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Final Fantasy XIV is coming. The closed beta is now winding down, and European and North American gamers will all be able to jump into the open beta sometime overnight between August 31 and September 1. That is, in fact, only five days and counting, so if you were bitter about folks that got into the closed beta but couldn't do much due to the limited hours and crashing, you need no longer be jealous. Also new is this brand new trailer, which is of course made of unfiltered pretty, but as befitting its upcoming open beta shows more gameplay than previous trailers (and breaks out lots of epic tunes to boot).

For those who have not been following, it appears that Final Fantasy XIV won't let you grind as if you're getting paid to do so rather than paying for the privilege. While, just like in Final Fantasy XI, you can change jobs fairly easily, you are going to be allotted only eight hours per week of full experience earning in each job, and only another seven hours per week of steadily-decreasing EXP. After fifteen hours in a job in a week, you will get no experience at all in that job. Naturally, this has caused an uproar among the hardcore MMO players, as their desire to play their game with every free waking minute might not be met by the new Final Fantasy. For me, though? It actually kind of makes me want to try the beta, and I've never said that about any MMO. The fewer hardcore players there are, the more I think I'd like it.

The launch date for PC is still tagged for the end of September worldwide, and for PlayStation 3 in March of 2011. No break yet on the impasse of bringing it to 360.

The Tokyo Game Show is now on the horizon since Gamescom is over, and it's time to start looking at what might crop up there for Square Enix. Mindjack will almost certainly be part of it, but it's hard to tell where the game is at, because some retailers are moving the North American release date out to January 2011. There could be a soccer title in the works, as Square Enix Europe has filed new trademarks for titles including "Manager," including "Championship Manager Legends." Dedicated soccer fans know that Championship Manager was once the premier soccer sim in the world, and that Eidos still holds that brand even though the original developers left to create the Football Manager games instead. Might only show at TGS if you can manage a J-League team, though. SaGa might appear, as Squenix have launched yet another of their famous teaser sites, this time with "SaGa" in the URL. I bet The 3rd Birthday will show up, too, as it's nearing release and getting lots of play over in Japan. And for Parasite Eve fans out there, andriasang reports that the success of The 3rd Birthday will dictate the future of the Parasite Eve franchise.

What probably won't be at TGS, though? Final Fantasy Versus XIII. Despite having seen more of it recently, Square Enix won't commit to launching the game anywhere in 2011. There might be some level of visibility at the show, but it probably won't be anything much more than we've seen previously. What could be taking so long, one must wonder - it's a single-platform game, after all. Perhaps Squenix are just spreading their employees too thin.

Final note for the day, and it's not Square but CoN. Over the years, I've prattled plenty about Alexa rankings, and how they mean nothing but are still fun when they show CoN climbing the ranks. Now, the folks at Nmap have created a side project around Alexa and site favicons (those little icons that show up next to the URL in your browser, or next to the bookmark you no doubt created for CoN long ago). The software they wrote grabbed the first 288,945 favicons starting at site number one, and then scaled them in size based on the site's popularity and inserted into a giant mosaic. Of course you have figured out by now that CoN is in that mosaic - search for it and you'll see! I will warn you, though, since naked ladies are a big part of how the internet works, you might find some icons in searching around that aren't safe for work. Search at your own risk!

I'm fairly convinced that I'll be dead before FF Versus XIII comes out. The saddest part is that I'm one of the younger members here, too. Josh, you've got no chance!

Edit

Kidding

This post has been edited by Death Penalty on 28th August 2010 04:25

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Currently Playing : Final Fantasy V
Most Recently Beat : Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
Favorite Game : Final Fantasy X

The newest CoNcast is up! Have a listen!

I can't find CoN but did find Cracked right by the xHamster icon which is where they'd want to be I suppose

Quote (R8.50 Mango @ 28th August 2010 05:59)

I can't find CoN but did find Cracked right by the xHamster icon which is where they'd want to be I suppose

There's a search function. Type in cavesofnarshe.com. If you would expect us to be as large as Cracked you're on hallucinogens.

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

Quote (Rangers51 @ 27th August 2010 13:06)

For those who have not been following, it appears that [URL=http://kotaku.com/5621786/final-fantasy-xivs-play+limiting-fatigue-system-explained]. While, just like in Final Fantasy XI, you can change jobs fairly easily, you are going to be allotted only eight hours per week of full experience earning in each job, and only another seven hours per week of steadily-decreasing EXP. After fifteen hours in a job in a week, you will get no experience at all in that job. Naturally, this has caused an uproar among the hardcore MMO players, as their desire to play their game with every free waking minute might not be met by the new Final Fantasy. For me, though? It actually kind of makes me want to try the beta, and I've never said that about any MMO. The fewer hardcore players there are, the more I think I'd like it.

Huh, this is very interesting. It will definitely force the more gungho players to be very well-rounded - it will probably be easier to find a healer, for example, since people will finish off their weekly xp and have no reason NOT to help you out. I actually like the sound of that a lot. You'll see a lot of people idling in terrible classes, though.

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Hey, put the cellphone down for a while
In the night there is something wild
Can you hear it breathing?
And hey, put the laptop down for a while
In the night there is something wild
I feel it, it's leaving me

Quote (Rangers51 @ 28th August 2010 13:04)

Quote (R8.50 Mango @ 28th August 2010 05:59)

I can't find CoN but did find Cracked right by the xHamster icon which is where they'd want to be I suppose

If you would expect us to be as large as Cracked you're on hallucinogens.

Well I found CoN relatively easily while I've only known about Cracked for like 2 months now (I actually owe CoN for this as Djiribel's profile led me to John Dies At The End which led me to David Wong which led me to Cracked)

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Since I advertise CoN there I think it's only fair that I advertise The Wiki here.

Quote (Rangers51 @ 27th August 2010 13:06)

For those who have not been following, it appears that [URL=http://kotaku.com/5621786/final-fantasy-xivs-play+limiting-fatigue-system-explained]. While, just like in Final Fantasy XI, you can change jobs fairly easily, you are going to be allotted only eight hours per week of full experience earning in each job, and only another seven hours per week of steadily-decreasing EXP. After fifteen hours in a job in a week, you will get no experience at all in that job. Naturally, this has caused an uproar among the hardcore MMO players, as their desire to play their game with every free waking minute might not be met by the new Final Fantasy. For me, though? It actually kind of makes me want to try the beta, and I've never said that about any MMO. The fewer hardcore players there are, the more I think I'd like it.

I have only briefly played MMORPGs, but never dedicated myself to them, for precisely this reason. It's not that I don't think I'd love the genre, it's that I think I'd love it too much. I've read stories about people getting sucked in and forgetting all about their real life, and in Japan I think there is a word for it, hikikomori. FF XIV is the first MMORPG I've expressed an interest in seriously playing. I considered FF XI because of my love of the Final Fantasy series, but was not about to buy a PS2 hard drive or pay a monthly subscription fee (the latter also turning me away from many potentially fun MMORPGs). With the PSN having no subscription fees, I'm hoping that this game will not require additional payments of any sort. That might be a dealbreaker for me.

Otherwise, I am REALLY looking forward to this game. I like the way it is being structured so that my social life and my bank account are not at serious risk should I partake on this journey. Multiplayer is where it's at. I've really started to prefer it to one player gaming because, no matter how smart the AI might be for the computer, there is an unpredictability and variety, and an all to human element, to multiplayer that machines simply cannot match. Looking forward to exploring that in an RPG setting.

I got an email from the creators of that icon website referenced in the first post just the other day. They updated it to be relevant for the end of 2013 - we're still there, and we're still pretty close to an icon of a naked lady.