Page 123 - PC Gamer - UK (February 2020)
P. 123
E X TR A LIFE
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N OW P L A Y I N G U P D A T E H OW T O I MOD S P O T L I GH T I D I A R Y REIN S T A L L W H Y I LO V E I M U S T P L A Y
Combat is a lot like a
traditional JRPG.
FINAL FANTASY XI she busted me and refused to keep
paying the monthly subscription fee.
Maybe that’s what’s missing now,
I think as I walk the streets of
Windhurst trying to reacquaint
myself. But I know that’s not entirely
true. Final Fantasy XI wasn’t great
Revisiting one of the greatest MMOs of our time. By Steven Messner because playing it was against the
rules, it was great because it was an
MMO built from the ground up to
encourage cooperation and
Though I was never as obsessed with
laying Final Fantasy
P XI after all these years Final Fantasy XI as I was other friendship. A relic of an era before
World of Warcraft ruined the entire
MMOs like World of Warcraft, I can
is a lot like returning
to your hometown
only to find it desolate still vividly remember the summer genre by being too popular.
months I spent playing it. My love for
and different. All the old buildings Final Fantasy XI is the definition of a OLD RELICS
are still there, but the faces aren’t summer romance. All I wanted to do Unearthing what makes Final
the same. And that feeling I had – was spend my time adventuring Fantasy XI great doesn’t just require
that indescribable sense of across the lush fields of Vana’diel, but a shovel, you need a damn excavator.
belonging – is gone too. It’s a bit my parents decided that wasting my Before I could even log in, I had to
alienating and tragic, to be honest, break playing videogames was a bad wrestle with the infamously
but really what else should I expect idea, so they regulated my playtime complicated PlayOnline service, an
from an MMO that’s almost 20 to a few precious hours each day. But esoteric artefact in itself. Back when
years old and clearly nearing the I wasn’t going to give up that easily. Final Fantasy XI launched on the
end of its days? I found an old 11-inch TV-VCR PlayStation 2 online services were
combo set buried in our storage beyond rudimentary, especially on a
closet and hid it in my room. After
NEED TO KNOW everyone had gone to bed, I’d quietly
grab my PlayStation 2 and bring it to IT WAS BUILT FROM THE
RELEASED DEVELOPER
2002 Square Enix my bed, plug it in, and play Final GROUND UP TO ENCOURAGE
Fantasy XII until the sun came up
PUBLISHER LINK – until the day my mom’s mischief COOPERATION
In-house playonline.com/ff11us
detector finally got her attention and
FEBRUARY 2020 123
