Beta Impressions: What Do You Think Of FFXIV?

If its anything like closed beta was, it will be really fun for the first 2 hours you play.
Then the server will blow up.

It's not bad... its interesting and new. I enjoy a lot of features already that i somewhat wished in a way were in XI.

However it's nothing (to me) to write home about just yet... pretty graphics only get me so far. I made it to level 4 last night and did a few little quests and exploring before i had to go to sleep due to waking up early this morning.

Out of 10 in my experience sofar ignoring the BS i had to go through just to even GET a key and register it last night lol... i'd say the game earns a 7/10 sofar.

I bet it'll be a higher score once i play it some more/figure it out better.

Hope you all get to play it eventually ~_~

needs auto-attack so ya don't have to keep mashing buttons every time u want to smack somethin :\
being able to modify controls would be nice too tho i'm guessing that's just locked in the beta.

UI is laggy and a bit clunky, but no major issues with me.

Battle is fun, pretty much how I envisioned it, a faster more twitch based XI battle system

Guildleves are fun, and I can see them being a really cool thing to do rq when you only have a short time to play. Guardian favour helps a lot.

Haven't done any quests yet

Nor crafting or gathering.

Basically it feels like... well a Beta tbh, I liked the character creation and spent about an hour making my char, but then I normally do spend a ton of time on cosmetics. I want to play again, and the story is really cool.

Also, once I can change the controls to control the camera with the arrow keys I'll be far more happy.

So far about 7/10 for me, but I'm optimistic.

You're not getting an auto-attack.

http://www.eorzeapedia.com/2009/08/21/famitsu-interview-with-hiromichi-tanaka/

I'm glad there isn't an auto-attack. DD can't slack off any more.

Has anyone's Pc or lap top seem more hot than usual from the exhaust fan when playing this?

I'd be happy to offer an impression if any of their tech would work long enough to let me play. I'm incredulous they think this is releasable in less than three weeks.

Well the game is much more advanced and much more taxing on GPUs due to the specs, so naturally your rigs will run hotter.
My laptop runs...well...I would barely even call it warm. The only heat whatsoever is the air itself that its pushing out. The laptop itself is still cool.

I had a few heating issues, but my rig runs pretty hot anyway.

I have Firefox/Trillian/XIV running atm:Image is kinda big. (Speedfan is on the right.)

you're playing on a laptop?

Yes.

your graphics/ss are awesome ^^;
do you mind sharing your laptop specs? i rather play this on a laptop then a desktop tbh. i wanna lay down and relax while playing lol ^^

I wouldn't know, it won't let me get past login screen for almost 20 hours now. Servers that can't handle congestion... what's that say about the game servers they run as well?

Sure. This gives the exact specs of my laptop. (Its the same model.)
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0335283

i still feel they should wait a bit longer to release and fix any and all errors.

Beta testing hasn't been long enough to have a real clear prospective of whats really going on.

i know they wanna please the public but pleasing ppl will only lead to failure.

Even if retail date is 9-30-10, im sure the game wont really be playable till maybe a few days to week later with all the problems they're having.

In all honesty, I don't think the game will be fully ready until at the very EARLIEST the PS3 release.

The introduction and storyline is good so far. I'm quite enjoying their characters (Especially the Gridania ones). It's also nice that they give you a little bit of direction as opposed to throwing you in the world and letting you fend for yourself.

However, I'm finding it hard to play more than 30 minutes or so at a time. For lack of a better way of putting it, I get kinda bored. I'm sure once I get some friends to play with or try another class (Thaumaturgist atm) it'll pick up a bit.

The current clunky feel of everything is somewhat annoying and I hope they iron it out into something with smoother transitions. This could just be a side effect of my laptop, though.

I'm really looking forward to the opportunity to design and customize my character to my liking, but it probably won't take long for cookie cutters.

Yeah things havent really changed since the closed beta. My only problem atm is that it's too damn boring after around 3 hours of playing...Maybe that's why they made surplus. Idk there's a shortage of Quests and the only reason im forced to grind is because of running out of leves

Those are pretty nice specs, I went with a toshiba instead around that same price. Wish I went with Asus, the specs on my laptop is HELP I AM TRAPPED IN 2006 PLEASE SEND A TIME MACHINE compared to that.

I haven't heard of Asus till recently, this is a new PC/Laptop company?

also those specs are very awesome for a laptop. loving the expandable to 8GB RAM ^^

Asus started out slow like gateway, I never really had anything by Asus though. But I've read Asus is pretty up there now with their laptops and such.

Asus has been around for some time. This is the first product I've ever owned from them and I was sold immediately on it. Its extremely solid, whisper quiet even when being used heavily, and the cooling system is just nothing short of amazing. While I'll still be using a cooling pad as a precaution, the laptop itself gets luke-warm at best in my lap, and even that is a rare occasion. I'm still running on the stock 4GB RAM but plan on going 4 > 6 > 8 in the near future.

My previous laptop was an HP and it lasted less than 2 years. The cooling system crapped out entirely, even with regular monthly cleaning etc. Not to mention they're noisy as hell. Unfortunately their BIOS is set up where the fans tend to run at max speed when under any form of stress. Their desktops do it too. While I do like their desktops as they are fairly solid, I will never again own a notebook of theirs. They're just too poorly designed.

I run FFXIV currently at near-max setting to boot. The only thing that bogs it down really is the Ambient Occlusion option.

been a sony vaio Fan for a long time, the desk top im on now is a 5-6 yr old Vaio, her RAM is dying and im sure the gfx card needs some upgrading for sure.

That being said, i haven't come close to finding a decent laptop with those specs yet. most computer companies give you a ton of HDD space but no RAM and a shitty video card :/

Assuming what I'm looking at is correct my laptop should be running about the same as yours, right?

Do you get any choppy/clunkiness? I'm still trying to figure out if it's the beta or my laptop that's causing the problems so I can plan accordingly.

i could be wrong but im going to say its the video card that's causing the choppiness. everything seems similar but the video card and the processor.

I still get some lag in cities and in heavily populated areas but its not nearly enough to even phase me.
As for the laptop its pretty much on par. The only thing I would double check is to see if that i5 is dual or quad core.
When its comes to laptops, i3's are dual-core by default, i5's can be dual-core or quad (manufacturers will usually specify) and all i7's are quad-core by default be it desktop or laptop.

I'm also not sure how that card compares to an HD5730. I've always been an ATI guy, and I don't exactly know how they're tiered.