Game Diary - August 22, 2008: Games Not For My TV

There are people reading this blog who think I "have zero credibility" for covering games without owning a high-definition TV.

There are video game creators and press people who are surprised that I still play in standard definition. One of them told me just last week that I was wrong to think that most of the people I write for still play on standard sets.

Someday I will buy a high-def TV, but I haven't been in a rush. My current 1999-bought TV had been working just fine, until I recently spotted a surprising flaw.

I have only considered upgrading my TV when a console game I was playing on it didn't display well. This happened when I was playing "Dead Rising" and couldn't read the text. That game made me doubt my Sony Wega. My confidence was restored by the impressive way my set displayed "Gears of War" and most games since.

I know the difference in displays. I see games played on high-def TVs every week at press events. I've memorized the difference between what I see demoed and what I play at home. The difference, in my eyes, has not been significant enough to impact my enjoyment of the best-looking, most graphically-advanced games.

But my standard TV set is beginning to fail me. I've found its weakness. What it can't display very well, I've learned, are the best-looking high-definition 2D games, particularly some of the work on the PlayStation 3's downloadable service. The lower-color-contrast boards of "PixelJunk Eden" look blurry on my TV. The edges of the plants I need to leap my character to display with a fuzziness that impacts my ability to accurately jump. Last night, I discovered that the aerial maps used for levels in "The Last Guy," a game I had no problem playing a couple of weeks ago on a high-def set, appear hazy on my TV. I had trouble spotting my character and the tiny people I needed to collect while playing in standard resolution.

I long suspected that some time in this hardware generation I would feel the need to upgrade my TV. But I thought it would be the 3D games that would push me to that point. How ironic that it's actually a batch of games made in retro 2D.

Next: A weekend to finally play all the stuff I've wanted to get to, including "Too Human," "Ratchet" and "Red Alert 3."