So sorry for falling of the face of the earth and all. I'm back for a post. Can't say how frequent I'll be. Got some real life trouble and I simply must focus on that. For now though I decided to take a minute to talk about my thoughts on XIV. I'm not going to go into all the surplus drama and I'm trying to be as unbiased as I can be when I rant. So stay with me.
One thing I just don't understand is why people insist on comparing XIV to WoW. People who play WoW are shunned. If you mention anything negative about XIV or XI you're told to go back to WoW with the rest of the preschool-MMOers. Even as an SE/FF fan it's hard to sit there and listen to a calm "WoW player" really trying to give XIV a chance only to be berated by a group of XIV testers. I start to wonder...who is the preschooler here. Not all of the fan are like this but there are enough of them there to give the group as a whole a bad name. It goes both ways, generally, but playing WoW I have yet to have anyone tell me to "Go back to XI". I can not stand to hear, "Go back to WoW!" anymore. It's just ignorant and unnecessary. Especially if you've never played it.
I loved and miss XI but I do feel XI is 'harder' and requires skill, determination, and most of all, time. This in no way shape or form means that people who play XI are better gamers than people who play WoW. WoW brings some great things to the table that XI just couldn't offer. PVP and Raiding do present a set of skills that I had to acquire when I started playing. I also love that I can hop on, quickly group, get stuff done, log out, then jet out for grocery shopping. Each is a great ride and I implore everyone to give each an unbiased chance. As far as XIV is concerned..Let's not compare 10% of Beta XIV to the polished monster that is WoW. :)
Now, back on topic with XIV. Anyone who gives any type of negative feedback for XIV as it stands gets yelled at or shot down. Usually in a humiliating and degrading flurry of words. This doesn't change the factoid that the game is still flawed. That's why it's in Beta..(I'm looking at you retainer/market ward system. What's funny is all during Alpha all we did as testers was give mainly negative feedback. We complained what was wrong with the game and SE tried their best to fix it within their parameters for the game. Now it's an all out war. When a new game comes out you usually do some research before you decide to throw down on it. Even moreso when the game is going to require a subscription. That's all a lot of people are concerned with. I know SE will fix the game and it will run smoothly one day. Most likely not tomorrow, not during release month, but one day. That's how MMOs work and the majority of us accept that. But to get people to 'hold' the game the game has to intrigue and excite.(Anyone remember WoW...go youtube the early years *cringe*)
What has me concerned aside from my financial stand, is the content. I have no doubt there will be quests and an epic storyline,(did you see the videos SE released?!). Right now though SE hasn't really said anything about the player's goal. I wish SE had given us a bit more than just the leves and a taste of the main storyline to mess with for 2 weeks. All of us from Alpha/Beta have done this 5 times over. What am I doing leves and quests for? What kind of end game am I looking forward to? Have they decided on these things yet? What do I do when I hit cap? How are DoH/DoL classes going to participate in an end-game scenario? Why are they not releasing anymore information on subjects like these? XIV has potential to be wonderful and I just want to know what I'm getting into since the OB gives nothing on this.
The sad thing is Open Beta sounds like Demo to most and will be a deciding factor for a lot of people buying at release. I've heard a lot of people take the ignorant stand on this with, "..that's just less lag for me." or "..No skin off my back, their loss" but you have to understand release sales can say a lot about an MMOs lifespan. I'm not saying beg people to stay or jump ship before it sinks I'm just trying to explain why these are things we should kinda be concerned about. Typically if it stalls right out of the gate people are going to forget it was even there. Even if it is a Final Fantasy title. I'm not even going to go into the fact that 2011 is going to practically be the year of the MMO...Okay maybe a little...Firefall from Red 5 studios (OMG), Blade and Soul <3, Tera online, WoW:Cataclysm, The Secret World (XD), Star Wars! TIDAL WAVE OF MMO!
I didn't care for XI when I beta tested it either though but I went on to play that for 5 years so I haven't given up hope. As it stands I don't wanna play Beta anymore. All of the fans, newcomers, strays,...give the release a chance! I want to play the real thing please!! Enough watered down XIV!
Friday Fantasy Beta! - Logs from Eorzea Entry XIV aka The Last Stand [Wicked]
Goodness do I wish I had some goggles like Ed does in Cowboy bebop. It would cause so much less stress on my eyes I think. @_@ 284 screenshots later. We have revamped UI's, revamped battle systems, crystal clear skies, everything is gorgeous! More so than in Alpha. Also we have for you a breakdown of everything new or redone in Beta. I will be handling the Battle/Leve aspect, while Sugar is handling everything craft related. Sit tight folks, we have a bit of a long one...
Read more »
As Wicked stated in her last post this will be the last set of NDA breaking information. So, for my last post I will be explaining my findings on the harvesting, mining, and logging, systems and a little bit of our experience of how the beta actually went this week. I'm just warning you. This is a lot to put into words so it will be a long post. You might want a snack or something...it's ok I'll wait.
Quick
and short, tomorrow's post is going to be fairly huge and time
consuming. Expect it by Saturday afternoon Tueday night as I fail at getting certain screenshots, and I NEED them to be proper, also I've been working on it
most of the evening and still nowhere near done, it's almost 3am btw
:p. I will restate this though, Post XIII and XIV are the last NDA
breakers. We decided to do up to 14 to give thanks to 14 for existing
and to allow SE to build up some more anxiousness in it's playerbase
rather than ruining everything prior to release. 67 days left till
Retail CE release and I'd like not to be a part of ruining someone's
dreams of FFXIV. These posts were to give the fans the information
they craved of Alpha and Beta and bits of Retail. I wouldn't my
dreams ruined, my excitement ruined so I won't do the same for a
fellow fan. After XII and XIV posts we will continue to post but only
with teasing information :) Call me a dirty tease, it's okay, I'm
used to it.
http://ffxiv.xion2u.net/
Enjoy :)
Apologies ahead of time for forgetting certain shots. I was too excited.
I don't really have too much to say this time around. The bulk of information was reported by Wicked, poor thing is having a rough time, she's a trooper. I'm also aware it's not Friday. I just wanted to make a update post before we really start down our road to release. This post, however, contains tidbit of Sugar I thought you guys might want a taste of before you get into our adventures of Beta.
It's been a pretty epic road so far and the Beta just hit. Although we had our first official taste of the Beta Saturday and the schedule was posted this week SE threw us a curve ball. This morning upon my daily log in to the official Test site I noticed an announcement that the Beta schedule for this week was getting an extension. Instead of just being 4 hours for 3 days a week rotating regions through the day we now have a sleep deprivation schedule! Listen to this; Tuesday July 13th from 3am to 1pm and then again from 3pm to Wednesday, July 14th at 1am. This is repeated for Thursday - Friday. This schedule has us playing with only a few hours downtime for an entire day. This isn't just a server stress test, this is a Tester stress test. This came as quite a surprise only one day into the Beta. Hopefully this means the Beta is moving faster than they thought and perhaps we'll be playing freely, off schedule, sooner than we thought.
The biggest WOW factor of this is that there will be no region restriction. We're all on the same servers. The best part of this is Wicked and I will be able to play together along with other Beta testers we've befriended along the way. How's that for Sweet?
A friend of a friend of a friend who knows something linked me this. Certain people of weight in their words and myself included, feel that these classes may be available on launch. :) Enjoy guys
Oh and
From .dat files, enjoy!
Notice-I did not obtain this myself, this was found through a friend of a friend of a friend who may know someone who knows something. :)
Friday Fantasy Beta! - Logs from Eorzea Entry XII [Wicked Edition]
Welcome back Moogle of old!, Welcome back destined adventure, and hello new tactics. Today we bring you confirmed classes, beta test [START button], Linkshell businesses starting up, NPC Retainers, whats in Beta 1 and what isn't.
Sorry this blog is a day late but I had some real life trouble to attend to and then Wicked and I had a meeting to prepare for some blog ideas. You'll see when they're finished. I don't have a lot of information but it's heavy. We got a release date, preorder gifts, the FF13 code gift, and details on the special edition version of FF14!
Yokoku dekinai(Unpredictable) - Wicked's Game Arsenal
On FFXIV Lounge there was a thread about listing all the games you have, I thought I'd repost it here. Stand back. Oh and the pic? if I could, I'd have the same.
Read more »
Friday Fantasy Beta! - Logs from Eorzea Entry X [Wicked Edition] (Report!)
So this is what I get for being offline for a few days, I come back and BAM theres almost daily info released for 3 days lol. Today we take a look at the Dengeki info released. As well as an interview with Hiromichi Tanaka by Nowgamer. More videos! Scary info! Read on to get all the goodies!
Read more »
Hey, guys. Sugar here with an interesting tidbit of information straight from Alpha/Beta Limbo!
Without much warning and no information on the upcoming beta for FFXIV, SE has updated the online manual available to the testers. No doubt in preparation for the Beta they added three new subheadings entitled “Market Wards”, "Logging and Harvesting", and “Retainers”. There have also been a few changes announced from Alpha to Beta that I'd like to touch on. These additions are no doubt in direct correlation to the Beta giving us a 'preview' of what to expect. However, since the Beta has yet to go live I'll do my best to explain what these are and how they work based on the description given in the manual. Please keep in mind this is most likely subject to change until we are able to test these live. I recommend you take it with a grain of sugar. ;)
Yet another W.T.F. Gēmā Repōto to wrap up last week. Craziness happened, thanks to E3, Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, and Square Enix. Oh! And lets not forget the lulz we got from Konami's Press Conference. So without further adue we bring you the highlights and lol's of E3 as well as last weeks posts.
Read more »
The end of Alpha is here! Over! /END!, /QUIT /shutdown
When will beta start? I'm gonna say....within 2-3 weeks.
Hopefully Sugar and I can play together, and we may be able to play all of you as well!
Good luck to all those who are hopefuls in gaining access!
See you all in Beta!
Sugar and Wicked, signing off!
Names Sugar. Nice to meet you.
For my first post I have Bitter/Sweet news. Bitter; the alpha test is ending with the last Alpha test slot tonight. That's right, no more Final Fantasy Alpha. It has been fun. For the Sweet; that means the Beta starts soon! This is what we've all been working so hard to get to. I'm surprised it's started so quickly considering how much goes into making this possible. That also means everyone needs to keep an eye out for Beta test invitations. If that isn't sweet I don't know what is.
Now, to get everyone up to date with my short trek through the alpha. I'll take you through my first couple tests, my likes, and my disappointments. That entails my first run through Limsa Lominsa, the port town, and my first quest. I also want to talk you about the guildleves, both battlefield and gathering versions and all the while I'll give you insight on the sweet and sour parts of this Alpha. I won't touch on E3 as Wicked has done that oh, so well already and I don't want my first post to become a novella. I have quite a bit on my plate already. With that said, I apologize if this seems a little half baked. I'm about to head into my Alpha test for the night in about 15 minutes and my husband keeps calling me over to help him make dinner. Ah, real life. I'll make sure my future blogs are sweeter. It's a long drive so let's get started.
Friday Fantasy Alpha! - Logs from Eorzea Entry VII [Wicked Edition]
So, with this years E3 over, we have little information available to the public concerning FFXIV. But we did get some cool options, plus a super awesome view of the Beta UI and BattleSystem. New videos posted on the FFXIV Lounge and their youtube channel showcasing a mash-up of 3 separate videos which one of them shows the Beta played by one of the E3 guests and the explanation of some of the new BattleSystem. Finally, we also have yet another log for Alpha 2 testing by Wicked, and one to come by Sugar.
Read more »
Friday Fantasy Alpha! - Logs from Eorzea Entry VII
Today's posts have been rescheduled for tomorrow, there is a lack of things to report on and our new author would like to make a proper introduction of herself to you all. So tomorrow, expect the Logs from Eorzea Wicked, and Sugar Editions!
Wow, last week was a bit off wasn't it? Once again we bring you the weekly the W.T.F. Gēmā Repōto. Last week, we had two interviews with fellow gamer/anime nerds, also known as, Otaku. Also, we had a very opinionated, and somewhat biased Friday Fantasy Alpha 14 post. It may rub some the wrong way, but we do have minds of our own, and opinions of our own, even if they don't match with yours.
We apologize profusely for lacking the Wednesday Anime Wonders, and Thursday Tactics posts of last week, there was some really heavy things irl that needed to be handled and it made it impossible for me to even think about doing the posts. We will do our best not to miss another post, as we continue handling the issues before us as they are still somewhat active, and matter more than this blog. We are sure you understand. :)
Yokoku Dekinai Anime Kaigi - Interview with an Otaku
Yokoku Dekinai A-Kon - Interview with an Otaku
Friday Fantasy Alpha 14 - Logs from Eorzea Entry VI [Wicked Edition]
We have lost our author for Thursday Tactics, so for now, that will be on the back burner until we figure something out. We continue on though, with an exciting announcement...I ask you all to give a warm welcome to our newest author, a fellow Final Fantasy XIV Alpha tester, SugarSpeak!, I like calling her Sugar. She will be giving [Sugar Editions] of FFXIV Eorzea Entry logs, and possible some W. Anime Wonders contributions.
With this, we are regrouping our efforts for now. W. Anime Wonders, and T. Tactics won't be active for a couple weeks, but that will not deter us from bringing you the information you want on FFXIV, with two active posters now. Thank you for your understanding and we hope to resume W.T.F. combo bento's in full.
That wraps up this week's W.T.F. Gēmā Repōto, stay with us, and don't forget to subscribe! we have multiple ways for you to follow! Google Friend Connect, FeedBurner RSS, Facebook Otaku Page. Don't hesitate any longer :)
Friday Fantasy Alpha! – Logs from Eorzea Entry VI
Another day, another test, this week they posted the dates for the entire week in advance. Telling us one thing, we are in phase 2 and Beta is closer than we thought. With the new addition of servers, which we have 10 of now. The stability has improved greatly, very very smooth, almost a constant 30fps. Today's post, Alpha, Alpha 2, and your thoughts hopefully.
Read more »
Yokoku dekinai! - A-KON Interview with a Otaku II
WickedSin: Hola!
Christopher Wright: Hello
WickedSin: alrighty then
Christopher Wright: (^)
WickedSin: Are those pancakes?....on fire? XD
Christopher Wright: Its a cake
WickedSin: oh on fire?
Christopher Wright: yes
WickedSin: Lol Alrighty then
WickedSin: So, A-kon. Held in Dallas, which building? I forget.
Christopher Wright: The Sheraton
WickedSin: Ah alrighty, did you dress up? if so, what as.
Christopher Wright: Yes a little for the first day. As Princess Peach
WickedSin: And your friends? how many people all went with you? Hopefully they dressed up too.
Christopher Wright: There where seven of us. Derek, Emily and Micheal didn't dress up. Jen dressed up as Rachal Alucard for 2 days and Haruhi Suzmiya for the last day. Izzy, Alica and Ruth dressed up as the Alice, The March Hare(?) and The Madhatter
WickedSin: I remember the first time I saw your Princess Peach outfit, I almost died lol. I can't wait to see the pictures you're uploading now.
Read more »
WickedSin
-puts on some MC Chris- Anime Kaigi!! Flagstaff! right? Horrible city, but Anime Kaigi! ya!
Riley.x)
nope. flagstaff isn't that bad. it was really pretty and the drive up was funner than the actual con.(:
WickedSin
Ooo thats not good o.o Road trips are fun, but what happened at the con that made it so meh?
Riley.x)
there were long breaks in between the interesting panels. and half of the other panels didn't appeal to my group. it was also fairly small compared to con-nichiwa and saboten, also in arizona.
WickedSin
o.o...wow that's kind of depressing. I mean, It's suppose to be Anime Kaigi. Excitement! awesomeness!
What was wrong with the panels? I mean everyone was all dressed up and went for 3 days yet no fun?
Riley.x)
yeah. kaigi did have some fun panels though. the voice actor panels, those are always fun. and kingdom hearts 101 was fun, too. the boring ones were about makeup and wigs and things we didnt want to hear about. people hogged the gaming room, too.
Read more »
This past week on Gamer Rants from Hell! Entry log V for Final Fantasy XIV concerning more of the Party based Battle System, the User Interface, Attribute Point System, the ellusive Battle Regimen, and to wrap things up; opinions of the testers on how things should be, and how they shouldn't.
Also we have yet another review by our lovely Mizu-chan about Shugo Chara Doki! Season two of one of the best Shojo's we've seen in some time. Be warned, there are spoilers if you haven't seen Season one.
Friday Fantasy Alpha! - Logs from Eorzea Entry V
Another test day, this time though...filled with many bad decisions. Today the new world launched, named Garland. Many were excited, many didn't care, and some were really confused. I was part of the latter group apperantly as I took it as Yay! New place to explore! Must go do more testing! More stuff to write about! ( - _ -) yea...that wasn't correct -.- I've played enough MMO's and know enough about their terminology that I shouldn't have let myself get so excited and stupid over a little announcement. In the end, I regretted it, I lost the work I put into the character and the friends I made. I made a new Lalafell and got her back up to a decent level. Tomorrow, I plan to grind back my levels properly so I can pick up where I left off. So for todays topic, rumors, suspicions, and idea's. So far concerning the leveling system, the party system, and the UI there are many changes to come. They won't say what will be changed, but they do say it will not be seen until Beta.
Read more »
Wednesday Anime Wonders! - Shugo Chara!! Doki!
Type – Comedy, Drama, Magic, Romance, Magical Girl
Hopefully if you're reading this you watched the first season of Shugo Chara!!. The second season, Shugo Chara!! Doki!, is just like the first season but better. There's more transformations, more love, more characters and more answers! If you recall from season one Utau, her manager Yukari, and Nikaido all have left Easter, leaving poor Ikuto to continue to be used and abused. Easter hires a new enemy, Lulu. I know, she sounds scary right? Lulu draws out a new kind of egg called Question(?)-eggs. Original name, right? I love it. The question-eggs still aren't a match for Amu and the Guardians as they foil attempt after attempt to obtain the embryo, from Easter.
Read more »
So, next week, we are starting something a bit different here at Gamer Rants from Hell. We've collected data concerning what you all actually wanna see here. So from now on, we will be reformatting a bit, Wednesday Anime Wonders, Thursday Tactics, and Friday Fantasy will be the focal point. Along with that, we will still have a delinquent version of Caturday Games and Monday Media meshed together. Haven't found a place for it yet, most likely there will not be, just leave it as a random entry throughout the week that will be based around the games I personally play and am enjoying.
Read more »
Friday Fantasy Alpha 14! - Logs from Eorzea Entry IV
It's that time again, and once more we had two tests this week, but we will be focusing on today's run through. More partying, more exploring for this test. A friend and I decided to get a little crazy, get some XP and explore further than we should. Also, tons of screen-shots this time. Enjoy!
Read more »
Wednesday Anime Wonders! - Shugo Chara!
Type – Magical Girl, Shojo
“All kids, hold an egg in their soul. The Egg of our hearts, our would be selves, yet unseen.”
This week on Wednesday Anime Wonders!, we have one of my new favorites Shugo Chara! The story of Shugo Chara revolves around a elementary school student named Amu Hinamori and her class mates The Guardians, which is a club or a student council of sorts. Their task is to protect, assist, and watch over their fellow schoolmates. In the Guardians, there are 5 chairs, Ace, King, Queen, Jack, and Joker. The star of the show, Amu, is given the Joker's chair when she recently becomes noticed by the King's chair, held by Tadase Hotori, who has quite the Guardian Character, or Shugo Chara. Tadase's chara is a tiny little 'Prince' who is bent on taking over the world. But don't let Tadase's ears hear you saying the word 'Prince' because the chara takes over and Tadase becomes this hyperactive person who has fire in his eyes for triumph!
Read more »
Warlocks and You - The Guide to the Destro Warlock LEECHE ADDITION
Alright folks, this week I have decided to settle the arguement between deep Afflic. and deep Destro builds when it comes to raiding. Obviously I am in favor of the Destro Warlock and I will explain as to why. I will admit that the affliction lock does have more survivability due to the fact that he can bounce around, keeping steady dps while he races through fires and all that but it doesn't benefit from the immense SP and Crit chance of the Destro warlock as well as the burst damage when it comes down to figures. In this, I will be discussing the proper table + gemming/enchants and a bit into why I chose SL instead of the rest for my Destro build.
Read more »
Monday Media! - Nightmare On Elm Street
Genre – Fantasy, Horror, Thriller
This week on Monday Media!, we have Nightmare On Elm Street. I hope all of you haven seen the original prior to watching this 2010 version. Needless to say, the 2010 version was excellent. The first 10 minutes set it all up PERFECTLY. You are instantly taken to that nightmare once again, the paranoia, the chills, the goosebumps. I remembered why I fell in love with Freddy, I remembered why he is one of my heroes. He's completely psychotic, manipulative, and brings fear in the most defenseless way, through -dreams-. Throughout the movie, you get more information than you did in the original, in my opinion as to what, who, and why it is all happening.
Now while I loved Freddy, the other characters in lacked actual acting prowess, except for Nancy played by Rooney Mara and Quentin played by Kyle Gallner. They did exceptionally well in this film, they actually looked like they felt the FEAR and understood how incredibly real it was. With each kill, I wanted more, and I got it. More blood, more torture, more everything, I got exactly what I wanted when I decided to watch it. I highly recommend this movie to anyone who loves Freddy, horror flicks, or watching people get cut up unmercifully.The only unfortuante part to this movie is that, we've seen this before, we know what happens, and it's not something new and amazing. It's not going to blow away the Horror movie nuts because they are crazy egotistical bastards who think they know what makes a good horror movie and would say this is not it. What it is, a remake of a classic horror movie, and it did the remake VERY well. The director did not try to go at a new angle, he did not try to rewrite it all. Just to do it again, maybe with different perspectives at certain points. So if you're a horror fanatic, don't bother. If you want to see a good movie because its a good movie, grab your keys and get your happy ass to the cinema.
Another week, another test, and as I predicted, two tests this week. Unfortunately I missed the first one this week due to trying to get a job, failed so far if you're interested. Today was the Test Seven, Extended! Which they specifically wanted us to test out the workings of mining and quarrying, which funny thing, last week I stated I'd be doing that this week. Heehee, Great minds thing alike <3 SE. Also, a small section on the Status & Gear Windows.
Read more »
Weekly Round up! - May 9-15 2010
This past week on Gamer Rants from Hell! - IronMan2, Distant Worlds II reviews. Along with a post from our World Of Warcraft tactician, Eroestus, concerning Ice Crown Citadel, Anime-ChaosHead review by Mizu. AMD's new sixcore processor, Friday Fantasy Alpha 14 reports, and rounded with a brand new free MMO by Sqeenix Fantasy Earth Zero!
Next time at GRfH, Nightmare on Elm Street Review, Mc Chris-Why we should all know who and what he is, More FFXIV, a full review on Fantasy Earth Zero, and much much more!
Fantasy Earth Zero!
Finally, Square Enix is bringing Fantasy Earth Zero to the United States. For years, it's been available for the Japanese public and they loved it. On May 18th, the servers go live! I will be a part of this game under the name Kajikun, Mizu will be Mizuchan.
Onto the information! There are three classes to choose from, Warrior, Scout, and Sorcerer. The warrior is your typical brute strength tank type, strong defense, great attack, and all about close quarters combat. Now, don't think this will restrict you to a sword and shield or something. There are a couple options such as long swords, polearms, and scythes I believe.. For Scout there are the weapons of Dagger, and Bow. Although from what I've read, if you're not using a bow, you won't be doing anywhere near max damage as the Scout class. Daggers are fun as usual but aren't very DD(Damage Dealer) friendly, they do have a lot of special stun attacks though. We all need stuns sometimes. I know that very well from final fantasy 11 and RDM/DRK in high level Notorious Monster fights. Sorcerers tend to be the same old stuff as well, Heal, Nuke, and debuff.
While the classes are pretty basic, that's not where this game shines nor appeals to me. A long long time ago Mizu and I played a game called Ragnarok Online, It had very basic graphics but the classes were very versatile. In Fantasy Earth Zero, there are Kingdom VS Kingdom matches. Your kingdom vs another territory, 50vs50. Working together has always been a huge plus for me in video games, and this game gives that and much much more.
It also has an RTS(Real Time Strategy) element to it in the way of capturing towers in order to gain ground, as well as full strategy in attacking and defending. Not like other PvP games where you just rush in and destroy, that isn't fun.
I'm excited about this game for three main reasons, it's made by Square Enix, it's Free, and it reminds me of Ragnarok Online with all the updates I ever wanted lol. Until I actually get to play the game, I can't say anything I don't like as I haven't seen it myself. So, look forward to next week's post on my first few days of Fantasy Earth Zero!
Related Links -
Game Names -
Wicked - Kajikun, Wickedamu
Mizu - Mizuchan
Friday Fantasy Alpha! - Logs from Eorzea Entry II
The day for me started around 1am when I realized oh no, I missed a test day. DAMNIT, I said. Then realized HEY! IT'S THURSDAY! I didn't miss the extended test! YAY!!! I finally log in, character selection is kind of laggy but not as bad as usual. Come into the world of Eorzea, and omg! There is no lag. They fixed something in 1 day time, completely blown away I speak to the first person I see, which by chance stopped right next to me when I spawned. I said Hey! And she responded Hi ^^!
We ended up grouping together along with a RoeGalkan(lol) for most of the day. Got lots of levequests done as well as learned much more about job changing, levequests/partying. Which, coincidentally, are the topics of todays logs.
Read more »
Thursday Tech! - Six-Core AMD Phenom II x6
Finally, AMD is stepping up its game after a long time slumber in the shadows of Intel. Now, it should be known and well noted that I absolutely LOVE Advanced Micro Devices and been a dedicated fan of AMD since K5 series. With this previous fact noted, I will be as unbiased as possible.
Onto Specs, The “Thuban”, which is code name for the Six-Core series. This series has two chips so far, the 1055T and the 1090T BE; 2.8GHZ 3MB L2 6MB L3 Cache and 3.2 3MB L2 6MB L3 Cache respectivly. Sometime this month, unannounced yet, they will be releasing a secondary 1055T model with the same specs except lower voltage and power requirements. Regardless of all that, they are still all AM3+ certified and ready to be dropped into your year old board :D
Specs for the Phenom II X6 1055T
- FreqTurboL2L3HTMultiVoltTDPSocketRelease2.8GHZ3.3GHZ6x512KB6MB2.0GHZ14x1.125-1.400125WAM304/27/102.8GHZ3.3GHZ6x512KB6MB2.0GHZ14x1.075-1.37595WAM35.X.10
Specs for the Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition
- FreqTurboL2L3HTMultiVoltTDPSocketRelease3.2GHZ3.6GHZ6x512KB6MB2.0GHZ16x1.125-1.400125WAM304/27/10
Minor changes in the voltage, and the multipler, solely for the “Green” freaks I imagine. Moving on to capability and the reason why we buy AMD. The fine folks at this company have decided “Lets make overclocking easier than we already made it with AMD Overdrive!” and they added the Turbo option, which comes in the latest AMD Overdrive utility. What it does is this, 6 cores drops down to 3 in a way that clocks down 3 of the 6, and boosts up the other 3. No this doesn't get you more L2/L3 cache, no this doesn't lessen your power consumption. You're just using a SixShooter(as I call them) as an overclocked Triplecore. Now now, most of you are probably saying “Well why the hell did I buy a Sixcore processor if its going to 'Turbo' to a Triplecore processor”. Hey...smarty panties, you don't HAVE to use their Turbo function. You can overclock all 6 by yourself if you know what you're doing, and if you're going to be overclocking you damn well should! It is not for the faint of heart, I've seen people freak out pretty bad when they got their first BSOD while overclocking lol.
Next up, Performance. Based off of ExtremeOverclocking.com's results these two compete well with the Intel Core i7's. Favoring in the fields of multiprocessor based applications and rendering. While the SixShooters did hold up their own, the scores did not always reflect as one would hope. For example, Far Cry 2 1680x1050 Ranch Small on very high settings, the Phenom II x4 965 3.4 GHZ scored at 71 while the i7 920 2.67 did 70, and the 1090T came in third with 69. -sadface- But something like Folding @ Home, the 1090T came out on top with 1352 projected points per day, and the Core i7 920 2.67 GHz came short in second with 1283.
After overclocking, they've posted results with a bit of a surprise to me in store. The 1090T overclocked(all six cores) to 3.8 at 1.45V stable on air, and they matched it up with the i7 920 at 3.8 as well. They faired pretty evenly across the board(ExtremeOverclockingPg15)
Yes yes, the 920 is a quadcore, not a hexacore, but considering you're paying the price of a quadcore Intel for a hexacore AMD, you're still getting a better deal. Also reflect with me, how many games do we actively play that actually use MCP? um...maybe 2? I personally don't have one lol. But I could run a server on one of them and go crazy with flashing my server off to everyone just to say I have it. For now, Intel still wins in performance, but in price? No, AMD takes that cake, and eats it too since you just buy the new SixShooter into your AM3 socket (which isn't going anywhere anytime soon), upgrade your bios, and done! An Intel chip, as stated by ExtremeOverclocking, usually requires a new board, which means new memory, and a new heatsink. All of that together adds up.
In the end, you go with what you know. You put up that stiff upper lip and continue on with AMD even though their Sixshooter lacks in comparison to Intel's knowing in your heart that one day AMD will regain reign over the microprocessor market or you stay with Intel because Mommy buys you everything you want except you don't deserve a retarded expensive Mac, not that you'd want one lol.
Wednesday Anime Wonders! - Chaos Head
Type - Psychological, Romance, Harem, Super Natural,
When I was hunting for new and exciting anime this one sort of jumped out at me. Good looking characters and the story synopsis sounded good too. So I checked it out. Boy oh boy. It starts out from the ending, or possibly some kind of dream of a good looking girl with pink hair and a sword about to kill a guy, whose obviously the one narrating. It was a little confusing but I got my head around it. Read more »
Monday Media! - Distant Worlds II
So it's a bit late, but there's reasons for that. I kind of fell asleep really early last night without at all meaning to. 3.5 hours of sleep will do that I guess. Apologies!
Yay!!! Distant Worlds II! This new collection was so great I listened to it twice, and a third time as I type this. This particular album is performed by Arnie Roth as the Conductor, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Elmhurst College Concert Choir. Feel free to click the link above to listen to the full album while enjoying the review.
The album starts off with a Prelude, a refreshed version of the classic Final Fantasy intro. The choir in the background really draws you in. Such an amazing flow of music, it is simply blissful to hear. -sighs happily- Right onto track two, “The Man with the Machine Gun” Excitement builds and you are thrown through a loop of drums, trumpets, and flutes which continue on through the piece holding you tight in their fist of omgness.
As usual with the Distant Worlds albums, and Nobou Uematsu the composer, you are painted a picture with the music, taken to a different world. If Heaven has background music, this is it. The third track, “Ronfaure”, those of you who played Final Fantasy 11 will know it as the BEST starting zone background music EVER. Personally, I dream off to when I was just a little taru running through the West Ronfaure zone, skipping along, killing bunnies and worms. Those were the days.
Track four features the soft clarinets and flutes of Final Fantasy IX in “A Place to Call Home – Melodies of Life”.This piece is performed by solo singer Susan Calloway, and done beautifully. Ms.Calloway really brings forth the meaning behind the lyrics with her voice.
All in all, this album is one to cherish, especially with a revamped Dancing Mad as track six. While they do offer a download version for $9.99 USD, I'd still rather have the album in the flesh, in my hand, put into a glass case cd. Mostly because if I ever lose the album I know I have a backup on my external drive. But what if my comp crashes? Or my hard drive goes poof. Then what! Then I'm at a loss of 10$ and no Distant Worlds II @_@!! The download version of the album comes in 320k mp3 format, AAC, HD 24bit/88.2k FLAC, ALAC, or any other format you desire(They claim). Also packed with 12 page PDF booklet, liner notes, session photos, lyrics and more.
Monday Media! - Iron Man 2
For our first Monday Media movie review, we're going to do it with style. Iron Man 2 picks up very closely to the end of Iron Man 1. It's rather nice that a movie actually attempts to continue the story from the previous installment. At the end of Iron Man 1, there was a lot of talk about the government wanting the Iron Man suit for themselves, unfortunately for them Stark, isn't having it right from the beginning. Of course we smile and smirk as Stark makes funnies in the court room, but soon enough it gets serious. We find out that he is in fact worsening his own illness by using the Arc Reactor which keeps the shrapnel near his heart at bay.
Introducing the lovely Scarlett Johansson as Natalie Rushman/Romanoff, instantly Stark's attention is in her grasp as they meet in a boxing session with Happy Hogan. Throughout the movie she plays a key role in just about everything, thanks to becoming Stark's personal assistant and later becoming Pepper Pott's number 2. Iron Man 2 also features what we've been waiting for, and complaining that he wasn't very active in the first one, War Machine. Thankfully there are exciting fights, filled with booms, fire, and lots of iron on iron action.
Without spoiling too much, this movie does in fact pack more of the laughs and a lot more action than we saw in the first. I will say this though, the ending bothered me quite a bit. It seemed...hallow...it was a closure yes but...it was hallow. It climaxed multiple times over but it was somewhat of a let down at the end. Kind of like they ran out of money. Regardless, it is well worth the 7-12 bucks you're going to pay to see it. Myself? I'm gonna watch it again, because its THAT good.
Tuesday Tactics! WoW - Ice Crown Citadel 25/ Arena
This is the start to a new column based in World of Warcraft by a PvE/PvP 'lock by the name of Eroestus. I will be going through new and old raids, discussing either the keys to defeat, how to create a working pug for those of you who want to progress through content but are limited by guild standards, or just a general discussion on the raid itself.
Read more »
Famitsu Exlusive with Tanaka and Komoto
Awesome people on this post - Hiromichi Tanaka and Nobuaki Komoto.
Hello again Fantasy fans, today we take a look at the interview with Producer Hiromichi Tanaka and Director Nobuaki Komoto of Final Fantasy XIV.
Read more »
Ex Underground X members have finally come back together looking to start something new. What do we do with these two newbies then? Oh yes, we take them to Helms Deep!
Team UX members Shadow and WickedAmu have returned from their hiatus looking for new team mates for Left 4 Dead 1(Random Versus matches and ladders) and Left 4 Dead 2 (Team Versus and ladders). We don't care if the games are old hat now to some people, there are still thriving communities for these two games and we'd like to continue participating.
If you would like to join, or simply just play with us. Feel free to drop me a line at wickedamu42@gmail.com.
Here are some screenies from the beginning, just to give you a sample of the amazing quality of this Mod Map brought to you by L4DMods.com
We also use the Silent Hill Mod Map and Death Abroad and soon to be using Death Abroad 2.
Helms Deep Map
Death Abroad
Silent Hill 1
Death Abroad 2
FFXIV Lounge!
Thanks to the effort of the creator of FFXIV Lounge, he has brought forth a collection of Benchmarks which are believed to be a good basis to test if your system can handle FFXIV.
Personally, I've read that as long as you can play Last Remnant you can play FFXIV very well. Two additional links provided just for a comparison basis.
Here are the links provided by Creator of FFXIV Lounge.
Last Remnant
Final Fantasy 11
Resident Evil 5
Enjoy, post your scores here or at FFXIV Lounge
Test Specs Oc'd 9800 GTX+, 3.4 Kuma Dual Core Res 1600x1200 85hz
Last Remnant Scores Average 75 Min/Max 70/119
Final Fantasy 11 Scores 7301
Resident Evil 5: Average 57 at max everything
Paradox PC & Gaming Rig X001 aka ChaosRig01
AMD Kuma 2.9 Dual Core(OC'd to 3.4GHZ) 1066mhz Bus with a CoolerMaster V8
4GB DDR3 RAM(Soon to be upgraded to 8 because I don't like being restricted)
21 inch CRT Trinitron 1600x1200 85hz Res
1TB SATA 7200(Soon to add another TB because I'm almost full @_@)
Nvidia 9800 GTX+ Superclocked OC'd 1198 VRAM Core 819(The new GTX line doesn't impress me yet as this baby can still do it all)
Windows Vista Custom(by PPG, yes I am the owner of this little company =3 )
and these are the expected requirements for 14
- CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo (2GHz) \ AMD Athlon X2 (2GHz)
- RAM: 1.5 GB Ram
- Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8600 VRAM 256 MB or equivalent
I've decided I'm going to be posting pictures only in the Alpha section, and giving more detailed logs and pictures here on my blog. Enjoy, suggest, FB Like, and comment :)
So for those who haven't had the chance to Alpha this game, I've decided to start a bit of a log of what I've noticed so far, things that caught my eye and such. Just for discussions and to add to peoples wonder.
I'll start with the beginning, okay you're an adorable little Lalafell(maybe) and you're on a boat full of other people, mostly. Yes this feels a bit like Oblivion, and God of War without the undead skeletons.
Suddenly, the cutscene ends and you are there, no you aren't being set
free into a world where you were requested, you're just a normal traveler...or so you thought!....if you didn't download their manual or anything prior, you might feel a bit lost as the only things that work by guessing is -, WASD, arrow keys, and tab. But even the tab is sketchy as it targets you first and you need to hit it twice to target something infront of you. F8 doesn't seem to work like it did in 11 either. But, this is Alpha, of course things are going to be kind of, raw still. Setting aside the controls, you have a beautiful brand spanking new straight from SE, NO WOW COPY KTHX, User interface. Complete with sleek lines and sex appeal.(http://tinyurl.com/StatsUI). All in all, it's truly refreshing and feels so great to finally touch it.
I won't spoil the points between figuring out movement, as the camera is inverted and isn't normal for most, and hitting the dock, but I will say you get to fight :) Yes!! I thought. Blizzard! Fire! Yes! (http://tinyurl.com/Fightfightfight14) More and more beautiful. Nothing will touch FFXIV's gameplay, combat mode, or anything about it for a long , long time.
The graphics? yes as you may now realize, FRAKING AMAZING, it ran beautifully with no lag at all except during the character creation process, unsure why. As far as FPS goes, it was strange my graphics card didn't strain at all and only went up maybe 5-10 degrees c. It was like I wasn't rendering anything. So I can't say more on that until I test more.
It felt like I was really playing a final fantasy and not some MMO. It felt like I was important right from the begining! The more I played, the more I fell in love, and its funny, I only got to play like 45 minutes! Once at the dock? you're lost again. UNLESS you play the game as it should be played, more importantly though check out that scenery! (http://tinyurl.com/Sceneryfourteen) TALK TO EVERYONE. Yay Classic Final fantasy npc interactions! but this time, with much more feeling and depth to them. Oh that was a fun 30 minutes. Lol. And at that point, the time expired for my region. Boo.
So, until next week, here's Wicked signing off from Eorzea!
So for those who haven't had the chance to Alpha this game, I've decided to start a bit of a log of what I've noticed so far, things that caught my eye and such. Just for discussions and to add to peoples wonder.
I'll start with the beginning, okay you're an adorable little Lalafell(maybe) and you're on a boat full of other people, mostly. Yes this feels a bit like Oblivion, and God of War without the undead skeletons.
Suddenly, the cutscene ends and you are there, no you aren't being set
free into a world where you were requested, you're just a normal traveler...or so you thought!....if you didn't download their manual or anything prior, you might feel a bit lost as the only things that work by guessing is -, WASD, arrow keys, and tab. But even the tab is sketchy as it targets you first and you need to hit it twice to target something infront of you. F8 doesn't seem to work like it did in 11 either. But, this is Alpha, of course things are going to be kind of, raw still. Setting aside the controls, you have a beautiful brand spanking new straight from SE, NO WOW COPY KTHX, User interface. Complete with sleek lines and sex appeal.(http://tinyurl.com/StatsUI). All in all, it's truly refreshing and feels so great to finally touch it.
I won't spoil the points between figuring out movement, as the camera is inverted and isn't normal for most, and hitting the dock, but I will say you get to fight :) Yes!! I thought. Blizzard! Fire! Yes! (http://tinyurl.com/Fightfightfight14) More and more beautiful. Nothing will touch FFXIV's gameplay, combat mode, or anything about it for a long , long time.
The graphics? yes as you may now realize, FRAKING AMAZING, it ran beautifully with no lag at all except during the character creation process, unsure why. As far as FPS goes, it was strange my graphics card didn't strain at all and only went up maybe 5-10 degrees c. It was like I wasn't rendering anything. So I can't say more on that until I test more.
It felt like I was really playing a final fantasy and not some MMO. It felt like I was important right from the begining! The more I played, the more I fell in love, and its funny, I only got to play like 45 minutes! Once at the dock? you're lost again. UNLESS you play the game as it should be played, more importantly though check out that scenery! (http://tinyurl.com/Sceneryfourteen) TALK TO EVERYONE. Yay Classic Final fantasy npc interactions! but this time, with much more feeling and depth to them. Oh that was a fun 30 minutes. Lol. And at that point, the time expired for my region. Boo.
So, until next week, here's Wicked signing off from Eorzea!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
