World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King

Post by **skipclarke** » 17 Nov 2008, 07:00

Widescreen Grade: A
Multi-monitor Grade: B

Read Full Detailed Report - World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King

WOW is the blockbuster MMO from from Blizzard, set in their Warcraft universe. I did this DR the same week Wrath of the Lich King came out, so this could be considered the WotLK client.

DaFox · Post by **DaFox** » 17 Nov 2008, 23:07

istador · Post by **istador** » 17 Nov 2008, 23:10

==Cut-scenes==
The cut-scenes are rendered in the game engine and are anamorphic up to 16x9, then they go Hor+

Didn't you forgotten the pre-rendered cutscenes?
I mean the intros and the wrathgate ingame pre-rendered cut-scene, they are still vert- and should affect the rating.

==Cut-scenes==

(Does the game have any cut-scenes that are relevant to the game's plot and narrative? If so, what happens to them when widescreen is enabled? Are they stretched, hor +, vert -, pillarboxed, windowboxed, or anamorphic? Does the game have pre-rendered cut-scenes, ingame-rendered cut-scenes, or both? If it has both, be sure to discuss both)

http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/node/6184

Cut-Scenes:
This includes FMVs and ingame cutscenes.

N/A:
There are no cut-scenes that are important to the game's plot or narrative.

Broken:
Enabling widescreen makes some or all cut-scenes unviewable.

Uncorrected:
All cut-scenes are viewable, but some or all of them suffer from any of these symptoms:
Formerly 4:3 cut-scenes being stretched or being made Vert-.
Formerly letterboxed cut-scenes beeing stretched or windowboxed (black borders present on all four sides).

Corrected:
All cut-scenes are viewable.
All formerly 4:3 cut-scenes are either pillarboxed (black borders added on the left and right), or are Hor+.
All formerly letterboxed cut-scenes are either anamorphic (black borders formerly on the top and bottom are reduced or removed), or are Hor+.

wsRubrikReadme.txt in http://www.freewebs.com/thecrankyhermit/wsRubrick.zip

Post by **skipclarke** » 17 Nov 2008, 23:18

Believe me, I know the criteria and the template. I haven't really played WOW in a while, and I don't remember any pre-rendered cutscenes. I gave examples of one of the intro movies, for humans. Are different movies done differently.

What is the wrathgate movie? Never seen that. Can you post shots of it?

P-Storm · Post by **P-Storm** » 17 Nov 2008, 23:32

it is from a quest line in the new content, around level 77 you can pick it up i think :roll: .
Didn't do it myself, but shall screenshot it ;)

Post by **skipclarke** » 17 Nov 2008, 23:46

My highest level toons were only in the 20s. No way I'm getting to 77. And, if level 77 is the first sight of a pre-rendered cut-scene, on a specific quest, then I'm not sure how big of a blemish it would be.

infernus · Post by **infernus** » 18 Nov 2008, 03:29

Depending on the importance of the quest (which might be significant if it got a cut-scene), it might be something a lot of people will do, like attunement to raid somewhere. Of course, I haven't played the game since the first expansion came out so I don't even know if there are such things still. :P

Post by **The_cranky_hermit** » 18 Nov 2008, 03:46

Let's see the screenshot comparison, and make judgment afterwards.

Also, could you post comparison shots for at least one of these? Whichever one you think is the most important.

The login, character creation and character selection screens are Vert-.

istador · Post by **istador** » 18 Nov 2008, 07:27

The Wrathgate cinematic is a great story plot that leads to some epic quests.
You can see the Video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPW3ic4hQ38

It's the same as with the Intros, they are only available in 800x368 and 1024x464 and in other resolution they gets stretched horizontally with black borders (top and bottom) or become vert- to stay on the original aspect ratios.

screenshots from the ingame wrathgate cinematic:

1280x1024

3840x1024

Post by **The_cranky_hermit** » 18 Nov 2008, 07:40

We don't penalize games for flawed TH support. Only for flawed widescreen support. It looks like at 16:10, only the black bars would get cut off.

Post by **skipclarke** » 18 Nov 2008, 16:26

Honestly, I don't think any of them are really an issue. It's kind of like an intro movie. You blast through it getting online. In the character select or creation screens, nothing on the character is cut off.

WOW, 5:4, 1280x1024

WOW, 4:3, 1600x1200

WOW, 16:10, 1920x1200

WOW, TripleHead, 3840x1024

WOW, Wide TripleHead, 5040x1050

P-Storm · Post by **P-Storm** » 18 Nov 2008, 16:57

Ibrin, it will probably be rendered just like the Intro movies, you can play them again with Cinematics

Post by **The_cranky_hermit** » 19 Nov 2008, 02:03

In the character select or creation screens, nothing on the character is cut off.

What does get cut off? Is it just empty space that gets cut off?

Ibrin, it will probably be rendered just like the Intro movies

Are the intro movies FMV?

Post by **skipclarke** » 19 Nov 2008, 04:56

The intro movies are rendered with the in-game engine.

Here are the character select screens. It cuts off the background. When I said it didn't cut anything off, I was referencing the character. Some games have clipped the character head or lost menu items when going Vert-.

In looking at these again, they are also Hor+. You can see more of the stone wall past the barrel on the left. And, you can see the whole barrel on the right.

WOW, 5:4, 1280x1024

WOW, 4:3, 1600x1200

WOW, 16:10, 1920x1200

WOW, 16:9, 1920x1080

WOW, TripleHead, 3840x1024

WOW, Wide TripleHead, 5040x1050

Post by **The_cranky_hermit** » 19 Nov 2008, 05:07

Here's a superimposition I made:

It's mostly vert -. I don't think it's right to give WoW a free pass for this when we penalize other games like Fallout 3 for similar things.

Post by **skipclarke** » 19 Nov 2008, 05:27

I'm certainly not saying to give them a free pass. But, a login and character select screen is something that is seen once in an entire play session and has no bearing on the actual play. The issues with Fallout 3 were on gameplay screens, and could occur multiple times in a session, and would be something that more time was spent on.

Is it something worth taking away Certification? Not sure. I know there are some Certified games with minor nibbles (the intro movie on Thrillville: Off the Rails is windowboxed in 16:9). I guess it comes down to, is this worth a B+ or an A-?

Gameplay wise, Blizzard finally got it right.

DigChaos · Post by **DigChaos** » 19 Nov 2008, 05:31

So with Wotlk installed it still seems a little off to me, i've been running it in window mode @ 1680x1050 cause it didn't look right. What do you mean by "max dolly" on those screen shots? And what did you have to do to get it to work? Did you have to run the profile from SGU? Thanks.

Post by **skipclarke** » 19 Nov 2008, 05:48

Max dolly is rolling the mouse wheel back to the max distance. Just helps set a mark to know each screen is from the same place. I didn't have to do anything in the SGU. This is based on the 10-day free trial, for whatever that is worth. I want to wait and install WotLK and sign back up when I will have time to play and get some videos.

Post by **The_cranky_hermit** » 19 Nov 2008, 06:04

But, a login and character select screen is something that is seen once in an entire play session and has no bearing on the actual play.

Well, I guess if it doesn't occur once the actual play session starts, it can be overlooked. We don't grade main menu screens for more or less that reason.

Do you or does anyone else have more to add to this particular discussion?

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