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GTA IV sets sales records with 6 million unit / $500 million first week
Amazingly, prerelease estimates of a $400 million first week for the latest edition of Grand Theft Auto turned out to be low, with publisher Take-Two trumpeting a 6 million unit, $500 million debut. GTA in HD isn't without controversy however, with reports of overscan issues on older HDTVs (we've experienced it, with the last number or letter in mission descriptions sometimes running off the screen), and the PlayStation 3 version of the game not quite meeting our 720p expectations (although some say differences in textures and lighting more than make up for it). Being "only" 640p didn't stop previous record holder Halo 3, and looking at the numbers it appears Rockstar has made the right moves as well, although we're sure some will wait for the inevitable PC version to run the game in as high a resolution as possible.[Via Joystiq]
Counting pixels: GTA IV runs at 640p
Picking up the PS3 version of GTA IV, so you can get as many pixels onto your TV as possible? Well, that's apparently not what's happening. According to the pixel counters at the Beyond 3D forums, the PS3 version doesn't run at 1080p. Heck, it doesn't run at 720p. Rather, it runs at 640p -- still enough to be "HD," but far from the "full HD" experience Sony usually touts.Pixel hunters were enraged when it was discovered Halo 3 ran at a lower resolution on Xbox 360 than advertised. However, should people stay away from the PS3 version? Probably not. Many Beyond 3D users note that in spite of the lesser resolution, the superior effects of the PS3 version gives it the visual edge: "the PS3 version looks nicer IMO. Everything just blends in nicely and makes a seamless contrast between front objects and background objects," noted forum user Nebula.[Thanks, ClarkyCat!][Update: PS3 runs at 640p. Xbox 360 does run at a higher resolution: 720p.]
Bungie: Halo 3 resolution cut for HDR lighting
Following last week's debacle over Halo 3's apparent resolution deficiency, the folks at Bungie have come out pleading their case, stating that the game's visual acuity was given a back seat to HDR, or "High Dynamic Range" lighting, which allows for a broad range of exposures, making possible much greater extremes of light and dark. So make up your mind. Do you want things crisp or do you want them to glow, because apparently you can't have it both ways. Bungie explains its decision in the following excerpt:"In fact, you could argue we gave you 1280 pixels of vertical resolution, since Halo 3 uses not one, but two frame buffers – both of which render at 1152x640 pixels. The reason we chose this slightly unorthodox resolution and this very complex use of two buffers is simple enough to see – lighting. We wanted to preserve as much dynamic range as possible – so we use one for the high dynamic range and one for the low dynamic range values. Both are combined to create the finished on screen image."You hear that? You owe them -- not the other way around. While we agree that Halo 3 is not the graphics showpiece many hoped or expected it to be, we still say that all this fuss over "80p" of resolution is at best splitting hairs and at worst just ridiculous.
Halo 3 not HD: runs at 640p, pixel counters claim
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/xbox_360/Halo_3_not_HD_runs_at_640p_pixel_counters_claim'; Halo 3 has quickly come under fire for disc-read errors and scratched discs, but now some tech heads on the Beyond 3D forums have found what they believe to be evidence that the quintessential game of Microsoft's 'all games in HD' console runs natively at a paltry 640p -- not 720p, not HD* -- and then upscales. How did they come to this conclusion, you ask? By counting pixels. (Is this what we've come to as gaming enthusiasts -- measuring a game's visual fidelity with spyglass in hand?) ... Remember when we just played games?Still, if true, Halo 3 would not be the first Xbox 360 game to compromise resolution for performance. Perfect Dark Zero also runs at 640p, and it's well known that Bizarre Creations dropped Project Gotham Racing 3 even lower, to just 600p, in order to achieve an acceptable frame rate. But this is Halo 3, and if you press your ear to the screen you can already hear the snarling internet mobs gathering up their pitchforks and nooses.[*Note: We define "HD" as a resolution no less than 1280x720 pixels. According to the source, Halo 3 has a native resolution of 1138x640 pixels.][Via gamerawr]
