What a load of crap.

[SilverKnight]

I'm extremely annoyed. Around a month ago, I was given Final Fantasy XI as a birthday gift. For reasons I won't go into exploring, I was unable to install it until a few days ago. I did so, purchased a Content ID (even though the manual specifically said I start off with one), waited the day and a half it took to update all the appropriate files, and when I finally prepared to start the game up...I found out my graphics card isn't compatible. Despite it being above the minimum requirements. Turns out my card doesn't have something called a "Hardware TnL" function or whatever that means, and so my options are to either use a rickety TnL emulator which apparently doesn't even work all that well if at all, or go out and buy a new video card that supports TnL.

Maybe I'm just greedy, but I don't like the idea of having to shell out more money just to play one game. I find it rather unnecessary. So, if anyone has any better (and most importantly free) ideas, please feel free to tell me. Otherwise, screw how much I've wanted FFXI, this baby's going to back to the store. Very few things in the world are worth this amount of hassle, and none of them are video games.

[Lord Dalek]

What's your card?

[Killtacular]

If your card doesn't have TnL it can't possibly be good or even adequate.

[Terminatah]

I too find all this requirement crap to be a very serious issue. Probably the worst day of my life was the day I realized I wouldn't be able to buy The Sims 2 because my laptop was nowhere near the minimum requirements to play it. Now, rather than live awesome virtual life, I'm stuck having to live crappy real life. Thanks, Maxis. Thanks a whole bunch.

-Terminatah

[Lord Dalek]

Heck, I think the Radeon 9000 I got for $50 has TnL.

[SilverKnight]

I looked up what my card was (I think, anyway), and it says this: Intel(R) 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV Graphics Controller. No clue what that means.


If your card doesn't have TnL it can't possibly be good or even adequate.I won't argue with you on that, because you're probably right, but I'm not a hardcore gamer. This isn't a gamer machine. For $569 bucks, this thing--in comparison to other machines with similar prices--was actually a steal. But that's not what's bothering me. I read the general specs on it and compared it with what was written on the FFXI box, and it appeared that I had everything in order. What annoys me was that my sister essentially wasted $30 of her money on something I apparently can't even play, not because my computer isn't adequate enough (it's more than adequate enough for every other fricken program on here) to play it, but because the entire playability hinges on one little sub-program thing that doesn't show up anywhere. The only reason I found out it was this TnL thing was because I had to search online for it. That's both shoddy and annoying. I didn't realize I had to be a l33t-computer whiz to install one lousy game. Furthermore, I shouldn't have to shell out an extra $100 bucks for a video card for the purpose of playing said lousy game when it worked perfectly fine for everything else. If I'd known what crap I had to go through to play the game--nevermind what I had to do just to get to that point--I would've just bought the damn PS2 version. And I don't even have a PS2. At least then the graphics would've looked better. Or better yet, I would've told my sister not to buy it and instead take me to dinner.

[Lord Dalek]

I looked up what my card was (I think, anyway), and it says this: Intel(R) 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV Graphics Controller. No clue what that means.It means get an ATI.

[Master Moron]

You know, I've been thinking about getting Final Fantasy XI for the Playstation 2 for a while now, but honestly, I'm a little scared to. It seems way too complicated to me. I mean, I don't even know what kind of internet connection I have. Basically, all the computer's in my house are connected to a big terminal in the room where my dad's computer is. Do I need a certain type of connection or something to play this game? I've honestly never played an online game before, evn on the PC, though my brother has so I know in theory I could play an online game on my computer, but I know my computer would never be able to handle Final Fantasy XI. And add to that the $13.99 charge a month seems like a pretty big commitment to play a game. I mean, that's like $170 a year. That's basically my whole years gaming budget right there. You know, my roommate last year bought the PC version, but the school's internet connection wouldn't let him play it. Ugh...I really want to play this game, but I just have a feeling that I'll screw it up and won't be able to play it, but I'll still be charged, and then I'll miss payments, and then because I missed so many payments the repo man will come and take all my possessions, then I'll be poor all because of this one game!!!!!

[Martianman606]

I too find all this requirement crap to be a very serious issue. Probably the worst day of my life was the day I realized I wouldn't be able to buy The Sims 2 because my laptop was nowhere near the minimum requirements to play it. Now, rather than live awesome virtual life, I'm stuck having to live crappy real life. Thanks, Maxis. Thanks a whole bunch.

-Terminatah
i got Sims 2 and at first and my computer wouldn't allow me to use it because I had too much stuff in it. I had to totally clear it out my computer and it finally let me play it - it's a good game, but I can totally see why it asks a lot from a computer. It takes up 2,807MB on my computer - I'm not exactly sure what type of computer I have, but my bro says thats a lot of space.


I'm extremely annoyed. Around a month ago, I was given Final Fantasy XI as a birthday gift. For reasons I won't go into exploring, I was unable to install it until a few days ago. I did so, purchased a Content ID (even though the manual specifically said I start off with one), waited the day and a half it took to update all the appropriate files, and when I finally prepared to start the game up...I found out my graphics card isn't compatible. Despite it being above the minimum requirements. Turns out my card doesn't have something called a "Hardware TnL" function or whatever that means, and so my options are to either use a rickety TnL emulator which apparently doesn't even work all that well if at all, or go out and buy a new video card that supports TnL.

Maybe I'm just greedy, but I don't like the idea of having to shell out more money just to play one game. I find it rather unnecessary. So, if anyone has any better (and most importantly free) ideas, please feel free to tell me. Otherwise, screw how much I've wanted FFXI, this baby's going to back to the store. Very few things in the world are worth this amount of hassle, and none of them are video games.
yea - yea that sucks. I honestly dont have a good answer for you. I have had problems like this in the past with some of my games and it didnt end up good. basically, the only thing i can tell you is that before you go to buy a game, you might wanna log on to the internet and maybe do some research on what exactly are it's requirements just to save you from any disapointment (not to mention save you some money). I know its probably not the answer you wanna hear - but that's all I can come up with.

[Nimbleness]

It means your motherboard came with integrated video acceleration which is never a good thing. I'll recommend you look around for something new. If you don't regularly play PC games, this (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-180-013&depa=0) should suit your needs.

[Killtacular]

I too find all this requirement crap to be a very serious issue. Probably the worst day of my life was the day I realized I wouldn't be able to buy The Sims 2 because my laptop was nowhere near the minimum requirements to play it. Now, rather than live awesome virtual life, I'm stuck having to live crappy real life. Thanks, Maxis. Thanks a whole bunch.
Thank yourself. PC gaming should not be watered down to meet the low end just because some people don't have the money or don't feel they have to play catchup. That's what console gaming is for. Now admittedly Sims 2 is not a 'hardcore' title by any means, but it is very hardware-intensive, they really wanted to make the game better on all fronts and certainly the one thing Sims always suffered from is terrible graphics and often choppy framerate, so their fixing of this is nothing but a good thing.

A game that I don't understand why it requires high end computing, is the most recent Sim City game. That game's 2D yet it chokes even super-leet computers. Maxis really should have fine tuned that a bit.


I looked up what my card was (I think, anyway), and it says this: Intel(R) 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV Graphics Controller. No clue what that means.
It means don't buy a "family"/"multimedia" computer expecting to be able to play any 3D game made after the year 2001.


I read the general specs on it and compared it with what was written on the FFXI box, and it appeared that I had everything in order.
If by that you mean it passed the minimum specs... you probably wouldn't have a very good time with the game anyway because the framerate would probably be very low and the resolution 640x480 or worse. Noone should follow the minimum specs.


What annoys me was that my sister essentially wasted $30 of her money on something I apparently can't even play, not because my computer isn't adequate enough (it's more than adequate enough for every other fricken program on here)
What is your computer's stats then? What processor, what speed, how much ram?


Furthermore, I shouldn't have to shell out an extra $100 bucks for a video card for the purpose of playing said lousy game when it worked perfectly fine for everything else.
Yes you should, because otherwise those video card manufacturers would go out of business.

[SilverKnight]

If by that you mean it passed the minimum specs... you probably wouldn't have a very good time with the game anyway because the framerate would probably be very low and the resolution 640x480 or worse. Noone should follow the minimum specs.I suppose so. Honestly, when I installed it, I wasn't expecting it to work top-notch, simply because I know this comp isn't built for games. Still, I mostly hit/surpassed the "recommended" specs, save for the damn graphics card, which is currently what's screwing me over. Well, and the CPU, but a Celeron isn't the worst thing in the world. Hell, I'm half tempted to take apart my brother in law's three year old, $1800 computer and replace my graphics card with his. It worked fine with Everquest, so it's gotta be better than this one. As for resolution, the thing's 640x480 anyway, it seems, so I don't think there's anything I can do about that.


What is your computer's stats then? What processor, what speed, how much ram?Pentium Celeron processor w/ 2.2GHz, 256 RAM (my only real problem aside from the video card--I could steal that 512 MB RAM card from the old comp, too, if necessary), the Intel blah blah graphics card, Realtek AC'97 Audio.


Yes you should, because otherwise those video card manufacturers would go out of business.True. But unless you plan on donating $100 or a better video card--which would only come to pass if Hell froze over, broke off, and shattered into a million pieces--then it ain't happenin' any time soon. :)

Either way, I'm going to withhold my return decision until I've had a few more days to tinker with it, and try out a few more ideas. I used that TnL emulator thingy and the game now works, but it runs like complete crap, and I don't think even my low end, bargain basement comp is entirely responsible for that. I'm still rather disappointed, though. I should've known better than to expect simplicity from a MMORPG.

Oh, and out of curiosity, is there any way you can tell if a video card has Hardware TnL supported or not? Out of curiosity.

[Lord Dalek]

I suppose so. Honestly, when I installed it, I wasn't expecting it to work top-notch, simply because I know this comp isn't built for games. Still, I mostly hit/surpassed the "recommended" specs, save for the damn graphics card, which is currently what's screwing me over. Well, and the CPU, but a Celeron isn't the worst thing in the world. Hell, I'm half tempted to take apart my brother in law's three year old, $1800 computer and replace my graphics card with his. It worked fine with Everquest, so it's gotta be better than this one. As for resolution, the thing's 640x480 anyway, it seems, so I don't think there's anything I can do about that.

Pentium Celeron processor w/ 2.2GHz, 256 RAM (my only real problem aside from the video card--I could steal that 512 MB RAM card from the old comp, too, if necessary), the Intel blah blah graphics card, Realtek AC'97 Audio.

True. But unless you plan on donating $100 or a better video card--which would only come to pass if Hell froze over, broke off, and shattered into a million pieces--then it ain't happenin' any time soon. :)

Either way, I'm going to withhold my return decision until I've had a few more days to tinker with it, and try out a few more ideas. I used that TnL emulator thingy and the game now works, but it runs like complete crap, and I don't think even my low end, bargain basement comp is entirely responsible for that. I'm still rather disappointed, though. I should've known better than to expect simplicity from a MMORPG.

Oh, and out of curiosity, is there any way you can tell if a video card has Hardware TnL supported or not? Out of curiosity.

Well as I said earlier, you can get good cards for a lot less than $100 these days. Those are usualy software bundles or have a tv reciever. I believe TnL became ISA after 2002 but don't quote me on that.

Also there is no such thing as a Celeron with 2.2 ghz, unless you were in a constant burncycle.

[maximumzero]

Too bad you don't live near me. I have an old Radeon 9000 video card lying around that's not being used. I'd more or less give it to you on "extended loan" terms...It's not the best on the market, but it's more or less adequate.

[SilverKnight]

Also there is no such thing as a Celeron with 2.2 ghz, unless you were in a constant burncycle.>holds hands up< Hey, that's just what it says in the Device Manager thingy. Thanks for the info, though. I'll try and look and see if I could scrounge something up. Hopefully I can.

[Killtacular]

Your computer should be good enough to play FFXI pretty decently. Just get a recent GeForce card, I'd say. ATI cards suck. I have a higher-end GeForce FX but you might want to go with GeForce 4 if you want a cheaper card. They have a GeForce 4 MX which is probably up your alley, cheap and effective.

[maximumzero]

I was just about to start searching on good prices for a video card for you when I realized..

Does your computer even have an AGP slot? It'd be pretty sad if it didn't, but who knows with these cheap-o computer rigs nowadays.

[Tallaid]

Just to let you know, FFXI has a benchmark program on their main website, download that to see if your computer can run the game and if so, how well you can expect it to run. I wish you had known about that before you got the game though, mighta saved you a bit of money.

[Westlander]

Just get a recent GeForce card, I'd say. ATI cards suck. I have a higher-end GeForce FX but you might want to go with GeForce 4 if you want a cheaper card. They have a GeForce 4 MX which is probably up your alley, cheap and effective.DO NOT buy a GeForce 4MX - it's crap. It's basically an insanely overclocked GF2MX, does not support pixel shaders 'n stuff. I shelled out 300$ on my GeForce 4 Titanium 4200 (it was a year ago), but I'm not changing it to anything!
GeForce FX is good if you want the games to run AT ALL. GFFX 5200 is cheap (like 70$ or so) and good for comfortable gaming.
Good advice, throw this Intel junk away, as far as you can. Whoever was putting your computer together was trying to rip you.

[Killtacular]

And if you must rely on ATI Radeon, get no less than a 9600 which is probably cheap at this point, but most people in the high end are above 9800.

[SilverKnight]

I went to Best Buy today just to check (wasn't necessarily planning on buying anything there Best Buy generally sells higher than most places) and it appeared that the cheapest card was $100 bucks, and the ones you guys are mentioning were closer to $200. Hell, for that, I could've just bought a PS2, the 40 GB HD, and the game itself. So, no graphics card for me. At least, not from Best Buy.

Either way, I got that Hardware TnL emulator thingy to work, and surprisingly, it works pretty well. The game's rather choppy, but once I get used to it, I'm not so annoyed by it anymore. However, I have FFXI related question that's driving me nuts, because Square Enix sucks about explaining things. In the top right corner, there's that little box that supposedly tells you how you're connecting to the server. The thing is, though, that little box tells me absolutely nothing, because I see a 100%, a supposedly random 3-digit number by the S and another 3-digit number by the R. Does anyone here happen to know what that means in better detail, because at some point, for some inexplicable reason, the game just suddenly snapped to full speed. Of course, when I was disconnected and came back on, the little full-speed mode thing went bye-bye and I haven't seen it since, so I'm just as likely to figure it was just my connection or the server being very nice to me. But that little box thing is still gonna drive me nuts until I figure out what it means. I'm weird like that.


GeForce FX is good if you want the games to run AT ALL. GFFX 5200 is cheap (like 70$ or so) and good for comfortable gaming.I'll remember that. Thanks. :)


Good advice, throw this Intel junk away, as far as you can. Whoever was putting your computer together was trying to rip you.Oh yeah. Selling me a comp that was better than any other 'economy job' under $600 was really ripping me off. Right. I have neither the skill nor the patience to build my own comp from scratch, and besides, this baby runs pretty well. It's not Alienware, nor is it a supercomputer--I won't pretend to think this is top of the line, but it's hardly junk. Beleive me, I was stuck with junk for five years. I'm very well acquainted with it. So comparative to a 1999 Compaq Presario with 4 GB hard-drive and bargain basement everything, I think my new compy holds up rather well, if I do say so myself. So nya. :p

[Homesick_Alien]

Also there is no such thing as a Celeron with 2.2 ghz, unless you were in a constant burncycle.

Well then, i guess mine is lieing to me.look at the comps. (http://www.cpuscorecard.com/cpuprices/sys_ic-2200.htm)

or is this site lieing to me too???

And i have that same video card on this comp. is yours one of those dell 2400's? thats what mine is, well technicly its my old one, i ordered a bad ass alienware 2 days ago.

[FinalDragoon]

However, I have FFXI related question that's driving me nuts, because Square Enix sucks about explaining things. In the top right corner, there's that little box that supposedly tells you how you're connecting to the server. The thing is, though, that little box tells me absolutely nothing, because I see a 100%, a supposedly random 3-digit number by the S and another 3-digit number by the R. Does anyone here happen to know what that means in better detail, because at some point, for some inexplicable reason, the game just suddenly snapped to full speed. Of course, when I was disconnected and came back on, the little full-speed mode thing went bye-bye and I haven't seen it since, so I'm just as likely to figure it was just my connection or the server being very nice to me. But that little box thing is still gonna drive me nuts until I figure out what it means. I'm weird like that.

That is your send/receive rate, which is basically your lagtime in milliseconds. Since FFXI is capped at 56k it always be in the couple hundreds range, but when you get to the higher populated zones you can expect the receive number to jump up to over 1000 o.0.

The arrows and the percentage represent how well you are connected to the game, normally it stays at 100% then it means you have a good connection. If you see that percentage drop either you are lagging or you are about to be disconnected.

As far as that high-speed thing you ran into, that was probably the game trying to catch up with all the input you made while you were lagging. It is not a normal thing so you shouldn't see unless you are lagging out.

Hope that explained some things for you.

[Mog]

If price is your number one priority, jump on www.pricewatch.com and look in their small shops. You can easily buy a decent card.

And Matt, I totally agree with you. I don't see the reason to buy some $2000 "mulitmeadia" PC with a whole bunch of crap topped off with "integrated graphics." It basically means, "Hey! You bought a $2000 CD/DVD player that can also do Word and SpreadSheet! Congratulations!"

[mikestorm]

I'm curious to know what your take on FFXI is SK.

[guinaevere]

SilverKnight, a Celeron running at 2.2, even with a better vid card will play the game frustratingly (sp?!) slow. I'd almost wait until your next processor (or more likely, it sounds like a premade machine, not one you put together).

As Matt Wilson has pointed out, if ones machine only barely meets/exceeds the minimum requirements on the game box specs, the game will run faltingly and really won't be an enjoyable experience.

I wish this weren't the case, as I'd love to tell you some easy way to make your machine play your game. But, I really don't have anything to suggest... except for trying a new/better geforce (one that's compatible with your motherboard)... and to pick it up from pricewatch.com No question, they've always been the site for the best prices.