King Kong X360 'too dark'

By Ellie Gibson Published 14 December, 2005

Says Ubisoft bigwig.

Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot has conceded that Xbox 360 owners who've purchased Peter Jackson's King Kong may face problems unless they're playing the game on a high definition telly.

"We have a problem on the 360. The screen is dark on some TVs and it totally changes the experience," Guillemot told BBC News.

"When it's dark, you don't see where you have to go... I'm a bit disappointed that we didn't see it when we were developing the game."

According to Guillemot, the game was developed using HD TVs - and it didn't occur to anyone that it might not work so well on standard tellies. But they're seeing if they can fix the code, however.

"It is the beginning of the high-definition TV era for us," Guillemot went on.

"It's a shame, but it happens with new machines. I don't think we will have it anymore."

Guillemot was quick to point out that the problem isn't present in other versions of the game: "When you play on an Xbox or a PlayStation 2, you start to see that it is beautiful," he said.

Here at Eurogamer, we thoroughly enjoyed the game - and found that simply turning up the brightness control did away with any visual issues. So there you go.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (36) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • geepersd #1 6 years ago

    d'oh

  • mattigan #2 6 years ago

    Oh dear

  • Kami #3 6 years ago

    OK, who's downloading the naughty stuff again?

  • Beano #4 6 years ago

    I guess a standard TV is a big investment for Ubisoft...

  • Furbs #5 6 years ago

    Weird...didnt I have a comment here a while a go?

  • myiagros #6 6 years ago

    oh deary me, anyone noticed this except for Ubisoft?

    Also are there any othe 360 games which suffer from similar problems when played on a standard TV?

  • cyacomini #7 6 years ago

    This is absolute shite. I've been using the 360 version of Kong and never had any issues with the display. All looks fine and dandy, and that *is* on a normal (SDTV) display.

    I wonder where this has come from, seems a bit strange for a developer to diss their own releases.

    I smell a rat.

  • Tiiti #8 6 years ago

    It looked very dark on my HD as well until I upped the brightness by quite alot.
    PD0, PGR3, TW '06, Kameo, NBA '06, NFS: MW and Condemned were fine

  • the_dudefather #9 6 years ago

    ok, so some big-wig told bbc that a game is too dark on a standard telly?


    WHO CARES!


    diddnt see any press conferences when castlevania came out for gba

  • Hive #10 6 years ago

    Is this what happened to DOOM? :)

  • Artemus #11 6 years ago

    Weird...didnt I have a comment here a while a go?

    Yep you did. And then the article vanished and came back.

  • rinoaMW #12 6 years ago

    my tv came with a handy function.. a brightness button! :p

    ... i guess some older tv's might not have this feature tho..

  • myiagros #13 6 years ago

    rinoaMW it is annoying have to constantly adjust the brightness of your TV depending on which game your playing.
    It would be a better solution if people tried to use a standard level which people can adjust if the particular situation so requires.
    Sometimes it takes me ages to get my TV right for watching normal TV after having adjusted all the levels for playing an overly dark game.

  • kangarootoo #14 6 years ago

    @cyacomini

    "This is absolute shite. I've been using the 360 version of Kong and never had any issues with the display. All looks fine and dandy, and that *is* on a normal (SDTV) display."

    It certainly isn't shite. Ubisoft have been open with this annoucement and you can find copies of it all over the web if you care to look. I think perhaps Ubisoft have a few more TVs at their disposal than your good self, so the fact is looks OK on your own TV isn't exactly proof that they are mad or lying.

    I think it is quite a bold and honest move to be this open about what is essentially a bit of a foolish mistake and I applaud them for it (the statement, not the mistake obviously).


    @rinoaMW

    " my tv came with a handy function.. a brightness button! :p
    ... i guess some older tv's might not have this feature tho.."

    The luminisence of TFT and Plasma screens is way above the level that a CRT is capable of. In many cases it will simply not be possible to up the brightness of your telly sufficiently to give a satisfactory result.

  • zErOb_cOOl #15 6 years ago

    By HD TV I'm sure they mean LCD TV. I have just designed a web site on my home computer which is a laptop. As soon as I viewed it at work though, on a standard monitor (not a flat panel or anything) it looked a fair bit darker.

    LCD TVs, as well as laptop screens, have a brightness 'mist' when viewed from certain angles, then when viewed from others they look too dark. Now I know newer LCD TVs are a bit better when viewing angles are concerned, but I'm sure every LCD TV is naturally brighter than standard TVs/ PC monitors.

  • Eldritch #16 6 years ago

    "When it's dark, you don't see where you have to go..."

    See? That's why guys like him are in charge. A perfectly reasonable deduction, which will calm down all those furious customers. Class.

  • Feanor #17 6 years ago

    I thought the game looked very dark on the 360 demo pod at Best Buy, and that was on a Samsung HDTV. All the other content on the demo pod looked fine in terms of brightness. All console games should have an internal brightness adjustment mechanism anyway - like RE 4 has.

  • Bumbuliuz #18 6 years ago

    Working perfectly on my 32" Samsung Lcd ;) Good point about Pdz having the setting for tv's. Would like to see more of it in other games.

  • kangarootoo #19 6 years ago

    I second that. I hate meddling with my TV settings to play a game.

  • davyuk #20 6 years ago

    "It is the beginning of the high-definition TV era for us," Guillemot went on.

    "Oh no it's not." cries Phil from the 3rd row.

  • rinoaMW #21 6 years ago

    @myiagros
    yeah i know... i was just being silly :)

    @kangarootoo
    see above :) - i've also got King Kong for the 360, so i know what this article is about, and yes, i also know the difference between brightness levels of CRT, LCD, Plasma and HD.. but tbh, ive not had any problems with my TV settings from playing Kameo, Condemed and King Kong... KK is a little bit dark, but nothing that i have to drastically change my settings for. My TV is tuned to THX standards.

  • kangarootoo #22 6 years ago

    @rinoaMW

    Sure thing. I didn't mean to suggest you didn't know anything about HDTV, I was just posting on what I read :)

    "My TV is tuned to THX standards"

    Ooh, this is news to me. Didn't realise there was a standard you could apply to your home HDTV. How does all that work? Do you have a series os test cards or something?

  • Aretak #23 6 years ago

    "Ooh, this is news to me. Didn't realise there was a standard you could apply to your home HDTV. How does all that work? Do you have a series os test cards or something?"

    Just stick in any THX-certified DVD, and you'll find the tests on there (usually accessed by seleting the THX logo on the menu). It's nothing particularly special... just helps you set your brightness, contrast, colour etc.

  • RabidMonkey #24 6 years ago

    Looks like someone's been reading Penny-Arcade.

  • Teeth #25 6 years ago

    Oh, you big cynic you :)

  • Pho-Zoon #26 6 years ago

    I thoroughly agree with you there, Gremmi. Surely no one is going to announce a problem with brightness control, unless they've got an ulterior motive.

    I mean, imagine what a fool he would have looked if he hadn't mentioned HD- the Ubisoft boss speaking out about brightness/contrast problems with a game. Good Gravy.

  • kangarootoo #27 6 years ago

    "Surely no one is going to announce a problem with brightness control, unless they've got an ulterior motive."

    I figured they were just pre-empting complaints, so it was more a damage control measure, rather than some zany money making scheme.

  • cardboardMonster #28 6 years ago

    I figured they were just pre-empting complaints, so it was more a damage control measure, rather than some zany money making scheme.

    PETER JACKSON'S KING KONG 2: BRIGHTNESS QUEST ADVENTURE


  • mustardkid #29 6 years ago

    check out these screenies




    :p
    Edited by 1 at 15/12/05 @ 09:41

  • rinoaMW #30 6 years ago

    @kangarootoo

    basically i found it on the Finding Nemo DvD, you just need to follow the on screen instructions to get the optimum picture on your TV, for best viewing the movie. Ive found that everything that i use on that TV now looks really nice, colouful and crisp. The only part that you night have trouble with is that you need a Blue Filter card that you need to look through when setting colour tints and contrasts.

    i picked one up at a specialist TV shop near where i live, but i guess you could use the blue see-through sweet packets that come wrapped around Quality Streets
    Edited by 1 at 15/12/05 @ 10:10

  • kangarootoo #31 6 years ago

    "i picked one up at a specialist TV shop near where i live, but i guess you could use the blue see-through sweet packets that come wrapped around Quality Streets"

    Hmmmm, I've got one of those little maps out of a box of Roses that helps you find the orange creams and avoid the noisette whirls. Do you reckon that will do the trick?

  • rinoaMW #32 6 years ago

    "Hmmmm, I've got one of those little maps out of a box of Roses that helps you find the orange creams and avoid the noisette whirls. Do you reckon that will do the trick? "

    maybe.. give it a whirl.. (no pun intended :)

  • Glitch #33 6 years ago

    They pay people a hell of alot of money to make a game like this and some gimp doesn't test it on a normal TV? Are they stupid or what, did the game go through any testing? How can a company spend so much money developing a shit hot game like this and not test it on a few TVs.

    Cmon guys! go sack someone.

  • kangarootoo #34 6 years ago

    "maybe.. give it a whirl.. (no pun intended :) "

    lol anyway, nice one.

  • kangarootoo #35 6 years ago

    @Glitch

    I'd be willing to bet that some people must have known about it. I can't believe that every QA person had a big telly. But I can also imagine that shouts of "it looks too dark on a cheap telly" wouldn't have carried very far in the wind. I'm also supposing of course.

  • redd #36 6 years ago

    as the game is so short, you can actually just adjust the brightness twice, as you can play it all the way through at once. :D