"Little innovation, even from its outset"

Yet innovation gets an 8/10.

There are numbers besides 7, 8, and 9 that you can use to more closely correlate with the garbage you're spewing.

Originally posted by geldonyetich

 I was particularly not impressed with the point where he takes a screenshot of a shoddy photoshopped picture of the box with the tag-line, "nope, they sure can't -- partially because they don't exist."  Uh, yeah they do, I've got an Onion Helm, I've seen people wearing other such stuff, perhaps he misinterpretted "in-game code" as meaning "a code you get or apply while logged into the game."  Altogether, seems like a rather lazy review.

He wasn't talking about not having the item. He was referring to the fact that you can't sell it through an auction, or send it through a delivery service because there is no auction house and no in-game mail system.

Came across this interview, I found it interesting. Of course, he doesn't really say much of anything that's set in stone except there are no plans of turning off the game soon.

Looks like it all depends on how successful EQ2X becomes. If it pulls a LoTRO and snags a large population over time, they'll most likely implement it here.

"We’re thinking about specific next steps for Vanguard, but we’re not shutting it down or anything like that. We want to add more stuff to it. Will we change the business model? That’s the question people keep asking me. Will it go free-to-play? I don’t know – we’ve discussed it. What we’ll decide? I’m not sure yet. We’re going to see where EverQuest II Extended goes. But certainly if we make a decision like that, it won’t be without deciding to add more content to the game."

http://www.tentonhammer.com/syndcon10/interviews/john-smedley

Originally posted by sudo

Originally posted by AZAlex86

I recently received a Logitech F510 for review. It's a good controller in that it works fine, and has an XINPUT option, so all future games that may use that control interface will work with it. Here's a quick analysis

 

The problems:

• Two bottom joysticks are uncomfortable to use for medium to long periods of time. Their placement is closer together than a standard PS3 DualShock controller which requires you to stretch your thumbs for full control.
• The top triggers are less than magnificent. The first 2 on the top (L1, R1) should be wider. The back 2 (L2, R2) need to be longer, as the flat surface and strange angle is not comfortable.
• The Vibration/Mode buttons should be swapped with the Select and Start buttons. While grasping the controller, you have to bring your palm up and forward to reach the Select and Start buttons, which can be a pain if you are using these often in a game.
• The D-Pad is wobbly, however, it is at least accurate.

 

Anyone with average medium to small hands will have ergonomic issues with this controller. If you mold your hand to reach the two joysticks properly, your middle fingers may cramp or touch one another in the back. Someone with large hands will also have issues, however, they will be reversed, as their fingers tend to wrap around L1 and R1 in an odd fashion. 

 

Personally, I think they're overpriced for what they offer. They are not stress-free to use when compared to an Xbox 360 controller or even a PS3 DualShock. It's almost as if they designed part of the controller while the mold/prototype was held by someone, and then added the finishing touches while someone else was holding it.

Thank you! What a great post!

Alex, would you recommend me the Logitech Rumblepad 2 then, or a good old XBOX one? The only reason I'm looking at Rumblepads instead of XBOX controllers are those 2 extra configurable buttons for extra in game options...

Either would work well. The 2 extra buttons aren't really necessary, as you can bind L2 and R2 to the CTRL and ALT macro menus, and place actions in there.

It pretty much comes down to which design do you prefer. The PlayStation controller layout with the two joysticks near the bottom that uses what I call a "claw" grip to use, or an Xbox controller that's designed to contour to your entire hand and palms, with the joystick resting elevated from your camera control. Both are great and work 100% with FFXIV; just comes down to personal preference.

My best advice is to not look at your hands, stick them in front of yourself pretending you're holding your ideal comfy controller. Look down. If your left hand's thumb is higher than your right thumb, go with the Xbox controller.

I recently received a Logitech F510 for review. It's a good controller in that it works fine, and has an XINPUT option, so all future games that may use that control interface will work with it. Here's a quick analysis

The problems:

• Two bottom joysticks are uncomfortable to use for medium to long periods of time. Their placement is closer together than a standard PS3 DualShock controller which requires you to stretch your thumbs for full control.
• The top triggers are less than magnificent. The first 2 on the top (L1, R1) should be wider. The back 2 (L2, R2) need to be longer, as the flat surface and strange angle is not comfortable.
• The Vibration/Mode buttons should be swapped with the Select and Start buttons. While grasping the controller, you have to bring your palm up and forward to reach the Select and Start buttons, which can be a pain if you are using these often in a game.
• The D-Pad is wobbly, however, it is at least accurate.

Originally posted by geldonyetich

Originally posted by AZAlex86

The point is you aren't suppose to have to "get over" things. I understand no mmos will match your ideals 100%, but having to get over things sounds like you're giving them part of yourself. Don't forget that we're the consumers who give them money. A lot of people agree with what he said in the review...whether or not someone agrees with the final score, what was said is repeated in several reviews across several sites. This level of unpolished, incomplete garbage has been called out. Now it's time for Square Enix to react and overcome.

The thing is, I don't like this argument.  Because it's the argument of casual friendliness.

• Copy what works, so I don't have to learn anything else.
• Make your game easy, so I don't have to get over how hard it is.
• Complete your game, even if it's not the type of game which is supposed to ever be complete.
• Because then it will be flawless.
• I'm the customer, I sign your paychecks, and therefore I know what's best.

It's a great argument on paper.  This is why the GameStop reviewer is so confident when he speaks and writes it.  However, in practice, it leads to games being prepackaged, easily digested... boring,  I just don't like that.

That's not my argument at all, or how I meant it. I was aiming at the technical and design choices for the game

• Landscape is bland with little to no variation...I spent 4+ hours running around exploring
• Don't have to make it easy in difficulty. A game should be easy to USE. Options, and basic functions hidden under a macro system, or 3 levels of menus is inefficient and unnecessary. They would have the same game if they added basic skills such as /targetnpc so that new players would not have to go looking for these things.
• No MMOs are ever complete until they die. They should, however, provide more content than the same repeated leves and mobs that one casual player can go through in 2 weeks. A hardcore player has seen the majority of the content in only a week.
• Once again, on a technical stand point, I'm not entirely sure anyone disagrees the FFXIV interface is clunky and can be optimized. The lack of content can also be seen, and *is* being seen by hardcore guilds in the game (go look on their forums...the ones that are diehard fans and were looking to call this their home.) In this situation, the customer is right...Square Enix cut corners. They didn't screw up on content or the interface, they just didn't work very hard on it.

Originally posted by geldonyetich

Originally posted by eyeswideopen

I sooooooooooooooo want Yahtzee to review FFXIV.

In all fairness, Yahtzee hates MMORPGs, and he hates JRPGs.  Having him review FFXIV and having something negative to say about it would be as inevitable as the tides, even if it turned out to be a lot better than it did.

Originally posted by TribeofOne

I totally agree with the review and the score but it does NOT make me happy.  I grew up playing Final Fantasy. I want to like FFXIV but it seems SE went out of their way to make it so terribly hard to.

I'm rather disappointed myself, really.  I was enjoying the game and feeling reasonably content for having spent $75 on it.  Along comes the GameSpot reviewer to tell me that I'm wrong to have gotten over all the stuff I got over. 

So, I guess if it was the reviewer's intent to be the savior of those who hate the game by pointing out the same things I've heard them pointing out over the past month, he's out of luck, they still hate the game, they're still miserable.  All that really changed is he cast negative stigma on those who might enjoy the game.  But hey, I hear misery loves company.

The point is you aren't suppose to have to "get over" things. I understand no mmos will match your ideals 100%, but having to get over things sounds like you're giving them part of yourself. Don't forget that we're the consumers who give them money. A lot of people agree with what he said in the review...whether or not someone agrees with the final score, what was said is repeated in several reviews across several sites. This level of unpolished, incomplete garbage has been called out. Now it's time for Square Enix to react and overcome.

I didn't get the "game is not playable" vibe. I got the "game is not desirable" vibe instead, which is exactly my sentiments. I really want the game to succeed, but I literally log on for 1 hour every other day to finish my leves, and then I log off. I ran around for 4 hours looking at the landscapes across the game and there is nothing interesting...a lot of the mobs are rehashed. I figured I was just killing the same mobs over and over again (marmot, cactuar, mercenary) to get to something more grand, but I was wrong...

I'm starting to think they implemented the 36 hour leve cooldown to try to slow people down so they don't find out there is literally no high level content. But I guess I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and just unsubscribe for a few months, and hope they fix things.

Originally posted by cyress8

 

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Originally posted by geldonyetich
Wow, I knew you guys were pretty desparate to slam the game, but hacking the web page of a major game site so a user review masquarades as an official one?  Pretty impressive.

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HOOOOLLLLYYYY ...

 

Is it wrong that I honestly don't know if he's trolling or telling the truth of what he believes? Hmmm

Originally posted by Unlight

Originally posted by colddog04

Originally posted by Unlight

I think what most people are reacting to isn't something that's 'different', but the fact that it seems SE has taken a wheel and given in four flat edges, in order to make the act of rolling it more challenging.  Absolutely, it is tougher to roll it, but is this really a step in the right direction, or simply an act of complicating matters purely for the sake of complicating them?

Perhaps it's just a matter of perspective.

What the hell is that crazy looking bald rat thing in your avatar?

A sheep on acid, I believe.

Looks like it's from Black Sheep the movie...http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0779982/

Technically "vets" get an advantage by default. They've played the game, they know the advantages to each spell and attack, they know the terrain, they know basic techniques, and have most likely been introduced to a wide variety of battle scenarios. Adding on a grind to get to a nigh-unkillable level (against new players) is one of the downfalls of MMOs when compared to first person shooters...and so long as they rely on subscriptions, this will never change. They want people working, working, working and paying the monthly cost.

That's why I've never really been impressed by PKers. They tend to always aim for someone that's lower on the food chain, and with all of the game's advantages, it SHOULD be an easy kill. What's strange is this is exactly the opposite to majority of end-game PVE raiding, where people aim for the hardest boss they can find. People have a hard time losing to other human beings, they want things to be easy with little to no challenge...but hey. They all pay their $15/mo, they deserve to play the game how they want.

I love what they've done to Vanguard. I'm an old EQ1 vet and it's the closest I've seen to the same kind of immersion. I played in beta and hated it because of all of the bugs, came back about a year ago and played for 6 months, then quit.

Unfortunately, the reason I'm not subscribed and think a lot of people aren't is related to population, but not directly. I see no future development at all. I really do not want to devote a years time to a game that most likely will have no content updates when there are several single player (or lobby based multiplayer) games available.

Without the large numbers of people coming into the game, SOE will see little reason to pump more money into development. Without development, they won't receive large numbers of people. I understand I'm "part of the problem" by not re-subscribing to the game according to some folks, but #1, I can't see 10,000 people coming back to the game and #2, Vanguard is a product...and like all products, it's the developers/designers/maintainers responsibility to promote that product. I don't see any promotions or advertisements for this game anywhere. I don't want to give money to an organization that has no faith in their game or playerbase.

Originally posted by fyerwall

Thats what I don't get about the review.

He basically points out the games flaws and explains how in it's current state he can't recommend it, but then gives it a high score based on potential...

To me the score he gave it doesn't really seem to add up with the content of his review. Basically the review read like "Could be better, could be better, could use some work, has potential, overall the game is great"

Yup! Exactly. This is the reason why I believe review scores are completely worthless. One person may say more negative things about a game and give it a 4/5, and another will enjoy their time and state a only few of the issues and rate it a 3/5.

No continuity between reviewers/review-sites. Unfortunately, in the world we live in today, most people would rather read a percentage than an entire article.

To the "haters" defense, they do state what a lot of them are saying. In fact, I agree with their last paragraph. Would I recommend the game to a friend right now? Absolutely not. I like the game in general, but it needs time to develop. I look forward to it in the future.

We can’t recommend that you spend $50, and then $12.99 a month after the first 30 days, on a title that has as many flaws as FFXIV does. But we can recommend that you keep an eye on the news to see how this game evolves. If the developers can make it easier for new players to get a foothold in Eorzea, work out the lag issues, keep a good-sized community around, and tell a compelling story through the main quests, this could be the best MMO the world has ever seen.

Out of all of the people I have seen that are classified as "haters," only a minority are saying the entire game is complete crap. A lot of the negative reviews I have been seeing state exactly what this review states...except with either no score, or not such a high score. They want to put it back in the incubator.

EDIT: Also they do seem to do re-reviews. That's good! Their original Aion 3.7/5 is now a 4.8/5

For anyone that hates reading, here are the bullet points of what the reviewers did NOT like:

• Things don’t get much smoother during the game itself. The lack of direction is astounding. There are tutorials, but they’re not particularly informative, and they may not be available when you need them.
• Also, the menu system is frustrating to navigate, the keyboard controls are clunky, and it’s remarkably difficult to trade with other players (this game absolutely needs a search function so you can find the items you want).
• The main story quests are the most substantive, but also the rarest, because when you finish one, you typically have to level up quite a bit before you unlock another.
• What’s irritating is that the game limits you to eight local and eight regional quests every thirty-six hours. Considering that some of the quests can be completed in as little as five minutes, this puts a serious limit on how much time you can spend making progress in the game. Once your quests run out, there’s not much to do except make random items and kill random beasts -- actions that build your level, but feel completely aimless.
• Another artificial cap the developers placed on character growth is a weekly limit on the EXP you can gain...Nonetheless, it’s frustrating that you can’t invest as much time as you want in whatever class you want, and earn full EXP while doing so.
• This is another aspect of the game that will send you scrambling around the online Final Fantasy forums trying to make heads or tails of it (no one in the game tells you which color you’re aiming for, and even the forums contradict each other)

Thank you! Very much appreciated.

Hi there folks, I'd love a trial key as well for the US. I tried the aiontrial.com site, and submitted my request, but it's been a week with no response. I confirmed the email they sent as well and checked my spam filters, but nothing showed up.

Email is: 1.21gigawattsofalex@gmail.com

Thank you very much guys!

Thanks for the replies guys.

Yeah, I got my start in vanilla EverQuest and played that for 4 years, so the grind doesn't bother me. (Also played UO pre-trammel and early Shadowbane so I'm fine with the occasional ganking.) From there I moved to a few different MMOs, and went to WoW from alpha through TBC, quit, then came back for WoTLK around 5 months ago, but honestly it wasn't the game I loved in Vanilla. Heroic ICC was difficult for about a month or so, but after that my guild literally ran out of things to do, so I rarely log on since.

The main reason why I was worried about Aion is that I was told in order to be competitive, you'd have to run the exact same thing over and over and over again, which is essentially what WoW is. I understand gearing up is important for people, but time consumption =/= difficulty. I'm fine with people playing 80 hours a week having the best gear, I just want to know that I'd be able to compete with slightly lesser gear. Thanks for the insight! It's hard to gather true facts from the forums from any game's site, as they're riddled with trolls and generally unhappy people.

Orcs in Warhammer.

Orks in Warhammer 40k

I have a question for any current Aion subscribers or those who have seen end-game stuff.

I played at launch, but quit soon after due to lack of quests. I'm interested in coming back because I loved the fluidity and gameplay in general, and have been reading up on all of the changes...with that being said, I have a question on the gearing scenario.

Quite a large amount of people are stating the game is fantastic until around level 50 where you have to go for something called a miragent (sp?) set. It can take months to get, and without it, you're pretty much SOL from any content. If you don't get the set, you can opt for other 55 gold sets, which also take months to get due to a completely random drop rate across all items and all classes.

Is this over-exaggerated and blown way out of proportion? I usually think most of the people actually posting on game forums dislike the game because the ones that enjoy it are playing instead. Is there any way to compete as a casual player, and is it fairly easy to get into PvE instances without top of the line gear? I like that they make you work for good equipment, but the way everyone makes it sound is that if you don't have it, you're useless and will get 2 shotted.

I just purchased a second GTX470 at Fry's Electronics for $239 with no rebate to wait for. Their GTX460s were $259 after rebate, so this was one hell of a deal. They have eVGA and Galaxy's to choose from; I went with eVGA because I have a long history with them, but the first I purchased was Galaxy and it's still running strong. They said the deal will last until they sell out their stock.

Definitely worth checking if you happen to have a Fry's or equivalent store nearby.