I See You

As difficult as it was to grow accustomed to the fine motor skills required to perform well at the glory that is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, I struggled most with quickly locating and identifying enemies. Unless they were right in front of me, I had a difficult time determining if this small dark blotch on the screen was something that I should shoot at. Of course, by the time I made the decision to pull the trigger, then I was dead. This is why I absolutely LOATHED the Underpass map. It was raining and murky and I couldn't see shit. Over time, I got a little bit better spotting enemies and while my aim was still shoddy, at least I knew that I was supposed to be shooting at it.

About a month passes and I had an epiphany. I turned on my Sony 37" Bravia XBR and immediately went into the setup options. Now for anyone that has purchased a TV in the last few years, you know there are various default color/picture settings as well as the option for adjusting your own - kind of like the classes in the game. To my dismay and embarrassment, I noticed that my picture settings for that HDMI input were set to "Cinema" which actually makes the images DARKER. On top of that, I had not enabled the "Game" setting, which supposedly optimizes the image for gaming.

So for an entire month, I was at a disadvantage. Of course I'm using incorrect settings as an excuse. Why? Because once I had changed these settings, I started seeing everything better. On Wasteland, figures seemed more defined as they run up and down the rolling terrain. Figures began to take a bit more shape in windows now. Underpass still sucks but it's much better now. And as a bonus, my eyes aren't straining so much anymore.

I can't help but wonder if I could've improved at a quicker rate IF my setup was optimized in the beginning. I mean, I had been playing Batman: Arkham Asylum (a game I swore I would finish before starting another game - until Dave got me COD:MW2 for my birthday) and I just figured it SHOULD look dark. And now that the image is crisp and clear, I'm like Jake Sully to Neytiri, "I See You....beeyotch!"