I have a US copy of the game, got it through my room mate who has a US Credit Card. Anyway Ive run both the Ps3 full game and 360 demo that came out earlier this year on a standard def TV via scart. Result ?, Ps3 version is in black and white meaning its NTSC, but the 360 version displayed in full colour. I then tried hooking both up to my video capture card and both registered as running at 60hz with a resolution of 720x480, same as NTSC but the difference was the 360 version is running in PAL60 (basically NTSC but with the PAL colour scheme) where as the Ps3 version is pure NTSC.
This is the reason we got so many bad ports back in the PS2 days with slowdown and borders (Capcom and Square were the worst offenders until Onimusha 2 and Kingdom Hearts 2 came along), none of Sony’s consoles have supported PAL60 for whatever reason. The PAL Dreamcast’s, Gamecube’s and original X-Box’s all supported it last gen but the Ps2 didnt, the Wii and 360 support it now but the Ps3 doesnt. You can use an RGB scart lead on the Ps2/Ps3 to play NTSC games on an SDTV but DVD’s will display in green due to macrovision protection, same goes for Blu Ray’s on the Ps3 ( though with the Ps2 you can disable that with action replay).
Some decent PAL SDTV’s support NTSC, but most dont, and the 2 worst symptoms of running an NTSC game on a PAL TV without a Scart or NTSC support are.
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Black and White Picture
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Screen Roll’s as it cant handle the higher refresh rate
Only the real dinosaurs suffer from the later, the VAST majority of PAL TV’s will display a PAL60 signal no problem, Microsoft and nintendo know this (the original PAL versions of Metroid Prime on the Gamecube and Forza on the 360 even say on the box “60hz only”).
So dont blame backbone, the game was delayed enough as it was and they needed to get it out for Xmas, if anything blame Sony for their consoles never supporting PAL60. And I know this might sound harsh but to a lesser extent, SDTV owners, as no doubt SCEE wont allow the release until Backbone put in a proper PAL 50hz mode. Even though I already own the game I feel sorry for other PAL gamers who have to wait, especially HDTV owners as they can technically play the game right now.
If this were most other games I wouldnt be this harsh, but the game has Hi Definition in its title for a reason and runs at 1080p, sure it still looks better then regular ST on an SDTV but not as good as any of the Guilty Gears … sorry. SCEE should release the game now!, with a warning that it wont work on SDTV’s (like they do with the PSP TV out cables) and backbone can release a patch with a 50hz mode later in the year.
End of rant, im off to get beer and play some HDR in 1080p for the night.