Final Fantasy XIV, Bullet Points!
Regardless of the 'cool innovations', it will still be a Japanese MMO
As Final Fantasy XIII is on sale, we can’t forget what is happening behind the scenes at Square-Enix, with the development of their Final Fantasy MMO, number XIV in the series. And fan website FFXIVCore.com has some facts about the game taken from the recent Famitsu magazine.
I’ve added the ‘More Game Info’ below, but check out the link above to view the rest of the points, talking about job classes and battles.
- Everything done in battle in FFXIV increases TP, including casting
- Defense can happen both automatically and at the will of the user
- The PC version will be able to run on PCs from a few years ago, but the alpha version will only run on high-end PCs
- Can be run on 512MB of VRAM and above
- Alpha test starts soon
- Square wants to make it possible to play with your friends from FFXI
- Character customization won’t be fully available in beta (can’t change facial features)
- There’s a mode for restoring HP while moving
- The plan is the make the maximum number of members in a party between 6 and 8, and there will also be alliances
- The important things in battle are distance, range, and direction
- There will be magic you can use while moving
- There are screenshots in the magazine of the alpha version, and it looks like there have been a lot of small changes
- “Aggro/hate” has a different name in 14 (Translates to something like how much the enemy views you as a threat)
- Enemies will not be set in one area in order for people to pull them to camps; places that enemies will appear will be scattered around
If it can be better than FFXI in terms of playability, I’m probably going to be interested in giving it a try. It’s just that high-end PC thing I may have re-consider…
South Park get Gaga on Rock Band
Getting this image proved a good reminder why searching "Lady Gaga" on Google images is a bad idea.
I’m a big South Park fan, rightly or wrongly, but less of a Lady Gaga fan, if I’m completely honest with you. Ok, well maybe not completely honest, but who doesn’t know how Poker face, Bad Romance and Just Dance go now? Guys? Oh.
Well, following Eric Cartmen’s performance of Poker Face in the South Park episode “Whale Whores” on Rock Band, it seems that Harmonix have taken the popularity of this on board, and are releasing the Lady Gaga Pack 1 as well as the special Cartmen version of Poker face, which I’ve embedded for you below
It’s always cool when developers include the more comedic or lighthearted songs as DLC, with “Still Alive” from Portal as well as a World of Warcraft tracks making it over in the past, though I may of missed a few. Obviously, Gaga fans will be going gaga (sorry) about the fact you’re going to be able to “rock” out to four tracks from Ms. Gaga’s collection, being “Poker Face”, “Just Dance”, “Monster” and “Bad Romance”.
The packs are making their way to Xbox 360, Wii and PS3 next week.
Episode 13: Indigo Prophecy Murder Madness
In this episode Carla visits a mental asylum (which is suffering from power cuts) to talk to one of the patients about the murders, Lucas tries to get to his ex-girlfriend’s apartment but it is being watched by police so he has to find another way in…
Just Cause 2 Preview
You are far more in control that this screenshot would have you believe
Just Cause was one of those late generation games that nearly, but didn’t quite, bridge the gap between the PS2/Xbox/Gamecube and the release of the 360. People who were adament they were sticking to their current consoles were told to “look at Just Cause, try that on your PS2!”. The developers certainly did, and apart from having an massive environment, far bigger and, on the surface, prettier looking, than we’d seen in GTA San Andreas, the fact that the rest of the game world, and the game itself, was pretty devoid of content, screamed “Tech demo” at us. And whilst the PS2’s chugged, sluggishly loading the environment, the Xbox 360 simply performed, not really offering any major benefits to warrant an upgrade.
I always thought that if Avalanche Studios had made Just Cause for just the 360, it may well not have sold anywhere near as many, but the quality would of been hugely improved, on a concept, using a parachute to take off from cars in a ’stunt position’ that was already unique. So Just Cause 2 is rolling onto the 360, PC and PS3 this month, and perhaps it’s probably been the greatest benchmark of how far the 360, if not this generation, has come forward. Or, maybe, as I got to play a half an hour timed demo recently. Read more
You’ve seen the trailer for the movie. And now what about the game? Well despite not having ‘technically’ anything to do with the PoP movie that is on the way, Ubisoft are bringing out the next Prince of Persia title which fills the time between the “Sands of Time” and “Warrior Within” where the Prince goes all…Dark. So hopefully should make a relatively interesting story and finally fill in what the great big tragedy was.
It’s a bit strange for them to change from the relatively successful Prince of Persia 2008, with it’s Nolan North free running his way round a heavily stylised and death free world. I enjoyed it, but then I did like the series before it went dark, as it sucked the life out the dynamic prince. Whatever your view of the series, the video above will give you some idea of the direction they are taking….and ze all zpeak french…
Portal 2 Details in Game Informer
Despite all the rumours of a direct cross-over, it doesn't appear that Half Life is ready for a Portal Gun just yet
Following a multitude of patches to the original Portal which added a series of radios to find and a slightly different ending, and an official announcement from Valve that Portal 2 is coming at the end of this year, we at least knew we were getting a new Portal game. However, we had no idea what it was going to be based upon, until a few images of the recent Game Informer magazine gave us some much needed facts.
The magazine says that Portal 2 is set “hundreds of years” after the events of the original, but you are still going to play as Chell, the original protagonist and don’t worry folks, GLADOS is back. Apeture science’s lab has been overgrown, but you are still going to be solving some puzzles, don’t worry about that. A two player co-op mode that promises to be ‘unique’ is also going to be there, and yes, finally, it will be coming to Mac.
Here is the bullet points taken by someone PAL Gaming Network
- Portal was a ‘trial’. Size and assets specifically kept minimal. Had no idea it would be this popular.
- Portal was a ‘test bed’, Portal 2 is a ‘game’.
- GlaDOS returns as the antagonist.
- Chell returns, and we play as her.
- Portal 2 takes place a long time after the original. Hundreds of years, in fact. The complex has overgrown.
- Those orbs seen at the end of Portal are personality orbs. They’ve cornered off sections of the labs as their own, and are concerned about the decaying state of the complex.
- Portal gun remains unchanged.
- Physics will now be part of portal puzzle solving. EG: A vent that sucks air in can be combined with a portal to ’suck’ from a different location.
- “Paint” mechanic, various liquid substances that cause some reaction. For example, in the demo shown a orange substance on the floor caused Chell to be propelled upwards. Using portals you can apply these ‘paints’ to other areas of the level for puzzle solving.
- Reflection cubes will allow Chell to reflect lazers for various puzzles.
- The co-op campaign will have you playing as two bipedal robots. The like to hold hands.
- Splitscreen for people playing on the console, and ‘picture in picture’ available for those playing remote co-op (eg: PC). This allows you to easily communicate with the other player and combine efforts for puzzle solving.
We’ll have more news when we know it.
Ignition 6/03/10
On this weeks episode of Ignition we talk about what’s been going on at Infinity Ward (including why it was Matt’s fault) and argue whether or not it spells the end for independent developers in 1 minute, 5000 questions. We also cover all the latest news including: Sony’s degrading game demos; the next Tomb Raider game; the Microsoft Courier tablet; Ubuntu’s re-branding; Indiana Jones 5; Space Invaders: The Movie and much more.
Duration: 64 minutes
Episode 11: Indigo Prophecy Murder Madness
Carla and Tyler discover Lucas is the killer and so go to his apartment to arrest him. Lucas becomes possessed as he walks past a Laundromat, then when he arrives back at his apartment building he is greeted by cops with their guns drawn…
Video of the Day: Civilisation V, Reveal trailer
I’m a sucker for strategy. I admit it. I fancy myself as some kind of military commander who could quite easily of achieved victory against incredible odds. Of course that is a load of rubbish, I could never do that, but thanks to video games, I can and you can too!
The next in the Civilisation series, number V was revealed today, and although we don’t know much more than we did when I wrote this post, and the trailer is not going to change that, but either way, it’s almost a warning that, you will lose a lot of your life in this game, if it’s your kind of thing.
RUSE open beta on Steam very soon
RUSE, a high strategy based title for PC and consoles that looks pretty unique, if Ubisoft can pull it off successfully. In order to do this, they have been running a closed beta for some time using Steam, but according to a twitter post by Ubisoft Community Developer Aymeric Evennou, March 9th is the day you’re going to be able get into large scale military coordination. If that is your thing.
To accompany this, the developer, Eugen Systems, have been working on fixing many of the issues that appeared in the closed beta, and as well as telling you the fixes they have been implementing, you get a lot of footage of the game itself. My feeling is it looks like a World War 2 based Supreme Commander, but with a greater focus on strategy than just as many units as possible.
So watch and enjoy a random guy in a green screen room!
RUSE is due out on June 3rd 2010 on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3
