A word from IGN.com

[Abriael]

To be fair, there's a reason for this. Not only is there astronomically more variation in gear, but Aion also has to send you roughly 5x as much information per character due to its level of character creation detail.

That has basically no bearing on graphical lag. Graphical lag mostly depends on the number of polygons on screen, the resolution of textures, effects and so forth.

variation in gear and information per character puts more stress mainly on memory, not on the video card, and memory is very, very marginal for graphics.

The simple fact is that ALL mmorpgs run considerably slower than single player games on the same hardware and comparable detail, because the amount of detailed characters displayed is on a whole different level.

FFXIV is the only MMORPG out there that runs on engine settings that aren't equivalent to a 4-6 years old single player game, and that's why it requires better hardware to run. Still nowhere near "the best" or "insanely powerful".

Dont know what kind of computer you're running

AMD Phenom II X4 965, 4 gigs of ram, GTX 460. Nowhere a "insanely powerful" PC.

As usual, can't spell IGNorant without IGN.

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.

They should pay some attention when the "media" isn't writing a load of bullcrap coming from some random jock that quite obviously didn't even play the game, or played it so little that he didn't even get the slightest idea of the basic systems. I remember checking the lodestone page of the guy that reviewed the game for IGN and having a laugh, he was level 12 in a single class, and didn't even *try* the armory system.

The ability to write valid criticism comes with experience. No experience = invalid criticism. It's simple.

[Seif]

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

Yeah this is a pretty useless opinion. If someone likes the wards because they're a mess of UI design and loading screen heavy time sink then that pretty much still leaves majority of the players not using them at all. And ANY AH system that's not used by everyone in the game is a failure in creating a healthy in-game economy.

[chime85]

Ok, read all the reviews on that site. I have several comments to make about those reviews.

1) very short. If I was a person trying out an MMO for the first time but a regular gamer (idk say I had played RPG's and a few stragagy games with a few FPS. Also, without any commitment to any particular brand/franchise), I would find it difficult to distinguish between any of the MMO's. If I had to decide on an MMO, I would be better off asking the staff who worked in my local computer game store.

2) Age=better. There is a clear indication, that the older the game, the better it is. This does seem to be an unfair way of reviewing an MMO. As any veteran MMO player knows, the games often (with exceptions of the rule) develop through time. As the saying goes, like a fine wine, they mature gracefully.

3) Video Clips. This rather annoyed me. Even with the glowing review of FFXI, they could not even be bothered to pick a video which would give a good minute and a half representation of the game. For FFXIV, the video link did not work. With most of the others, they had good, attractive videos (except GW, which was a dot).

4) "latests versions". This portion of each review was very casual, and gave no reference to how long each product has been updating. Not only that, but "still a bit buggy" does not sound like a respectable, or accurate response to any game issue. This point also stretches to the "how much you pay" sub-heading. I can gather no clear indication from the information of "between nothing and $200 a year".

5) General Tone. Some people may get on much better with an informal tone for a game review. Personally, I found the lack of professionalism and back handed "jokes" over-bearing and distracting. If these reviews were from a forum or personal blog, I would have expected this. On an online article, on a "respectable" gaming website I would have expected much more clear cut language and less of the "facebook" styled input. If I wanted a review like this, I would text a friend.

Kimiko x

[Zenaku]

I hate IGN they review sometime are wrong in many ways they give bad score to games that should have good scoring.

[AdvancedWind]

Protip: That article is quite old.

[chime85]

Protip: That article is quite old.

Additional to my points above.

5) like an MMO, they need to update As AdvancedWind has stated, these reviews are outdated compared to the state of the MMO's they are reviewing. How can any reader take seriously a review which cannot keep in touch with any MMO it is reviewing

Kimiko x

[Sovereign]

Maybe in a year or two this game will be where it should have been at launch. You know... right around when Blizzard launches their new MMORPG and sets an even higher standard.

Also, as far as engines go, I have a hard time thinking that the Crystal Tools engine (FFXIII and FFXIV) is all that optimized, especially compared to CryEngine (Crysis 2, Aion), Unreal (TERA, Gears of War), and Source (Vindictus, Portal 2). Each engine is able to create a wonderful looking game, so the fact that Crystal Tools causes excessive wear on hardware, can't handle a high-end system optimally, can't handle alt+tab, has to be configured by an external utility, etc... is all unacceptable.

Also, it is sometimes hard to tell a bug from crap design. For example, my DEX doesn't seem to impact my accuracy all that much. Is that a bug or crap design? Who knows! I think it's certainly fair to say that this game has a very long ways to go, and it seems to take SE forever to do anything. Blizzard has been able to crank out content in stunning quantity, quality, and frequency, so I don't really know why SE is so busy fixing little things... =/

[Elexia]

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.

XIII ran flawlessly.

XIV is just poorly optimized.

[Zenaku]

Maybe in a year or two this game will be where it should have been at launch. You know... right around when Blizzard launches their new MMORPG and sets an even higher standard.

Also, as far as engines go, I have a hard time thinking that the Crystal Tools engine (FFXIII and FFXIV) is all that optimized, especially compared to CryEngine (Crysis 2, Aion), Unreal (TERA, Gears of War), and Source (Vindictus, Portal 2). Each engine is able to create a wonderful looking game, so the fact that Crystal Tools causes excessive wear on hardware, can't handle a high-end system optimally, can't handle alt+tab, has to be configured by an external utility, etc... is all unacceptable.

Also, it is sometimes hard to tell a bug from crap design. For example, my DEX doesn't seem to impact my accuracy all that much. Is that a bug or crap design? Who knows! I think it's certainly fair to say that this game has a very long ways to go, and it seems to take SE forever to do anything. Blizzard has been able to crank out content in stunning quantity, quality, and frequency, so I don't really know why SE is so busy fixing little things... =/

yep then we be back to FFXIV Vs Titan like we had with FFXI vs WoW -.- sadly i dislike blizzard they don't know how to make a game. Everytime i play wow there so many bugs and issue and players just tell me "they want money" it sad when your own players know the game sucks but they go on playing and they know that all blizzard want is money.


SE going to make this game for Casual players and try get wow players once blizzard release there new mmo and see that that lot's of ppl left FFXIV they going to try and get there main Fans from FFXI back into there games. maybe by then the game would be good enough and it not be so much spoon-feeding by then

[PandaTaru]

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.



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.

Don't mind him, he tried to play the game on his Ipad for the review. We all know Ipads are insanely powerful computer.