Someone needs a good smack across the head then. I understand 'artistic integrity' but this is just dumb and adds far more faults then any sort of immersive benefits.
I understand that cinematography is a thing but it doesn't work when you the player is controlling the camera in game as it's just a hindrance. At least give us a option to turn it off during gameplay.
Graphics, dog. There's your benefit. Less pixels to render per frame while maintaining the pixel-perfect ratio of a 1080p display. I'm not saying I prefer black bars but when they're used they're used for a reason. They're a notable benefit for IQ (or performance in general). Look at Beyond: Two Souls.
Again: before this is taken as an opportunity to perpetuate the argument, I'm not defending black bars, it's anyone's right to dislike them, I'm only saying it's understandable when developers choose to use them for certain games.
Maybe in this instance, they already wanted a cinematic (sigh..."filmic") presentation requiring as photorealistic of graphics possible
and the soft body physics (the real revolution of this game) made it all too taxing on the PS4 this early in its life cycle. In this case, the black bars make sense since they fit with the aesthetic production the game is going for, while enabling it to run like it does.
