The Backlog Check-in Vol. 58: 2/9/19: Crackdown 3/Far Cry: New Dawn/Metro Exodus Edition
Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2019 2:10 pm
Played: Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Finished (playing): Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Playing: ?
I stopped playing Shadow of the Tomb Raider, not because I wasn't enjoying it but because I got tired of looking at nearly pitch black crypts and tombs where I could barely make out the graphics. It's difficult to play and enjoy a game when you basically can't see it.
Since I first got my new TV and PS4 over two years ago I've always noticed that the screen brightness would change in different areas of the games that I was playing. It would go brighter in some places, and darker in others. I figured that it was a TV setting (which it was) that I could change, but no matter what settings that I changed it still did it. So even though I found it somewhat annoying, I accepted it. It was more noticeable in some games than others, and it was never too extreme one way or the other. However, it was still a noticeable annoyance that I experienced in almost every game that I've played over the past two years.
Basically, there were a lot of times in the games that I was playing that the lighting in them didn't look right due to the brightness of the TV changing. It made the graphics look worse when things got brighter or darker, because the lighting in them is made to look a certain way based on brightness and that's altered when the overall brightness keeps changing. This of course made me enjoy the games a little less at times when the graphics weren't looking as consistently good throughout due to the constant brightness changes.
However, recently when playing Dying Light it went from being a minor annoyance to an actual problem where I could barely see the game. The game has a day/night cycle, and when it turned dark at night I could barely see the graphics. This was part of the reason why I wasn't enjoying it that much, because (like I said earlier) it's difficult to play and enjoy a game when you basically can't see it.
As you know I've been playing Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and it became almost unplayable at times when I was in a crypt or tomb because the brightness would turn so dark that the screen would become pitch black. I had to go into the game settings and turn the brightness all the way up just to barely make out the graphics. Since I was enjoying the game I put up with this for a while, but it got to the point where it was completely taking away from the enjoyment of the game so I had to figure out what was causing this to happen.
I went to Google and typed in the problem, and instantly saw something about dynamic contrast. I knew that my TV had that because I had it set to high thinking that it made the picture more bright and vivid, but it turns out that it causes the brightness of the TV to change based on the image being displayed. I turned it off, and lo and behold my TV didn't change the brightness in my games anymore. I sure would have liked to have known this over two years ago.
Since a lot of Shadow of the Tomb Raider was dark while I was playing it, I decided to start it over so that I could experience it the right way. But when I did I couldn't really get back into it since I had just played it for over ten hours, so I'm going to wait and play it again another time. However, I decided to play Tomb Raider (2013) just to check it out and compare it to Shadow of the Tomb Raider since I haven't played it for over five years. One of the first things that I noticed is that on the brightness setting screen it says to turn off dynamic contrast on your TV. Doh!
I don't know what I'm going to play now, maybe Dying Light since the brightness issue was a big reason why I wasn't enjoying it that much. While I had a few other issues with it as well, I think that they were magnified by the game looking really dark especially at night.
Games coming out next week:
Code: Realize - Wintertide Miracles
Crackdown 3
Descent
Dragons: Dawn of New Riders
Far Cry: New Dawn
Jump Force
Metro Exodus
Finished (playing): Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Playing: ?
I stopped playing Shadow of the Tomb Raider, not because I wasn't enjoying it but because I got tired of looking at nearly pitch black crypts and tombs where I could barely make out the graphics. It's difficult to play and enjoy a game when you basically can't see it.
Since I first got my new TV and PS4 over two years ago I've always noticed that the screen brightness would change in different areas of the games that I was playing. It would go brighter in some places, and darker in others. I figured that it was a TV setting (which it was) that I could change, but no matter what settings that I changed it still did it. So even though I found it somewhat annoying, I accepted it. It was more noticeable in some games than others, and it was never too extreme one way or the other. However, it was still a noticeable annoyance that I experienced in almost every game that I've played over the past two years.
Basically, there were a lot of times in the games that I was playing that the lighting in them didn't look right due to the brightness of the TV changing. It made the graphics look worse when things got brighter or darker, because the lighting in them is made to look a certain way based on brightness and that's altered when the overall brightness keeps changing. This of course made me enjoy the games a little less at times when the graphics weren't looking as consistently good throughout due to the constant brightness changes.
However, recently when playing Dying Light it went from being a minor annoyance to an actual problem where I could barely see the game. The game has a day/night cycle, and when it turned dark at night I could barely see the graphics. This was part of the reason why I wasn't enjoying it that much, because (like I said earlier) it's difficult to play and enjoy a game when you basically can't see it.
As you know I've been playing Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and it became almost unplayable at times when I was in a crypt or tomb because the brightness would turn so dark that the screen would become pitch black. I had to go into the game settings and turn the brightness all the way up just to barely make out the graphics. Since I was enjoying the game I put up with this for a while, but it got to the point where it was completely taking away from the enjoyment of the game so I had to figure out what was causing this to happen.
I went to Google and typed in the problem, and instantly saw something about dynamic contrast. I knew that my TV had that because I had it set to high thinking that it made the picture more bright and vivid, but it turns out that it causes the brightness of the TV to change based on the image being displayed. I turned it off, and lo and behold my TV didn't change the brightness in my games anymore. I sure would have liked to have known this over two years ago.
Since a lot of Shadow of the Tomb Raider was dark while I was playing it, I decided to start it over so that I could experience it the right way. But when I did I couldn't really get back into it since I had just played it for over ten hours, so I'm going to wait and play it again another time. However, I decided to play Tomb Raider (2013) just to check it out and compare it to Shadow of the Tomb Raider since I haven't played it for over five years. One of the first things that I noticed is that on the brightness setting screen it says to turn off dynamic contrast on your TV. Doh!
I don't know what I'm going to play now, maybe Dying Light since the brightness issue was a big reason why I wasn't enjoying it that much. While I had a few other issues with it as well, I think that they were magnified by the game looking really dark especially at night.
Games coming out next week:
Code: Realize - Wintertide Miracles
Crackdown 3
Descent
Dragons: Dawn of New Riders
Far Cry: New Dawn
Jump Force
Metro Exodus