Slashdot Mirror
Walking Other Worlds
- Title: Final Fantasy XI
- Developer/Publisher: Square/Enix
- System:360 (PC, PS2)
2003 was a long time ago, though. The Taru Taru are still cute, but just about every other aspect of the game feels dated in comparison to modern online games. Questing is extraordinarily awkward; There are lots of quests to do but almost no way to know how to find them. Hint books or the internet are really the only way you'll know that the surly gang of school kids behind the fish warehouse in Windhurst is a consistent source of fun missions. Graphically, the game looks serviceable but out of place on the Xbox 360. On a hi-def screen the jaggies ignorable on the PC or PS2 try to reach out and remove your optic nerves. The job system (allowing you to try all the classes with one character) is still one of the finest examples of balance and utility in the genre ... but raising levels on those classes will drive you to distraction. Leveling is an unrelenting, punishing grind. The first ten levels are basically required soloing, but beyond that you'd better be grouped or you're going to be enjoying the 'feature' of xp loss on death. My favorite moment is when you die just after having gained a level. You lose xp so, of course, you lose your level. That's some class A fun.
The 360 version collects up all three expansions to the game (Rise of the Zilart, Chains of Promathia, and Treasures of Aht Urhgan) along with the original gameworld, to allow the 360 experience to be a 'complete' one. Unfortunately, unless you've already been playing this title on the PC or PS2, much of that content will be weeks or months away from your level 1 character. The most recent expansion, Aht Urghan, has been getting very positive commentary from those who can play it, but the expansion's inclusion into this bundle is of limited interest to the new player.
Me personally, I like Final Fantasy XI a lot. After the minty-clean ease of WoW or EQII, the brittle hardcore crunch of FFXI is a really nice change of pace. That said, I don't really understand this title's release for the 360. In essence, this game was only released on the console so that Microsoft could check off a box for the MMOG genre in its launch window library. With new and innovative Massive offerings still quite a ways off (such as Huxley), FFXI provides a stopgap marketing measure for Microsoft, and once again proves Square/Enix's skill with hardware integration. Definitely not for the MMOG newcomer, and probably already a notch in the belt for the experienced, I'm just not sure who this bundle is for.
- Title: Guild Wars: Factions
- Developer: ArenaNet
- Publisher: NCSoft
- System:PC
The two new classes brings the total up to eight, and fit seamlessly into the world of Ascalon for both PVE and PVP play. The Assassin is a direct damage character, carrying a lot of similarities to the Warrior class. An Assassin character has to get very up close and personal to do maximum damage, though, not having some of the skill with ranged weapons other classes do. The class also breaks ground with 'combo' moves. The mix-and-match actions that any character can slot are always fun to combine in interesting ways, but the Assassin relies on stringing together specific moves for increasing damage. The other new class, the Ritualist, is a support class that features a good deal of group buffing and debuffing. I found the Ritualist's laid back style of play kind of awkward in PVE, but it was a lot of fun in PVP matches. As long as you're in the main pack of your team, you're doing some good. A simple strategy even an inexperienced player like me could follow.
The new questing continent, the region known as Cantha, will keep the PVE players happy for a very long time. It's simply gorgeous, and artistically very different from many of the initial Prophecies zones. For example, the summer green that the lower-level original zone uses gives way to an autumnal orange and gold in Eastern-themed Cantha. There are over two dozen core quest missions, and enough side-quests to keep even the most dedicated PVE character busy for some time. For me, the most enjoyable element of these environs is the smaller zones, some of which go far beyond the traditional fantasy tropes we've come to expect. A beach-front area dominated by villages built on giant tortoises, and an ancient city built into a massive gorge, are just two of the nonstandard zones you'll travel through in Cantha. The Guild Wars designers went about as far as they could from the look and tone of the original Prophesies zones, and the Eastern sensibility and flair is like a breath of fresh air.
PVP is the gameplay that most people come looking for when they sit down to a session of Guild Wars, and Factions provides for these players as well. Besides the same gameplay seen in Prophecies, travelers to Cantha have the opportunity to align with two warring groups seeking to control the newly found lands. In PVP battles, guilds can struggle back and forth across a highly militarized zone. The more PVP victories a faction has, based on the guilds associated with it, the more land it can claim to control. The most interesting thing is that individual guilds can then lay claim to some of these lands, based on the amount of favour they've curried with their patron faction. This favour is earned not by PVP, but by PVE questing. The most successful guilds under Factions, then, are mixed bags. PVE questers garner favour with the ruling faction, while PVP gladiators ensure that their faction has control of a large swath of land. It forces players that normally would not associate to come together in a common goal, and is a right brilliant idea.
As has been the case since its launch, the heights of this game are not for the hardcore. At this week's E3 ArenaNet has flown some of the most dedicated guilds out to compete live on the show floor. These players spend hundreds of hours each month honing their skills in the arena, and if you want to compete at that level you're going to have to sacrifice. For those of us with less ambitious goals, Factions is a lot of added flavour for a great casual game. You can pop in, play for 30 minutes with NPC allies, and pop out having had a lot of fun. It still has the same drawbacks as the original; Communication elements are a little rough, and if you find yourself questing with other people you're likely to find yourself frustrated sooner rather than later. That said, if you enjoy the Prophecies portion of Guild Wars ArenaNet's additions to the game are going to make you reconnect with your very first humiliating loss and that sweet, sweet first victory all over again.
but i have a question.
Are the PvE zones anywhere like the starting zone in the original GW? That was by far the best PvE zone in the game IMO. The rest of the zones were just races from point A to point B, and I hope they tried to do away with that form of gameplay.
While you have to play Guild Wars online, it really isn't an MMOG. Every time you enter an area where combat is possible, you enter a separate instance that is private to your group. So you are never in a fighting situation with more than a handful of people.
Contrast that to, say, World of Warcraft. You could potentially run into any other person on the server when you are outdoors.
Guild Wars is really just Diablo 2 with some clever camouflage to make it appear to be a seamless world. But towns are really just Diablo 2 chatrooms, and the level of interaction with other players in the combat areas of the game is small.
This is my single largest complaint about FFXI: the UI sucks. Now, to be fair, WoW's isn't all that good (although it is better) but WoW has UI mods and so most of the UI problems get resolved by someone. (Even better, Blizzard has frequently added some of the most popular third party features back into the default UI, many times improving on them.)
What I'd really, really, really, like to see Square-Enix do is revitalize Vana'diel by updating the graphics for the PC and XBox360, and to take the time to fix up the flaws in the client. My biggest complaint with FFXI on the PC is that you are disallowed from playing the game in a window. Fortunately there are third-party solutions to this, but those violate the TOS - but I'd rather violate the TOS than be kicked off when some random application decides to pop up a dialog. ("Your mouse's batteries are running low - oh, and your party just died because FFXI disconnected you because it no longer has full screen exclusive mode.")
I really want to enjoy FFXI, I really do, but... Square-Enix really doesn't seem to be interested in evolving FFXI past the limitations of the PS2 on the non-PS2 platforms. The PS2 might not support as advanced a client as the PC or the XBox360, but there's no reason to hold the newer platforms back to the limits of the PS2. Especially when it comes to the UI - the PS2 and XBox360 are limited by the constraint of requiring them to work with just the basic controller. The PC client should take advantage of the keyboard and mouse, and not just remap the PS2 buttons onto the keyboard.
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
massively multiplayer.
;)
check.
online.
check.
game.
check.
It's not an MMORPG, because THAT term entails long boring grinds and "the player with the most toys wins."
But it is an MMOG. or MMO for short.
Mod the parent down, -1 failed pedantry, please.
If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
I can see several points to this issue that need to be interrogated.
How many people who are experiencing this type of social phobia were already prone to it before the game became the focus of their lives? It seems to me for those who are agoraphobic (or another ailment) this is something that could be very helpful. In some ways it allows people who would otherwise have almost no contact with others a chance to have a social experience however limited it is. In some cases (although very rare) a person could actually manage to be more productive online than in real life. In Second Life one could actually generate some income via the virtual world. I'm not certain that this is the best way to go but how many data entry jobs just have one sitting in front of a computer all day without any contact with others? Would that be so different?
For those who are have developed an addiction and disappeared from real life social circles because of it, it becomes more difficult to ascertain solutions. The truth is that we have had this issue with television long before now. I believe that every person has to choose for themselves how they want to spend their time. Although it may be frightening to see someone slip into the machine, as it were, that's their choice. On top of that I've seen many people slip into mindless television watching.
On the flip side I have friend who lives very far away. I like the idea of being able to meet them in a virtual world and do activities. It's not better than the real thing but it's cheaper than a plane ticket.
The real issue then sticks out clearly to me. In real life there is not enough of a public space (especially in urban centers). We are either on the streets or consuming. There needs to be a balance, a place where people can meet and have meaningful exchanges in real life. The model used in the United States is consumer driven and that makes it very difficult to build communities. I think of both Mexico and Europe (as I've experienced them). They have huge public squares in every town. On top of that people actually gather as a community in these squares nightly.
Thanks,
Dore Dormir
All glory to the Hypnotoad!
So what's the point for a player to pay a monthly fee if they're going to be playing alongside hundreds of stupid AI characters. There's a name for such things - OFFLINE games.
Putting AI into the game might be good for *your* character, but it sucks for everyone else who has to interact with it.
You make a valid couple of points about the style of quests etc, that said, the population of fan forums is very small compared to the number of people in the game. Of that population on the forums, it's actually a fairly small but very vocal minority that is bitching about things. I read guru very regularly, and as of this posting here, have 1337 posts in the forums so I'm familiar with what people are saying. Don't get me wrong, Factions has it's issues, so did Prophecies when it was released. Are there unhappy people? Yes. Are they the majority? Hell no. I'm really enjoying Factions myself and while I think a few things need adjustment, I'll buy chapter 3 when it's released in approx 6 months.