drunkenpandaren | Entries tagged with final fantasy

Ladies and Gentlemen my name is Shaun of the Gamer Podcast This is my Gaming Life WTF coming to you live on livejournal dot com with another ranty rant disguised as a tldr short.

After some deliberation I got my brother to install Final Fantasy 14 onto his computer, and had him play it for a while. He rolled a big burly warrior, no big surprise there and decided to give it a whirl.

Starting up was a bit choppy, he tried watching the video which is easily found on youtube. You know, those fancy intro movies that Square likes to put in front of everything they create. Some things that comes to mind while watching him play last night brings a few valid points.

1) They need to really port this to the consoles. I don't care how LONG it takes, this is a ruddy console game, there's no doubt about that. While the layout is inherently meant for the PC, there is no big surprise that they included an option to play it on a PC-based controller. This tells me that they are bringing it over. But if it's just going to be the PS3 or the 360, well time will tell.

2) Awkward, awkward, awkward. The quests get you off to an extremely jumpy start. You're plopped right in the middle of action from the get go, and here's where things get a little jumpy to say the least. The controls are not that intuitive, and can't be fixed with a little button mashing. Attacking an opponent means you have to be face on towards them, you can't just sit around and sort of glance, no it doesn't work that way. You must be facing them with your torso presented to the opponent in order to even ENGAGE the enemy. It's not like WoW where you run in and attack them from any direction.

Now I might be a little unfair comparing FF14 and WoW together, but the functionality of this game really needs a tune up. Not only you are fumbling around like a sightless kitten for the first part of the game, but you are ALSO aimless as you move along the story which so far, seems to be slightly linear in nature which means Square intends you to follow up whatever cosmic bollucks that happened.

Take the Port city for example, a fancy name I don't remember right now. You would think for a game modeled as a MMORPG that there would be clearly marked quest hubs everywhere, big glowing question marks and blinking turn in points on your map. No that's not really the case here. For one thing, you're trying to find the quest objectives with not-exactly-clear goals in mind. Sure they go tell you to attune yourself to a crystal, but Kyle spent about twenty minutes trying to find out where he could exit the goddamn city. No Square, it doesn't WORK like that. Games like this you have to hold the players hand in this sort of context. You need to make clearly marked NPCs with big bubbles over their heads in order to show them where to turn in. You can't just expect us to go "hey look at that, it's a NPC maybe I should talk to them on the off chance that it's my questgiver's target."

Another flaw in the game is the lack of levels being displayed on opponents, and yes, even on your own character. You have your own interface and all, but it's not really there, just a couple of bars at the bottom indicating HP, MP and something called TP which I doubt means Toilet Paper. The indication of how badly a mob is about to hand you your ass is directly proportional to how BIG it is. We fought a rat, no big deal, it took some damage off us. We can live with that. Killed two more. Fantastic now we're cooking.

And then we attacked some kind of knee-high thing that completely and utterly subjugated our backsides. That probably was the icing on the cake that was piled high with Square's ineptness to have a smooth launch. For goddsake Square a few marked levels would be NICE. Maybe some kind of buffer? Mark too high mobs in RED for all we care, just let us know that going over and saying hello will get us a nice teeth-shaped mark carved out of our asses.

All these problems and I haven't even gotten to the good part of it. The loading times. I don't know if its a streaming issue with their servers or whatever, but when you walk around, you shouldn't be all alone for about twenty minutes and not see a single soul for twice that long. No, fix it. FIX IT. There needs to be faster loading times because the sheer volume of ridiculous from walking around in a deserted city causes me to froth something fierce.

All this being said, while the PC experience has been less than stellar, so much so that I'm canceling my account for now, I will LOVE to see this on a console. This is inherently a console game, Square is a console DEVELOPER. Even with less buttons and bells and whistles, this game is meant for the sheer raw power of a 360 or a PS3. If it's just for PS3 fine I'll save my cash and buy it then and a machine just to play this game. That's how much I like this game despite it's incredible flaws.

I can say with certainty that if you are going to buy this game for the PC, make sure you have MORE than the minimum 4 Gigs of RAM recommended to run it. It's choppy even at 6 which is my brother's laptop. I swear to god. It's not as bad as Crysis but then again Crysis requires materials bought from a inter-dimensional shop that involves Talking Sentient Aluminum. Graphical quality is fantastic but needs to be toned down for the gamers who are running older machines. And the options interface NEEDS to be adjusted. Really, give us a more friendly adjustment from beautiful to crap.

This is Shaun and I'm signing off. Maybe sometime later I'll actually post something that ISN'T a Totalbiscuit monologue in my head review of a game I shouldn't play because of money issues.

Ladies and Gentlemen my name is Shaun of the Gamer Podcast This is my Gaming Life WTF coming to you live on livejournal dot com with another ranty rant disguised as a tldr short.

Okay, so I found the configurations menu for FF14 and with that being said, I turned down all of the settings to the absolute lowest detail, shadow resolution, etc.

Is it really necessary for FF to run at beautiful polygons even at the lowest possible setting? It doesn't make the game smoother, just choppier. I am rather disappointed in that considering my computer is about ten years old.

I'd love to play this at it's full intensity, but I fear I need way more RAM to play this properly, and I'm maxed out at 3. Looks like Square, in their infinite wisdom, decided to make the game beautiful and not simply functional like say Warcraft.

Although what gameplay I do get out of it is a lot of fun. Crafting items is especially rewarding, but I shouldn't roll a pure trade skill character anymore, not if I want to sate my need for blowing shit up.

Some people might note that I seem to be gripey this morning well there's a good reason for that. Last night I went to bed round 2 and woke up at 3:45 believing there was someone lurking in my room. After ten minutes of sheer panic and hoping they'd go away, I fumbled for my glasses like a sightless kitten and turns out it was just a shadow. a really convincing shadow no less.

So I went down, babbled to Ketsu a little on the comp, and got my mage up a little more on WoW. Seriously. Worst Night Ever. And here I am caffinated just to stay awake and alive cause I'm afraid the gruelies'll get me. Like having something stalking you from the fifth dimension.

Yes it is 10:50 in the morning I GET THAT. doesn't do much for panic though.

Ever notice old movies where people are driving vehicles, they're always mindlessly waggling the steering wheel back and forth? Or when people play video games on television or movies, they're just hammering at the controller, not even really doing much of anything. I find that odd because real gamers don't jump and roll with their character like how it was believed in Nintendo where you'd swing the rectangle controller up Mario would make that jump. No it doesn't work. Still, it's a shade better than playing a game and discovering that all you have for offensive capabilities is Throw Rock and by god I am not joking about that. A level 4 Culinist, thats food makers for short people, has the ability to throw ROCKS at things. Oh, and just to not put a fine point onto it, you can learn "Wrist Flick" which will throw, wait for it, ANOTHER rock. But this time so hard it stuns.

Or misses.

Or does 2 points of damage.

Basically put Culinists are NOT good for fighting, I learned this the hard way, and I rerolled a Thurmagist. Wasn't too impressed either, not with the nancy Umbra and Luna spells. Give me FIRE yon Final Fantasy of worth! Flames for the flame god!

I'd be playing WoW right now but it's down for the count till after noon. Maybe I should poke FF again once I'm done mucking with the settings. Really, I have to turn FF OFF in order to change the settings. How bloody fantastic is that, really. Like forcefeeding a gnome till they grow big as an Ogre.

Oh speaking of that, I made a character on WoW, a fire mage in anticipation of the patch which won't drop today I'd imagine. I FINALLY got my bloody pyroblast and I know that once I login somehow I will have lost that ability. Don't ask me how but at least I macroed Dragon Slave to it. With some modifications. What rhymes with Set the Tank on Fire and send him into the mobs. Hey, it works for Binwin Bronzebottom and Jim Darkmagic, why not in WoW.

Along with making her purely fire I also added a profile. And being a short stacked tiny chested fire mage with pyromatic tendencies, I named her Tillywink Explodia Inverse. The Pink. Yes I am hitting on all of the cylinders this morning shut the fuck up. One of the moments I included was she likes to eat, which is a basic concept amidst spellcasters. You cast spells, you burn calories, you eat until you are full and you burn things with searing immolation AGAIN, it's like a vicious cycle that doesn't end when you hit 80. Well in any case, some weirdo Draenei Priest whispered me while I was running out of Goldshire, or as I like to call it the Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy, and never more often has that been appropriate in WoW. Don't ask for details, they're probably horrifying and filled with horse****ed women. Yes, it's weird don't ask don't tell.

Getting back to that, the priest wanted to quote "feed me until I was big as an ogre". Apparently he has some kind of food based fetish or fat girl or something. I'm sorry but mages DO NOT GET FAT. We burn CALORIES. We blow up shit. Our daily food intake is directly proportional to how much stuff is set on fire, looted and set on fire again to make sure it doesn't reincarnate as an Elite Mob. That and the entire concept was just disturbing to me. At least I can be rude OOCly and ICly because Tilly has no remorse if she pisses someone off. She'll just laugh at their character sheet.

At least I'm in the Draenei starting zone now, so I can immolate to my hearts content. Although My fireball does NOT do enough damage over time damage. Twelve bloody points oh woo freakin hoo. I should go pick up the glyph that lowers my fireball cast spell by .15 but removes the tick. They'll be dead anyhow, or already on fire from Ignite. It's a toss up.

Can't wait for that, Ignite I mean. The talent's been retooled and I find it really very easy to pull a lot of mobs with a single Fire Blast. It turns your Blast from a single target into an AOE damage ability. Hits the target, and then hits everything ELSE around it at the same time. Coupled with instant Flamestrike we are looking at a lot of damage. And I just know that somehow I will feel emasculated once the patch hits because I worked SO damn hard for level 20 for my portal and blink and evocation and most importantly Pyroblast, and when I get my new talents, it'll just respec and they'll hand it to me on a silver platter. With a 3 second cast time no less. Yes, that's a lot of fun. Down from 6 which is RIDICULOUS. Why would anyone even USE pyroblast unless it was for the proc. Honestly.

This has been Shaun with the last of my short. I'll see you next time.

It ain't no WoW.

But that's okay. It's Final Fantasy.

From the start, I get the impression that it was built to be cross-platform. There is a distinct smoothness that is associated with the 360's hardware acceleration and if I had it, I'd have played it there. But in truth, the game seems to be pretty intuitive.

However, like most Final Fantasy games, it throws you into the adventure. You're not really given a idea of how to do things at times, but it's more free flowing. WoW players might find themselves goofing on the mechanics and a lack of Auto Attack but hey, that's okay. You're playing FF. It's all about commands.

So far, the game is lush and the design spectacular. I'm gonna get further in here before doing my WoW dailies.

So everyone on my F-list knows that I went back to Never Was. While I'm still easing my way in, I still kinda feel like there's a few people unhappy with my return. Call it a hunch,but the phrase "You inconveniced a few people" says a lot about what people feel about me. Reception to my return is somewhat lukewarm. I've already started to ignore chat.

Aw well, it's none of my concern if people think ill of me. I need to rebuild that thick skin of mine. And as such, instead of returning with a previous character, I apped Snow Villiers from FFXIII. As such, he is very easy to play, and provides a wealth of character growth to explore since he isn't l'Cie and to boot, from very early in the storyline too. He's already experienced a bit of emasculation from Vanille and Lightning, obviously, thinks he won't be of any use without his powers.

We'll see how this works out. I'm mostly staying because of Serah anyhow.

Now then, to review business. Gotta Catch a Gible is this weekends latest episode of Pokemon. Having taught a Gible how to use Draco Meteor successfully in the previous episode, Ash and Co are confronted by said Gible that has followed them to the next town. And the Gible is a menace. It's pretty much also two rocks short of a full quarry since it seems to have the attention span of a Venonat. A walking devouring menace, it eats most of a park, Barry's Bike and Team Rocket's first Blastoise mech. As such, we have Ash getting a new Problem Pokemon. Most of them are well behaved, but once in a while he gets a Pokemon that is just downright hard to handle. That, and it likes to gnaw on his head. And other people's heads.

Some physical observations while watching this episode speaks of Ash's athletic prowess. The kid over the ten years of travel has seriously picked up strength and stamina. Surviving on the road with the bare minimum of funds and camping out does wonders, just ask any training montage. But because of his close proximity to life and death, he's managed to perform Feats of Strength that are just over the top. Like leaping over a canyon, catching onto the other side, scrambling up and flipping up onto the other side.

Yeah. He's definitely athletic.

The inclusion of Barry into the episode was a fun thing, if only for the point that he proves a point that Bikes can't last for more than one episode. And it showcased just how ridiculous Gible was too.

5/5 for this episode. Fun writing all around.

Sometimes I wonder if it's all worth it, busting my ass to find a job. But then I remind myself, I am flat broke. I really gotta go into Red Deer and find a job there too, but I woke up feeling like a lead weight. Maybe I should skip it today.

On FFXIII I need to play it again. It's not to say that I want Sazh to wake up again, but I haven't finished a FF game since X-2 and I really wanna see how this plays out. Also, Vanille's hentai squeaks are hilarious.

Holy shit.

( Holy. Shit. )

Yeah, it's another AU idea. Part parody, part homage, it mixes as much Final Fantasy into the Avatar world. Shake well. Serves 10,000 hits.

( And lo, from the depths of the earth, the embodiment of Water rose The First WEAPON. )

I guess not having any RP to keep track of is a good thing, considering I keep making AU.