phew~ I was getting prepared to buy a new processor

Played XI pretty hardcore for the past 3.5 years and finally let it go because it was cutting too much into my poker time and now this comes out

Anyone know, come lauch, if it will be possible to purchase and download the game online via the square-enix site? I have looked all over the internet and have not been able to find an answer to this question.

It seems to be recent trend for major titles to release online concurrently with the actual physical software release (e.g Starcraft 2) I am overseas and would prefer not to wait 2 weeks for the NA release to be shipped to me.

I'm pretty sure this is running the benchmark on low settings. The guys over at BG posted results and the only people that got 8k+ were running low settings. With max settings the highest was 5104.

This concerns me a bit. I ran the benchmark test this evening on my laptop and got a score of 700 (that is even on the lower resolution setting).

Im running the following:

Vista SP2 64
Intel Core Duo 2.56 GHz
NVIDIA Geforce 9650M 1GB Vid Card
4Gig of memory.

How is it possible that I score so low? I was not expecting the world, but the site says if you score under a 1500 its pretty much impossible to play. My PC meets or exceeds every requirement listed. What the hell?! Am I doing something wrong? I even made sure little else was running at the time of the test. Does this mean I can't play the game?
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. The numbers versus system requirements just doesn't add up...

Open beta will be open in September pre-launch, just got posted today.

awesome news. is it as grind intensive as other asian mmorpgs? im a massive final fantasy fan but i don't enjoy grinding too much. final fantasy 11 was cool, i just felt a little bit lost.

dlorc can you summarize the fatigue/surplus systems? I am reading all kinds of hate on it but it really doesn't seem too much of a big deal from how I am interpreting it so I wonder if I am missing something.

Basically the first 8 hours exp you do a week ( per class ) has a 100% bonus attached, then the exp bonus will steadily decrease to zero.

It's like rested XP but you get a finite amount/week/class, the problem isn't really the system it's the way it's been labelled and communicated to people so far.

Can anyone in beta answer my question? I am really frustrated with the benchmark score im getting. Again, here is what my system is running:

Vista SP2 64
Intel Core Duo 2.56 GHz
NVIDIA Geforce 9650M 1GB Vid Card
4Gig of memory

This exceeds the minimum sys reqs in every category, yet after updating my video driver and running the benchmark, i only score a 900 on low resolution settings.

Since I am currently living in Japan, it will take some effort and time to obtain the NA release and I really don't want to order something my PC can't run. I don't understand how I can exceed the Minimum requirements (and in some areas exceed the prefered reqs) and still score such a low number. Should I not order this game?

oh so instead of ppl looking at it as 8 bonus hours and then steadily diminishing until normal, they see it as 8 normal hours then a steadily increasing penalty?

I take it that is the fatigue factor? how does surplus work? Is there basically free levels?

i think the first thing you should do is run the benchmark on high and see if you end up with a score of 900. I have read a bunch of people posting they are scoring the same on both settings (thus the low score can not be taken very seriously).

Good plan, i will give it a shot when I get home from work tonight

Been playing Beta. Seems promising despite some glaring balance issues that should be easy fixes.

I'm a bit worried about the surplus system (apparently after 8 hours worth of exp for any job, you lose an increasing % of your exp which would suck). There's so much outcry against it, they might do away with it. It seems like a ploy to keep people paying for FF11 IMO. I'm also a bit worried that the game won't focus on endgame, which would be a shame because that's where FF11 really shined.

Anyway, my brother and a bunch of IRL friends and I have all pre-ordered the collector's edition (comes out a week early), so I'll be playing it the day it comes out (save for a couple days off for WCOOPs).

If anyone here I know is gonna play, PM me and we can coordinate being on the same server. A bunch of core members from my FF11 LS will probably be sticking together in FF14 even though we all quit FF11 1.5 years ago (although I did have to log my char back in to get to 80... and Abyssea sucked me back in to playing 1-2 events a week with our old "sister LS")

The details for the FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test are described below.

Operating Procedure
Schedule:
Wednesday, September 1, 2010 at 2:00 (GMT)

*The Open Beta Test will be online continuously for 24 hours a day.
*Maintenance and any other announcements will be posted accordingly.

*Information on testing dates and times will also be posted on the official FINAL FANTASY XIV Twitter feed.
http://twitter.com/FF_XIV_JP
http://twitter.com/FF_XIV_EN
http://twitter.com/FF_XIV_DE
http://twitter.com/FF_XIV_FR

Log-in Capacity
During the initial stages of the beta test, the number of players allowed to be logged in at any given time will be limited, with capacity to gradually increase as adjustments are performed on server load. Should the maximum capacity already be reached when you attempt to log in, a message will appear indicating that the world is currently congested, and you will be asked to try again in a short while. At this time you will be placed on a waiting list in the order of attempted log-in time. To maintain your position on the waiting list, you must initiate the log-in procedure again within ten minutes of your first attempt.

Feedback Submission
While playing, testers who have been asked to submit opinions on anything at all regarding topics such as game balance issues, settings that you may have found difficult to understand, and features that you felt were inconvenient, unintuitive, or required further explanation are asked to use the feedback hread, and for those testers who have been assigned the task of reporting bugs are asked to use the bug report form.