Bioware: SD Mass Effect’s Tiny Text Here to Stay

It wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume that debacles surrounding microscopic text in a slew of next generation titles would prompt developers to take heed of those playing in standard definition. Dead Rising wowed gamers upon release with a scrolling ticker tape of vital information presented at what appeared the equivalent of a 2-point font in Microsoft Word. The furore caused by the common gamer was sizeable. More recently, Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, the Mechano set-come-racing reboot of Rare’s golden platforming franchise, offered on screen instructions at a size that again begged question as to whether developers test work-in-progress builds on anything other than 86” plasma screens.

Today, gamers worldwide again curse at chicken scratch textual presentation in Mass Effect 2. Similar to Capcom’s Dead Rising response some years prior, Bioware’s Michael Gamble yesterday stood up via a post on their official forums to disappoint 16 previous pages of shared complaint. While acknowledging “that on some Standard Definition TVs the smallest text in Mass Effect 2 can be difficult to read” he proceeded “we are unable to resolve it for Mass Effect 2 through a title update”.

Case closed for Bioware and their wall filling monitors, but what of the hordes without 720p and above? Unless Mass Effect 2‘s text is formatted as image files rather than data, I struggle to see (though I am sure I will be corrected) how the title cannot receive a plain update as per Banjo’s wheely adventure to boost the font size to a level which can be enjoyed by eye strengths and consumer electronics’ budgets worldwide.

Via: Eurogamer