After a good old fashioned beta delay due to "critical bugs," Square Enix supposedly opened its doors for the open beta yesterday.  I say supposedly because there are people out there, like me, who can't even get to the login screen to REQUEST A KEY.

It would seem that this open beta test is as much of a test on their webservers as it is their actual product.  Sad.  How can a company as large as Square Enix have such terrible websites?  All I know is, it's day two after open beta launched, I have the client fully updated, but I can't play because I can't access their site to get a beta key.

The most disfunctional part about this whole process for me is that I was in the "closed beta," and had a key for that.  Why in the hell the closed beta keys just didn't transfer over to open beta is beyond me.  I'm sure they have some good explanation for that as well.  I just can't believe that FFXIV is so popular that it has kept their beta key website down for 2 days.  Perhaps "critical bugs," did it?

Bravo.

Update on Thursday, September 2, 2010 by Alex Taldren

Message from the lovely people at Square Enix:

2010-09-02 17:50 　From: SQUARE ENIX Account

Square Enix Account Management System Congestion: Follow-up

We would like to take this opportunity to provide an update regarding the congestion of the Square Enix Account Management System.

Due to heavy server traffic, we are continuing to experience Square Enix Account Management System congestion. Currently, players may not be able to log into the FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test, or acquire registration codes for the game.

Our technical staff is monitoring the situation closely and working to resolve this issue. As a countermeasure to the congestion, we are currently limiting the acquisition of registration codes for the Open Beta Test. If you cannot acquire a registration code, or if you are unable to access the Square Enix Account Management System, we ask that you please wait and try again later.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

No need to apologize really.  This hurts you a lot more than it does us.

In between Starcraft 2 matches, I've been playing a lot of APB with my brothers and friends.  At first, it was simply because when I bought the game, it came with 70ish hours of playtime that I could use up.  Frankly, I wasn't to thrilled with the game at first, and thought I'd play my "free" hours just so I got my money's worth.

Well, I still have about 20 hours left on my account and I've discovered two things:  APB can be REALLY fun and REALLY frustrating.  Your experience may vary from mission to mission, but it's usually one extreme or the other.

For example, APB's main flaws are noticeable during the core part of the gameplay: the combat.  Sure, it feels and plays like a good old fashioned shooter, but buried underneath is a poorly thought-out RPG system that gives an extreme advantage to those with better "upgrades."  For example, a team of 4 players with tier 3 upgrades for their character and weapon will roll a team of 6 players with anything less, most of the time.

Rather than provide straight stat boosts with upgrades, Real Time Worlds would have been better off using a certification system similar to Planetside, which allowed players to specialize in specific roles based on how far along they are.  The more a player plays, the more branches he or she can specialize in.  What this does is remove actual stat bonuses that give some players an inherent and sometimes unbeatable advantage over others.

In the end, APB suffers from a lack of balance, some technical bugs, and a piss poor community.  That's

right, the only thing worse than the game's rearing imbalances are the people who play it.  Need help?  good luck getting it in district chat.  Have a complaint?  Well, "you mad bro?"

Where APB shines is its customization features, which it has an abundance of.  Check out these screenshots of my sweet ride.  I bought the car blank and used the in-game design tools to create symbols and paint the outside.  Yeah, it's not amazing, but it does show off how detailed this game's design tools are.

It's been a while since I played a game seriously, with the intent of getting better and playing competitively.  In fact, Call of Duty 2 was the last time I did such a thing.  Regardless, Starcraft 2 is the first RTS that I'm putting effort into beyond the casual, and it's a slow process.

Yeah, I played the original Starcraft a lot when I was younger.  But most of the games I played on Battle.net back then were against the computer, called "COMP STOMPS."  I never did get involved in the ladder games and only did a handful of 1v1s, whcih I lost by huge margins.

Flash forward and I'm much older and experienced.  Starcraft 2 is everything I hoped it would be in terms of a multiplayer experience.  The ladders are well done and the matchmaking is appreciated.  I'm not very focused on the team games so much because I find them to be very annoying.  They rarely turn out to be competitive games because they almost always involve an early 2v1, 3v1, or 4v1 rush that knocks one player out of the game from the start.

Nevertheless, I've secured a position in a Gold division for 1v1, which I think is fairly decent given my absolute inexperience of playing against human opponents.  I also had no beta experience with Starcraft 2, which is a shame because I'm sure I'd be further along by now.

Here's the take away:  Starcraft 2 is one of the best RTS games of all-time.  It has managed to capture the attention of many friends of mine who have never really played an RTS game at all.  And, you can count on Starcraft 2 being around for a long, long time, so dedicating time to learning it and getting better shouldn't be seen as a waste.

See you on the ladders!