FFXIV
Lately, I've been in one of my "casting about for a video game to play" phases again. Destiny's the big name of the day, but I don't really like console shooters (I'm weird, I guess) so picking it up for PS3 didn't appeal. If it were on PC... but it's not yet. And looking ahead, I really don't see much in the near future. Maybe Dragon Age 3 whenever it releases (theoretically not that far away). Maybe Warlord of Draenor, though... I'm far less certain of that than when it was first announced.
So instead, I went and got a copy of Final Fantasy XIV. Thirty days, then I have to decide if it's worth a subscription of some sort. We'll see.
I believe my beta review boiled down to "it's pretty, but pretty standard MMORPG fare." My experience thus far with the release version has not been far different, but it's been reasonably enjoyable so far, too. I'm up to Lancer level 23 after a few days. The main story quests push you into three intro dungeons (4-man) around level 17-20, which was a minor roadblock to my progress. I had three very different experiences, too.
Dungeon Run 1: Tank who gestured, but didn't say anything and wasn't holding aggro for anything. First healer bailed. We got another healer, though, who was highly experience and a higher level character scaled down - he pretty much carried the day. Still, there were a couple wipes and it took about an hour, plus a little queue time.
Dungeon Run 2: "So this is what an actual tank is like," I thought. It was a smooth run, picking up a number of side treasure chests. Little communication, but some marking of targets and no real problems. I got my first piece of dungeon gear, a chest piece that's still serving well so far.
Dungeon Run 3: We got an experienced tank clearly just doing his daily random "duty." He wasn't rude or anti-social, but he didn't go for side teasures or anything, just pretty much plowed straight through at a good clip. This was definitely the fasted run at right around 30 minutes.
I guess that's probably the spectrum right there. Queue times as a DPS class ran between seven and twenty minutes. Overall, I'm not unhappy with the dungeon experience. These were mechanically easy and worked well enough. My real disappointment is the same as it was in WoW - blocking out upwards of an hour and a half to pay attention to a dungeon is a "major" commitment in a night.
GW2 seems to be my standard habit these days, as I found myself wanting to his my area loot button (FFXIV auto-loots except for chests) or my active dodge button (nope!). So that has thrown me off a little here and there. Visually, FFXIV is flashier than either GW2 or WoW, more detailed than WoW, and has more a stylized (anime-ish) aesthetic than GW2. I suppose the zones might be comparable between GW2 and FFXIV, though neither feels as expansive as the continents in WoW.
And... I suppose that's about it for the moment. I'm sure I'll have more to say as I get deeper into the game.
So instead, I went and got a copy of Final Fantasy XIV. Thirty days, then I have to decide if it's worth a subscription of some sort. We'll see.
I believe my beta review boiled down to "it's pretty, but pretty standard MMORPG fare." My experience thus far with the release version has not been far different, but it's been reasonably enjoyable so far, too. I'm up to Lancer level 23 after a few days. The main story quests push you into three intro dungeons (4-man) around level 17-20, which was a minor roadblock to my progress. I had three very different experiences, too.
Dungeon Run 1: Tank who gestured, but didn't say anything and wasn't holding aggro for anything. First healer bailed. We got another healer, though, who was highly experience and a higher level character scaled down - he pretty much carried the day. Still, there were a couple wipes and it took about an hour, plus a little queue time.
Dungeon Run 2: "So this is what an actual tank is like," I thought. It was a smooth run, picking up a number of side treasure chests. Little communication, but some marking of targets and no real problems. I got my first piece of dungeon gear, a chest piece that's still serving well so far.
Dungeon Run 3: We got an experienced tank clearly just doing his daily random "duty." He wasn't rude or anti-social, but he didn't go for side teasures or anything, just pretty much plowed straight through at a good clip. This was definitely the fasted run at right around 30 minutes.
I guess that's probably the spectrum right there. Queue times as a DPS class ran between seven and twenty minutes. Overall, I'm not unhappy with the dungeon experience. These were mechanically easy and worked well enough. My real disappointment is the same as it was in WoW - blocking out upwards of an hour and a half to pay attention to a dungeon is a "major" commitment in a night.
GW2 seems to be my standard habit these days, as I found myself wanting to his my area loot button (FFXIV auto-loots except for chests) or my active dodge button (nope!). So that has thrown me off a little here and there. Visually, FFXIV is flashier than either GW2 or WoW, more detailed than WoW, and has more a stylized (anime-ish) aesthetic than GW2. I suppose the zones might be comparable between GW2 and FFXIV, though neither feels as expansive as the continents in WoW.
And... I suppose that's about it for the moment. I'm sure I'll have more to say as I get deeper into the game.
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