A word from IGN.com

[Seif]

Final Fantasy XIV Online is probably the most gorgeous MMO in existence. The characters, regardless of how ugly you try to make them, are always pleasant to look at, the environments are nothing less than spectacular, and the animations are fluid and realistic. So far, however, the gameplay hasn't been able to keep up with the visuals, and even on the best PCs the game performs pretty poorly. The game includes a class system that varies depending on what weapon you have equipped. Want to be a lancer? Grab a lance. Want to cast awesome spells? Cram a staff all up in your hands. At the moment the game is subscription-free (because otherwise there would likely be next to no one playing.

You'll love it if: You can get past the myriad flaws and don't need strictly structured content.

Version/latest additions: Final Fantasy XIV was released with a load of bugs, so most of the recent and future patches are simply going to address those. Most of the patch notes still address minor bugs while major issues (such as the broken Bazaar system) remain problematic.

http://pc.ign.com/articles/111/1116616p3.html

[Betelgeuzah]

This game doesn't have that many bugs at all...wat.

Let me fix this one for you IGN.

Final Fantasy XIV was released with a load of design issues, both smaller and larger, so most of the recent and future patches are simply going to address those while implementing content at a steady, albeit slow pace.

What are you trying to say, though? Do you not agree with Tanaka stepping down and Yoshida becoming the direktör? That's all fine and cool, although we haven't seen what the man is even capable of yet.

[Abriael]

even on the best PCs the game performs pretty poorly

How fun, my PC isn't nearly the best, but i get very good framerates (45-60) on max settings and no problems. This guy has a very elastic idea of "the best PCs", pretty much like the goon that reviewed it that said that you need an "insaely powerful PC". Lol.

I guess my rather uncostly PC is beyond "the best", and "insanely powerful". I feel priviledged now.

Final Fantasy XIV was released with a load of bugs

Goes to show how much this guy knows lol. As usual, you can't spell IGNorant without IGN.

Even if, of course, it was easy to predict who would have pasted this piece of blatant ignorance on the forums.

[Captaindownsyndrome]

Edit: this been up for little under a year April 22 is when it was last updated. it was started around August 2010

[Betelgeuzah]

How fun, my PC isn't nearly the best, but i get very good framerates (45-60) on max settings and no problems. This guy has a very elastic idea of "the best PCs", pretty much like the goon that reviewed it that said that you need an "insaely powerful PC". Lol.

I guess my rather uncostly PC is beyond "the best", and "insanely powerful". I feel priviledged now.

The engine is pretty shit and performs poorly. Aside from thinking this game has bugs, it's a decent "article".

[Abriael]

The engine is pretty shit and performs poorly. Aside from thinking this game has bugs, it's a decent "article".

'because you have plenty examples of MMORPG games with the same graphics to compare it to, right?

Fact is: When one gets between 45 and 60 FPS on a MMORPG game (and 45 only in crowds) the engine isn't as flawed as some might like people to believe.
Hell, I get bigger dips in big crowds with massively less detailed MMORPGs, like Aion for instance.

You do NOT need "the best" computers. nor "insanely powerful" ones, so the article simply makes a false statement. One of the many.

[Betelgeuzah]

'because you have plenty examples of MMORPG games with the same graphics to compare it to, right?

The engine is shit. Maybe that is more acceptable if it's an MMO, that is up for debate, but the facts don't change. If in your opinion it performs acceptably, good for you bro.

[Arcell]

Betelgeuzah is right, the engine is very poorly optimized especially for some higher end hardware. For example a friend of mine had an nVidia GeForce GTX 470 graphics card. I have an nVidia GeForce 9800 GTX graphics card. The game runs smoother on my system than his. His system is far and away better than mine but I have no trouble running it on standard settings. He got the card I have, runs much smoother for him now. Now that's not ALL SE's fault as there are known issues with the drivers for the newer cards but they do share some of the blame.

Also I don't trust anything IGN says. If they think the current bazaar (I'm assuming he means market wards, because they're two different things) system is broken, they clearly haven't used it since launch.

[Evangela]

and someone keep praising the ward system like it is the best thing ever happen in the world of MMO

[Seif]

I just think SE should pay some attention to what media is saying about their game. Also I think it's a bit unfair to lump ign as one of "bad critics who just want to dump on XIV" as their review of XIV is the 9th highest score out there.

Personally I think many reviewers just stated it's so bad that they wrote scathing pieces with nothing constructive about it. Ign wrote many review-long pieces of review in process before they published their score.

Sure I don't think IGN is the best review site out there (they're a bit too keen on anything that apes hollywood and has everything streamlined) but still their review of the game at least to me seemed fair and had numerous points that SE could take a look at and fix.

What reviewers want and what players want out of a good game aren't two totally different things you know.