Final Fantasy XIV

I really wanted to like this game but failed badly. It is the most awkward to set up of any MMO i have ever played and the most user and player unfriendly game ive played.. Ill list where i feel it fails.
1. Registering was a nightmare and very user unfriendly. im used to creating an account, setting up a payment and then playing. with the subs comming out every month. not here.
2. After installing the game I had to wait 6 hours (some waited over 24) for it to update.
3. The pre order gives an ingame item. there are no clear instructions on how to use the code given and many people set up a character before sorting that out and missed out.
4. The help desk is awful and I found most answers surfing forums.
5. Setting up my payment details it wouldnt let me enter my house name and would only accept a number (which i made up)
6. If you need help then just call us at 0.10/min to be in a queue.
7. Server/world choice was poorly laid out. I wanted a UK server but there are no indications for contry/language etc.
8. Character creation was rather minimal with too few races and 4 choices for height, hair, ears etc. you will easially bump into a character looking just the same.
9. You start the game lost and thats basically how i stayed. There is no, sometimes annoying, training level that i could find and no one offered any answers to my ingame chat.
10. The game started in windowed with no instructions on how to get full screen. anain i hit the forums.
11. No selectable chat channels eg /advice you basically get the 1 channel.
12. Game is very laggy at the moment but is expected from a new MMO
13. chat channels full of foriegn chat even tho i joined, what the forums said, was a UK server. when i rarely found someone to talk to, they said all the servers are the same
14. Struggled to get into any groups and eventually gave up.

I feel that if you are part of the FF fan club you will enjoy this and im sorry for the negative review but i just felt the game was very poor compaired to some MMO's i have played.
I was the tester for this game amongst my MMO buddies and i really dont think any will buy it.
I planned to play for the free month but i have just cancelled the account and uninstalled the game.

After playing FFXI for a while i was encouraged to start playing FFXIV. After hearing all the bad reviews pointing out the bad aspects of the game it was without mention the good points.

FFXIV isn't like WoW. Most people usually reference MMO to WoW as most games are similar to it or the same style. FFXIV has a different system which evolves around player control and not relying on NPCs to guide you around the world.

In many aspects of FFXIV you aren't given that much help on making your way around places, although, after exploring and indulging yourself into the game you are able to understand the games concept of its own originality.

People who say the game is too bad and boring are the people who find themself wanting a more user friendly game guiding themself everywhere and getting the highest level, armour, spells etc in the game after a few short months.

I can tell you FFXIV isn't that simple and requires alot of patience, which of course, many people dont have.

The reason i gave this 4/5 * was because of the UI. The game itself is very good and interesting but making your way around your bag, spells and the rest of the stuff is a little annoying but is able to get use to. In addition to making your way around, its hard to find directions to places in the game as well as trying to sell items as there is no 'Auction House' where people can sell mass items and buy quantites of stuff they need, instead, they need to find a person whos got the item they need or find a player character who has opened up a store.

initially to start of with there was problems i noticed with this game, anyway time has passed like a week and im enjoying the structure of this game now.

there is still a lot of work to be done but im having more fun out this game out of nearly every mmo sinse eq2, swg, planetside days. The reason why this game is better is because the game structure works differently to tother mmos. Dont come to this mmo thinking its going to be a walk in the park its not, there are limiters and timers in place to prevent you doing certain things at certain times. This to me makes it better because you have to work around these limits and play the game this way instead.

Still got a lot of work to be done on it but its getting there and also i noticed the community is starting to be a bit more creative with regardsa to selling things outright in chat. More chat has taken hold in last few days which is a good sign.

Trust me if you like something different in your mmos youll get it from final fantasy 14 but you need a good pc for it and you have to be prepared for some initial buggy type experience till you get used to the game.

For the less informed. Final Fantasy 14 is a very CPU/GPU/Ram intensive game. So you will need a decent computer before even considering buying this.

Basically the game demands a decent mid/high end processor such as a core i3 to core i7, or an equivlant in AMD such as a phenom or a quad core. Quad cores and high end dual cores are a must with this game, I can not stress enough. If you have a cheap processor thats years old you won't have much joy with this game.

That being said. Core 2 quad processors/AMD Athlon x4s should do fine for this game.

Then according to the back of the box you need a decent 100 pound plus graphics card with at least 512mb of Video Memory, you could get away with slightly less, but a high end Nvidia or ATI card is a must. Again if you're going midrange with your graphics card. Tone it down. Midrange cards will buckle with this game on high detail.

Game demands as much ram as you can throw at it, paired with a decent enough card. So if you have 1 or 2gbs of ram I wouldn't bother. Anything like 3 - 4gbs and above. Wonderful.

All in all this is a great game. Will end up being supported from start to finish. May not have everything everyone wants at the start, but what does? Could of used more time in Beta, Probably.

Hope this is somewhat helpful. Using the back of the box as a reference. Believe me when I say this game demands a decent PC. Do not be surprised if your 3 year old plus machine or laptop cant play the game. Infact if you have a laptop, I wouldnt bother buying this. You won't get a super smooth experience.

atm i think this game is a joke and ive been a fan of final fantasy since number 3 they have tried so hard to make it good and in doing so failed the game needs to be taking back to the beta and reconstructed from the beginning hopefly after about 3 major updates it mite be worth trying again but i think i will go back to playing WoW