FFXIV gets a 4.0 from Gamespot and other reviews & hilarious discoveries about FFXIV

[Tickmeoff]

I'll just leave this right here.

Final Fantasy XIV Online Review for PC - GameSpot

[Dux]

Re: FFXIV gets a 4.0 from Gamespot

Well I can't say I am surprised, every single one of the issues reported in this review were reported as problems in the beta (despite the rabid fan boys defending), I for one am expecting all other reviews to follow suit as they simply have better and cheaper alternatives out there that weren't designed as if it was still the 90s.

In the end only time will tell if it suceeds or not but I will be amazed if FFXIV is even as sucessfull as FFXI.

[Malacite]

Re: FFXIV gets a 4.0 from Gamespot

Who cares what Gamespot thinks?

Does XIV have it's issues? Yes. But all I read in there was a bunch of QQ over things that will (hopefully) get fixed in due time.

[Tickmeoff]

Re: FFXIV gets a 4.0 from Gamespot

things that will (hopefully) get fixed in due time.

You see, this is where I take issue.

This isn't a beta anymore. This isn't the time for taking feedback and fixing/changing things that just aren't working. That was months and months ago. I only played in the beta, and from what I can tell all the shit that sucked then still sucks now. SE pulled the same thing with FFXI: It was fucking awful at release and it took them what, 5 years of updates to get it straight?

I'm not buying it this time around. I bought FFXI at launch because all that was going through my mind was FUCK YEAH FF ONLINE I CAN BE A DRAGOON AND IT WILL BE AWESOME. I experienced the shit they put out then, and it's clear they haven't learned a thing since then.

You want to give them money to beta test and pretend they care about the player's opinions? Go ahead. I've been there once and I know SE doesn't give a shit about the opinions of the people playing the game and will just continue on with the same bullshit as long as people keep paying them a monthly fee.


Honestly, I don't care what Gamespot and other shitty online review sites think either, but that doesn't mean they aren't right on the money with this one.

[Gman]

Re: FFXIV gets a 4.0 from Gamespot

Ouch...

"but fun is not a feature that can be added with a simple patch"

He made some good points. It just doesn't seem like a lot of thought went into this game. The world, characters, and plot were formed, but the MMO components were thrown together randomly without thinking of what they were ultimately trying to achieve. Again, it feels like a rushed product. Alpha/Beta was short, and the game came out way too early.

[Kailea]

Re: FFXIV gets a 4.0 from Gamespot

You see, this is where I take issue.

This isn't a beta anymore. This isn't the time for taking feedback and fixing/changing things that just aren't working. That was months and months ago. I only played in the beta, and from what I can tell all the shit that sucked then still sucks now. SE pulled the same thing with FFXI: It was fucking awful at release and it took them what, 5 years of updates to get it straight?

I'm not buying it this time around. I bought FFXI at launch because all that was going through my mind was FUCK YEAH FF ONLINE I CAN BE A DRAGOON AND IT WILL BE AWESOME. I experienced the shit they put out then, and it's clear they haven't learned a thing since then.

You want to give them money to beta test and pretend they care about the player's opinions? Go ahead. I've been there once and I know SE doesn't give a shit about the opinions of the people playing the game and will just continue on with the same bullshit as long as people keep paying them a monthly fee.


Honestly, I don't care what Gamespot and other shitty online review sites think either, but that doesn't mean they aren't right on the money with this one.

oh QQ ;p

all MMORPGs start out like this, if you thought it would be different with FFXIV, you where kidding yourself. The game will start to stabilize in about a month or so. Most MMOs do, f it does not then that's when it will start to flop.

Reviews like this on any MMORPG are just a funny read, because all they are, is noob QQ wine fests. The game is not perfect, hell no MMORPG is at launch.

[Armando]

Re: FFXIV gets a 4.0 from Gamespot

Sure, but I find it questionable that core gameplay mechanics like macros and battle regimens are bugged.

One thing is the quantity of things broken at launch. The importance of the ones that are broken is another thing entirely. I would expect, I don't know, some random ability, some random quest being bugged. Maybe some mob. But basic gameplay and UI?

[cidbahamut]

Re: FFXIV gets a 4.0 from Gamespot

The UI was horribly designed from the ground up and I don't see that getting patched. Ripping out a core component and redesigning it entirely to not be god-awful would take tremendous resources and should have been addressed long before the game even made it to beta. It's too late now and the game will suffer for it. Anyone who thinks otherwise is only fooling themselves.

[Taskmage]

Re: FFXIV gets a 4.0 from Gamespot

Unfortunately, Final Fantasy XIV dampens the goodwill this opening might inspire from almost the moment you take control of your character. You might wander off after this introductory sequence, only to respawn where you started with a simple message that you left the zone, though the game makes it unclear where you should be going in the first place. "Where should I go?" "What should I do?" These questions will be constantly on your mind in the first hour--and the fifth, and even later--as you struggle to figure out what the game expects of you.

This was a huge problem in the beta. The first couple nights of beta there were hundreds of people stuck on the dock because they didn't find the one NPC out of dozens in the area that would give you the dialogue option to enter the city (spoiler: it's the NPC farthest away from the gate or any other likely zonelines) and then it happens again in the bar with the game rubber-banding you back to the center of the room with no explanation until you talk to the right guy. Tons of people complained about this and it still hasn't been fixed.

There seem to be two camps of opinion about XIV: People complaining about it being broken and people saying "QQ moar, I don't care." Guess what? SE is in the second camp.

[Ziero]

Re: FFXIV gets a 4.0 from Gamespot

Wait, you mean the Limsa Losima opening? When I did that in the beta the first NPC I talked to was the one who pushed the quests forward. Hell, the game even told you "You are in an Instance" and then explained what an Instance was in the chat log. And with all of the dozen (at most) NPCs in the instance, only one has an actual name and it shouldn't take "hours" to talk to them all either way.

While they're tons of valid complaints about the game (UI issues, party Exp bugs, Economic Failure) there's also tons of down right stupid complaints. Guildleves not having stories (every leve has a few paragraphs of flavor text explaining what to do and why you're doing it), starting instances being hard to get out of (seriously?), there not being enough content (usually from people who haven't even past rank 10).

This game needs a lot of work still, and it really shouldn't have been launched yet because most of these issues are simple, basic problems that have been around since the beta. But at the same time, the concepts and core mechanics of the game are solid, and they will provide the base building blocks to an excellent...but niche...MMO game.

[Raydeus]

Re: FFXIV gets a 4.0 from Gamespot

/

The title should say 4.0/10.0 or something for the people who don't read Gamespot reviews often.

As it is very tiring and resource/time consuming having to click on the link to find out.

Thank you.

[Yellow Mage]

Re: FFXIV gets a 4.0 from Gamespot

an excellent...but niche...MMO game.

What niche would it appeal to, exactly? Those enamored by Square-Enix titles? Yeah, I guess it would be perfect for them . . . until they quit out of frustration in favor of a more "complete" title like Final Fantasy XI.

Oh sweet, sweet irony.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: FFXIV gets a 4.0 from Gamespot

Aaaaaand this is why I don't listen to reviews about MMO or take most beta testers seriously. They tend to do a greater disservice to an MMO in the long term than help it.

No offense to most of you, but I'd take Aeni's view over the majority here in a heartbeat because at least in Aeni's case there a look at the bigger picture and understanding that some problems will probably be addressed and how they will be addressed. There's no "I play games so I'm a goddamn expert in game design" bullshit going on there.

A reviewer does a greater disservice by even issuing a review - and MMO reviews are usually negative. You know and I know that a six months or a year from now, that review and many of its gripes about the game will be moot points. MMOs are beasts of change, constantly being refined and redefined with each passing update. How is it fair to any developer for such a game to be definitively reviewed in its earliest days.

Also, Gamespot. I haven't trusted these sellouts since the Kane and Lynch fiasco. They fired a guy for giving a game a low score just because Eidos was giving them advertising revenue at the time. There was another time with a reviewer that issued a review of an RTS WITHOUT PLAYING IT, panning it with a 5 and moving on. Wretched and unforgivable.

So yeah, pardon me if I don't take Gamespot as gospel. The reviewer could make all the valid points in the world, but the site he works at does not deserve a web hit, my time or attention. They make even IGN and Gamespy look credible in terms of journalism, which is really sad.

[Ziero]

Re: FFXIV gets a 4.0 from Gamespot

What niche would it appeal to, exactly? Those enamored by Square-Enix titles? Yeah, I guess it would be perfect for them . . . until they quit out of frustration in favor of a more "complete" title like Final Fantasy XI.

People who want a good looking in depth MMO with a deep rich story that actually requires effort and personal motivation to succeed in it as opposed to having everything handed to you on a silver platter+1 while pointing out the most obvious, most ridiculous things that anyone with a half way decent working brain should be able to figure out?

Despite all the (glaringly) bad things wrong with the game, it's built on a solid foundation. What the game lacks isn't base gameplay issues, it's polish. SE launched this game as a dirty, jagged rock. It's big and solid, but generally without the polish it's worthless. Wipe the thing down, grind down the jagged edges and you'll eventually end up with a real gem of a game.

This game should not have launched yet, it should've remained in Beta for a lot longer and SE should have worked on all these major gameplay problems while playing it was still free. They rushed it to market and now they're paying the price for it. However they still have a good 6 months to fix this crap up before they get their second chance to really launch the game to their largest playerbase. If they can clean up the game and add some meat and potatoes on the side, the PS3 launch, and it's reviews, will be a lot better received.

[Yellow Mage]

Re: FFXIV gets a 4.0 from Gamespot

People who want a good looking in depth MMO with a deep rich story that actually requires effort and personal motivation to succeed in it as opposed to having everything handed to you on a silver platter+1 while pointing out the most obvious, most ridiculous things that anyone with a half way decent working brain should be able to figure out?

My statement still stands. Unless FFXI magically stated looking horrible, all of a sudden. (I know I don't really need to say this, but really, look at freaking WoW and tell me that isn't atrocious.)

What the game lacks isn't base gameplay issues, it's polish.

This game should not have launched yet, it should've remained in Beta for a lot longer and SE should have worked on all these major gameplay problems while playing it was still free.

lacking polish ?= major gameplay problems