Ridiculous. Have you checked the benchmarks from modern video cards in the past 2 years? 2X AA is basically "free" with most cards these days, even midrange cards with modern titles - it certainly is on my 7600GT. I can often get better framerates with 1024*768 4XAA than I can with 1280*1024 no AA, and again that's with recent titles. It makes a huge difference in visual quality - even 2X AA.
Here's the problem: The screenshots recently released before the demo had high-quality AA. Gee, why was that?
Did you think that's one of the reasons people are a little upset now? It's simple: DON'T RELEASE DOCTORED SCREENSHOTS. People were wondering why the PC version doesn't look as good as the 360 version (which even at this point is debatable, even without AA I don't think GR PC looks bad, it has some advantages over the 360 version), then suddenly these "new" screenshots with lovely AA appear that look significantly better. "Phew!" cry the owners of $500 cards.
Well, too bad for you - that was marketing. I expect by now we'll see some doctored screenshots for the older consoles, there were always 1280*1024 released shots of say, the new Jak and Daxter for the PS2 that everyone knew wouldn't look like the final. But this is quite new for PC gamers.
It's simple: Don't lie. Don't put out bogus screenshots, and you'll at least be able to not lead people down a garden path. I understand that as developers, you may not have had any say in this and Ubisoft requested downsampled screenshots, but it's damn annoying nonetheless. When I see the description of screenshot, I expect to see an actual screenshot. Really, is that too much to ask?
As for "PC hardware can't handle it": Funny, sounds like what the developers of Oblivion said. A scant what - 2 weeks later? The "Chuck Patch" appears for ATI cards. To be more accurate: "Our implementation of HDR does not support AA. Yes, we release ATI X1000 cards can do FP16 blending with AA and Valve figured out how to support it with all PS 2.0 cards, but we went a different route that shall remain a mystery".
There ya go!
←
Awesome post. Thank you!