King's Bounty: The Legend

[scavvenjahh]

Widescreen Grade: A
Ultra-Widescreen Grade: Incomplete
Multi-monitor Grade: C
4k Grade: Incomplete

Read Full Detailed Report - King's Bounty: The Legend

A "remote cousin" of the Heroes of Might & Magic series, King's Bounty : The Legend combines turn-based battles and real-time exploration in a lenghty singleplayer campaign.

4:3

16:10

16:9

3x1

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[The_cranky_hermit]

This is the first game that is hor + but pillarboxes in 16:9. Previously Penny Arcade Adventures was found to be anamorphic but pillarboxed in 16:9, so I think we can say it set a precedent for all games that are flawless in 4:3->16:10 but pillarboxed in 16:9. It will be graded in the same manner as PAA.

==Supported resolutions==

How about 1280x720?


==Singleplayer anomalies==

I'm assuming the main menu the only part of the game that is vert - in widescreen. Is that true?


==Cut-scenes==

Just FYI, we don't call non-widescreen FMVs "anamorphic." The word only makes sense when black bars get smaller in widescreen, like they do on anamorphic DVDs. When the black bars get bigger in widescreen, that mimics the behavior of a non-anamorphic DVD. Just call it "pillarboxed in widescreen."

Anyway, the in-depth analysis is much appreciated. Thanks!

Calculated grade: B
Potential grade: B+

Pillarboxed 16:9 is a blemish.

Minor unresolved issues:
Is 1280x720 supported?

CCE: 99.5%

Oh, and I just realized that this is our only documented game beginning with the letter 'K'. We can get rid of the King's Quest placeholder now.

[scavvenjahh]

1280x720 confirmed and added to the list. I'll correct the "anamorphic" bit too. You must feel like an old teacher endlessly bumping into such n00bish mistakes, sorry for that ! :mrgreen:

I'm assuming the main menu the only part of the game that is vert - in widescreen. Is that true?

True, and then again, only the background is Vert-, not the interface itself (buttons) ! Another clue that this game was designed with a good 'narrow/wide' compromise in mind. That's why I decided to include it in the DR, just for the record really.

Oh, and I just realized that this is our only documented game beginning with the letter 'K'. We can get rid of the King's Quest placeholder now.

Oh the pride ! Hurray ! :D (Let's see what's on the shelf : Kingpin... Knights of the Temple... yeah, not many fresh K titles to DR it seems. You'd think video games that often deal with Knights, Kings and mostly Killings would mention it in their title...)

[The_cranky_hermit]

We're also lacking anything beginning with "Z."

Also, grade bumped up to B+ due to 1280x720 confirmation. Coverage is 100%.

[Soduka]

Why is this game so...shiny? I like it for some reason.

[scavvenjahh]

It's simply cute :) and for an old HoMM (singleplayer) fan like me, totally addictive, too... The capital city sure has a "fairy tale Camelot" bright look to it, you can see other areas and times of the day over here.

Cranky, I plan to write reports on Zanzarah and Zoo Tycoon 2, they might be considered "born retired" but I can't find anything newer :lol: (pity, I think "Zombang" would've been such a better title than "Left4Dead"... ah well...)

[Ryom]

The game will not load when running 1024x600 resolution. You need to copy the GAME.INI out of the King's Bounty folder into your My Documents/My Games/King's Bounty Folder and set the resolution by hand, then the game will load.

FYI for anyone on a netbook :)

Interestingly as well, the background image will be cutoff for 16:9 and wider aspects, but floating text (enemy names and such) will continue to display into the black bar area.

[The_cranky_hermit]

Cranky, I plan to write reports on Zanzarah and Zoo Tycoon 2, they might be considered "born retired" but I can't find anything newer

Frankly, I don't think that would be a good investment of your time. Unless the DRs got a significant number of hits, I doubt I would even bother looking at them.

[scavvenjahh]

Understood :lol:

[zuffdaddy]

Those pillboxes in 1280 x 720 were driving me insane, had me thinking there was something wrong with my setup.

I posted about it on their website, here: http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?p=66003#post66003

But as of now, no reply.

[scavvenjahh]

Uh, did you read the Detailed Report (first post up there) ? :?
Every game behaves in its own way when it comes to widescreen. King's Bounty goes fullscreen in 16:10 and adds black bars in 16:9 resolutions (like 1280x720). 16:9 is still natively supported, i.e the game works by default in that aspect ratio. And as an added bonus, it's not even stretched; the downside is, slices on the sides of your 16:9 display will be unused. The developers made this choice, it is not a bug. I understand you'd prefer fullscreen gameplay and I feel for you, but that's just not how this particular game handles the intricate issue of looking good on all displays - widescreen or not.

[223thatsme]

Hi.

Can someone please let me know if 1280x768 resolution also has the black bars?

I know 1280x720 has black bars and 1280x800 doesn't...

... but what about 1280x768?

Hmmmm... really would like to know as that is my monitor's native resolution.

Much appreciated!

[scavvenjahh]

Here's another comparison set (feat. KB: Armored Princess) that includes 1280x768.

4:3 (1024x768)


15:9 (1280x768)


16:9 (1360x768)

[223thatsme]

Awesome! Thanks.

Just what I was looking for!

I'm not so worried about the black bars , but the green bars overlaid on top of the black bars might be distracting... I understand that even the mouse pointer is allowed to venture inside the black bars. I really hope a patch or mod gets released to at least correct that weird overlay-effect.

Oh well..
:?

[Tanuki]

I really hope a patch or mod gets released to at least correct that weird overlay-effect.

I doubt it. I got it to render without the black bars but the text became undreadable. The letter spacing was all over the place.

[scavvenjahh]

Seeing how KB:Crossworlds was patched to support 16:9 properly, should KB:TL get a C ? I'm inclined to think so, but Grade Calc requires nothing short of "major anomalies" for a C... Guess it's just B- for Legend and B+ for Crossworlds, then.