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For anyone still planning on buying this, (considering how many people here passionately love it) don’t be shocked when you boot it up and the conversion is terrible. Apparently code shows the game hasn’t been optimized, with giant borders and noticeable slowdown. Not good. The demo version on Official Playstation 2 magazine probably has the biggest borders I've ever seen! I found if you've got a widescreen TV with the mode that's halfway between 4:3 and widescreen, it eliminates the borders perfectly without chopping off any of the actual picture. The borders ruin the look of the game. The borders result in squashed and deformed characters. The beautiful FMV sequences are also ruined. Remember FFX isn't supposed to be super deformed. That's Square for you. They've always had a grand attitude towards Europe. They personally could not care about Europe otherwise they would have a Squaresoft Europe development studio. I’ve considered that if I get FFX, it will be the USA version. For years I never used to worry about such things, but now borders, slowdown drive me insane. I just can't get on with a game knowing there's a superior version somewhere out there. A Spanish web site asked the producers about the black borders while they were promoting the game in Europe some weeks ago. They began asking about dubbing the game to others languages and they answered that it would take them to much time, and when it came to the 60HZs, their exact answer was:
“Queremos ofrecer siempre el mejor producto posible acorde a unas fechas. Nuestros equipos de desarrollo, ante la trascendencia de este tema para el usuario europeo, están trabajando en este aspecto para poder incluirlo en un futuro en las versiones PAL de nuestros títulos.”
“We want to always offer the best possible product according to certain time constrains. Our development teams, noticing the major role of this topic for the European consumer, are working on this in order to be able to include it in future PAL versions of our titles.” Let's just hope that this is not just PR word. They’ve had ages, it came out in the states last year. Basically they can't be bothered. Vote with your wallets and don't but it. Games which aren't PAL optimized (in some form at least) should stay on the shelves. It's pure contempt. Import away (or hope you don’t have mates with NTSC consoles). If you don't give a damn, that’s great. Some of us reckon our money should go further. If you go to buy it, insist you're only prepared to pay £36.12, as 15% of the original is missing. This situation is one of the reasons I am now seriously thinking about modding my PS2 to play imports. Crappy PAL treatment of games by large companies should be a thing of the past. I'd like to pick up Devil May Cry but I've held off so far as I'm not prepared to spend money on an obviously inferior version.
I don't know why anyone would buy this kind of style over substance anyway. And when Square always screws over Europe with cack conversions and late releases etc. then why line their pockets? What get on my nerves is lazy companies who can’t be arsed to optimized for Europe. Why should we put up with such lazy work? We pay too much as it is, these firms should earn their money. Of course, we could choose not to purchase but that's not really the point. These problems shouldn't exist in 2002. It may not ruin the gaming experience for everyone but it's more important to people like myself. We should demand quality and not accept this shoddy treatment. We complain about these things because we have every right to, as consumers. They want us to buy their software, yet they can't be bothered to deliver us the standard that gamers in other territories enjoy. For me, having half the screen not being used lessens the impact of the graphics for me. I guess some people don’t care if they play a game on a 2-inch screen or 32inch screen – it’s a matter of preference. I do though. I care what the game looks like, after all I am paying £40 for a game and I want it to be perfect, just like a DVD movie would be. There is NO REASON why there should be borders in games, its just bloody lazy and you know it is. Would you put up with watching a DVD with a squashed picture, all the actors looking like they're moving in slow-mo and speaking an octave lower? No, of course you wouldn't so why should it be any different with games? They are not intended to be played this way and from what I’ve seen FFX is a disgrace, even worse than Onimusha and Devil May Cry (and that's saying something). Bad conversions are one thing, and living in Europe you learn to live with them to an extent. However, FFX appears to be an absolutely terrible conversion, up there with the worst of them. Curse you Squaresoft!
I'm playing VII instead. Far more fun. Sure, the conversion sucks, but it plays much better.
Thanks for reading,
LF
“Queremos ofrecer siempre el mejor producto posible acorde a unas fechas. Nuestros equipos de desarrollo, ante la trascendencia de este tema para el usuario europeo, están trabajando en este aspecto para poder incluirlo en un futuro en las versiones PAL de nuestros títulos.”
“We want to always offer the best possible product according to certain time constrains. Our development teams, noticing the major role of this topic for the European consumer, are working on this in order to be able to include it in future PAL versions of our titles.” Let's just hope that this is not just PR word. They’ve had ages, it came out in the states last year. Basically they can't be bothered. Vote with your wallets and don't but it. Games which aren't PAL optimized (in some form at least) should stay on the shelves. It's pure contempt. Import away (or hope you don’t have mates with NTSC consoles). If you don't give a damn, that’s great. Some of us reckon our money should go further. If you go to buy it, insist you're only prepared to pay £36.12, as 15% of the original is missing. This situation is one of the reasons I am now seriously thinking about modding my PS2 to play imports. Crappy PAL treatment of games by large companies should be a thing of the past. I'd like to pick up Devil May Cry but I've held off so far as I'm not prepared to spend money on an obviously inferior version.
I don't know why anyone would buy this kind of style over substance anyway. And when Square always screws over Europe with cack conversions and late releases etc. then why line their pockets? What get on my nerves is lazy companies who can’t be arsed to optimized for Europe. Why should we put up with such lazy work? We pay too much as it is, these firms should earn their money. Of course, we could choose not to purchase but that's not really the point. These problems shouldn't exist in 2002. It may not ruin the gaming experience for everyone but it's more important to people like myself. We should demand quality and not accept this shoddy treatment. We complain about these things because we have every right to, as consumers. They want us to buy their software, yet they can't be bothered to deliver us the standard that gamers in other territories enjoy. For me, having half the screen not being used lessens the impact of the graphics for me. I guess some people don’t care if they play a game on a 2-inch screen or 32inch screen – it’s a matter of preference. I do though. I care what the game looks like, after all I am paying £40 for a game and I want it to be perfect, just like a DVD movie would be. There is NO REASON why there should be borders in games, its just bloody lazy and you know it is. Would you put up with watching a DVD with a squashed picture, all the actors looking like they're moving in slow-mo and speaking an octave lower? No, of course you wouldn't so why should it be any different with games? They are not intended to be played this way and from what I’ve seen FFX is a disgrace, even worse than Onimusha and Devil May Cry (and that's saying something). Bad conversions are one thing, and living in Europe you learn to live with them to an extent. However, FFX appears to be an absolutely terrible conversion, up there with the worst of them. Curse you Squaresoft!
I'm playing VII instead. Far more fun. Sure, the conversion sucks, but it plays much better.
Thanks for reading,
LF
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===SONICRAV---> wrote:
> Actually, it made the problem far worse. The increased detail of RGB
> makes games like Ridge Racer 5 show their jaggies more clearly. Oh,
> and the bigger the TV the worse the problem.
in theory yes The RGB cable puts everything into a much higher resolution and in most cases makes the problem worse (DVDs suffer alot) but with the RGB cable the picture is jawdropping crisp and clear, and the 'jaggies' almost dissapear :-)
> The reason was that the video buffer in the console could only store
> half the picture on the screen at once, and this resulted in an
> interlacing problem.
I'm not 100% sure of the details but I think what it came down to was that the PS2 had anti analysing (if not very much) but many developers found it to be a hit in performance on the emotion engine and never bothered with it :-(
>
> As soon as Sony saw the problem they said "It's an anti aliasing
> problem" (which it wasn't) and blamed developers for not using
> the (non-existant) anti aliasing software on dev kits...
> Which sony then invented.
so True, Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami said himself that the PS2 was difficult to create games on because Sony hadn't provides ANY middleware products/dev kits to help the developers, instead everything had to be made from scratch on a very complex machine leading to the entire resi series to abandon the console to a more worker friendly console :-D
I think Sony have realised what mistakes they made with the PS2 and have started carefull development progress on the PS3, which should hopefully be something very special indeed :-)
> Actually, it made the problem far worse. The increased detail of RGB
> makes games like Ridge Racer 5 show their jaggies more clearly. Oh,
> and the bigger the TV the worse the problem.
in theory yes The RGB cable puts everything into a much higher resolution and in most cases makes the problem worse (DVDs suffer alot) but with the RGB cable the picture is jawdropping crisp and clear, and the 'jaggies' almost dissapear :-)
> The reason was that the video buffer in the console could only store
> half the picture on the screen at once, and this resulted in an
> interlacing problem.
I'm not 100% sure of the details but I think what it came down to was that the PS2 had anti analysing (if not very much) but many developers found it to be a hit in performance on the emotion engine and never bothered with it :-(
>
> As soon as Sony saw the problem they said "It's an anti aliasing
> problem" (which it wasn't) and blamed developers for not using
> the (non-existant) anti aliasing software on dev kits...
> Which sony then invented.
so True, Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami said himself that the PS2 was difficult to create games on because Sony hadn't provides ANY middleware products/dev kits to help the developers, instead everything had to be made from scratch on a very complex machine leading to the entire resi series to abandon the console to a more worker friendly console :-D
I think Sony have realised what mistakes they made with the PS2 and have started carefull development progress on the PS3, which should hopefully be something very special indeed :-)
Res€vilfan wrote:
> ===SONICRAV---wrote:
> The dev kits WERE rushed. Lack of support for simple things like
> Anti
> Aliasing (which was then found to be a fundamental mistake with the
> design of the console!), prove this!
>
>
> RGB cable solves all my friend :-D
Actually, it made the problem far worse. The increased detail of RGB makes games like Ridge Racer 5 show their jaggies more clearly. Oh, and the bigger the TV the worse the problem.
The reason was that the video buffer in the console could only store half the picture on thje screen at once, and this resulted in an interlacing problem.
As soon as Sony saw the problem they said "It's an anti aliasing problem" (which it wasn't) and blamed developers for not using the (non-existant) anti aliasing software on dev kits...
Which sony then invented.
Sonic
> ===SONICRAV---wrote:
> The dev kits WERE rushed. Lack of support for simple things like
> Anti
> Aliasing (which was then found to be a fundamental mistake with the
> design of the console!), prove this!
>
>
> RGB cable solves all my friend :-D
Actually, it made the problem far worse. The increased detail of RGB makes games like Ridge Racer 5 show their jaggies more clearly. Oh, and the bigger the TV the worse the problem.
The reason was that the video buffer in the console could only store half the picture on thje screen at once, and this resulted in an interlacing problem.
As soon as Sony saw the problem they said "It's an anti aliasing problem" (which it wasn't) and blamed developers for not using the (non-existant) anti aliasing software on dev kits...
Which sony then invented.
Sonic
Vottanator wrote:
> I think there was only one Zelda game on the NES - the gold cartridge
> one which I loved!
>
> 2 on the SNES though I think. A Link to the Past
> and.....errr.....dunno.
Just checked it out. There was two Zelda games on the NES. The original released in 1987 and Zelda 2: The adventure of Link released on the NES in 1988.
With Just Link to the past on SNES.
> I think there was only one Zelda game on the NES - the gold cartridge
> one which I loved!
>
> 2 on the SNES though I think. A Link to the Past
> and.....errr.....dunno.
Just checked it out. There was two Zelda games on the NES. The original released in 1987 and Zelda 2: The adventure of Link released on the NES in 1988.
With Just Link to the past on SNES.
Hmmm....I just unlocked Young Link in Smash Bros and his scream when he gets knocked off the edge reminded me of Ocarina of Time. Then Saria's Song played through the credits and I remember playing Zelda. Oh how great that game was. I am now not sure what is the better game again - Ocarina of time or Final Fantasy X. I may have to let them tie for the time being.
Anyway, I've moved on from the Calm Lands now. Just. But there were 2 routes. I dunno whether I can turn back and take the other route once I have completed this thing that I'm doing (which appears to be a sub-quest). Hopefully I can.
Oh by the way, everyone buy 24 when it is released on DVD on August 19th.
Anyway, I've moved on from the Calm Lands now. Just. But there were 2 routes. I dunno whether I can turn back and take the other route once I have completed this thing that I'm doing (which appears to be a sub-quest). Hopefully I can.
Oh by the way, everyone buy 24 when it is released on DVD on August 19th.
Cyclone wrote:
> I prefer Zela - I find it a lot more engrossing ih nhow you play with
> a familiar storyline, and the detail levels are just off the roof!
I somehow get the picture that you've not played FF10...
Because the storyline of FF10 is better, and the detail is incredibly more detailed...
> I prefer Zela - I find it a lot more engrossing ih nhow you play with
> a familiar storyline, and the detail levels are just off the roof!
I somehow get the picture that you've not played FF10...
Because the storyline of FF10 is better, and the detail is incredibly more detailed...
===SONICRAV---> wrote:
> The dev kits WERE rushed. Lack of support for simple things like Anti
> Aliasing (which was then found to be a fundamental mistake with the
> design of the console!), prove this!
>
RGB cable solves all my friend :-D
> The dev kits WERE rushed. Lack of support for simple things like Anti
> Aliasing (which was then found to be a fundamental mistake with the
> design of the console!), prove this!
>
RGB cable solves all my friend :-D
Seen FF6 yet? You play in a small box in the top-center of the screen.
I prefer Zela - I find it a lot more engrossing ih nhow you play with a familiar storyline, and the detail levels are just off the roof!
I think there was only one Zelda game on the NES - the gold cartridge one which I loved!
2 on the SNES though I think. A Link to the Past and.....errr.....dunno.
Obviously there was the great Ocarina of Time and the really disappointing Majoras Mask, and then all those GameBoy games.
Anyway, I'm on a damn hard boss in FFX at the moment. If I call an Aeon, it just repeatedly hits it till it is dead. Grrrrr.....Oh well, I have only tried once.
2 on the SNES though I think. A Link to the Past and.....errr.....dunno.
Obviously there was the great Ocarina of Time and the really disappointing Majoras Mask, and then all those GameBoy games.
Anyway, I'm on a damn hard boss in FFX at the moment. If I call an Aeon, it just repeatedly hits it till it is dead. Grrrrr.....Oh well, I have only tried once.
Excellent topic, except for one thing...
There is nothing against FFX that couldn't be said about almost every other PS2 game...
The problem lies squarely (no pun) with Sony. The fact is that almost EVERY Dreamcast game had Pal optimisation AND 60Hz mode. The reason for this is that it was so easy to implement.
Do you really think people like Square and Capcom would ignore implementing an easy-to-use 60Hz mode? Of course not! Which means that there isn't an easy way to do it with Sony's dev kits. It's that simple.
The dev kits WERE rushed. Lack of support for simple things like Anti Aliasing (which was then found to be a fundamental mistake with the design of the console!), prove this!
Sonic
There is nothing against FFX that couldn't be said about almost every other PS2 game...
The problem lies squarely (no pun) with Sony. The fact is that almost EVERY Dreamcast game had Pal optimisation AND 60Hz mode. The reason for this is that it was so easy to implement.
Do you really think people like Square and Capcom would ignore implementing an easy-to-use 60Hz mode? Of course not! Which means that there isn't an easy way to do it with Sony's dev kits. It's that simple.
The dev kits WERE rushed. Lack of support for simple things like Anti Aliasing (which was then found to be a fundamental mistake with the design of the console!), prove this!
Sonic
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