ZealPath

I speak only from a Steam perspective but I've had nothing but fun with Steam achievements for the most part. Braid's Speed Run achievement got me to see that game in a whole different way, Trine's achievements had me try things I probably never would have normally and increased the replay value significantly, and TF2 has so many fun and silly achievements (some of which lead to tangible in-game item rewards) that I don't know how you couldn't like them. I guess there's always the other side of the fence that just wants to play the game and doesn't care about these meaningless accomplishments at the end of the day, and/or considers them a distraction, but I don't know, I've just really enjoyed them for the most part. I absolutely do not consider them representative of true skill in about 90% of the cases (especially since many can just be cheated to get), and just have fun trying to get them for me. That is probably the only attitude that will cause you to enjoy them, or you'll obsess over them and start hating the game you're playing, or you just won't care and will be annoyed by them. Some games' achievements are more creative than others, and there are plenty in various games that I know I'll just never try for, but when they're fun, for me anyway, it's a lot of fun.

nah there's no built-in voicechat, many many people will be using vent servers for voicechat though, whether it be for smaller groups, a guild server, or whatever. A classic issue in FFXI would be console players' inability to get on vent servers if their pc wasn't nearby and convenient, I expect that to resurface again. Depending on the group of people, being unable to be involved with voicechat could be anything from a minor inconvenience, to grounds to disallow said person into the guild. Now for the story it basically plays out exactly like FFXI, so anyone who played that can expect the same mission structure with cutscenes eventually leading to some kind of (progressively more interesting) boss fight. What that means is that you have storyline missions that are full of cutscenes primarily "starring" npcs that you meet, your character eventually becomes more and more involved, though you are essentially a silent protagonist for this aspect of the game. Most MMOs don't even use this type of "single player story" as a side dish to their games, but I think it's one thing Square is good at and so far they've made it work for theirs. If this sounds like what the guy was complaining about in Coyote's post, well yeah, that is pretty much how the story aspect works. The only saving grace is that in the end you will eventually be the star of the story because only you (and your friends I suppose, who all see the same story you do but from their perspective) will be able to go to said dungeons and battle said storyline antagonists. As I've said I find the whole "single player style storyline" in an MMO to be a little strange but for the most part in FFXI anyway the missions were a lot of fun, as was the advancing storyline which would lead you to new areas you couldn't access before. I would say the storyline missions are a smaller part of the game overall, they are interesting, and the CSs and later fights should be very cool, but the real bread and butter of an MMO is just you with your friends finding things to do. Sometimes that will be story missions, but once you're done with those, the game's other systems "should" keep you entertained, obviously it's too early to know but generally it boils down to leveling more jobs, a quest here and there, and endgame "raid" type events.

I feel bad continuing this off topicness but GW2 looked pretty awesome . Now as far as that dude's "review" of FFXIV, I have my problems with the game (clearly, from my previous post) but they almost all pertain to the interface. I don't really think he was being fair to the game itself, which is admittedly fairly standard fare for an MMO, but also, largely not very well understood even by beta people at the moment. I mean who here has ever done a battle regimen? They sound cool, yet I have almost never partied all throughout beta including alpha so I don't know. With more changes, or, probably better referred to as additions on the way, hopefully this game can evolve quickly from "FFXI-2" to "FFXIV". We know there will be a lot of changes come release and afterward as well. I don't think there's a super seekrit dev only version that will knock our socks off, but some very good improvements are coming, there is also the fact that a dev did come out and say the beta has debugging routines in it that are having a (probably minor, but still) impact on performance. The fact that they have finally stated that hardware mouse is coming is simply excellent news and I really think this will help more new (ie non-ex-FFXI players) people get acclimated to the game. Hearing them talk about their awareness of the UI lag was another big one, so I personally was very pleased to SE acknowledging the PC users, the timing is a little interesting, as I'd think you'd want all of this stuff in the beta as soon as possible, but if nothing else it has me excited (for once) to see what things look like on release. His comment about the cutscene did make me laugh, because I've always felt that CSs didn't quite fit with MMOs, but at the same time, FFXI did a great job with them, and FFXIV clearly is as well, "pretentious" as the intro cutscenes, with no context, may appear to some. Basically I can understand some of what the guy said and SE does come off as "cocky" sometimes in the NA market but he didn't play the game and was basing about 90% of his "review" on the tutorial fight, so I wouldn't put too much stock in what he said.

The original release date was going to be in March 2011, which is now the release for just the PS3 version. This explains a lot, and I really think SE is going to pay for this. They are launching early presumably because they think it will make them more money, but I think the irony is that it will lose them more money than they'll gain because the game as it is now isn't going to supplant anyone who is currently dedicated to their MMO of choice, with the possible exception of FFXI, but in that case, we're just talking about breaking even, not gaining (unless said person keeps XI active, then ok, fine). The reasons you listed are almost all valid, the glaring thing that is going to ruin the launch in my opinion is the UI, and the mouse. There is no hardware mouse, wasn't in alpha, wasn't in closed beta, and now it's not here in open beta. What you have is a laggy software mouse which I find tortuous to use, forcing you to fall back to using the keyboard 100% just like in FFXI. The UI may feel more natural with a controller, but this is an MMO, you're going to need to type to people, and switching from controller to keyboard to type does not appeal to me, or many others I would imagine. The UI itself also suffers from lag, sometimes you even have to press enter twice to advance npc dialog or open the menu you're trying to get to... it's just bad. Standard MMO UI conventions are no where to be found here, no clicking and dragging to set abilities or move items around, instead you'll have to open a menu and slowly navigate about 5 different menu prompts before you can swap your blizzard for fire (random example). You CAN actually move UI windows around with the mouse, but it will be slow and painful. I have played other MMOs, like, say, the original EverQuest that had a much better UI, let alone something like EQ2 or WoW which, no matter how you might feel about the game, I don't think there can be any debate about how natural their UIs feel to operate (with a keyboard and mouse, cause, you know, they're PC games and all....). Give an EQ2 or WoW player an hour with this UI and if they don't want to throw it out the nearest window I would be very surprised. It's designed to be cross compatible with consoles of course, like FFXI, which results in it being frustrating to use for the most part on PC. Many games have gone the way of setting up different UIs for the PC versions versus the console versions, but sadly, that will not be happening here. If it sounds like I hate this game, well, actually I don't really, as I do still plan to at least start on launch, but the thing is, I was an FFXI player. I can go back to the keyboard only UI, I won't be happy about it, but at least there's the familiarity aspect. I just don't think this game is going to be able to convert too many of the masses (WoW players), and most of it's playerbase will consist of ex-FFXI players, continuing the niche of the Final Fantasy MMO until FF19 or something which maybe, will finally have an ok UI (yeah, I really really think the UI is important, I'm done now). So what's good? It's completely beautiful graphically, which can't be underrated, I would say that's a huge part of what's keeping me around so far (though I'm basically done with beta, bring on the release...). It does have farily good support for soloing, with grouping obviously having more incentives as it should be, but good for those times when you know you don't have much time. Personally I find the move away from traditional jobs interesting (though most of them are essentially very similar to standard FF jobs), so I'm going to include that as a plus, but time will tell. In the end all I'm really saying is that I think FFXIV will do ok, I don't think it will straight up "fail" like some recent MMOs have, but it will not have the power to pull "the masses" away from WoW, especially with that expansion on the way (which incidentally, may have also contributed to why they decided to launch so much earlier than their original planned date). This is FFXI-2, take it or leave it.

That was a lot of fun to watch, though it did make me feel a little old, I've got a couple years on Mario.

I am entertained by Ke$ha, I find a lot of her songs catchy, and this is helped by the fact that I have a friend who also likes her music. We both agree that she is basically insane though, but the music is fun to listen to so what the hell.

I want to play this but I don't have or want an XBox, guess I'll just have to hold out hope that it sees a Steam release like similar games such as Braid, which, it reminds me of a little, though is clearly different in many ways.

You should probably check out The Megas' "Get Acoustic" then, it should be all the acoustic Megaman you can handle. I find acoustic and electronic music to be so completely different I'm not sure I could decide that I liked one more than the other, thought it would be fair to say that I probably do, in the end, listen to more electronic stuff.

I've had a lot of fun with some let's plays, and just some boredom and frustration with others. If the person is like a radio host who can keep talking about nothing and yet somehow mostly have it still be relevant to the game, then they're good. If they're dull and don't sound particularly socially inclined, then I generally can't watch it for very long and try to find one without commentary, depending on the game. Also, the person has to be good at the game, at least as good as I am... if I find myself yelling at the screen saying "WHY DID YOU DO X THING Y WAY, Z WAY IS TOTALLY BETTER!" then I probably won't be able to watch for too much longer either.

This was my first thought as well, I remember Duke Nukem Forever being among the most anticipated Quake clones, and since it never came out, that title ended up going to Half-Life which is now a top end franchise. I guess I just hope it ends up being a good game. I'm not sure it has any chance of living up to the hype it had back in 1997, but, maybe it could still be a lot of fun. If nothing else, I know it will take me back to the seemingly ancient days of trying to play Duke Nukem 3D on my 486 which could barely handle it and being impressed by the engine and having a little bit too much fun in the stripclubs. I remember not even being that much of a fan of the franchise, but to see it come out now, it's almost nostalgia more than anything that makes we want to see it succeed. If it does at least half decently, maybe it could bring some respectability back to the franchise which is now known primarily as legendary vaporware, and spawn a new title or two.

They also killed existing beta testers access with this open beta needing a code process so it's all out war to get a key, which to me, says that "open beta" might ironically be one of the hardest phases to get into, unless they re-open registrations soon.

Now that was hilarious, good stuff!

Still more or less looking forward to it myself (if that doesn't sound excited, that's probably about right), I have to say that trailer made it look a lot better than the alpha and beta experience have been so far. Open beta will be starting on Tuesday, I haven't looked into what's involved since I've been in the alpha since day 1, but anyone who wants to check it out (PC only obviously) may want to take a look. I also don't know if by open beta they actually mean anyone can get it, I mean it SHOULD mean that but this is SE so... I dunno. Right now barring more UI changes I expect the game will fill the same niche as FFXI, it's beautiful, but clunky to play at the moment, with some strange systems, and this will frustrate most new players. FFXI players who have been accepting the "console first, PC later" interface for years now will be ok, and probably think it's more fun than XI. I suppose the fatigue system isn't exactly going to help its cause, although I should note that much like XI, this is a game where you really need multiple jobs to succeed anyway, so you'll want to jump between classes, and in doing so, that system will have less effect on you.

I'd go to one of these things if 95% of them didn't take place somewhere in Virginia or Maryland. I'm not even on the west coast anymore but it's still too far a drive, someday I guess!

I'm not really a concert person but seeing Distant Worlds live was simply amazing since as had been said, live orchestral is just on another level as long as the orchestra is good. It's not really even comparable to a rock concert or something though, as the halls have great acoustics (usually), and you can hear all of the minute details as you normally would, often with some extras. That, and of course there's no possibility of getting pushed around since everyone has seats and is generally pretty quiet, though I would say probably a little louder than a conventional orchestral show since VGM fans are a little more raucous, especially when things like One Winged Angel come on . Still very subdued compared to a regular concert though.

Definitely a big fan of this one, this is probably the first remix of this source that I feel really hit it the way I personally was hoping someone would. The synth is what makes it for me, I love the higher-pitched part, which is also one of the nicer deviations from the source in this mix which doesn't stray too far for the most part. Maybe the only part I might have wanted to hear something different was the outro, fading works, but i guess I might have liked to see the synth go even a little more nuts and end in some sort of more deviated way, but this is hardly a complaint, I dig what we've got here, period. Great debut mix, and I hope we hear more soon!

Good luck, sounds like you have made a major decision that hopefully will lead to better things for you in the future, and I definitely have a lot of respect for that. I've made some serious changes to my life as well recently and I have to say it felt good to get out of the rut, and I hope this works out the same way for you.

360 Controller works well without any sort of driver download, so for simplicity it's probably the best recommendation. I also find it to be a fairly comfortable controller though I've heard some people don't really like the circled d-pad. It also has a wireless variety that can be used on PC now, so definitely a strong choice. Although it requires some third party drivers and setup, you can also use a PS3 controller with full functionality, even Bluetooth wireless if your PC can support Bluetooth. It's actually a fair amount of work but having gotten it to work myself, it is definitely my top choice. I wouldn't buy a PS3 controller just for this purpose, but if you own a PS3, why not. I used to use a PS2 controller with a usb adapter, another fine choice although using a PS2 controller drives me nuts now since the buttons and stick don't move as easily as the PS3 controller, seems like a minor thing but I find it very noticeable. As has been mentioned, you shouldn't need to worry about the actual controller having a turbo function, since most emulators have this integrated.

Nice source, definitely a favorite of mine, and I like what he did with it.

Pretty bad, got 17, mostly thanks to my ability to remember the titles of most Mario games. Was disappointed but not shocked by the large number of pokemon games on the list, not like I would know the proper titles of any of those. I couldn't figure out the top entry was Wii Sports which kinda annoyed me, though I did get both Wii Fit titles. I also got like 6 that weren't in the top 50 but showed up at the bottom, I guess that counted for something! For some reason I thought CT was a big seller, apparently not compared to this stuff.

In my eagerness to promote Audacity, I forgot to mention a couple video game tracks that I like to use as a ringtone. Xenosaga's UNM Mode is probably my favorite, and it's doubly awesome because it's also a ringtone in the game, can't beat that. Another low key favorite of mine is Dr. Light Capsule from Mega Max X8. If you want something with a bit more punch, the bells from make for a great tone as well.

I've had all kinds of success making sound clips, ringtones, and the like with Audacity. Totally free, and definitely easy to use!

Played the tutorial and then joined a game thinking I'd be done after I unlocked the TF2 hat achievement (which isn't really that cool, but whatever), but ended up sticking around for almost the whole campaign before we lost people, it's actually a pretty fun game. Very short though, but I assume it's only a matter of time before more interesting custom maps are put out.

My favorite part of any hiphop/rap mix being posted is the inevitable shitstorm it will cause in the review thread. This particular mix has definitely not disappointed in that regard . I can see how people might have at least wanted to see judge feedback, though in my opinion I'm pretty sure this mix would have hit the front page either way. Much like how I knew I was going to love "Rhymes with Elixir" after reading an advance review before Echoes was released, I knew I would love this mix, just based on the backlash in the comments that I read before I actually listened. So like other predecessor hiphop mixes such as "Keep Out the Veldt", I enjoyed this mix, particularly the reference to shots of Jager. Had it only referred to Jagerbombs as well, I might have enjoyed it even more . It also reminds me a lot of the FFVI "OUS BBQ" track, which is basically the exact same idea but using "The Magic House" as the source. In a lot of cases, I just don't think rap/hiphop mixes are for everyone, and that's fine. The harshness of the criticism for the most part is something I find unnecessary though, does this really need to happen every time a rap mix goes up? The only "inside joke" here is the fact that the whole mix is essentially a joke lyrically. Sure, it is probably a reference to a party they had, but I highly doubt the things described in the lyrics actually took place at said party, I'm just surprised a lot of people seem to be taking it dead seriously. As for the production, I don't think it was anyone involved's crown jewel, a little minimalist (something that often happens in hiphop) but it certainly wasn't "poor". I actually really liked the way one source drove the intro and chorus, while the others were used for verses, very catchy.

Only one I got was #3 as well, Braid, World Select theme, but like friendlyHunter mentioned, I don't think the song was made for the game, but rather licensed for the game. The song's actual name is "Maenam" and the artist is Jami Sieber. See this page for more info.