What is a bullshot? Let us examine the differences between a PR shot and total BS.

I think assen is basically right: as a consumer, you should not be so naive to buy stuff without proper informing yourself.
It is no surprise that this applies to the product 'games' as well, because at the end...people wants to make money.

The problem is, that I have the feeling that for games it is a lot more difficult to get proper information, because of the involved high tech: should I go to the local games shop and ask the 20 year old punk (I actually really buy most of my games at this store)? Should I visit specialized gaming websites (they actually have all these bullshots) like IGN, gamspot, ...? Forums usually aren't an option either because you basically only get opinions (often: even from devs!!)?

As always, the only secure option is to take a look at the (final?!) product itself (demos ftw)...I think then you really recognize how much bull the shots were

 

Actually, I'm not suggesting any change! This keeps Beyond3D going.

Having said that, I don't like excusing other people, especially those I don't know and who are only trying to get my money.

 

I hate bullshots...ones meant to decieve. But I don't mind Super-sampled shots for the press. I think calling them bullshots groupd them with images that are not even comparable.

 

Delete

 

Those two last pics are incredible.

Would be sweet if we could supersample everything like that.

 

AA and AF are acceptable because we can kinda guess well on that part. Any other techniques they use makes it bullshot to me.

 

You do realize the one on the bottom right is real?

 

That's why I mentioned them.

Though, would be interesting to blind test non-gamers/techies to see if they can get it right.

 

WRT forza 3

ppl should feel especially conned when they've said

(**)

Surely the simple solution (which took me all of 1/10th of a second to think of) is for any screenshot not taken from actually ingame footage to be marked as such.(*)
FACT - at the moment some devs release bullshots some release actual shots.
Yet the ones that do the honest thing get the short end of the stick, i.e.in this business it pays to deceive

(*)Whilst rendering at higher res and downsampling isnt so bad cause ~10% of ppl can tell the difference, its much better to have a black/white distinction
is it a bullshot yes/no

(**)perhaps the guy added afterwards in a whisper "its just not on a xbox360 but on a supercomputer"

 

We all know the solution. It's been mentioned before. Question is, what does it take to turn human beings into completely honest creatures? Without a solution to that problem, all these specific examples are just ongoing multifarious symptoms.

 

what does it take to turn human beings into completely honest creatures?

One answer, I believe, is somewhere between just before infancy and just after death (missing out the middle bits altogether).

 

Are you implying 90% of the ppl are blind and in dire need of glasses?

Difference is massive and it sure is noticable however the question is how many care about it infront of gameplay experience. How many Wii's have been sold?

It would suffice to whisper a 'decent gaming PC'. We need to get with times!

 

Im not talking about ppl here but the general populace
I believe surveys have shown a lot of ppl have their brand new tvs/consoles capable of HD pictures set to standard SD + didnt even know!!! the thing is the higher up u go the less visual difference is achieved.
320x240 -> 640x480 is a bigger jump than 640x480 -> 1280x960 even though theyre both 4x the pixels.
diminished returns

impossible of course, a solution though is any that get caught misrepresenting their games should be named and shamed (perhaps even a court case or 2 of false advertising), Im sure youll find afterwards deception will drop off dramatically.

The reason why there should be no exceptions to what is a bullshot is cause it leaves to much open to interpretation, easier to have a black and white definition.
Actually theres talk here in NZ of something similar WRT drink driving as they want to lower the amount of alcohol u can drink and then drive, it will lead to the same problems that exist now, (exaggerated with a few drinks inside one) ok u had 2 beers in the last hour + one in the hours before that blah blah. Easier to just have a blanket one beer == over the limit

 

Yeah, Epic has disclosed some statistics about how many people online have actually played Gears of War in HD and it was surprisingly low. Too lazy to dig up the link tonight

 

I recognize the car and track/background I think as being in one of the Need for Speed games that came out around the time of the 360. It looks like they just applied a crap load of AA or a super high resolution to it, but that's pretty much what the game looked like from memory.

 

Either the game looks like that or it doesn't. If 'it looks like that except for the AA', then it doesn't look like that.

 

Looks like Hot Pursuit 2 to me, the car on that pic is Porche 911 Turbo. The game came out 3 years before 360 though.

 

You know, Planescape: Torment has the answer to that conundrum.

 

yeah it's the most extreme example I can remember of a game's advertisements looking different than the actual graphics but there was a tiny little disclaimer on the corner of the screen saying it wasn't in-game. Obviously, the reason they shelled out the money to make a CGI trailer was to excite a couple graphics whores though so does that count as false advertisement?

 

Good example of Wii screenshots. I guarantee the game looks better on an actual console and in motion.