FFXI update is out.

So the FFXI update came out yesterday. I'm currently downloading it. Heroes of Abyssea came out too. Which I didn't buy. I don't know if I will.

FFXI has not been much fun recently for me. Abyssea is not that great. The NMs are not that great. 6 hour parties are not that great. The story is terrible.

Unfortunately, Abyssea is all there is now. You don't do other endgame events because Abyssea drops are better than anything, and you don't do normal exp because Abyssea exp is far better.

Then there's my connection, which sometime around February started to disagree heavily with FFXI. I don't really understand why, it works fine normally. It even works fine with FFXIV. But with FFXI I get dc'd frequently.

I've been a consistent player of FFXI since the NA release, but recently I haven't felt like logging in much at all. It's not fun and most of my friends are gone. Once my friends list was maxed at 200 people. Now there's about 10-15 who still play at all, let alone regularly. I don't know how much longer I'll continue. I want to finish WotG at least, but after that.... I guess we'll see.

In the meantime, I'm still on FFXIV because they keep extending the free trial period. I haven't paid a dime yet aside from the initial purchase. The discount for playing FFXI and FFXIV at the same time has been extended too (though if you ask me, this should be permanent....).

Best of all, a few weeks ago there was a massive update to FFXIV that made it so much better. The lag was greatly reduced, the UI was made much better, there's an item sort function (good god, finally)... Just all around improved. This is how the game should have been released, and they'd probably have a lot more customers if they'd waited to release it in the present state.

On the other hand, I don't know if it's THAT good... Like I said, I haven't paid any fees for it yet. I haven't decided if I will continue once they stop giving us free time. And if you've already tried the beta and decided you hated it, it probably hasn't changed enough for you to consider returning.

But for my part I find it enjoyable. I like the ability assignment system, crafting is much better than in FFXI, and battles are way the hell more fast paced. Still some bugs and inconveniences they should work out though. Plus slow paced battles aren't a bad thing, they let me watch movies at the same time. :D Too bad FFXI stopped being fun...

I also downloaded a MMO called Vindictus, a game that runs on Valve's Source engine and plays more like an action game than an MMO. Is it any good? Wellllll.... I dunno. I haven't had time to really play it. I've only done the tutorial. :x But it's a free game, so I don't mind waiting. I hope to get around to it eventually, but no promises.