2008 WSGF Awards
As a celebration of our 5th Anniversary, we have decided to bestow our first set of annual awards upon deserving developers and publishers. Three separate awards are being presented - Field of Vision, Narrow Minded and Game of the Year.
Even though many games now offer native widescreen resolution support, proper FOV support and HUD scaling are far from universal. To help evangelize and encourage proper implementation in widescreen and Surround Gaming scenarios, the WSGF seeks to recognize those developers who represent the best and worst examples of widescreen support.
The Awards
The awards are etched into curved glass. The Field of Vision and GOTY awards are a widescreen format, while the Narrow minded is a 4:3 format.
Field of Vision Award
The Field of Vision Award is given to a developer with an exemplary record of supporting widescreen and/or Surround Gaming. Since the WSGF has five years of history to consider, we are giving two Field of Vision Awards in our first year.
Valve Software
Valve Software is the venerable developer of the Half-Life series. Every game released by Valve, except the original Half-Life (including games based on this engine, which was released in 1998, before widescreen monitors) has been Certified as having perfect widescreen support. Even the original Half-Life could easily be played in widescreen through an .ini edit; and the updated version, Half-Life: Source, is Certified as well. Additionally, Valve's games natively support Surround and Wide Surround gaming modes.
Valve's "Source Engine" (developed for Half-Life 2) provides an excellent platform for widescreen development. Virtually every Source game we've tested has been Certified. Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, and SiN Episodes have all been Certified. Only Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines has not been Certified. Contrast this with games based on the Unreal 3 Engine (which are all natively Vert-, except for RoboBlitz), and the value of the Source Engine is evident.
Introversion Software
Introversion is a small UK software firm, of only ten people, which bills itself as "The last of the bedroom programmers." Since the launch of the WSGF, Introversion has released two games - Darwinia and DEFCON, both of which have been Certified. Both games offered unique gameplay experiences, and were well received by the public and critics. Of interest to the WSGF is the fact that a small indie developer such as Introversion was able to provide flawless widescreen support, when many larger development teams failed to provide a similar level of widescreen support.
Narrow Minded Award
The Narrow Minded Award is given to a developer that actively prohibits implementation of widescreen support, or routinely leaves out proper widescreen support. Like the Field of Vision Award, the WSGF is giving out two Narrow Minded Awards.
DICE
DICE is the award-winning developer of the Battlefield franchise. The Battlefield series has garnered critical praise across the board, and sold exceedingly well. However, it has been a standout for its lack of widescreen support; and DICE has made a name for itself in supporting and fostering the idea that usage of widescreen amounts to cheating. They have equated the additional field of vision in a widescreen to an unfair advantage. A monitor is only one part of a gaming rig or experience. Additional factors such as frame rates, mouse sensitivity and ping also affect gameplay. Any one of these items could be considered an advantage (under their logic).
A player with 60fps is going to have a smoother and more consistent experience than one with 30fps, offering the first player easier targeting. High end gaming mice with high dpi also provide a similar advantage, offering smoother tracking and targeting. Finally, a gamer with a better internet connection and lower ping will have a significant advantage over a gamer with a higher ping.
WSGF players with less-than-stellar rigs hoped that DICE would limit rig performance to 1280x1024 @ 30fps, 300 dpi mouse sensitivity, and a 200ms ping. They never received that level playing field, but DICE did finally relent and offer widescreen support in the 1.5 patch. Rather than make the options available in-game, DICE still required gamers to know the proper command line hack to enable widescreen support.
Electronic Arts
Without a doubt, Electronic Arts is one of the most prolific developers and publishers in PC gaming. And, without a doubt, they have one of the worst records in supporting widescreen. Not only are they the publisher for Battlefield, but their EA Sports studios have a unique history of hampering widescreen for PC gamers. With the 2006 sports season, the EA Sports franchise moved to Xbox360 and 720p HD widescreen. Good news for gamers, right? Wrong. While supporting widescreen on the next-gen consoles, EA Sports continued to remove widescreen support from the PC versions. The engines supported widescreen.
The WSGF was able to put together mods and hacks for most titles, notably the Tiger Woods series. The work for this was extensive, requiring the HEX editing of (sometimes multiple), .dll or .exe files. With the 2008 series, EA Sports finally added native widescreen support to their titles. They followed this up by canceling the entire EA Sports line for 2009 and beyond.
2007 Widescreen Game of the Year
The Widescreen Game of the Year was voted on by members of the Widescreen Gaming Forum. Only Certified games were eligible for consideration. The candidates for 2007 Game of the Year were: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Clive Barker's Jericho, Colin McRae: DiRT, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, Overlord, Portal, Team Fortress 2, Tomb Raider: Anniversary, Two Worlds, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes and The Witcher.
Call of Duty 4
After three rounds, Call of Duty 4 beat out all other contenders and captured the WSGF 2007 Game of the Year. Call of Duty 4 was developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision. The game was released on November 6, 2007. It received perfect or near perfect scores from every major reviewing outlet, and won numerous awards. The WSGF is happy to add our seal of approval as well.
Prior Widescreen Games of the Year
- 2006 - The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
- 2005 - Call of Duty 2 (voted on retroactively in 2006)
- 2004 - Half-Life 2 (voted on retroactively in 2006)
- 2003 - EVE Online (voted on retroactively in 2006)