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My FFXIV Beta Review
Tanaii
Member Posts: 41
My PC:
Intel Core i7 930 @ 4 Ghz
Corsair DDR3 1600 6 gb
Corsair P128 SSD Drive
XFX HD5970 Black Edition
I've been a fan of FFXI since it started October 2003 in America. I've tried WoW, Aion, Everquest I & II, WAR, AoC, Guild Wars, Star Trek Online, and Eve and always came back to Square-Enix's FFXI. Now, we have Final Fantasy XIV and here are my thoughts and opinions.
Graphics 9/10
The graphics in this game are spectacular. The cutscenes look great. Performance-wise, I stay at 60 fps at most times with drops into the 40s when there are a lot of people running around. I do run the game with all settings at maximum. One thing SE really needs to add is a sort of "vertical sync" control -- Sometimes there is "tearing" that can be annoying. But overall, it does not destroy gameplay and is very sporadic. Changing the resolution buffer to double seems to help a bit. However, when compared to newer games, such as Aion, the graphics are awesome overall.
Performance 7/10
At first, performance was awful. However, as patches are being released, performance is improving (I can't stress this enough). I never noticed the "laggy mouse" issue people have been complaining about. I do believe one of the main issues with performance is the fact that almost everything you do is controlled at the "server side" and not always at your computer. For example: when excuting a command in a menu, you might notice a second or two pause before it actually is done. FFXI works on the same premise. I know this can be annoying -especially while in the middle of a fight. However, I feel certain Square-Enix will continue to work on and get it right! (They did in FFXI)
User Interface 7/10
Being a FFXI player, the interface does not bother me that much. To someone who has never played a Square Enix online game, the user interface can be quite challenging to learn. I really like this style of interface, but SE needs to iron-out the flaws (there is a lot of excessive "clicking" and hitting "enter" in order to get things done). Abilities sometimes do not respond. This interface is not all that bad - - just gotta get use to it.
Also, there is limited "key mapping" at this time -- you can change some things, but there are some things you can not. Also, there are certain keys you can not designate (like the arrow keys -- I like to use arrow keys to move my camera). Hopefully, they will change this.
Gameplay: 8/10
Guildleves (tasks/quests) are a great way to get experience points and money. You can also gain experience while crafting! There is an abundance of professions to choose from, and you can level more than 1 on the same character!
Character Creation: 9/10
FFXIV steps this area up a few notches compared to FFXI. While using many familiar races (with different names) and faces seen in FFXI, Final Fantasy XIV has created a simple yet eloquent system. The models look great! Pay close attention to the stats when you pick a job -- they have changed up a bit since FFXI.
Overall Score: 8/10
So far, I have really enjoyed what content we have access too. The world is awesome. The starting areas look great. There IS a lot of walking - - but that is okay; I like to explore. The user interface and performance issues need to be addressed ASAP by SE (which I believe they are doing). This game is not going to be for everyone, but to many FFXI players it will be a great alternative.
Comments
One of the more honest reviews I've seen (far and away better than the one I saw that claimed to be honest). Well done.
Since it's a generally positive review, I suspect the vultures hanging around, those for whose demographic this game is not for, will be along to chastise you for not complaining more about the interface or something like that. Try to not let it bother you, men of great conviction will not be swayed by something as mundane as reason.
That goes both ways as your post has demonstrated.
The only things that bug me about XIV is the lack of playing variety (a problem inherent to most MMOs), the chat interface, and having to press enter when casting spells (What the heck?). It's your typical mmo fare for the most part. Or at least that's the way it comes across to me.
--------
"Chemistry: 'We do stuff in lab that would be a felony in your garage.'"
The most awesomest after school special T-shirt:
Front: UNO Chemistry Club
Back: /\OH --> Bad Decisions
Oh yes, the chat interface......I do not care for it. And all the <enter><enter><enter><enter> gets annoying!
It certainly could, we all have our convictions, do we not? However, considering I've written up my own negative posts about the game here and here, to call me a man of great conviction strictly in favor of FFXIV would be demonstratably false.
Excellent, perhaps that will buy you a few seconds of respite from the rabid anti-fanboy following.
I agree, the *enter* *enter* *enter* is one of many little quirks in the pile of the GUI that, while surmountable, are lacking of perfection. It's particularly annoying when you're doing crafting, as it will reset the line spontaniously every phase. If you're not fast enough of a typer to get your line done before the crafting line runs out, you're not only forced to "Wait" but you lose what you were typing!
Vulture Inc.
I think many can agree the graphics are great if you have a system that can display them. So i'd concur with your rating.
Performance I'd definitely knock down to a 5/10. A second or two delay, repeated ad nauseum is very frustrating. Item management becomes a true chore due to this. While it may be improving, I don't think you can rate it based on what you predict it will be.
I actually enjoy the design of the UI, and I agree it just needs to be streamlined. It seems you are using the keyboard+mouse method of control, I'd specifically state that. Again, I'd probably knock it down to 6/10.
Gameplay should be down to about 7/10 due to performance.
Character creation should be 7/10 at the most. It was amazing how many clones were running around the world.
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If SE streamlines the UI and improves network and graphic performance it could definitely be an 8/10. I don't think it deserves that rating as of right now.
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You have one beast of a system and your FPS drops to 40, that worries me. What res you running at and whats FFXIVConfig settings?
Drop the next-gen marketing and people will argue if the game itself has merit.
1920 x 1200
ATI 5970 card (XFX)
Fullscreen
8x MSAA
Double Buffer
Shadows High
Ambient off
Depth off
Texture high
Texture filtering Highest
Meh, you edited.
If i understand buffering correctly, it draws the screen to that size and then reduces it to your resolution. So effectively you are running 16x AA?
I guess 40 fps is good then
Drop the next-gen marketing and people will argue if the game itself has merit.
ambient and field are off, i posted rest of settings
Yeah, basically. If I go to TRIPLE, I notice the mouse starts lagging out big time. But double seems to get rid of the "tearing" I see.
I'm glad the topic has switched to performance. I just pulled a big performance improvement by switcing my textures from "high" to "standard." I highly recommend this, as there's little if any noticable drop in texture quality apparent to the eye, and the game is about four time as more responsive when switching gear and having other PCs and NPCs pop into view.
I also had switched my buffer from 'resolution' to "double" but that didn't seem to have as much fo an impact, if any.
It's possible that inventory scrolling may have gone a bit faster, it seems pretty fast in the Inventory and Attributes & Gear screen now. Unfortunately, it's as slow as ever when picking out materials on the crafting screen.
Oh yes, lots of combinations to choose from. I've played with them quite a bit.....turning every single thing on to MAX and checking every little box bogs down even the most beastly of systems (grin). However, it is not worth it. Moderate settings still look great....just make sure your resolution matches your monitor if your card supports it.
Too dry, boring, reads like an outline, not entertaining.
That's four negative remarks and no positive or neutral ones, so I don't think I like this review. Also, I find the scores to be weak and artificially boosted as to generate fanbase zeal.
You know, I think I read this guy wrong, his review was written deliberately badly in order to see if the anti-fanboys would pick up on it or not. Well played, sir, that even went over my head. Although you'll not make friends with moderators if you play off their visitors as a source of entertainment.
Back on topic, I actually turned on depth of field, ambient occlusion and FSAA x4 on top of my Standard textures and it actually plays pretty tolerably. A little more sluggish, as can be understood, but not overly so. I think the key to keep in mind with the Ambient Occlusion is you really want to have a 4 core CPU if you can, as it seems to really work them.
You like depth of field? I never could get used to the blurriness.
--------
"Chemistry: 'We do stuff in lab that would be a felony in your garage.'"
The most awesomest after school special T-shirt:
Front: UNO Chemistry Club
Back: /\OH --> Bad Decisions
.......
......
I can't stand the blurriness. I keep that turned off, plus it is an unneccessary resource hog I have read.
I have to say after reading all of the issues people were having with the beta, I was concerned. I finally got my new computer and couldn't wait to try out the beta for myself, but I was worried that it would give me the same i problems the majority of the threads have. To my surprise with everything turned up the game runs as smooth as a single player game, here's the settings I ran the game on
Window Size: Full Screen
Resolution: 1280x720
Multisampling: 16xQ CSAA
Buffer Size: Resolution
Shadow Detail: Standard
Ambient Occlusion: On
Depth of Field: On
Texture Quality: High
Texture Filtering: Highest
Character Shadows: On
Dust Effects: On
Extended Drawing: On
Physics: On
And here are my computer specs...
-=-=-=-=-=-=- System Information -=-=-=-=-=-=-
Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64bit (build 7600)
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz
Graphic Device: 2x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460
RAM: 9GB DDR3
Motherboard: Alienware 04VWF2
With all that there was no mouse problems, zero menu lag (inventory, abilities, etc) and smooth seamless gameplay, I hope everyone can enjoy the game the way I have, have a good day.
It looks like high end systems have a clear advantage of running the game on its higher settings without lag
These configurations mentioned here in this thread are certainly impressive. Damn, computers grow old fast.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."