I Just finished playing the "free" day for my realm in Land of the Dead (it's 7.22 AM and I'll have to go to work in 1 hour, so I guess you can understand already how much I liked it if it kept me up til now)
I managed to experience all the public quests and Lairs (getting a very, very nice shield in the process, yay), and I have to say I had a blast. It's hand down one of the most beautifully designed areas i've ever seen in a MMO. The graphics are stunning, pushing quite nicely the limits of the engine.
The nicest thing, though, is that I didn't encounter any real bug, all the content is really polished and flows without problems.
The encounters themselves, on top of all the goodness, are very fun, topped by quite challenging mechanics that bring a lot of variety to the gameplay.
Unfortunately the tomb of the Vulture Lord was still closed. Hopefully I'll manage to get in there tomorrow (if we get control of the place). If the quality is similar to the necropolis, then we're in for a lot of fun.
Mythic really delivered, in the face the usual haters.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Square Enix unveils Final Fantasy XIV at E3
Looks like the Square-Enix press conference at E3 is actually 100% dedicated to Final Fantasy XIV (proof that, differently from what someone hinted at, it's quite a important title for S-E).
I'm following the G4tv.com liveblog, adn I'll write and comment while I read, since lots of interesting information are being unveiled.
First of all, since it's a very sensitive point for everyone, the rumors about the game being free to play are, at the moment, to be considered just rumors. They specified clearly that they didn't take any decision on pricing yet. Honestly, I hope it'll be pay to play. Pay to Play games normallyt enjoy an higher quality and better updates. In any case the "illusion" of free to play games often brings people (me included) to spend quite a lot more than an usual monthly fee.
While the announcement surprised many (looks like S-E is better than Sony at keeping secrets), the game has been in developement for more than four years, which means that a lot of the content is probably already done or near completion. They probably didn't want to do the error many other software houses do, announcing a game too early, with the result that the hype peaks before release and then starts to fade.
Many have gritted their teeth lately at the fact that Final Fantasy XIII will be released in the US quite a lot later than in Japan, and even later in europe (luckily I'm going to buy the PS3 version, so I'll be able to import at least an US copy, since the console is region free). Looks like this won't be the case for Final Fantasy XIV, that will be released simultaneously in Japan, US and Europe, sporting Japanese, English, French and German languages. No plans for Italian or Spanish at the moment.
Looks like western players won't have any excuse, this time, to gripe at the japanese gamers because they "got it first" and have an advantage.
On that note, and quite a pleasant note for me, for now the plan is to have completely international servers, that will have players from the whole world (Japan included), exactly like with Final Fantasy XI.
No US servers, no Euro getto, everyone will play together, and this really makes me happy. One of the things that I loved the most about Final Fantasy XI was the cultural diversity, and the ability to create ties with gamers from areas of the world with which normally you don't get to play with (expecially Japan). They didn't mention an autotranslator (no one of the press asked about it after all), but it's pretty safe to assume that it will be there, and boy i had tons of fun using it in FFXI...
At launch the game will be, as anticipated on PS3 and PC, even if further platforms will be considered down the line.
Moving on, they specified that the trailer (that you can see in the post below) were partly pre-rendered, and partly working with the game engine, in particular, the melee battle scene was in-game. The battle system will still remain a mistery, but there will be solo content as well as massive battles (maybe a Realm vs Realm PvP system?), and even raiding has been hinted at.
Many are hoping that the game won't be as grindy as FFXI was, and in fact they reassured the audience, telling that "the character will be able to grow and develop in a more natural way without putting too much weight on the player". Also, the job system will be fairly different from the one in Final Fantasy XI (and this is an indirect confirmation of the fact that there WILL be a job system, in the case someone doubted it).
The player will be able to chose to play "solo, in a party, 40 minutes, all day..". there will be content for all of those play styles and systems in place to satisfy both the casual and the hardcore gamer.
The game still doesn't have a precise release window besides a generic "2010", and the beta schedule still hasn't been determined (but yes, there will be a beta that will be announced "shortly").
While the game will not use Playonline, the playonline friend lists will be carried over. The characters, though, will not, so everyone will have to restart from scratch (which is good, since my paladin must be quite outdated by now...).
Finally, they specified that the major reason for which players should chose their game instead of others, is because they'll fall in love with the world and the story that they created. This probably is a confirmation that Final Fantasy XIV will (thank goodness) be heavily storytelling focused, exactly like it's predecessor. There can be a true Final Fantasy without a good story, after all, isn't it?
What can I say. I'm excited. I'll for sure play it when it'll come out next year... will be hard to split my time between Warhammer and Final Fantasy, but i can't be forced to chose between my two favourite franchises (when Warhammer 40000 will be released my life is going to collapse). If you're interested about it at least a tenth of what I am, you might want to subscribe to the newsletter on the game's new official site, here.
I really can't wait. Despite having left Vana'diel about two years ago, a part of me always missed Final Fantasy XI, and I've been tempted to go back several times. Looks like it's almost time to go back home, to a new home on Eorzea :D
I'm following the G4tv.com liveblog, adn I'll write and comment while I read, since lots of interesting information are being unveiled.
First of all, since it's a very sensitive point for everyone, the rumors about the game being free to play are, at the moment, to be considered just rumors. They specified clearly that they didn't take any decision on pricing yet. Honestly, I hope it'll be pay to play. Pay to Play games normallyt enjoy an higher quality and better updates. In any case the "illusion" of free to play games often brings people (me included) to spend quite a lot more than an usual monthly fee.
While the announcement surprised many (looks like S-E is better than Sony at keeping secrets), the game has been in developement for more than four years, which means that a lot of the content is probably already done or near completion. They probably didn't want to do the error many other software houses do, announcing a game too early, with the result that the hype peaks before release and then starts to fade.
Many have gritted their teeth lately at the fact that Final Fantasy XIII will be released in the US quite a lot later than in Japan, and even later in europe (luckily I'm going to buy the PS3 version, so I'll be able to import at least an US copy, since the console is region free). Looks like this won't be the case for Final Fantasy XIV, that will be released simultaneously in Japan, US and Europe, sporting Japanese, English, French and German languages. No plans for Italian or Spanish at the moment.
Looks like western players won't have any excuse, this time, to gripe at the japanese gamers because they "got it first" and have an advantage.
On that note, and quite a pleasant note for me, for now the plan is to have completely international servers, that will have players from the whole world (Japan included), exactly like with Final Fantasy XI.
No US servers, no Euro getto, everyone will play together, and this really makes me happy. One of the things that I loved the most about Final Fantasy XI was the cultural diversity, and the ability to create ties with gamers from areas of the world with which normally you don't get to play with (expecially Japan). They didn't mention an autotranslator (no one of the press asked about it after all), but it's pretty safe to assume that it will be there, and boy i had tons of fun using it in FFXI...
At launch the game will be, as anticipated on PS3 and PC, even if further platforms will be considered down the line.
Moving on, they specified that the trailer (that you can see in the post below) were partly pre-rendered, and partly working with the game engine, in particular, the melee battle scene was in-game. The battle system will still remain a mistery, but there will be solo content as well as massive battles (maybe a Realm vs Realm PvP system?), and even raiding has been hinted at.
Many are hoping that the game won't be as grindy as FFXI was, and in fact they reassured the audience, telling that "the character will be able to grow and develop in a more natural way without putting too much weight on the player". Also, the job system will be fairly different from the one in Final Fantasy XI (and this is an indirect confirmation of the fact that there WILL be a job system, in the case someone doubted it).
The player will be able to chose to play "solo, in a party, 40 minutes, all day..". there will be content for all of those play styles and systems in place to satisfy both the casual and the hardcore gamer.
The game still doesn't have a precise release window besides a generic "2010", and the beta schedule still hasn't been determined (but yes, there will be a beta that will be announced "shortly").
While the game will not use Playonline, the playonline friend lists will be carried over. The characters, though, will not, so everyone will have to restart from scratch (which is good, since my paladin must be quite outdated by now...).
Finally, they specified that the major reason for which players should chose their game instead of others, is because they'll fall in love with the world and the story that they created. This probably is a confirmation that Final Fantasy XIV will (thank goodness) be heavily storytelling focused, exactly like it's predecessor. There can be a true Final Fantasy without a good story, after all, isn't it?
What can I say. I'm excited. I'll for sure play it when it'll come out next year... will be hard to split my time between Warhammer and Final Fantasy, but i can't be forced to chose between my two favourite franchises (when Warhammer 40000 will be released my life is going to collapse). If you're interested about it at least a tenth of what I am, you might want to subscribe to the newsletter on the game's new official site, here.
I really can't wait. Despite having left Vana'diel about two years ago, a part of me always missed Final Fantasy XI, and I've been tempted to go back several times. Looks like it's almost time to go back home, to a new home on Eorzea :D
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Sony wins E3 2009. Nintendo is the meh.
The second day of E3 began in a pretty bleak way, with Cammie Dunaway plaguing our ears with her usual talks about non gamers, gaming for everyone, bla bla bla. It continued more or less in the same wy during a very uneventful Nintendo conference, until they managed to save themselves from a complete Epic Fail by announcing the new Mario Galaxy (but I hate Mario, so I couldn't care the less about it) and Metroid games. Still, Nintendo's presser was very, very underwhelming. Looks like they didn't learn from last year's abysmal performance, and by the yawns that the audience slapped in their faces. Too bad.
Then Sony came, and they definitely DID learn from last year's errors. What did they show? Games. Tons of games, with the official announcement of the PSP Go (looks pretty awesome, for the "worst kept secret of E3 2009) and their new motion controller, that while painting me uninterested, like Milo and all those gimmicks that would like to replace my beloved joypad, displayed an amazing precision, which I think could be unparaleled by the competition.
And yeah. If i have to put up with a gimmicky motion controller, i'd rather cope with a precise one. I have to admit that the sword and shield demo looked quite interesting. I still prefer the joypad though.
But back to the games. It all started with some absolutely awesome demos of Uncharted 2 (I don't think i ever seen a game with better graphics than that) and MAG (many thought that it would have never worked, well, it seems it does, and quite well).
Then Hideo Kojima shown up on stage to introduce us to Metal Gear Solid Peacewalker. The sequel of Metal Gear Solid 3, that will depict the birth of Outer Heaven and will come to PSP in 2010. In addition to that, the PSP Go will have an awesome launch title: Gran Turismo. The popular racing franchise will come to PSP with 800 (yeah, you read it well, eight hundreds) cars, that pretty much dwarf the 400 in the line-up of Forza Motorsport 3 (and on a portable), and will launch at the same time as the console.
So, was it all PSP? Not in the least. Sony dropped the bomb right after the presentation of Final Fantasy XIII. Microsoft snatched the latest single player game of the saga? Well, good for them. When Jack Tretton started to devilishly hint about the next chapter being exclusive to the PS3, everyone thought he was talking about Versus XIII. He wasn't. The audience was muted for a second and then burst in cheers when the secret was revealed. The sequel to Final Fantasy XI (one of my most beloved MMOs of all times) is coming and it'll be only on PS3 (and probably PC, since they said the PS3 was the only CONSOLE sporting the title). Final Fantasy XIV will bring us back to Vana'diel (or better, to Eorzea, as the new world seems to be named, even if the races seem to be the same, an Elvaan and a Galka are clearly visible in the trailer that you can watch below, a mithra and a tarutaru can be spotted, even if you'll have to put in a little more effort. The kitten is the one casting the barrier towards the beginning, and the Taru is visible in the logo at the end) in 2010.
From there on, it was a crescendo of awesomeness. Agent, a new IP by Rockstar set in the spy war in the seventies exclusive to the PS3, Mod Nation Racers (a seemingly awesome super deformed racing version of Little Big Planet) exclusive to the PS3, the new work of team ICO, "The Last Guardian", exclusive to the PS3, and goodness, it looks beautiful.
Then came a teaser for Gran Turismo 5, which most definitely shown car damage, not to mention a pretty surprising NASCAR racing license. And with that, I'm afraid my time to play Forza Motorsport 3 will be pretty limited...
Finally we got the climax with the God of War 3 demo. It looked very, very nice.
Milo? Who cares? What I care about are games. And Sony brought the most and the best games, exclusives included.
Many bloggers were already handing this E3's victory to Microsoft, well, Sony proven them wrong.
This E3 belongs to Sony. Simply put and by a landslide. Though, it's not over yet. Tomorrow we'll see the pressers from Konami and Square-Enix. can't wait for them.
Then Sony came, and they definitely DID learn from last year's errors. What did they show? Games. Tons of games, with the official announcement of the PSP Go (looks pretty awesome, for the "worst kept secret of E3 2009) and their new motion controller, that while painting me uninterested, like Milo and all those gimmicks that would like to replace my beloved joypad, displayed an amazing precision, which I think could be unparaleled by the competition.
And yeah. If i have to put up with a gimmicky motion controller, i'd rather cope with a precise one. I have to admit that the sword and shield demo looked quite interesting. I still prefer the joypad though.
But back to the games. It all started with some absolutely awesome demos of Uncharted 2 (I don't think i ever seen a game with better graphics than that) and MAG (many thought that it would have never worked, well, it seems it does, and quite well).
Then Hideo Kojima shown up on stage to introduce us to Metal Gear Solid Peacewalker. The sequel of Metal Gear Solid 3, that will depict the birth of Outer Heaven and will come to PSP in 2010. In addition to that, the PSP Go will have an awesome launch title: Gran Turismo. The popular racing franchise will come to PSP with 800 (yeah, you read it well, eight hundreds) cars, that pretty much dwarf the 400 in the line-up of Forza Motorsport 3 (and on a portable), and will launch at the same time as the console.
So, was it all PSP? Not in the least. Sony dropped the bomb right after the presentation of Final Fantasy XIII. Microsoft snatched the latest single player game of the saga? Well, good for them. When Jack Tretton started to devilishly hint about the next chapter being exclusive to the PS3, everyone thought he was talking about Versus XIII. He wasn't. The audience was muted for a second and then burst in cheers when the secret was revealed. The sequel to Final Fantasy XI (one of my most beloved MMOs of all times) is coming and it'll be only on PS3 (and probably PC, since they said the PS3 was the only CONSOLE sporting the title). Final Fantasy XIV will bring us back to Vana'diel (or better, to Eorzea, as the new world seems to be named, even if the races seem to be the same, an Elvaan and a Galka are clearly visible in the trailer that you can watch below, a mithra and a tarutaru can be spotted, even if you'll have to put in a little more effort. The kitten is the one casting the barrier towards the beginning, and the Taru is visible in the logo at the end) in 2010.
From there on, it was a crescendo of awesomeness. Agent, a new IP by Rockstar set in the spy war in the seventies exclusive to the PS3, Mod Nation Racers (a seemingly awesome super deformed racing version of Little Big Planet) exclusive to the PS3, the new work of team ICO, "The Last Guardian", exclusive to the PS3, and goodness, it looks beautiful.
Then came a teaser for Gran Turismo 5, which most definitely shown car damage, not to mention a pretty surprising NASCAR racing license. And with that, I'm afraid my time to play Forza Motorsport 3 will be pretty limited...
Finally we got the climax with the God of War 3 demo. It looked very, very nice.
Milo? Who cares? What I care about are games. And Sony brought the most and the best games, exclusives included.
Many bloggers were already handing this E3's victory to Microsoft, well, Sony proven them wrong.
This E3 belongs to Sony. Simply put and by a landslide. Though, it's not over yet. Tomorrow we'll see the pressers from Konami and Square-Enix. can't wait for them.
Monday, June 1, 2009
E3 microsoft presser, Metal Gear and gimmicks
It's that time of the year again, and I just finished watching the Microsoft keynote. The feelings are a little conflicting.
Personally, the two most exciting announcements are the new Metal Gear solid game (Metal Gear Solid Raising) featuring Raiden as the main character, and that, at least in the short teaser we saw, doesn't feature Snake at all. There was no mention about exclusive deals, which, in the context of an E3 presser probably means a multiplatform title. If it was an exclusive you can be sure that we would have heard the word "exclusive" at least 20 times in 3 minutes (Edit: through the day there have been some confirmatory voices that the title is indeed multiplatform, for PS3, 360, and PC. We'll very probably know more tomorrow at the Playstation keynote).
I'm definitely happy to see that the Metal Gear series will continue (MGS4 absolutely amazed me, like the other games of the series), even if I personally think that Raiden's charisma is a little weaker compared to Snake's.
What worries me, though, expecially given the subtitle "Lightning Bolt action" is that the game might be a Devil May Cry-like brawler, and that it might lose it's stealth component. While the strongest point of MGS has always been it's story, that for sure won't be missing, the loss of the stealth action might be quite sad.
On the other hand, i'm totally excited about Forza Motorsport 3 coming this october. Since when the servers of Forza 2 lost a big percentage of their activity due to old age (that unfortunately comes quite early on consoles), I've been missing the lovely mix of online racing and car customization and painting. It'll sure be a great duel bewteen Forza 3 and Gran Turismo 5. Personally I wouldn't know which one to prefer, but I will for sure play both extensively (actually., Need for Speed: Shift seems to be a very worthy competitor as well, I'm seeing it at EA's presser right now, and it looks definitely awesome, expecially the fully rendered cockpits).
Unfortunately, at least for me, those were the only really interesting announcements in the Microsoft keynote. A big slice of time has been taken by Microsoft's new motion recognition technology, Project Natal, that will allow the 360 to recognize motion, facial expressions and voice. While technologically nice, I feel it's nothing more than a gimmick. You probably already know that according to me motion control is very, very secondary towards the actual quality of a game.
More casual galore incoming... *sighs*
All the time destined to this gimmick (that shown no real games) is what made the Microsoft keynote a bit meh for me. We'll see about the actual application of this tech, but i'm totally skeptic.
In the end, the EA press conference that just started (despite the DISASTROUS beginning with littlest pet shop and charming girls club) is looking WAY more interesting. Dragon Age origins loosk incredible, and honestly it just jumped to the top of my most awaited games list (is that lingerie what I just saw on that trailer? :P )
Personally, the two most exciting announcements are the new Metal Gear solid game (Metal Gear Solid Raising) featuring Raiden as the main character, and that, at least in the short teaser we saw, doesn't feature Snake at all. There was no mention about exclusive deals, which, in the context of an E3 presser probably means a multiplatform title. If it was an exclusive you can be sure that we would have heard the word "exclusive" at least 20 times in 3 minutes (Edit: through the day there have been some confirmatory voices that the title is indeed multiplatform, for PS3, 360, and PC. We'll very probably know more tomorrow at the Playstation keynote).
I'm definitely happy to see that the Metal Gear series will continue (MGS4 absolutely amazed me, like the other games of the series), even if I personally think that Raiden's charisma is a little weaker compared to Snake's.
What worries me, though, expecially given the subtitle "Lightning Bolt action" is that the game might be a Devil May Cry-like brawler, and that it might lose it's stealth component. While the strongest point of MGS has always been it's story, that for sure won't be missing, the loss of the stealth action might be quite sad.
On the other hand, i'm totally excited about Forza Motorsport 3 coming this october. Since when the servers of Forza 2 lost a big percentage of their activity due to old age (that unfortunately comes quite early on consoles), I've been missing the lovely mix of online racing and car customization and painting. It'll sure be a great duel bewteen Forza 3 and Gran Turismo 5. Personally I wouldn't know which one to prefer, but I will for sure play both extensively (actually., Need for Speed: Shift seems to be a very worthy competitor as well, I'm seeing it at EA's presser right now, and it looks definitely awesome, expecially the fully rendered cockpits).
Unfortunately, at least for me, those were the only really interesting announcements in the Microsoft keynote. A big slice of time has been taken by Microsoft's new motion recognition technology, Project Natal, that will allow the 360 to recognize motion, facial expressions and voice. While technologically nice, I feel it's nothing more than a gimmick. You probably already know that according to me motion control is very, very secondary towards the actual quality of a game.
More casual galore incoming... *sighs*
All the time destined to this gimmick (that shown no real games) is what made the Microsoft keynote a bit meh for me. We'll see about the actual application of this tech, but i'm totally skeptic.
In the end, the EA press conference that just started (despite the DISASTROUS beginning with littlest pet shop and charming girls club) is looking WAY more interesting. Dragon Age origins loosk incredible, and honestly it just jumped to the top of my most awaited games list (is that lingerie what I just saw on that trailer? :P )
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