PS2 News: PS2 Harddrive complete w/ FINAL FANTASY®XI

[senocular]

from yahoo, Sony Computer Entertainment America Announces March 2004 Release For PlayStation(R)2 Hard Disk Drive. The cost will be $99 and include FF XI.

Something else that sounds interesting (that I wasnt aware of)...

The Hard Disk Drive will come pre-installed with Square Enix's highly anticipated massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), FINAL FANTASY®XI, allowing cross-platform play between the PlayStation 2 and a personal computer.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/030916/sftu104_1.html

:!:

[asphaltcowboy]

are they gonna be charging to play FFXI online (as they do with other MMORPGs?) - I don't actually have a ps1 or ps2, I was just curious :)

[senocular]

yeah its free for the first 30 days and $12.95 following that (per month)

[asphaltcowboy]

I didn't realise it was going to be a mmorpg, will it have full single player as well? In fact.. does ps2 even have a built-in modem? aaaaaaaaand when will there be UK servers? kit might have to have a bone to pick with Sony if they don't get one of those up and running

:P

[Kitiara]

You betcha. :)

I'm addicted to these games, though I'm still not totally convinced about the online one... having to pay that much per month... What if I don't play for a while then want to come back? Plus it works out so much more expensive than just buying a standard game...

[asphaltcowboy]

I dunno, certainly for games like PlanetSide (which is an fps, but with a HUGE multiplayer aspect) you get 30days free and then start paying.. in those cases you might not play many games for more than a month (either you complete them or get bored). In the case of planetside, if you really like it, then you're obviously gonna be willing to spend the money to play it more.

for rpgs though.. generally you need to spend sh!tloads of time playing them, and you will probably play it for more than 30 days.

oh and kit, they'll charge per month, so it's approx £8.16.. I assume you'll pay at the start of the month. I can't see them binding people to a set contract (for anything more than a month).

[nobody]

YAY!!!!!!!!
I CAN'T BELIEVE THEY FINALLY DECIDED TO RELEASE IT!!!!
end caps
wow though, that made my day.

[thoriphes]

I don't think i'm really going to get into this. I don't like the fact that you have to pay a monthly fee in order to continue playing. Why don't they just tell people to pay $156/year?

hey kit, Final Fantasy X-2 is coming....;)

[Kitiara]

I know. :beam: Apparently it's out on the 26th of this month? :) There go my evenings... :P

[thoriphes]

actually, from what i read, it's the 2nd of December :-\

[Kitiara]

Argh... It's been out in Japan for ages now!

[thoriphes]

I know, while i was reading an article on the game I was watching all these happy Japaneses purchasing their copy, flashing it on camera, being all happy as my anger accumulated inside.

They've also had FFXI for a while there too, but as I said i'm not too excited about that game right now.

[Kitiara]

Ditto. I'd like to play FFXI, but I don't really want to have to pay all that for it. I mean it took around 90 - 100 hours to finish VII, and that was fairly spread out over time and I still go back to it now. If I'd had to pay for that use on top of the actual purchase price...

Meh. :) I'd like to see what they've done with X-2. Actually, I'd love a sequal to VII. Or the film version. :)

[thoriphes]

they were once thinking of remaking FFs VII through IX for the PS2, but of course, they trashed the idea. :-\

and 90-100 hours? what were you doing? :P
i remember beating the game in less than half that time.

[Kitiara]

I was getting every single secret, summon, materia and mastering them all, opening every hidden location, getting each limit break and everyone on level 99. :blush:

[sintax321]

Personal i think SquareSoft better pull up the boot straps on X-2. I found X to be a big disapointment game play wise which in the end is the big factor in a RPG. The graphics where amazing sure but we knew that before it even came out. I was so excited to play it and the more i played X the more i thoguht this kind of sucks.

The sphere grid was a horribel idea and made leveling up realy boring i thought.

The lack of freadom to roam around also sucked. The game was so liner it had almost zero freadom to explore. It was like an RPG side scroller.

The lack of differnt monsters was also a let down. The reused so many of the same mosters over and over again it was brutal.

Yes there where some good improvmets like the full voice acting and the quick swap of battle members but there was far more bad then good. They tried to fix something that wasn't broken. They need to get back to the basics of what makes the series great and has made it great sence the days of NES.

Graphics arent' everything. A game can have the most amazing graphcis in the world but if the game play sucks who is going to want to waste there time playing it.

[thoriphes]

Originally posted by sintax321
Personal i think SquareSoft better pull up the boot straps on X-2. I found X to be a big disapointment game play wise which in the end is the big factor in a RPG. The graphics where amazing sure but we knew that before it even came out. I was so excited to play it and the more i played X the more i thoguht this kind of sucks.

The sphere grid was a horribel idea and made leveling up realy boring i thought.

The lack of freadom to roam around also sucked. The game was so liner it had almost zero freadom to explore. It was like an RPG side scroller.

The lack of differnt monsters was also a let down. The reused so many of the same mosters over and over again it was brutal.

Yes there where some good improvmets like the full voice acting and the quick swap of battle members but there was far more bad then good. They tried to fix something that wasn't broken. They need to get back to the basics of what makes the series great and has made it great sence the days of NES.

Graphics arent' everything. A game can have the most amazing graphcis in the world but if the game play sucks who is going to want to waste there time playing it. :!:
I think one of the greatest things about FFX was the sphere grid. It was a totally new system that worked well in my opinion. I just didn't like how what's-his-blue-face turned out to be really weak in the end both times i beat the game.


Originally posted by Kitiara
I was getting every single secret, summon, materia and mastering them all, opening every hidden location, getting each limit break and everyone on level 99. :blush: wow, you must've spent a lot of time in the Northern Crater I bet. I gave up leveling up my chars at around lvl 80. Sephiroth was cake even at level 65.

[Kitiara]

Yeah, but I just wanted to have them all at 99. :) My Vincent was there really quickly since I always used him, and most of the others weren't too hard to level up. Cait Sith was the difficult one though, as he was the one character I didn't like having in my party...

But yeah, there was a lot of Northern Crater exploration to be done. :) It was such a cracking game though - I went and Mastered everything and got the Master Summon Materia, all that stuff. :P

Once I got the hang of the Sphere Grid on X, it was alright. I still like the Materia from VII, but that may because it was the first one I ever played, and it's the one I've played the most as well. The quick change to the party in X was a good move too, made taking on the bosses a lot... I'm tempted to say easier, but that's not accurate. It made you think more strategically, in my opinion. :)

But the story and game was a little too linear, I agree...