that? — those with PCs worth a goddamn). I like to use GTA 4 as an example, though they did take almost a year to get IV to PC but it was well worth the wait. It has enough detail to keep systems going at max for another couple years. All the textures are 2560 x 1600 native, with lower quality versions of those textures making up the lower detail levels (texture quality low, med, etc). You can see the difference, and you can set it all anywhere in-between.

computer games is where it started

not going to include piracy in this letter – it’s for another discussion

I have lately purchased both the limited edition for both Crysis 2 and NFS Shift 2

I believe both games cut corners to meet release date.

It appears as you developed for console and ported those textures to PC 1:1
You SHOULD have developed (graphically, talking just textures here) for PC 2560 x 1600 max and then saved them lower resolution for console / pc lower texture settings. Otherwise you get something that’s developed blurry, vs something that’s developed perfectly sharp and exactly how you want it, and then shrunk, maintaining the sharpness at a lower resolution. Even if you are only developing for console, you need to have the quality there before you shrink it, otherwise you’re needlessly cheapening the presentation of your game.

Textures doesn’t matter so much in NFS – you’re supposedly flying by the background.
Look for Forza, and that’s 360. They had a fabulous match of textures, near / far, cars, backgrounds. GT couldn’t touch it console / console, but I digress – we’re talking PC here. I don’t care what else you develop it for. I WANT to buy it for PC, I want to give you money, I want to activate and register, and legally own my game for computer. I recognize the effort that the developers have put into it, and where I am never a fan of big business – I recognize it’s the presence of a giant company like EA that allows these “big budget” games to be possible. However – take a little less money for the “talent” of big name drivers in video format telling me how they can see I have talent and give the developers an extra month or two to finish it… or at least let them patch it up after the release date you’ve branded into their foreheads.

neither of these titles are games for windows, what’s the deal? x64? no time?