Final Fantasy XI Then...

[vwilsonuk]

I wan't expecting to see anything over the ?200 mark to be honest, thought the PS2 was only ?150 when it first came out. And I remember when the NES was an "exorbidant" ?40, and its main competitor was the Sega MegaDrive. They used to have one on of each on display in Dixons, perpetually occupied by 10yo boys.

Must be getting old.

[talizker]

Both the PS2 and the XBox launched in the UK @ ?300, as did the PS1. The Saturn set you back a massive ?400!

I think only the only lower than expected launch price was the GameCube at ?130.

If I remember correctly, the Megadrive came in at ?180 (inc Altered Beast!) and the SNES was ?200 (with 2 x Controllers and Super Mario World).

[Tsingtao]

N64 launched at ?250 with one controller and Super Mario 64. I'm quite chuffed was expecting a tag of around ?400 for it so that sorts my deposit for a plasma to play it on .

Hot impressed about having to pay any money into the Microsoft coffers but at the end of the day its the only way I'm going to be able to play it on TV so it's a no brainer for me.

So anyone know anything about Zahvl coffer keys, I was expecting to need a party at 60+ for it.

[C']

Seems like a good price to me. Ridge 6 and FFXI on my plasma are reason enough for me to splash out at launch

I remember getting both my launch PS and PS2 for ?300 so this look s agood price.

[talizker]

Game started taking preorders for ?20 this morning and of course, supplies of the 360 are expected to be limited at launch...

[talizker]

Couple of new tasty looking FFXI shots here for XBox 360 http://media.xbox360.ign.com/media/7...56/imgs_1.html

[Daragon]

I have to admit I did get kind of excited when I found out that there was a price of ?209 attached to the 360 until I discovered that was for the basic package. ?275 is just shy of my monthly allowance and because of University I won't have a part time job during my final year so it looks as if this little beauty is going on my list to santa

[Darwock]

So what's the script for tonight? I know talizker was defeated by 5-1 the other night, so on the face of it, it seems 5-2 is out of the question today unless someone has a plan.

At the rate we're all gaining levels I'm worried that if we delay it any longer, we're going to have another anti-climax for rank 6. I don't know if you guys noticed but the rank 6 cp gear is all level 55 which supports what Rare said about that being the cap at the time. Also Meng and Pokie said the fight was unbelievably easy which has made me more concerned.

One of my mates was going to come round today, I said fine but he'll have to watch me doing a mission - if we're not doing it I probably won't be logging on, so could someone post the plans up here?

[talizker]

So what's the script for tonight? I know talizker was defeated by 5-1 the other night, so on the face of it, it seems 5-2 is out of the question today unless someone has a plan.

At the rate we're all gaining levels I'm worried that if we delay it any longer, we're going to have another anti-climax for rank 6. I don't know if you guys noticed but the rank 6 cp gear is all level 55 which supports what Rare said about that being the cap at the time. Also Meng and Pokie said the fight was unbelievably easy which has made me more concerned.

One of my mates was going to come round today, I said fine but he'll have to watch me doing a mission - if we're not doing it I probably won't be logging on, so could someone post the plans up here?

Well, i'm up for trying 5-1 and 5-2 but obviously time may be a consideration asuming I can't get on until the usual 9-9.30. Its just a damn shame that one member let us down on Friday, and I couldn't find enought people last night /sigh

[talizker]

A little more 360 info from IGN:

Final Fantasy XI for the Xbox 360 will contain the exact same content as the PC and PS2 versions of the game, so if you don't know what the game is all about, you should read the extensive preview we posted in June. The big changes are, of course, 720p and widescreen support, a graphical upgrade and a further draw distance.


Like the PS2 and PC versions, Xbox 360 gamers will be able to play with players on all the active platforms. Xbox 360 gamers will also be able to use their existing PC accounts if they already play the Windows version. On the Xbox 360, you will need the HDD to play, so if you're looking forward to jumping into the online world of Final Fantasy, you should plan to buy an Xbox 360 premium system, or a core system and a separate hard drive.


In our demo, we saw a live gameplay session with Xbox 360 and PC players traveling through the game world together. The Xbox 360 version looked slightly better than the PC version, with high-res textures and some nice lighting effects.


The development team is also looking into new billing options for the game, including automatic bank withdrawal, which will probably be more useful in Europe since a lower percentage of the population owns credit cards as compared to the United States.


Beta testing for the Xbox 360 version of Final Fantasy XI should begin later this year. Square Enix says they'll announce a more firm release date depending on how the beta test goes, but it shouldn't be too far after that.

[Darwock]

OK, last night... can't deny I was a little disappointed when the trip through the Keep basically turned into a high level alliance effort, but with hindsight it was necessary considering we would otherwise probably still have been searching for the throne room at 5am. The throne room party was still going to be all <60 so I could appease myself with that.

Anyway, the story is that when we reached the throne room, our 56 SAM Lunce discovered he had not filled all requirements for the mission and wasn't allowed in. Cue a lot of panicked discussions as Tsing had already entered and was in the pre-fight movie. After some deliberation the rest of us went in, and while watching the CS came to the decision to allow Bayan to join the party as we figured we were doomed for certain. I had very mixed feelings about that, so it was actually a relief when he was refused entry..

We decided to go through the battle as best we could with the five of us, sparing our 2 hours for a proper 2nd attempt. Half way through and we were on the ropes, 2hrs unused but most of us critical and I was out of MP... we decided to go all out in a last ditch effort, and OMG we f*&^ing beat him!

So I have to say it was a real shame for Lunce, but as far as I was concerned.. the whole situation was perfect. We got that exact feeling of desperation, yet still coming out victorious, that I've been looking for ever since I started playing this game

[Tobal]

Strange i don't remember the Castle or the Keep being hard to get through, most of it was spent just the 6 of us beating the poop out of beastmen in the door maze, trying to find the way up the stairs.

The hardest bit from what i could remember was getting in the right teleports(took a few trys and couple of wrong drops) next to all those VT/IT mobs but it should easy pickings for well balanced 55-60 party.

[Darwock]

It wasn't ideal but it seems there's always going to be a compromise needed somewhere; we didn't finish until near 2am and that was with no wrong turns and only a couple of mishaps (Tal I'll get the oils and powders sent back to you as soon as I can). Our white mage Mosley had to be up at 5am for work so we couldn't have wasted any time getting lost.

I would love to know what was going on in the Baileys though! Since I'd been before and knew the way I just ran straight to the Keep and waited there (took about 2 mins). It must have taken 20-30 minutes for the rest of the party to reach the zone, and that was *with* the high level folk helping, lol. Where the hell did you all go?!?

[Tobal]

Didn?t get much done during the weekend, helped Tsing and Walti with there last Af coffer key, and man did getting the 2nd key take forever, when with Akashi and me ripping through them, managed to get archery to 200 and get another weapon skill, now im only 35-40 behind the Archery Cap for a samurai I think.

Also went adventuring with Wedge, Rare, tsing around Attohaw Chasm(sp?) which turned into a Platforming game, I felt I should eaten Roast Mushrooms and yellow cape. Top Stuff apart from that glitch where I couldn?t get up the path unless I took of all my gear ><;

[mikewl]

The weekend was quite good, did alot of crafting - cooking and ended up with 50 or 51 skill.

Going to Attowa Chasm was fun, seeing a massive mountain in the distance knowing we had to somehow get to the top, the laughs came when Tobal couldn't fit along one of the paths up the mountain, having to unequip his armor and weapons to fit.

Getting to the top was a certainly a time to /cheer.

Making our way back proved a challenge, I just used Mazurka and ran straight off the mountain, ended up lost.

I think tonight im going to research some more quests which we could team up for.