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The Mog Log: Pre-reaction

Eliot Lefebvre — Sat, 28 May 2011 14:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Game mechanics, Patches, Opinion, Consoles, Final Fantasy XIV, The Mog Log

So Naoki Yoshida's producer's letter came just a bit too late last week for me to rewrite my column, which focused mostly on the dungeons and rampant speculation regarding same. This week, however, I can write about all of the things that came out of both his producer's letter and Akihiko Matsui's combat revision document, both of which provide a lot of meaty information for Final Fantasy XIV players to digest. Pretty much all of it is good, with only a couple of downsides here and there.

Since there's way too much to possibly digest point-by-point, I'm going to hit the parts that strike me as having the most far-reaching impact and the most concrete data. A lot of this is going to pertain specifically to the combat revisions, as well, since let's face it -- the meat of the game is in fighting things off, solo or in groups. And it's with the battle revisions that one of the biggest changes is coming to Final Fantasy XIV, namely, the removal of physical levels altogether.

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The Mog Log: Pre-reaction originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 28 May 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The system requirements of Final Fantasy XIV

Eliot Lefebvre — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, News items, Consoles, Final Fantasy XIV

It's an open secret that Final Fantasy XIV is going to be quite intensive on computers. Even with the release of the official benchmark program, no one has been quite sure how accurate the test is for gauging performance. (The fact that the benchmark focuses on performance during congested periods of gameplay isn't helping.) If you've been fretting because your computer got a low score on the official benchmark, or just because you prefer having hard data instead of loose guidelines, then you're in luck -- the team at FFXIVCore has the official system requirements.

Although the recommended system requirements are still going through revision, even the minimums are on the beefier side. They're nothing unreasonable, but those with older machines that manage Final Fantasy XI will need to take stock and invest in some upgrades. On the other hand, if you scored just fine on the benchmark, you'll be happy to know that there are also a bevvy of new screenshots available in the same post. Keep your eyes peeled as we get closer to Final Fantasy XIV's release, as there's little doubt the team at Square-Enix will be tweaking the code for optimal performance.

The system requirements of Final Fantasy XIV originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 22 Jul 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Final Fantasy XIV launches benchmark application

Eliot Lefebvre — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 21:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, New titles, Previews, News items, Consoles, Final Fantasy XIV

Curious as to whether or not your computer will be able to handle Final Fantasy XIV? We're due for an exclusive interview with Square-Enix in the very near future at E3, but that's focusing on game mechanics and story details. Luckily, much like Final Fantasy XI before, Square has made an official benchmark program available for prospective players. But it's more involved than its predecessor, allowing you to select from any of the game's races as well as supporting a test for high-definition displays.

The download itself is being hosted on NVIDIA's site, at a fairly reasonable 172 megabyte download. Once you have the program downloaded (and DirectX 9.0c installed, but that's more or less a given in this day and age), it runs without any complications and produces a numerical score after it runs through tests. Anything above a score of 1500 will be able to run the game just fine, but a look at the official rundown is well worth the time -- to see how much upgrading you'll have to do before Final Fantasy XIV's launch if nothing else.

Final Fantasy XIV launches benchmark application originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 15 Jun 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Daily Grind: What features would you like to see combined?

Eliot Lefebvre — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Game mechanics, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Academic

Some things don't go well together. Like peanut butter and soap, or open PvP in a neutral quest hub, or melee attacks for a spellcaster. On the other hand, there are some things that seem as if they'd go together so perfectly that it's a wonder it hasn't already been put into place. Final Fantasy XI's multiple jobs paired with the unique nature of Warhammer Online's classes, for instance. Or the skill-based approach of Guild Wars in a classless game such as Fallen Earth. Or Sword of the New World's multi-character system combined with, well, more or less anything.

When you've played enough games, you start seeing how systems could be stapled together to produce something very different in the end, and possibly even something better than either system individually. What systems would you like to see combined? Would you want them to be in a current game, a new game, or in a sadly-deceased game that would have been uncommonly excellent with the two things put together? Or would you not even look at systems, and just like to port the engine of one game (such as the gameplay of City of Heroes) into a totally different setting?

The Daily Grind: What features would you like to see combined? originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 22 Nov 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Player vs. Everything: Choking on graphics

Cameron Sorden — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:30:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Opinion, Player vs. Everything

I managed to get my hands on an Age of Conan beta key this morning, so off I went to excitedly download the client. I'm a big fan of Robert E. Howard's original pulps, and I've been looking forward to the grim and gritty world of Hyboria for a while now. Most of what I've read about it so far has been very positive (with a few notable exceptions due to some of the design choices). Our own write-up of the overall beta experience from Michael Zenke was very encouraging with regard to the combat, gameplay, and feel of the world. Overall, it seems like there's a lot to be excited about. There's just one glaring issue that everyone seems to be having: the graphics are choking their machines.

This isn't a new phenomenon. It seems like every new game on the market in the last few years wants to beat our poor, 1-3 year old computers into lifeless heaps of rubbish with their outlandish and ridiculous system requirements. Even World of Warcraft, a game celebrated for its accessibility and ability to be run on older machines, wasn't that way at launch (though it was substantially better than its major competitors at the time, EverQuest 2 and City of Heroes). However, this strategy of supercharged visuals has made things hard for a number of games. Vanguard in particular suffered a lot of criticism for having ridiculous system requirements when it launched, and that's just one example. Given that people would like to actually be able to play these games, why on earth do game designers insist on shoving next-gen graphics down our throats when the vast majority of us have last-gen machines (or worse)?

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Player vs. Everything: Choking on graphics originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 02 May 2008 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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