This week, Square Enix unveiled some screenshots from their upcoming 2.0 update for their would-be flagship MMORPG, Final Fantasy XIV. After its launch in September 2010, Final Fantasy XIV was met with universally negative reviews, scrutinized for a lack of polish, terrible interface, incomplete quest-lines, and unbalanced gameplay. As a result of this, Square Enix made the decision to reshuffle the games development team with the aim of improving every aspect. With that task in mind, Final Fantasy XIV 2.0 is set for release early next year — a beta will become available this October. As you can see from the screenshots below, the visuals are quite stunning. Let’s just hope all the improvements they have planned will make it worth your time.
It’s been a lukewarm E3 so far. Today, Nintendo will be showing off its good at their press conference, but as of this writing, I haven’t had a chance to see much beyond their initial pre-E3 offerings. Microsoft had a solid showing of first party sequels, interactive features, and third party treats here and there, and while all of that seemed interesting, most of it will be finding its way to another platform. In fact, the whole Smart Glass thing seems a bit like a desperate attempt to replicate the experience offered by Nintendo’s upcoming WiiU tablet interface. That said, there were a few gems that shined slightly brighter than the others yesterday. Chief among them was this bit of gameplay from Naughty Dog’s upcoming PS3 exclusive, The Last of Us.
In case you haven’t had a chance to catch the latest trailer for Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance — yes, that’s a real word, I know — then feast your eyes. Konami recently uploaded this latest trailer in preparation for E3, later this week. Mind you, it’s incredibly violent and there’s plenty of blood, so if that’s not your sort of thing, you might want to skip it. On the other hand, it’s pretty wicked stuff. How well it’ll actually play remains to be seen, especially considering the project has been outsourced to Platinum games, but if its anything like Bayonetta, then I imagine we’re in for a treat. Otherwise, it’ll be a bit of a toss up. To be honest, there just seems to be too much going on, but who am I to doubt Hideo Kojima? I’m sure if it was so terrible, he’d be the first to state so. He’s been candid about that sort of thing in past, after all.
