New image of Ishgard's map...?

First screens of the city-state maps are up all over the net but I found the first ones on ffxiv.ru (thanks Kugata)  and apparently, we can now also see the surrounding areas for Ishgard, Gridania and Ul'Dah.

SquareEnix have also released the sixth video in the 'Eorzea - The Making of a Realm" series on their official You Tube channel... and yes, the great legendary Nobuo speaks candidly about the creation of the score.  I found myself saluting my screen after watching lol.

Note:  As always, readers can simply double-click the video to be directed to the official channel to watch it there.  Alternatively, viewers that need to reduce the volume of my blog's theme-song (so that you can properly listen to the video here) can simply scroll down to the bottom right and adjust the volume on the Mixpod dashboard.

Yeah, bet you were thinking... "Hold up mate, that's bloody Ishgard in the background at 4.30 in the video, innit?"  Yes indeed, and matter of fact here's a screenie I snapped off the video... that whole Coerthas area is already giving me some great in-game ideas after the game launches

Ahhh, but there's more... Ramset on FFXIVCore also just posted these up... very first glimpse of the mysterious "Garlean  Judges"?  In all fairness though, the OP did mention that he wasn't the one that dug them up, nonetheless, it's a wonderful spiffy find. (I seriously need to find time and learn 3D Max)

Also added the latest (disappointing?) news from SE regarding the postponement of the Open Beta... personally, provided this new delay is for a few short days in order to work out the bloody kinks in the system, then yes I'm glad about it.   Had a bit of an iffy situation with the download and it became a drudgery for me to download the client.  It eventually caused issues on my PC. last night and it was not even funny.   That is of course until I saw the update about the postponement due to critical errors and yada yada.  

Will post up more info and stuff as they emerge but in the meantime, be well.

New Pre-Release Trailer & Eorzea Video #5

Note:  As always, readers that need to reduce the volume of my blog's theme-song (so that you can properly listen to the video) can simply scroll down to the bottom right and adjust the volume on the Mixpod dashboard.

Whoa... two new videos today for your viewing pleasure!. First up is the anticipated new FFXIV trailer from Square Enix... highly impressive scenes, sweet visuals, serene vocals, intense graphics... omg, was that Titan?  And and and...by the Twelve, who the heck was THAT with the horned helmet at the end?   Did I just see Judge Gabranth?  Dun dun duuuuuun!



Quite the spiffy trailer, innit?  I'm seriously loving the mysterious dragon madly now... very powerful chap.  Might have to trek it to Sharlayan to find the creature and find out if it is the same one that is shown "wrapped" around the large (crystal?).  Why do I suddenly feel like Sharlayan and Ishgard have a certain history together that surrounds the stewardship (or guardianship protection) of the realm?

SE also uploaded the fifth video in their "Eorzea - Making of a Realm" series on their official You Tube channel.   SE have been globally regarded in high esteem for their intense storylines and their consistent ability to deliver powerful cutscenes that convey the emotions of the chareacters and their environment.

Thus, the developers take us through the basic stages involved in creating the cutscenes in FFXIV... and all the tremendous hardwork that goes on behind the scenes during the motion capture process.




Added below are some of the stunning artwork sketches that the developers used in the video to convey the storyboards... I couldn't upload all the ones I clipped from the video cuz I was knackered.  However, I couldn't resist adding the one with the speeding galleons (definitely a Limsa related cutscene).

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Finally, the most exciting piece of news for today is that Open Beta for FFXIV will begin on August 31st, 2010 at 19.00 PDT (September 1, 2010 at 2.00 GMT for European players).  It was just confirmed on SquareEnix's official twitter so get your PCs ready!

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Enjoy and please remember that all images, videos and material remain the sole property of Square Enix and and all their FFXIV related content including the Lodestone.   They are posted here as usual ONLY for fansite purposes and created directly from their official video therefore if they are used anywhere else be sure to give credit.  Be well everyone!

JeuxOnline Interview and some FFXIV Concept Art

Hello again folks... I had a busy day catching up on several projects hence I'm a little late in getting to this.  Anywayz, just placing an update that the video interview by JeuxOnline at Gamescom 2010 is now up on FFXIVCore (swift as always) ... and thanks as well to MatthieuKioXIV who has just emailed me a direct link to the interview on the JeuxOnline website.

BTW, there is a verbal translation in English that runs with the video, which is spot on in helping readers/watchers understand all the concepts being discussed... makes it all that much easier, innit?

Second spiffy topic today is my promise (in my previous blog entry) to upload some of the FFXIV concept art that I was able to garner from the awesome Eorzea videos.    Yeah, I'm still a nutter for concept art lol... but it is no news that I've always been keen to snap up great images to be used as wallpapers and share them to all and sundry... just always remember to give credit to where you got them and to Square Enix

However, that said, apologies are in order for not being able to doctor out the images that retain the video's somewhat blurry text but as several people know, I'm still messing around with the the GIMP software 9which basically "GNU Image Manipulation program).

It works quite similar to Photoshop but definitely not on the same level... and the difference shows whenever I take screenshots of the images.  The sequence I used in getting the images is quite simple but a little tedious.  Basically, I pause the video, use the print-screen mode to get the screenshot from the official you-tube video... and then crop, resize and enhance them a little.    Not the best quality but I guess most of them still came out spiffy so I guess I can just say... enjoy.

  

  

Enjoy and please remember that all images, videos and material remain the sole property of Square Enix and and all their FFXIV related content including the Lodestone.   They are posted here as usual ONLY for fansite purposes and created directly from their official video therefore if they are used anywhere else be sure to give credit.  Be well everyone!

FFXIV at Gamescon 2010 and new Eorzea video

Note:  As always, readers that need to reduce the volume of my blog's theme-song (so that you can properly listen to the video) can simply scroll down to the bottom right and adjust the volume on the Mixpod dashboard.

Good tidings yet again ladies and gentlemen... SquareEnix have just added the fourth latest video on their "Eorzea - The Making of a Realm" series on the SE official YouTube channel.

They are awesomely wonderful pictures and we even got a better glimpse of all the cities in all their glory... (honestly, the lighting effects in this game are truly astonishing).  BTW, look closely and see if you recognize the first hints of the bridge(s?) that leads to mysterious Ishgard...

And this image below... could this be the guildleve camp for Ishgard (in the video at 3:55)?  Watch the full video and you decide.

Anyway, Gamescon kicked off today in Cologne, Germany (runs between August 18th to the 22nd); and Zyuu from FFXIVCore has brought us his first images and interview with FFXIV developers.  Here are a couple excerpts from the interview:


Will endgame be in the game on release?

Factionleves is something that we're trying to implement at the moment. And you might soon see some part of it in the beta test that is going on at the moment. It is something you can acquire by collecting action points in the game and by doing Levequests. We are going to add more and more of this type of leve in the game to make it quite challenging. As for the launch however we want to make sure that the game is easy and accessable for casual players. Throughout version updates we're going to introduce more hardcore content so even both casual and hardcore players alike will enjoy the game.


Concerning the direction of this game; is Guildleve's the standard to level in regards to FFXIV? It was heavily advertised in several locations and there seems to be an overall disgruntled feeling towards its 48 hour cooldown. Is this part of the limit implemented for the beta, or is this intention for the release? Is straight-mob grinding going to the primary source of experience gains for FFXIV?

One of the reasons for the current design is that it's fine if you're playing solo. If you have more time however, we feel that there's a lot of guildleves to experience with other people in groups, while yourself might not have the guildleve, you can still join other peoples guildleves. Currently though most feel there's not enough benefit to group up and as such do the guildleves solo instead. We are working on adressing that so group play will be more encouraged, so maybe either you get more skillpoints for example. Basically we're trying to adjust it so that people do guildleves with other people.


Excerpt ends here and please be sure to read the rest on FFXIVCore


Anywayz, hopefully, there may soon be some more images from Zyuu's Gamescon coverage and as soon as I get sight them on FFXIVCore, I'll post them up.  In the meantime, here are some of the images that I have finished chipping out of the "Making of Eorzea" videos (yep, yep I'm still trying to get this little project of mine done... gimme a few more days lol).  


As always, remember that though I used the official video to create the images, they all still remain the sole property of Square Enix and all their FFXIV-related material; and is thus posted here strictly for fan purposes.  


Be well everyone!