The Video Game Archive

The new expansion for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn was just announced over the weekend last week and I’m excited for it. Much more so than Final Fantasy XV and the remake of Final Fantasy VII . And the reason might seem weird, it’s because it’s an MMO. FFXIV is the first MMO that I played and I was hooked by it. To those who know me know that I’m a prefer to play my games solo with a side helping of competitive multiplayer on the side from time to time. So what really got me playing, and quite fanatically at times, was how the game set itself apart from the likes of World of Warcraft .

I think it’s pretty cool that Overwatch is currently having their new seasonal event (October 11th, 2016 to November 1st, 2016), Overwatch Halloween Terror , right now. Blizzard tested the water earlier this year with their Summer Games (Olympics without the trademark) event and it was met with mixed results and I believe that they’ve made steps to improve the player’s experience with their latest event.

Raiding is a popular type of game mechanic coming from MMO-type games. The first time I heard about a game having a raid mode was in World of Warcraft . The concept is that you and a group of friends would invest the time to get the required gear and strategize how to tackle certain situations is riveting when done right. You would spend hours and hours in a game building up your character, slowly getting better gear and weapons, eventually reaching a point that you would be strong enough to deal enough damage to enemies and not get killed by their attacks. Raid modes have a tendency to focus on the preparation stages and lesser emphasis on execution. And while some games have done a great job balancing both, there are times when this isn’t the case and playing the game becomes insufferable.