Are screenshots trustable?

[faceoff508]

As I see it.. screenshots takes away from the graphics of the game! What do you think?

[X-Ray]

They only give an indication of what the game will be like and in my experience, screenshots in magazines are hardly indicative of graphics because they're so distorted in the mags.

[OppiumNitrates]

as for taking away graphics i disagree. . .but they can me mis leading if the game is aalso for a differnt platform and its not the platform u would buy it for

[Nato King]

I would have to say that sometime becuase sometimes the screenshots are trustable and sometimes there not. hahaha

[fear_this]

Screenshots can sometimes lie. I mean like, with the editing skills of today people can easily make and put anything into screen shots. Thats why you have to get a will know and trusted place to use your screen shots with. Just not some place out of the blue. But the thing about the graphics, i think that it doesnt really take away from it just gives you a big inside look on how they are going to be.

[kornavs19]

in some cases they can be good.... They can give a hint to what the game looks like..... But then they dont..... They dont really show the gameplay, So u dont know what the game is like, u just know how it looks... So i voted for sometimes.

[RadRider]

Sometimes screenshots show what the game looks like alright, but when you get to see the game in motion there might be monstrous clipping, slowdown, shimmering, choppiness, etc.

On the other hand, screenshots can be completely underwhelming - as in the case of morrowind. Although the screenshots might perfectly depect what the game looks like, the can't tell you how fluid the animation is, what the attention to detail is like, any neat movement effects, etc.

So, you give a little and you take a little with screenshots. Beats getting nothing.

[smashnp934]

Have you ever seen the screenshots from OXM magazine? I know that JSRF is an awesome game to look at, but if you look in the magazine's April issue, it is fugly. What is "fugly"? Short for F'ing Ugly! I think that OXM magazine is very crappy as far as screenshots go for games.

However for screenshots in general, I think that they cannot be trustworthy, especially in advertisements. In an advertisement, the company is not going to show a jaggedy-lined, nasty screenshot. Instead, they will find the most crisp, exciting screen shot they can to show off the best features. At least most companies would want to do this.

As far as screenshots that IGN or xboxaddict gets a hold of: If they are company sent, they could be a problem as far as authenticity of a true screenshot. If it is taken by the reviewer, then hopefully the reviewer is not being paid off by the company and is completely honest.

that's the wUrd!!

[Shorezy]

Good point but i think it totally depends on the source of the screens. I do understand where your coming from. Some screens can be awful, but others excellent. I always check the source. For example, most screens at our very own XBA are excellent!

[X-Ray]

Where would we be without screenshots? I'll tell you, they make it a lot easier to make tentative judgements as to what games are worth a closer look.

[sinizuh]

sometimes... obiwan looked like a good game... turned out to be uber crap.

[X-Ray]

Originally posted by sinizuh
sometimes... obiwan looked like a good game... turned out to be uber crap.

Never played it, but that's what I hear.

[Xtopia]

I think that screenshots viewed over the internet look better than those in magazines. So, I said "sometimes."

[Kooster]

Sometimes the screenshots are from beta versions of games, and make them look really bad.

[Snoopy7548]

i read somewhere that screenshots only show like 50% of the true graphics of a game. screenshots dont look nearly as good as the real game does when youre playing it on a tv. screenshots in magazines are so horrible, especially this one i saw for ghost recon, it had more jaggies than a ps2 game! lol