Okay, this is interesting.  Right away they move into awkward territory;  let me first explain that the black and white landscape image which is visible here is a static image;  it doesn’t animate.  However, it does slide left and right on the screen.  Assigning a base score for this is awkward;  According to our scoring standards, if the loading screen has a flat black backdrop, that’s worth one point.  If it’s a static image, that’s two points.  If it’s smoothly animated, that’s four points.  So how do we score this screen which is mostly flat black, but has a static image that smoothly slides around on it?

Since this type of loading screen has never come up before, I’m going to set a precedent for rating this type of screen in the future:  this loading screen has a flat black backdrop, worth one base point.  Virtually all of the screen is taken up by the flat blackness.  The floating static image is a mobile sprite drawn on top of the black backdrop.   The sprite isn’t animated (apart from sliding around), and isn’t particularly interesting.  If it was interesting or entertaining, I might have assigned a bonus point, but in this case, that doesn’t seem warranted.

Additionally, the screen has a “Loading” text (0.5 penalty points), and that circular object next to the Loading text pulses for the duration of the load (0.5 penalty points).

Tomb Raider Load Screen

• Flat black background:  1 base point.
• “Loading” text on screen:  0.5 penalty points.
• Circular load pulser:  0.5 penalty points.

Rating: 0 out of 5 stars

BioShock Infinite has been getting a lot of press for its visuals, its methods of storytelling, and its character interactions.  No one, however, has discussed that one other critical aspect of any game:  its loading screens.

The game’s standard loading screen depicts a static backdrop, with the name of the location being travelled to at the top, and a small text note underneath.  According to our objective loading screen scoring metrics, a static, representational background image gives the loading screen a base score of two points.  The text at the bottom of the screen is generally not particularly interesting, except (as in this case) where it’s spoiling the game’s own plot by revealing details which had not yet been revealed within the game yet — so no bonus points are awarded for it.  Long-time readers and loading screen aficionados will no doubt also have noticed the “Loading” text (0.5 penalty points) and the symbol beside it, which is a loading spinner (1 penalty point).

But this isn’t the game’s only loading screen.  There’s another one as well, which perhaps gets less notice, but which we need to take into account for the final score.

The game also has this loading screen:

I refer to this as the “Load screen load screen”.  That is, it’s the loading screen that’s displayed while the game loads the loading screen.  As you can see, it’s very similar to the regular loading screen (2 base points for the static image), except that it’s missing the text caption.  And it has an extra “Loading” text in the top right (1 penalty point in total for two instances of “Loading”), and an extra load spinner also in the top right (2 penalty points in total for two loading spinners).

“Travelling” Load Screen

• Static image background: 2 base points.
• “Loading” text on screen: 0.5 penalty points.
• Load spinner: 1 penalty point.

Rating: 0.5 out of 5 stars

“Load Screen” Load Screen

• Static image background: 2 base points.
• “Loading” text on screen (two instances): 1.0 penalty points.
• Load spinner (two instances): 2 penalty points.

Rating: 0 out of 5 stars (capped at zero)

Overall Rating: 0.25 out of 5 stars

I mean, look at this load screen, just look at it:

Full review below the fold.

Now this is a sexy loading screen.  Things to notice:  Smooth animation throughout the load, and no fade to black between loading screen and gameplay.  That’s worth five base points on our objective loading screen rating scale.  Notice, fun tips that don’t read as though they were transcribed from a manual, worth one bonus point.  Also notice the complete lack of any “loading” text, spinning badges, or activity lights.  This is the first loading screen we’ve covered that has had its rating capped because it has exceeded our highest possible score (plenty have been capped for going below the lowest possible score).

Now, at about this point in most reviews, I have to point out some other loading screen;  a laughably unpolished screen which brings down the title’s average score.  Well, here’s Ms. Splosion Man’s other loading screen, the one it uses when loading into a level:

It’s fully animated, both the background and the five silhouetted dancers.  What’s more, it has a fancy transition where the new and old scenes are drawn genlock-style into the centre silhouette as the camera zooms in on that dancer, giving an even slicker transition into and out from the loading screen.  As above, no “loading” text, no spinning badge, nothing to detract from this little slice of loading screen heaven.  Another perfect score.

So is Ms. Splosion Man the best game ever, according to our objective scoring criteria?  Only its rating can tell us for certain..

World Load Screen

• Smooth animation with no fade to black:  5 base points
• Interesting/amusing tips:  1 bonus point
• Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (capped at 5)

Level Load Screen

• Smooth animation with no fade to black:  5 base points
• Interesting/amusing tips:  1 bonus point
• Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (capped at 5)

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Well, darn.

Score and full review are beneath the fold.

The screenshot above is the standard loading screen, commonly seen when beginning one of the game’s chapters, or when using a “fast travel” mechanism to rapidly transit from one part of the city to another.  As you can see, it is about as bad an example as we’ve ever seen;  flat black backdrop, “Loading” text, and a spinner.  Worse, the spinner is made up of two arrows which indicate spinning even in a static screenshot.  It’s quite disappointing to see so little effort on such a core element of the game, even when seven years of development time were available.  Team Bondi:  you need to lift your game!

There is a second loading screen, though, for loads which take more than four or five seconds.  Here it is:

This loading screen displays a static screen with a black and white photograph which is largely unrelated to what is being loaded.  As with the more usual loading screen, there is loading text and a spinner.

Some have come forward suggesting that LA Noire be considered a contender for game of the year.  But to be honest, looking at these screens (and the resulting ratings), I can’t see that as being likely.  Really, at this stage, there’s nothing else to do but to go to the scoring.

“Travelling” Load Screen

• Solid black background: 0 base points.
• “Loading” text on screen: 0.5 penalty points.
• Load spinner: 1 penalty point.

Rating: 0 out of 5 stars (capped at zero)

“Lengthy” Load Screen

• Static image background: 2 base points.
• “Loading” text on screen: 0.5 penalty points.
• Load spinner: 1 penalty point.

Rating: 0.5 out of 5 stars

Overall Rating: 0.25 out of 5 stars

It's interesting to note that it also wasn't until id software came along in 1992 and made Wolfenstein 3D that a load screen was added to the game.  And with that effortless segway, let's talk about the loading screens for the latest entry in the series, simply entitled:  Wolfenstein.

Score and full review are beneath the fold.

Well, that's a static backdrop with some dull text, including a bit of information culled from the game's manual, the ubiquitous "Loading..." text, and inside the "Wolfenstein" logo is a loading progress bar which fills from left to right as the loading completes.  As far as progress bars go, this one is not particularly well implemented;  its motion isn't smooth as the load progresses, but instead it increments by leaps and bounds, sometimes stalling on a particular spot for several seconds before resuming movement.  However, it's still far more useful and informative than the loading spinners which are so popular among developers these days, and so we do not ever apply penalty points for the presence of loading bars.

Unfortunately, that's not the only type of loading screen in the game.  There's also this one:

Yes, this is a load screen;  it reliably occurs about ten seconds into the interactive portion of the game, just as this friendly chap in front of us finishes asking us to follow him.  You'll notice that there's no on-screen indication that a load is occurring.  In fact, the game gives every indication that it has locked up entirely, for the four or five second duration of the load.

This "game lock-up load screen" situation occurs at several points during the game, and can be quite alarming when first encountered, and remains quite disconcerting even when you know to expect them.  To be honest, I'm kind of shocked that someone thought that this sort of behaviour across a load was acceptable;  even Valve's Half-Life-based games have the common courtesy to at least put a warning on the screen when they've decided to make the game freeze so that they can do some loading.

Well, with that out of the way, it's time for scoring.

"Travelling" Load Screen

• Static image background: 2 base points.
• "Loading" text on screen: 0.5 penalty points.
• Progress bar: 0 penalty points.

Rating: 1.5 out of 5 stars

“Game Lock-Up” Load Screen

• Static image background: 2 base points.
• Appearance that game has locked up:  2 penalty points.

Rating: 0 out of 5 stars

Overall Rating: 0.75 out of 5 stars

There’s only one way to find out…

Oh dear.. this isn’t going to be pretty.  Score and full review beneath the fold.

Yes, it’s a flat black screen, with a small “Now Loading” badge in the bottom right corner.  Note that while the loading badge is roughly round, it does not actually spin.  However, it does fade in and out, which means that it’s acting as an “activity light”, which incurs a penalty point.

While our objective scoring system does not care about the frequency of load screens, many of our readers do.  So for these readers, I’ll mention that the Tales of Vesperia load screen is a very rare sight;  rare enough that I had a lot of trouble actually capturing it for the screenshot above.  When it does appear, it’s usually visible for less than a second.  Usually, the game simply has a brief fade to black between scenes, rather than actually display this screen.

Tales of Vesperia Load Screen

• Flat black background:  1 base point.
• “Loading” text on screen:  0.5 penalty points.
• Activity lights:  1 penalty point.

Rating: 0 out of 5 stars (capped at 0)

Full review beneath the fold.

This is the loading screen which you see when you’re loading into a saved game.  It plays a smooth FMV showing clips of game footage, 3D models of Ghostbusters equipment, various special effects, all accompanied by the classic Ghostbusters track by Ray Parker Jr (or Huey Lewis, depending on how closely you want to follow the rumour mill).  As loading screens go, this one is very long, often clocking in north of thirty seconds long.  But with the amount of attention that’s gone into the light and sound show, I really don’t care.  Oh, and there’s a bit of text on the screen which shows tips.  Boring tips, like the one in the screen shown above.  No bonus point awarded for parroting the manual at us.  Developers, if you’re aiming for those bonus points, the tips must be entertaining!

There is a different loading screen used between scenes of gameplay.  In these instances, the player is shown pre-rendered (and often lavishly produced) cutscenes while the next game level is being loaded in the background.  In truth, both the “Main Load Screen” and the “Cutscene Load Screen” are basically the same, as both are loading a gameplay level while displaying FMV.  However, since they do look different, are used in different places and for different purposes, I’m rating them separately.

Main Load Screen

• Smooth animation:  4 base points
• “Loading” text:  0.5 penalty points
• Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Cutscene Load Screen

• Smooth animation:  4 base points
• “Loading” text:  0.5 penalty points
• Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Full review beneath the fold.

Well, that’s a flat black screen, with the game logo on it.  The logo has a pulsing blue glow (not visible here), which I’m scoring as “activity lights”, in our objective scoring criteria.

Infamous is an “open world” game, and does not visit the loading screen often;  mostly just when initially loading a saved game, and when it needs to quickly transport the player to a new, distant location (most frequently to a medical clinic, if the player has been defeated in combat).  So for those who care about the frequency with which they’ll see the loading screen, the answer is “inFrequently”.

Infamous Load Screen

• Flat black background: 1 base point
• Activity lights: 1 penalty point

Rating: 0 out of 5 stars

Now Ensemble Studios has brought the Halo world to the Real Time Strategy genre.  Of course, they’re not Bungie, and so one can only wonder how well they’ve managed to measure up against Bungie’s amazing efforts.

So let’s take a look:  how did they do?

Full review beneath the fold

The above is likely to be the first load screen you see in Halo Wars;  it’s the load screen used while entering the game’s basic tutorial.  It’s a static backdrop with some text to read, including a tip.  However, as the gameplay tip is just a reminder about basic game controls and is not written to be interesting or entertaining in any way, it does not earn the “entertaining tip” bonus point.

In a rare move backward for the Halo series, they’ve added the word “Loading” to their load screen, and a loading spinner at the bottom right corner of the screen.  The eagle-eyed among you will notice that there’s also a second loading spinner, this one huge, and only partly visible in the background behind all of the static elements.

There’s a second loading screen as well, this one used for single-player campaign levels.  It’s much simpler than the first one:

Just a static screen with the two load spinners.  Well, it could have been worse!   At least they removed the “Loading” text from this screen.

So overall, whether or not you were a fan of the original Halo series, I really can’t recommend Halo Wars.  The load screens show an overall lack of effort and attention which is really glaring within this series that usually has had such high standards.  It’s too bad.

Tutorial Load Screen

• Static image: 2 base points
• Load spinner:  1 penalty point
• Second load spinner:  1 penalty point
• “Loading” text: 0.5 penalty points
• Rating: 0 out of 5 stars (capped at 0)

Campaign Loading Screen

• Static image: 2 base points
• Load spinner:  1 penalty point
• Second load spinner:  1 penalty point
• Rating: 0 out of 5 stars

Overall Rating: 0 out of 5 stars

Street Fighter 4 is a great new release to look at, as its roots are in the era where games were burnt into ROM chips, and data access times were so low that loading screens were never really necessary.  In the coin-op arcade versions, of course, there were short “Character vs. Character” splash screens to announce the fights, and as games have moved from fast chip storage to slow disc storage, these splash screens have typically become used as the load screens, and this is the case here.  Mostly.

Full review beneath the fold.

The basic flow of the game is from the main menu you choose one of several game modes, and then select characters to play as.  Then the game goes to the classic VS load screen, and into the game.  After the fight, you either return to the classic VS load screen for the next fight, or return straight to the main menu.

The VS load screen is nicely animated;  it has two basic phases.  Transitioning in from black, it performs a highly animated initial sequence, then settles into a still foreground with smoothly animated fire effects in the background to cover the rest of the load.  When the load completes, the game fades to black, and the game fades in.  Awesome.

In fact, everything sounds really rosy for Street Fighter 4 right now, until I reveal that there’s a second load screen.  You likely haven’t even noticed this load screen, as it only appears very briefly, and only rarely.  It occurs, for example, the first time you enter the character selection screen after boot, and then never again.  Similarly, it appears the first time you return to the main menu, and then never again.  Typically, it appears for about half a second.  Sorry for the slightly blurry screenshot, but here it is:

Damn.  That’s a flat black screen, with the word “Loading”, and a spinning thing;  that’s going to hurt the overall rating.  Even though this is a rare and brief load screen, here at loadscreenreview.com, our ratings policy states that we are to average the types of load screens in a game in order to find the final score.

VS Load Screen

• Smooth animation: 4 base points
• Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Overall Rating: 2 out of 5 stars