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

[Allcars]

Bull.
The PS3 version has been delayed quite a lot earlier than launch, and they explained quite clearly that it was due to them having to work around memory issues without influencing the PC version.



*BOOM*
Too bad that "art style" has absolutely nothing to do with the engine, character detail and texture resolution.

FFXIV has much "richer" models than any MMORPG ever made on the UE3, and it has nothing to do with "art style" (which is just a matter of art direction, not of hardware and engine), but with the fact that they have a much higher polycount, higher resolution textures and extensive use of normal mapping.

At the very least, please, get your fact straight. Polycount, texture resolution and mapping effects aren't a matter of opinion, and most definitely not of "style".

You have no idea what you are talking about, lets take a look at team fortress 2 and Half life 2 episode 2. Both use the same engine, one has much lower poly count and less detailed textures, both were released at the same time. If you bothered reading what I had to say about the player market base you would understand why mmo developers use the low detailed mesh's for their games using unreal engine 3, let me explain it to you again, this is because the largest market doesn't have high end machines, the main limitation of the graphics for games today is the market base, look at most games these days made for the 360/ps3 over the pc, why you ask? because of the market base on the consoles compared to the smaller base on the pc.

If you are right about the ps3 version of FFXIV due to the limitation of the hardware, I really don't see this game going anywhere. lets look at it like this if FFXIV were released on both console and pc, at the same time. Both were rated 4.0 I believe Square Enix would have canceled the game. The pc release was a market test/beta test to see if Square Enix could get away with releasing the game in the current state. The test showed that the game couldn't float on its name alone and thus the ps3 version delayed for a 2nd release so they can get a new review of the game when the ps3 version launches and get better scores. This will lead to not only a large ps3 player serge but also old and new pc players coming back to see what really has changed over the course of the year or however long it takes to make this game to change from a rushed rated 4.0 of a game, to a polished 8 or 9 rated game. So before you tell me to get my facts straight, you better get yours first.