Nuts, Bolts, and Tiny Text

There's a huge number of people who still play games on SDTV, in fact there's not a single person I know who uses a HDTV for gaming, it's just too expensive.

Even with an HDTV the text is pretty small.

i went HD recently, i got sick of squinting at small text all around, but if this is an issue exploding this much, how small IS that text i wonder? o_O

awww man this takes the p**s... i was actually quite looking forward to this game - i loved the original BK on the N64 and really wanted to play this... unfortunatley I don't have Xbox live atm (subscription ran out) and I can't even check out the demo to see how bad it really is...

Forza 2 also had some pretty tiny text when shown up on my SD TV. I'm sure the text in BK can't be that bad?

After reading this, I had to go check my demo to see if I could read it on my SDTV. Luckily it's still legible on my TV, though the text is really small. I didn't have too much trouble reading it, though, so I guess I got lucky.

I donwloaded the demo and it was basicly unreadable on my 28" sdtv but banjo isn't the only game fable 2 was preety hard too read among others. But the problem with banjo is that thers no voice acting soo all the infomation in the game is convayed in unreadable text. I'm so sick of being fucked over because i can't aford a tv the size of china.

I just recently came over to the HD side, and there's no going back to SD ever again.

Don't forget that the 360 has awesome VGA-out support.  If you have a widescreen TV/monitor with a normal D-SUB port you're good to go.  And most DVI monitors will support a VGA adaptor cable without a problem.

If it's not widescreen your mileage may vary with the individual game, but problems are rare if you keep the title updates current. 
VGA is probably not first on the list for Quality testing, so Gears 1 for example fixed their perspective issues in a title update.
The only other title I had trouble with was DOAXBV2. >_<

I have an HDTV but I'm forced to play on an SD in my bedroom. Luckily the TV is fairly big and while the text was small I was still able to read it. If it gets too bad I guess I'll have to move my 360 to the living room.

Sounds like they aren't willing to put in the effort needed to make a great game.  Overall the game looks mediocre to me.

They must not have very good testers....

Ugh, stop with the tiny text.  Even with an HDTV it's uncomfortable to read.  I'd rather have it in gigantic, toddler font than have to strain.

God forbid i don't have an HD set up. Be right back, going to go shake up the money tree I have growing in my backyard.

People who can't afford 300 dollars (minimum) for a TV that doesn't look like complete ass should just continue playing their PS2's. Making things accessable for everyone is just a good way to hold back progress.

and 360 fanboys were saying this could compete with LBP...HA!

I am actually saving up for an HDTV now, the last game i boought was going halvsies on NHL 09, and the only game i plan on getting between now and HD time is Gears of War 2.  it is dissappointing to see that developers didnt think about us SD people. which there are many of, by the way, i have more friends that play on SD than HD, (i play on SD, and .... thats it.... jk) Im also saddened because i have really been looking forward to this game, i am a rather large banjo fan, and kazooie, can stay, i guess, as long as it wears a muzzle.

I'm sure almost every current-gen gamer using a SD TV set probably has a computer monitor. It's probably not as large as the TV in the living room, but the monitor is capable of displaying HD more capably than the SD TV. Get a VGA cable and use it to connect your monitor to your console. If sound is an issue, you probably have a computer that's beside the monitor that has a line-in jack. If you bought the Microsoft branded VGA cable set for the 360, you're in luck as it comes with the cables to connect the 360 to your computer's sound card. I used this method for two years until my 360 had to be replaced and I switched to HDMI and a digital monitor -- still use PC speakers for sound.

EDIT: The MS VGA cable is like $50 USD (or was when I ordered mine) which is MUCH less than wasting money on a HDTV, making use of the high resolution devices they already own.

I say people should buy large monitors instead of HDTVs once it comes down to it. Most people don't use the channel tuner or speakers in their TVs anyway, which makes it pointless to spend the extra money on those features which separate HDTVs from large digital monitors.

EDIT 2: @Brackynews : True. But if you have a CRT you can use the front panel to scale the image into a letterbox shape for that resolution/refresh. This is what I did to display 1920x1080 on my dinky 17 inch CRT. I know I could have gone 1280x720 to get an unscaled image, but the 1080p colors were more vivid.

I did the same thing. Im for one year in the us and didnt want to buy a pc / hdtv. So i just got this cable for like 30 bucks and an old 20" CRT from the lab no one uses anymore - runs perfectly. Ok, the colors could be a little more vibrant but meh, free is free.

I've preorderd Banjo and will be playing it on my 42 inch Hd set but I don't understand how this stuff gets past Q.A. when anyone with two eyes can see the text should be enlarged.

 Cant afford a HDTV what with 16 games coming out this month I MUST buy ;) - solution? well I have my PS3 and box hooked up to my PC monitor - might not be true HD but I can read the text in Deadrising no probs.

seriously you should have given up on gaming if you dont have a HD tv,
i saved up for a year to get mine, 360 looks like xbox without it
and i suppose ps3 looks like xbox without it too, as nothing could look as bad as the PS2 again

@Twoonefive
your a freaking idiot,
noone EVER said that

Wow yeh I never even thought about this...  there are probably still people out there with SD televisions. What I dont get is if you can afford a PS3 or 360 then why cant you afford a HDTV?

I tried the demo on my 32" SDTV and the text was barely readable... definitely not as fun as the game probably should be. I'm going to upgrade to HD later this year, but I know a lot of people still playing on SDTV since buying an HD set also means buying less games. Especially if you don't want to use the TV for other HD content it's just too expensive for most people.

Ok well it seems its a bit more expensive in the US for HDTVs which I didn't know (just had a look online) but still you can get a 22-inch TV for less than $300 and a PC monitor for waaay less. if you can afford to get a console then just save up *shrug* If you don't want to spend that kind of money on a TV then clearly you are going to have to live with some problems as you get fazed out of the market. Why should all the people who DO have HDTV's have to put up with huge text allover our screens just because you dont think that geting a decent display is a big enough priority?

Even buying a 20 inch widescreen lcd monitor for 200-300 dollars and the VGA adapter for 30 gives you HD quality resolution. It tide you over till a job comes along that provides you a paycheck that doesn't put you in the welfare bracket.

Screw rare then, I was planning on picking this up on day one but I can afford to shell out for an HD telly for myself. My parents have one in the living room but Im not aloud to play games on it because ive got a telly in my room so that means £40/50 would get me 20 minutes of game.
Even if they patch it post release I dont think im interested anymore.

Yeah I have an SDTV and I was under the impression that SDTV was still in a majority of households (not in a majority of console owners I'd guess) and so it is an issue. I wonder how they've developed the system where swapping out a font for another is such an arduous task?

My solution was to use the VGA adapter on my LCD 22" moniter also. However I also had to find a rare adapter to attach me 5.1 speakers since they dont have optical. Its a all a bit of a hassle really. The resolution isnt full 1080p but its good enough.

Thank god I just brought a 52 inch Samsung LCD :)

that is a shame. you would think by now developers would realize that majority of gamers still don't play games on HDTV's.

Looks like Nuts and Bolts suffer from the Dead Rising syndrome, having very tiny text on SD TV's.

Some of us don't have a hojillion kajillion dollars to put an HDTV into our huge mansions.

I've got a 30'' wide screen Sanyo SDTV. I bought it because it's plenty big, wide screen and cheap. The demo looks good on it. I wouldn't have canceled my amazon preorder anyway.