Mass Effect 2 fans who are playing the game on a standard definition television (read: cavemen) have experienced difficulty reading the game’s tiny text in conversations and subtitles.  It’s a similar problem to the ones in Dead Rising and Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts.  When the issue popped up in Banjo-Kazooie, Rare was kind enough to put out a patch that increased the game’s font size.  Capcom treated the issue differently, by essentially saying “Screw You!” to its customers, not issuing a patch, and offering such brilliant workarounds as “Setting the TV to widescreen ratio (even though you may not have a widescreen TV).”  BioWare has, sadly, chosen the Capcom route, and will not be fixing the issue.

On the BioWare forums, the company has stated that they have investigated potential solutions, and have found that they “are unable to resolve it for Mass Effect 2 through a title update.”  They have promised that they “will take it into consideration as we plan future games in the Mass Effect franchise.”

As focused as Microsoft and Sony have been on the HD generation, the fact is the majority of console owners are still playing their games on standard definition TVs.  Developers should keep this in mind, and offer options for both types of TVs, at least until the general public catches up with the new technology.  By then, though, developers will be focused on 3D TVs, and will likely be neglecting those who haven’t caught up to that technology.  Circle of life…