Is most of FFXIV's failings due to their choice of engine?

[Abriael]

don't worry, 30fps is more than enough for an mmo. The eye itself sees things at 30 fps if i remember my biology right, most games aim for 60fps only so that when the game slows, it won't dip below 30. keeps the images flowing smoothly.

Your friend probably won't notice the difference.

Actually the "the eye sees only 30 fps" theory has been debunked multiple times. That said, there's simply no way to make a game as graphically intensive as FFXIV run on a console at 60 fps, even with limiting the polycount and texture resolution.
While consoles have a more optimized hardware, they simply can't compare. That said, of course, 30 fps is still very enjoyable, and FFXIV won't be the first nor the last game running at 30 fps on consoles.

The funniest part about this kind of thread is that people scream the "the PS3 limited the PC version!" mantra over and over, while every single PC only MMORPG out there is extremely imited in it's engine not by having to run on PC or consoles, but by the fact that the developers want it to run on hardware from the early 2000s (that's much more limited than a PS3 will ever be) in order to grab more customers.

I find even more hilarious that you stand there and spout that you know better when you don't either.

At least i can critically assess a game's graphics, and understand that characters and environments have to share the hardware resources instead of being judged in airtight compartments.
looks like some don't.

Well if you can live with out real lighting and shadowing then good for you by I like my games to have those things, personal taste I guess.

So "real" that shadows don't even cast on characters?