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Final Fantasy XI's first bite-sized expansion coming 'sort of' soon
Take a look at your calendar boys and girls, because in just one week from today the first mini-expansion for Final Fantasy XI will be available for download at $9.99 with tax included. Yep, March 23rd is the date announced on the official website -- but there's a catch.Players who purchase the digital update right now won't receive the actual content until the next version update, which is tentatively scheduled for early April. So it's more of an announcement of a pre-order being made available soon... on a digital product.Hey, we're not marketing and business guys or anything, but isn't that kind of silly? We see no need to pre-order something that has an unlimited amount of "copies" and exists in an ethereal, digital, online state. Maybe if Square Enix offered some kind of little bonus for pre-ordering, that'd be one thing. As it is now, we guess this affords someone an ethereal, digital online piece of mind.[via Eurogamer]
Starting out in Vana'diel: Mission, very possible
Hello there adventurers! It's Friday, I know, and Friday is not Thursday. That, however, won't stop me from bringing Final Fantasy XI aid to you! I promised you more information on the mission system, and that's exactly what I'm going to be delivering in this edition of "Starting out in Vana'diel."Missions are one of the key aspect of the game. They tell the main story, a la a standard Final Fantasy title, they offer boss battles, chances to team up with friends, and, most importantly, tangible rewards. Missions offer gil and increases in nation rank, which in turn opens up more items for you to grab.Now I would love to walk you through the missions for each city, but all of them play out differently until the storylines intersect in the city of Jeuno. That makes a nice walkthrough very hard for a column like this. What I can offer you is some great tips on how to increase your rank, and exactly why you want to spend the trouble doing it.
Final Fantasy XI gets a fancy new price for one day only!
For today and today only, GameStop is selling their downloadable copies of Final Fantasy XI for only 10 US dollars! If you're thinking, "Well, it's probably only the original game and none of the expansion," then you would also be wrong! The version of the game that they're offering is the Vana'diel Collection 2008, which means it includes all of the expansions, even the newest expansion, Wings of the Goddess.So if you're looking for a new MMO to get into, don't have an amazingly powerful PC, and don't have much cash to spend, you might want to seriously consider this deal. It's 10 bucks for a game and 3 whole expansions, the first month free, and it's going on for today only!
Anti-Aliased: Pourin' out one for all my guildies
The Twilight Empire of World of Warcraft's Ravenholdt (PvPRP) server is a very diverse guild. They're active roleplayers, dabbling in raids and gearing for 70, frequently aid their members in running instances, and meet often to both roleplay different storylines and just be together. Their leader, Empress Aerana, has high hopes and aspirations for the guild she's built from the ground up at level 20 and has continued to run until this day; almost a year of keeping the guild active on Ravenholdt.If you're looking at the above picture, you might recognize the paladin standing in the middle of the photo -- that's me, feeling kinda short at the moment. If it wasn't for Twilight Empire, I wouldn't be standing there in that room. The kindness of Aerana and the other guild members persuaded me to pick up my World of Warcraft disc and get back into the game -- something I've never done before for any other guild. With the frequent events, active membership and relaxed nature of the guild, I've felt right at home since I've jumped back in to the game. If it wasn't for the guild, the game wouldn't be half as fun. That's why this edition of Anti-Aliased is devoted to the concept of guilds and how critical they are to online gaming.
Anti-Aliased: There's other people there too, ya know.
I'll be blunt -- I hate grouping. Nothing pains me more than grouping up with four of the "internet's finest" and going into a dungeon to kill some monsters. 95% of the time, it seems I'm doomed to find 4chan (NSFW) rejects or screaming 10-year-old kids (NSFW). Of course, these are the parties that take an hour and a half to assemble and only last two rooms into the dungeon. Someone inevitably screws up and gets six mobs on them, and then they instantly turn around and blame the priest for "not being able to heal properly". Of course they don't actually say "not being able to heal properly"; it comes out more like "u suck n00b priest".
Anti-Aliased: How to pick the MMO for you
Let's be honest for a moment - there are a ton of MMOs out there. We have everything from fantasy, to dystopian future, to fantasy, to horror, to fantasy, to pirates, to fantasy, to sci-fi, and even all the way down to fantasy. While this is great for people who love choice, this is a complete nightmare (or should I say Bloodymare, ha ha, gaming puns) for anyone who's new to the genre or wants to start off with a fresh game that's different from what they're playing.How do you separate the good from the bad? How do you know if you'll stick to a game? You don't want to gamble with an expensive game only to find out that you totally hate it and wish it would burn in the deepest depths of hell. (I'm looking at you, Risk Your Life.) So, do you rely on what your friends tell you or what reviewers tell you?In my opinion, no one knows you except you. So when you sit down and want to pick the right game the first time, here's a few pointers and suggestions to get you started.
Anti-Aliased: Gentlemen! Behold! Chocobos & Static Parties!
Anti-Aliased is a weekly column written by Colin Brennan that's all about MMO culture and getting the most out of your gaming subscription. Otherwise it would be joining the nearest non sequitur club and be promoted to president... or treasurer.Look at the pretty chocobo in the picture above! Wark! Wark! Come on, wark with me! I don't care if you're at work or in a computer lab, just let out a nice good wark and I'm sure you'll feel better. Now, I'm sure you're wondering why you're warking. Well, this week we're covering how to bring life back into Final Fantasy XI using a few gullible friends and their PCs. Believe it or not, FFXI can be a MMORPG that rivals World of Warcraft for you and your friends.With FFXI you can pull in more friends than with any other MMO currently on the market. Not only are the PC version's system requirements quite low, but you can also sucker your friends on the Xbox 360 and PS2 to jump on board as well. Friends are important to FFXI for reasons I will get to further along in this column, but let's begin at the source. Why does FFXI turn so many people off?
June 27th says: "No Live for you!" [update 1]
PlayOnline has announced that Xbox Live servers will be down on June 27th from 2:00 'til 6:00 PDT for maintenance. It looks like this will only affect PlayOnline, but it might mean no Live for anyone. No word has actually come down from Microsoft about Live being down so, who knows? The announcement mentions that those already connected to PlayOnline will stay connected, but once you disconnect you won't be able to access PlayOnine until the maintenance is finished. So, 360 Final Fantasy XI fans (both of you) better connect now before it's too late. [Via Xboxic] Update: Reader bigC24 let us know that the Live outage is official. Check out Major Nelson for details.
