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Yasumi Matsuno did the story for both FFT and FFXII and Hiroyuki Itō directed FFT, FFVI FFIX and FFXII. Itō has been working on a big unannounced project for many years now, probably FFXV. So you have that to look forward to, maybe this generation if we're lucky. Sadly Matsuno left SE and went to Level-5.

I too am sorry for derailing the thread. Back to Tony and his amazing deals.

I respect what you have to say Idiotekque and i would defend to the death your right to say it. Though time has passed since launch, i still think it would be worth $15 a month. I mean people played mmo's like everquest before it went F2P, any Phantasy Star and hell look how many people still played Star Wars Galaxies before they shut of those servers (I'm sure the jedi's felt that). I feel at the the end of the the game itself only accounts for half of its worth. The other half is the community, which can be said about any online game.

I couldn't really give you a terrible first impression of XIV, i played it late last year. Honestly it was to my surprise, good. I didn't get to end game but i thought it had some value. I had a small group and i spent a lot of my time having fun. Graphically i thought it was freaking gorgeous, but i think TERA takes the cake in that department. I will say i was not a fan of that whole job system, i really didnt find any of the roles too appealing. Also i wasnt around for that whole experience point cap dilemma.

There is a lot to be said about Square-Enix, they are one of the few companies that listen to their fanbase. How many developers can you say said "Oh okay we've made some mistakes, how can we make this better for you". I could only think of bethesda, bioware and maybe Sony Online Entertainment (Lets face it, F2P or not they made DC Universe better not to say it wasnt good in the first place).

Originally Posted by Idiotekque It does seem that with newer RPGs, publishers have massively dumbed them down to appeal to a larger audience. Fable 3 did it, but they still executed the game fairly well and added a good number of new features to keep peoples' attention. XIV probably did the same, but when you remove features and dumb things down too much... you may have problems. Final Fantasy fans are not fans because Final Fantasy games are simple though; that's a terrible direction for Squeenix to go.

I couldn't of said that better, SE has fell astray from their roots, they have their hands into too many pots. As a developer, yes observe the consumers around you but don't throw away the people that helped found you. EX Nintendo (Hey we will throw you a bone with a Mario and Zelda game "you should be so lucky to get a quality game.") Take risks once and a while, they can freaking afford it. If i see an RPG from SE i expect a long quality game, a grind, a good story and memorable characters.

Yes a grind, i don't care how you try to mask it. Or more specifically a time investment. It's what separates me from any average joe. Be it with experience, killing a monster for drops or getting materials. If anyone could do everything instantly, would you care? would you appreciate where you were? would you even keep playing?

That's my piece about XI, Square-Enix and the state of MMO's. In a nutshell everyone's got their thing aka "Dr.Cidlove or: How i learned to start gaming and love the grind"

P.S.: RoyMustang you have ignited a fire in me that can only be quelled by going back. Maybe i'll start a group again. Finish some things i never got a chance to do. It's nice have that feeling again. You have my thanks.

Tony make that deal happen sooner.

As far as the support for the game and servers goes, I'm sure it's worth a paid subscription. I'm just someone who has dabbled in F2P games off and on over the years and experienced pretty damn good support on F2P games, with the paid benefits not being so overwhelming that you felt like you were playing a watered down game. At the risk of being mocked for playing it, I used to have a lot of fun with Maple Story back in the day. Sure, Nexon may be the evil moneygrubbing megacorporation that you'd expect them to be, but they keep their games strong and frequently updated. What do you have to pay for that? Nothing; and they were (and still are, I'm sure) well made games.

Mabinogi was another one I played. The same caliber as XI? Probably not; neither is Maple Story (although that's an entirely different angle for a game), but they made a staggering amount of money by giving players the choice. You could be a cheapass and play the game, or you could fork over some cash and have some really cool stuff that made the game even better (flying mounts, for example, in Mabinogi). It sounds like XI has that same sort of thing going on with "crysta"? I guess I'm just not the kind of person who would pay out $15 a month for a game that is unarguably aging, and then pay for an in game point system on top of that. That's a lot of money, especially in comparison to a PS3 game where you can buy it used for $10, and then hook up and play online with a strong player base for free. With the increase of technology comes more connectability, and with that it's hard to warrant such a high price for subscription fees these days. PSU was and still is a pretty damn well made and popular MMORPG, and the subscription fee isn't $15. As much as I love Squeenix, it's hard to ignore the fact that they're kinda using the name "Final Fantasy" to warrant that high of a subscription fee.

In the end I'd just hate to see them shut the servers down and move on, as opposed to just dropping the fee to account for the age of the title. Money is boss though; fans are second. Even the greatest publisher out there has to follow that creed; we wouldn't have games otherwise.

Well, as the sale is live, I can't recommend Psychonauts enough. After sitting in my steamventory for years I finally played it for the holiday achievement and had a great time. Great game.

I've been playing MMOs for oh... 12, 13 years? Played so, so many and Final Fantasy XIV is, bar none, the worst one I've ever tried. XI was highly flawed, but it was from the dark ages of the genre and it still had a lot of subtle genius to it. XIV however has absolutely nothing going for it, not one single thing outside of it's brand name and even that is waning fast

Even the quintessential pieces, like the music and visuals aren't exactly anything amazing. Uematsu is, at best, batting .500 lately and this isn't much of a hit and IMO. It's just not up to snuff with XI's score and on the visuals while I genuinely think Yoshida is the best game artist in that country for my tastes the transition from art to tech is lousy here. The game is so overly smeared with plasticy normal mapping and flat lightning that nothing handdrawn can hope to peak through. (still not a bad looking game at all... just disappointing)

XIV should probably have never released, I mean they will *never* salvage that game no matter what they do to it. It was terrible conceptually and it'll be TWO YEARS OLD in September and still not a genuinely huge leap above the release version (no matter what the few fans say, it just has not progressed that much) and the stigma will never leave.

The only people who are even going to poke their heads in are the few holdouts that just refuse to give up on the ruins of the company that was Square. Still, I would kill for a post mortem on that game, myself. It has to be a fascinating story.

Originally Posted by Meringue I've been playing MMOs for oh... 12, 13 years? Played so, so many and Final Fantasy XIV is, bar none, the worst one I've ever tried. XI was highly flawed, but it was from the dark ages of the genre and it still had a lot of subtle genius to it. XIV however has absolutely nothing going for it, not one single thing outside of it's brand name and even that is waning fast Even the quintessential pieces, like the music and visuals aren't exactly anything amazing. Uematsu is, at best, batting .500 lately and this isn't much of a hit and IMO. It's just not up to snuff with XI's score and on the visuals while I genuinely think Yoshida is the best game artist in that country for my tastes the transition from art to tech is lousy here. The game is so overly smeared with plasticy normal mapping and flat lightning that nothing handdrawn can hope to peak through. (still not a bad looking game at all... just disappointing) XIV should probably have never released, I mean they will *never* salvage that game no matter what they do to it. It was terrible conceptually and it'll be TWO YEARS OLD in September and still not a genuinely huge leap above the release version (no matter what the few fans say, it just has not progressed that much) and the stigma will never leave. The only people who are even going to poke their heads in are the few holdouts that just refuse to give up on the ruins of the company that was Square. Still, I would kill for a post mortem on that game, myself. It has to be a fascinating story.

I pretty much agree with everything you said except for FFXI because the game has evolved so much in its ten year existence that pretty much any flaws that were present at launch are long gone. The patches being applied to FFXIV have equated to nothing more than spraying Fabreeze on a turd; it may smell better but it's still a turd. As for Uematsu I think he does better work when he has fewer tracks to work on. For XIV they asked him to do the whole thing and I think the quality took a hit because of it. In XI he only did a small number a tracks and they were amazing and Naoshi Mizuta really did an amazing job with most of the rest of XI's tracks. "The Sanctuary of Zi'tah" is still to this day my favorite piece of FF music. I remember just going to Zi'tah to hang out and listen to it as it combined with the sound of the falling rain (it often rained in that zone).

I just bought "Oh so fine" bundle. At first I wanted to pick up only Psychonauts, but I couldn't resist not buying all 3 of them.

I picked up a couple from the 1C sale and now the Double Fine bundle. So, I have added 5 more games to my backlog without getting what I have been after: Dead Island and The Witcher 2.

Well played, Tony. Well played.

Couldn't resist Psychonauts @ 1.99 even though I have no idea if I'll ever get around to playing it.

Originally Posted by kayatai Couldn't resist Psychonauts @ 1.99 even though I have no idea if I'll ever get around to playing it.

I have 96 games on steam. I don't think I've even played a quarter of them lol.

In for Psychonauts. I have the other 2 on PSN thanks to PS+.

Annnnd three more games added to the backlog...

Thanks Tony!

Aw, nobody is voting for Sengoku. :( I want it.

By the way, Costume Quest is phenomenal, and obviously Psychonauts is a classic. If I didn't have them both, I'd definitely get the bundle. As it is, I'm only missing Stacking and am torn. I'll probably just wait on it.

So what is the DRM in the bundle that's on sale now? I was about to buy it but want to make sure what kind of DRM they have. Do any of the 3 games activate on steam?

Originally Posted by unknown0 So what is the DRM in the bundle that's on sale now? I was about to buy it but want to make sure what kind of DRM they have. Do any of the 3 games activate on steam?

All 3 activate on steam. And if you buy the bundle, they all come with seperate keys for each game.

Originally Posted by Meringue I've been playing MMOs for oh... 12, 13 years? Played so, so many and Final Fantasy XIV is, bar none, the worst one I've ever tried. XI was highly flawed, but it was from the dark ages of the genre and it still had a lot of subtle genius to it. XIV however has absolutely nothing going for it, not one single thing outside of it's brand name and even that is waning fast Even the quintessential pieces, like the music and visuals aren't exactly anything amazing. Uematsu is, at best, batting .500 lately and this isn't much of a hit and IMO. It's just not up to snuff with XI's score and on the visuals while I genuinely think Yoshida is the best game artist in that country for my tastes the transition from art to tech is lousy here. The game is so overly smeared with plasticy normal mapping and flat lightning that nothing handdrawn can hope to peak through. (still not a bad looking game at all... just disappointing) XIV should probably have never released, I mean they will *never* salvage that game no matter what they do to it. It was terrible conceptually and it'll be TWO YEARS OLD in September and still not a genuinely huge leap above the release version (no matter what the few fans say, it just has not progressed that much) and the stigma will never leave. The only people who are even going to poke their heads in are the few holdouts that just refuse to give up on the ruins of the company that was Square. Still, I would kill for a post mortem on that game, myself. It has to be a fascinating story.

Actually, FFXIV has had a mini-resurgeance lately. A job system has been placed in line with the 'Armoury System' (which is not bad -- Its just a traditional XP system with the ability to change jobs on the fly now. I don't see why it was such a huge point of contention). End-game content, while still a little sparse, is there -- you have dungeons, job quests for classic FF-looking gear, fights against Summons (and a moogle!), a new world-system called Hamlet being put in fully later this month, a PvP Coliseum in the works for v2.0, and even specific world events/story for those playing now that will be impossible to experience come 'A Realm Reborn' (thats v2.0. Though some think they'll just rebrand it FFXV and be done).

Leves are no more boring/time filler than 'Kill 10 Boar' quests in every other MMO ever. At least the leves shake it up a bit from time to time. You can level to max on any combat class without touching leves though, and its a pretty quick road to 50 the first time around.

I agree with some of your criticisms. The 'plastic-ness' of the environment is something that bugs me a lot, but looks like v2.0 will fix it. Don't write off FFXIV just yet, imo. If you are curious now, you get a free 30 days of course and if you are subbed for ~90 days by the time the beta for v2.0 rolls around, you get a permanently discounted monthly fee (9.99 for 8 characters!), among other benefits. I think they're doing a free week of play soon but it might be for only lapsed accounts. Last I saw, $10 was how much a DD copy off Amazon was. I'll admit I bought it out of morbid curiosity, and ended up surprised at how much I enjoyed it.

The game is worthy now, and will be more so once it is completely relaunched with the remaining bits of crap left in the game cleaned out. FFXIV has its issues, but they are no more/less annoying than FFXI's issues were in 2004. Yeah, that's a -bad- thing, sure, but until v2.0, the team pushing updates is working within an extremely flawed system. I want to see what they do with the game once this new team has THEIR own game -- their code, not the code of some madman -- to develop content for.

(Nothing will ever replace FFXI for me though. Years of my life spent on that game. Years.)

anyone know how to find out if programs will run on your pcs

like to buy

Costume Quest - $2.99 but dont know if it will run on my pc

how do we find out what sort of video card we have in our system

it says it nees

intel Core 2 Duo at 2 GHz, or AMD Athlon 64 at 2 GHzGHz
RAM: 1GB
Hard Drive: 1504MB
Video Card: 256 MB NVidia 8800+, ATI 3850+

PC i have is

AMD phenom tm 9500 quad core 2.20ghz
6gb
64 bit oper.


im guessing my system is too old to run it ?

think i might of found it is this right??
name
NVIDIA GEFORCE 6150SE N FORCE 430
total memory 2152 MB
would that be my video card

Damn it i cant decide if i should buy Stacking for $7.5 or not.I really want the game but that price feels to much.Does anyone know how long the game is? I usually go 1 hour = $1 route so if game is 7 hours with its dlc i would be ok.

Just bit the bullet and got the 3 pack of games. Stacking was iffy but did hear some good things about it. I honestly wanted Costume Quest and that used to be $10 by it self.

BTW, how does everyone organize their games? I was messing with Rainmeter and xwidget, I just have so many games. Would like some sort of separate window or folder that looked cool.

Originally Posted by slidecage anyone know how to find out if programs will run on your pcs like to buy Costume Quest - $2.99 but dont know if it will run on my pc how do we find out what sort of video card we have in our system it says it nees intel Core 2 Duo at 2 GHz, or AMD Athlon 64 at 2 GHzGHz RAM: 1GB Hard Drive: 1504MB Video Card: 256 MB NVidia 8800+, ATI 3850+ PC i have is AMD phenom tm 9500 quad core 2.20ghz 6gb 64 bit oper. im guessing my system is too old to run it ? think i might of found it is this right?? name NVIDIA GEFORCE 6150SE N FORCE 430 total memory 2152 MB would that be my video card

You need to replace that video card. You either have integrated graphics or a GT430. And both are pretty weak for gaming. The rest of your system exceeds those requirements.