HDTV for gaming: A consumer's guide.

by Dave Lamb

I’ve decided to put my years of home cinema calibration and setup to good use and provide the readers of 103% with a guide to picking the best HDTV for gaming. In this guide I’ll show you how to pick the very best HDTV to help you to get the most out of our beloved video game consoles.

Modern games boast some of the most beautiful CG graphics. A good HDTV can help bring out the best in them.

Screen size

The very first step anyone should take when selecting a TV is choosing a screen size.  The table below shows the recommended viewing distances for different sized screens.

It may seem like these recommendations provide a large screen size for your room. However, such TVs are geared towards creating an immersive cinematic experience. The biggest complaint among TV buyers is that they wish they had bought a bigger set.

LCD vs Plasma 

There are two major television technologies on the market currently and they are LCD and Plasma. Plasma TV’s have phosphors that create the image on the screen and light up individually, whereas LCDs are a liquid crystal screen that does not self-illuminate and requires a separate backlight.

Plasma has a number of benefits where picture quality is concerned. Their motion resolution is higher which means images do not blur when moving across the screen quickly. This makes games like Sonic Generations a lot clearer as the levels speed across your screen.  They also have deeper black levels and can be viewed from the side without colours becoming washed out. The only downfall of plasma is that they can’t give off as much light as an LCD. This makes them unsuitable for environments with a lot of natural light such as a conservatory. As long as you have something to control the light levels in the room like curtains or blinds, this isn’t a problem. Overall the many advantages of plasma outweigh their one downfall making them better performers for gamers and cinema lovers alike. 

An example of LCD motion blur on the left compared to the clear motion of plasma on the right.

Unfortunately if you want a screen of a size less than 42 inches you’re stuck with LCD due to manufacturing limitations. Some of you may also have heard of OLED screens. These are essentially the Holy Grail for home cinema fans as they provide better picture quality than both LCD and Plasma. There’s a few popping up on the market this year but you’ll need very deep pockets to purchase one of these sets. 

The image on the left is an example of the poor black levels on LCD screens, whereas the image on the right demonstrates plasma’s superior performance.

Input lag

Now, Input lag is something not a lot of people know about until it causes them a problem.  It’s best described as the delay between the television receiving a signal and it being displayed on the screen. It’s caused by Image processing which takes time and therefore adds some degree of delay.  This causes an issue for first person shooters and rhythm games such as guitar hero as they require fast reflexes. It causes the image on your screen to be slightly behind the real time events so you may find it difficult to pull off a headshot in Halo.

The LCD TV here is displaying around 40ms of delay compared to a lag free CRT monitor. Older CRT TV’s have zero input lag as they use analogue systems compared to the digital sets of today which require processing.

It is generally considered that input lag of around 30ms or below is acceptable. The best sets have around 16ms and the really bad ones can have around 120ms of delay.  You might be reading this and assume you can walk into a store and ask for a TV with low input lag and have a life of hassle free gaming. Unfortunately this is not the case. Manufactures don’t publish these figures so it’s left to you to go digging around reviews to retrieve this information.

Professional Reviews

So far I’ve recommended you buy plasma if you can, with a low input lag. My final piece of advice is to choose a set with the best picture quality according to professional reviews. Two excellent websites for this are www.avforums.com and www.hdtvtest.co.uk. These websites use professional equipment to test TVs against industry standards. They also always measure input lag which is great for us gamers. A lot of people go by reviews on websites like CNET but they do not use a scientific approach and rely more on subjective opinions. The websites above will test a TV from every angle and provide you with the information to choose one with excellent picture quality.  

A chart measuring a TV’s colour performance. The white triangle represents the TV’s performance whereas the other triangle is the standard the TV should be achieving. 

On modern TV’s sound quality isn’t amazing. This is because sets have become so slim it is impossible to fit a decent pair of speakers inside. If you want great sound you’re going to have to shell out for external speakers.

Summary

• Select your screen size according to viewing distance.
• Go for a plasma if you can.
• Find a set with low input lag.
• Search professional reviews for one with great picture quality.
• You will need to get some decent speakers for the beat sound.

So what’s an example of a great set for gaming? I recently purchased the Panasonic TX-P42UT50B after I read the review on HDTV Test here. It’s a plasma which is relatively cheap, has an input lag of just 16ms and provides excellent picture quality.

If you’re looking for a decent pair of speakers to pair with your TV I’d recommend the Creative GigaWorks T20 Series. They’re inexpensive speakers that will drastically improve your sound quality compared to your TVs’ inbuilt ones.

Update 2014: Unfortunately Panasonic are withdrawing from the plasma market due to the cost, bulkiness and high power consumption of the screens. The technology is beginning to disappear so the market will be saturated with LED LCD displays until OLED comes down in price over the next 3 years. Fortunately, Sony have made some amazing gaming TV's over the past year, which have the smallest amount of input lag I've seen. Check out the W6 range if you're looking for a great gaming TV. 

Hope you’ve found this guide useful. Feel free to ask me any questions in the comments section below and make sure you check out my next guide on how to set up your HDTV for gaming. 

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The Ambiguity of Game Trailers: CyberPunk 2077 Trailer Edition

by Ed Colley

Here’s a problem with cinematic game trailers. For those of you who haven’t seen it, here’s a link to the new trailer for CyberPunk 2077. Give it a watch, I’ll wait. Done? Now put aside the very impressive visual aesthetics for a moment. What have you learned about the game itself? Is a real-time-strategy, a first-person-shooter or even a MMORPG? Can you tell me anything about the characters involved? The chances are you can’t if your only information about the game is that trailer. But how come game trailers (and only game trailers) are allowed to get away with this? You couldn’t away with this for a film. Imagine if the trailer for the King’s Speech was just a freeze frame of Colin Firth in his lingerie to a brooding, indie soundtrack. You’d just think it was a poorly cast advert for a strangely named aftershave.

Search result for "The King's Speech". He must really like steam-punk, he's got cogs and everything.

Ambiguous trailers frustrate me. They frustrate me because you come out them feeling as if you know less about them than when you started. However, it frustrates me less if the trailer is also a standout piece cinematography (see the Dead Island trailer for details). The perfume analogy from the first paragraph is apt for this type of cinematic game trailer. It’s a short and vacuous advert which attempts to entice you into a sale without providing any real information. Now there are reasons for this of course. A perfume advert can’t describe a smell to you and hope to maintain its flimsy veil of elegance. In the case of CyberPunk 2077, it’s 3 years from being released so a large portion of the game hasn’t even been designed yet. They don’t even know what they’re selling really. 

"Okay, it's kind of like a really strong orange-y smell with a bit of petrol. There's possibly a Mentos in their too."

Regardless, I feel can’t let this level of ambiguity in marketing go by without calling it out and trying to smugly take it as out of context as possible. So without further ado, here is a list of adverts and trailers that the CyperPunk 2077 trailer could also apply to. Feel free to join in in the comments.

1.       A game where you play as a special police task force that is designed to take down a uprising of robotic, lingerie models.

2.       An advert for bulletproof make-up.

3.       A game in which you play as a freelance news Helicopter trying to film stories in a futuristic city where you get high scores for good composition and framing. Points will be deducted for every news headline which reads “News helicopter crashed again due to the pilot being too concerned about the lighting in his shot to concentrate on flying a god-damn helicopter”.

4.       A game in which the claw from a grab the cuddly toy machine in an arcade becomes sentient, gains human form and goes on a killing spree in search of vengeance for all the cuddly toys that have been cruelly taken from them over the years.

5.       An infomercial that goes along the lines of “Has this ever happened to you? Some bullets just can’t cut it with today's new super-cyborgs. Try Branson’s Bullets. For all your on-the-go cyborg exterminating needs. Also try Branson’s new make-up piercing rounds. ”

Having done some research, CyberPunk 2077 is meant to be an open world RPG from CD Projekt RED, who are most notable for producing the Witcher series. I was surprised to find out that the original CyberPunk game is a moderately successful 80s’s pen and paper RPG. To produce a trailer of such scale and quality for such a widely unknown brand definitely shows dedication. The basic premise follows the citizens of Night City, where humans are able to augment themselves with cyber-technology but at the cost of their humanity. Now that sounds like a good premise.

Don't worry, only 22 years to wait and then Spider-man can sort everything out.  

Developers feel the need to release these early trailers to build more interest and following in the hope of achieving more sales, such is the current state of the gaming industry. The problem remains that they are still tasked with marketing an incomplete and interactive product in a non-interactive medium. Therefore the only remaining features you can show your audience is the world you hope to immerse them in and the human element. Both of these can be demonstrated with strong story telling. If the trailer had shown the horrors of the process of augmentation followed by one citizen's descent into insanity, that would have been more compelling than watching a minute of bullet-time.

Still, those of you looking for irony will say that the trailer got me to research the game in spite of how much it annoyed me, so it has served its purpose.  In which case, aren’t you a clever clogs Mr. Marketing. I hope you enjoy your profitable career writing terrible dialogue for some pretentious perfumes, you ponce. It looks like I’ve been tricked by the internet again. Or in other words, I’ve just been Cyber-Punked.

The Undefined Laws of Momentum In Video Games

by Tom Dransfield

Let me just start by saying, I love momentum. Simply love it. Can't get enough; I use it nearly every day. And yet it seems like sometimes momentum is ignored, overlooked or otherwise sidelined in games, when it is in-fact so crucial for going into what makes a game truly excellent. Physics is hard to grasp, or so I hear, but this isn't necessarily about physics, at least not in the A over B = neutron bomb sense; this is all about the physics of satisfaction. If you want to ask yourself what it is that makes Super smash bros. Melee an out and out enjoyable, non-stop beat-em-up romp, the answer isn't the characters, zany items, nostalgia or even rubbing your stupid best-friend's face in the digitally rendered dirt with a world breaking smash.

In my mind, Ness looks like this after a sweet connection. His 'true form'

The answer is the inexplicable satisfaction that comes from making a great meaty blow connect with your opponent and seeing your former foe go flying across the screen. If you want a notable example of how important this is, you need only to look at Smash Bros. Brawl, a game that kept all of the same fun items, characters, powers and gameplay, but somehow managed to lose the enjoyment that comes from the physical momentum of the previous title.
But for some reason, that appears to be a common pattern within games that really get the physics right, they love releasing sequels that miss the mark completely. It's well known that the sonic series has really nailed and really failed at satisfying physics time and time again like they're grasping at slippery fish; sometimes even within the very same game - like Adventure or Generations.

"Yeah, speed platforming is okay, but I'd like to see more heavy, clunky robots and laser targeting" - No one

But it's easy to see why, the balance is incredibly hard to achieve, but once its there everyone can see it. You can pick up a game and within 30 seconds of running about say "this is it" or equally "this is not it". The games that do it right, really sparkle with an undefined quality, if you want a fun immersive city-wide romp, you can pick up Spiderman 2 and enjoy swinging between buildings freely like the wiry hero himself to the point where you almost feel the wind in your spandex. Alternatively, you can pick up infamous, and slowly crawl, shuffle, grind and climb your way around a city like a Zapdos with it's wings clipped. But this is what I've been building up to all article, the best single example of momentum done fantastically well.....are you ready?

I've looked everywhere and I still can't find my rose tinted spectacles. Oh here they are, on my face.

The answer is Jet Set Radio, a true gem of both wonderful stylisation and phenomenal gameplay. You weren't always fast in jet set radio, you weren't always graceful, often you'd trip, fall, get shot and just generally make a fool of yourself, but guess what, that's because you're not doing it right. The same was true that summer when you really tried to rollerblade, but for the pros, real-life rollerblading is a world of unlimited freedom and effortless movement. If you can't do it, the game won't just let you coast on by with some easy mechanics, but when you're good, oh boy is it good. The same is true of Melee and it's what makes that so incredible to play in relation to it's dumbed down sequel. When you become well practiced in these games, you become a true artisan of the physics, akin to a ballet dancer. Whether it's performing that connecting smash after rolling around your opponent twenty-odd times, or if it's grinding your way to victory in one of the torturously difficult race levels of JSR; getting good takes time, and your reward is perfectly flowing, flawless momentum.

Too tough to be sneaky - by Edmund Colley

My lack of my new PS3 games has led me to scour my old collection of PS2 games as a source of entertainment and mild nostalgia. In doing so I've been playing through some of my old stealth games. Mainly a game called Stolen, in which you play a Lara Croft like cat burglar as she goes through museums and high-tech facilities while being in denial of her obvious unexplained and unmentioned kleptomania. Her suppression of this plot hole has an adverse effect on that manifests in her behaviour, taking the form of cringe worthy one-liners and need to leave as much DNA at crime scenes as possible. 

The story involves a conspiracy surround an upcoming an election in which "Good Guy McMayor's" sole policy involves bring new treasures and artwork to the city's galleries and museums and "Bad Guy Joe's" policies involve clamping down on the city's extremely high crime rates. Rose tinted glasses much?

Game-play-wise, Stolen is very similar to Metal Gear Solid (cardboard box excluded) in its stealth mechanics, guard tactics and use guns to stun guards and take out security cameras. The stealth mechanics of Stolen are the only really notable point about the game. The game manages to maintain a balance between characters ability and threat of being found that most games fail to meet. Although the protagonist, Anya, has an arsenal of high-tech gadgets and some acrobatic skills, being discovered generally means that retreat and re-strategizing is a better option as confrontation with guards is the fastest way to a game over. In doing so puts an emphasis on the need for stealth and cunning makes for very engaging game-play.

 

Though we all know the correct way to sneak into facility is tip-toeing to Minnie the Moocher. 

This balance is one I find that too many stealth based games seem to miss the mark on. The Assassins Creed series being a long time suffer from this. Personally, I thought the first Assassins Creed has used stealth mechanics best in the franchise as guards were very quick to mark you as an assassin and chases could have you go all the way from one side of the map to the other in an attempt to flee your pursuers. Sneaking into compounds, taking out all of the archers silently and pouncing upon your unsuspecting target was the best tactic as you weren't likely to succeed in a head-on or mad dash approach due to vast amounts of guards surrounding you long enough for your target escape in the struggle. My main issue was that there was no real threat from any opponents. Altair could defeat any number of enemies in open combat if the player was willing to stand still and spam counter until every adversary is defeated one by one (similar to me standing around awkwardly at a New Year's Eve party high 5-ing relatives drunker than I am until they let me leave or at least play guitar hero in the corner).

However, all of the additional mechanics added in the sequels only served to undermine the stealth elements further. The notoriety meter resulted in guards being thoroughly disinterested in Ezio's activities to the point he can run full speed past them, climb a building and jump off it on to the minstrel that had the audacity to ask you for spare change without batting a city guard's eyelid. Even at full notoriety guards weren't as suspicious as in AC1 and at most you'd only have two or three run after you on roof tops. The gun mechanic meant that even high priority targets could be killed from a far without challenge and Ezio could still somehow teleport and have a chat with them before they die. By the time of Revelations, Ezio is the walking arsenal of Italy and in possession more pointy objects stuck to him than on a hedgehog being treated with acupuncture. To top it all off, the addition of large pouches of medicine, our favourite Italian assassin is also gifted with instantly regenerating health. Why would this guy ever need to hide from anyone?

Assassin's Hidden Blade™. Now with hook blade, spatula knife and web shooter attachments. 

In fairness that missions and guard strengths have been changed in Revelations; and to an extent Brotherhood, but neither problem is fully resolved. Missions will force you to go undetected while stalking a target, but it feels rather unnatural like most forced stealth sections in action games do with sections that have you follow a guy and jump in to cover every time he turns around for a second thinking forgot his keys. The guards have been altered to be more aggressive in later games to stop the "counter spamming" but it's still not compensated for the fact you have a gun, crossbow and now an array of explosives to fight people armed with swords. The developers seem to be turning the assassins into acrobatic mercenaries/soldiers rather than skilled infiltrators. By the looks of the trailer, Assassin's Creed 3 seems to put you in the middle of a full sized battle. If you're an assassin and you’re having to hide behind cover from an army of soldiers that can clearly see you, you're doing it wrong. You should be disguised as the targets horse in a pantomime configuration or at least hiding in a nearby bin.

I feel that the perfect balance comes in stealth when the player feels that they have enough abilities to get around the situation, but barely any power to protect them if they are discovered. The looming threat of discovery countered by the feeling of skill and cunning when you satisfyingly duck and weave past enemies is perhaps a metaphor of brains vs. brawn that stealth fans find so appealing. With Assassin's Creed 3 on the horizon, I hope that Ubisoft can put back some of the challenge to being a skilled infiltrator and assassin while continuing a stand-out triple A series.

Winterton's Fridays: Gaming on the Go- Balloon Popping in Serbia

I am currently in Belgrade. I’m not saying this to brag, only to demonstrate that I am in fact no longer in my country of residence (i.e. Britain), and as such have no access to my usual video game library. Hence, I can’t be writing another bunch of “Mass Effect” articles, save for doing it from memory.

I was, however, very happy to discover that a sequel to one of my favourite games has been released in the last few months, and therefore know that during my time away if I find myself with a hour or so of nothing to do I can sit down with a cocktail and “Bloons Tower Defence 5”.

The “Bloons Tower” (or “Blower”) series is the first tower defence series I encountered, when I became slightly addicted to the third instalment. I then played number four a great deal, and when I found that number five was out I couldn’t contain my joy. By which I mean I smiled slightly.

Slighty less than this.

Why do I love this series so much? Well, I’d be the first to admit that I am sucker for tower defence games in general.  I’ve played “Plants vs Zombies” to death (if there is a pun there, it’s intended), and cannot recommend highly enough “Desktop Tower Defence”. One thing all three of these games do incredibly well, arguably better than any other games I’ve played, is difficulty curve.

“Bloons” expertly introduces you with one tower and one concept, and then incrementally adds new elements. Not only do these elements do lots of different things individually, but also combine to allow for innumerable strategies. Moreover, as a game series it has excellent support and regular updates, in the form of new levels and upgrades, meaning that you are rewarded for repeatedly coming back to it.

It also carries a simplistic charm that makes a pleasant change from the high-concept art styles of a lot of games I play. “Bloons” is simple yet colourful, with each type of bloon and tower being a perfect demonstration of economic design.

This genuinely has more strategic depth than "Final Fantasy XIII"

My only real complaint is that as the series progresses the necessity of some of towers comes into question, and I find myself only using some of them simply because I feel I should. This most recent iteration seems to have made the “Monkey Ace” totally redundant, and I’m not convinced that the “Spike Factory” was ever a good investment.

Still, if you are ever left with only the internet to entertain you, you could do much worse than this addictive game, though it can cause you to miss out on sightseeing due to prolonged gaming sessions in hotel rooms. You have been warned.

Winterton’s Fridays: Endings Part 2- The Importance of Themes

Last week I looked at the importance of narrative and character in the endings of video games. This week I’m going to look at how the presence of themes, and see how they can be put to good use. Again, there are obviously going to be spoilers here, specifically about “Red Dead Redemption” and “Mass Effect 3”. Just so you know.

So the theme of “Red Dead Redemption” is, ostensibly, redemption. We are told this in the title, and Marston himself keeps talking about how he hates what he is being made to do. Now, forgive me for missing something, but when exactly does John Marston get redeemed for his violent crime sprees? Is it…erm…when he is committing more violent crime sprees? Yeah, not sure how killing lots of people is penance for killing a few people in the past.

Hog-tying is, at best, morally ambiguous.

And yes, I know he’s doing it so he can see his family, but surely that sort of undermines the gesture? Numerous characters point out that he is killing hundreds of people just for selfish reasons. I mean, his family aren’t exactly in danger, they’re just away from him (and, as we see at the end, John often brings danger with him). Moreover, it’s hardly redemption if you are being forced to do it. Charles Manson didn’t suddenly become a better person when he was arrested, he just wasn’t around to commit crimes anymore.

Now let’s clarify something; the people John kills don’t necessarily deserve to be killed. Even if we accept that being shot dead by a cowboy is something someone can deserve (I have mixed feelings), it feels strangely at odds. Moreover, since “Red Dead” is a sandbox game, it implicitly encourages exploration, looking for side-quests and whatnot. Which leads to Marston actively seeking out trouble. In fact, the game ends with possibly the most clear indication that John has failed, as we see his son Jack gunning down a former FBI agent. Then, with no apparent irony, the title card flashes up, as if redemption has finally been achieved.

You can't just put a red filter on things so your title has a rhyme in.

The only hint we get at John’s internal dilemma is a recurring sidequest with a mysterious stranger who hints at John’s dark past, who it later turns out is a hallucination John is having. This was undoubtedly my favourite part of the game, and yet was never alluded to at the end, nor given much time.

Compare this to “Mass Effect 3”. Now I’m sure we’re all aware of the controversy and generally negative fan reaction to this ending. In simple terms, Sheppard finally gets to a point where s/he can kill the Reapers and save the universe. S/he is then presented with a choice: destroy them, but also all other synthetic species (such as the Geth who, in my playthrough at least, were a staunch ally), control them, or fuse all organic life with all synthetic life. Seeing the final option as the most suiting of my “solve-all-problems” Sheppard, I picked it, and was treated to a beautiful, transcendental journey as Sheppard sacrificed himself for this change. I then see the human Joker and the AI robot EDI landing on a new planet together, both sporting evidence of their new merged genetics.

I can honestly say I think this is one of the best endings, not just in video games, but in any popular media. The theme of choice that runs right throughout the “Mass Effect” series is solidified in these final moments. Throughout the game, we see the toll Sheppard’s journey has taken on him or her, as Sheppard is continually haunted by the memory of an Earth boy s/he failed to save. Throughout all the moral complexity of “Mass Effect”, the ending underlines quite simply and elegantly the things that are important in life, and for once ends on an optimistic note, after the fatalism of the series up until that point.

Pictured: Pure awesome.

I know many people have complained that we do not see what became of the supporting cast and how things developed, but my answer to that is simple; if you do not know Garrus or Tali well enough after three games you never will.

I’m interested to know what people make of this, and hope to read some controversial comments and interpretations.

Great Value Casual Game Pick: Cut The Rope

Well I love my casual games me. Don't get me wrong, I love a good 300 hour Mass Effect 3 (+ ME1 and ME2) save file as much as the next hollow souled recluse but with my often busy lifestyle I feel that while I'm neglecting my duties as a virtual hero in an expansive RPG world,  I still need to have my gaming itch scratched.

Cut the Rope's candy deprived Om Nom makes the same expression I do when I've not had a game to play all day long.

The downside often is though however, that such casual games can often lack the depth and progression of their bigger production value cousins. However sometimes a casual game will come along which will have you coming back to play little by little for what must sum to hours and hours worth of time because of its devious game design which opens more and more game elements and challenges as you progress. One game, which I've paid the full premium price (a measly £1.24 or something) is Zeptolab's Cut The Rope  (an in-browser trial version of the game can be played here) and it's taken over my work life in this last month or so. Research? Cut the Rope! Reading? Cut the Rope! Marking? Please don't go on for too long as it will only interrupt my rope cutting time.

The aim of the game is to feed pieces of candy to a very cute cartoon baby dinosaur/dragon creature called Om Nom by completing an array of skill/puzzle challenges which largely involve (you guessed it) cutting ropes from which the delicious candy hangs from. The levels (and there a lot of them) are organised into ten "boxes" of 25 levels (do the math son) and every time you move onto a new box, lo and behold a brand new element of gameplay is added to the mix for the next wave of levels and by god to they exploit every new feature to its fullest, especially when you'll be using a combination of all the elements revealed to you so far to not only feed Om Nom. but also to use the candy to collect three deviously placed stars in each level before you do so. If you're anything like me, the prospect of three stars per level is a curse as I personally must complete a level with all three stars in tow before I can move on. It's that Angry Birds bullshit all over again but this time it's actually fun and requires some modicum of skill.

Yes, yes it is, but that's the entire point... moron.

It definitely scores highly in my books and I think you'll find that it is a very satisfying casual challenge, especially at the bargain sum of 0.5 p per level. My only concern is that Om Nom isn't getting a balanced diet. All he eats are lollipops, donuts and muffins but I also envy the little mite for this too. Sometimes I deliberately destroy the candy to spite him which leads me to the conclusion that I need to seek therapy. So long folks!