Final Fantasy XI

The PC version was, alongside PlayStation 2, one of the two original platforms on which Final Fantasy XI launched in November 2002, and in many respects it was the primary one - it was on the computer that most of the community infrastructure around the game emerged, from fan databases to tools that made playing easier, and Square built most of its marketing materials aimed at overseas markets around it as well.

Compared to the console versions, the PC variant had a natural advantage in controls: typing commands, trading with other players and chatting all went much faster on a keyboard than via a gamepad, which mattered for a game built on constant interaction with hundreds of other players. Players could also set a higher resolution and, within the limits of the hardware of the time, smoother performance, while PlayStation 2 was limited by the console's fixed hardware. However, the server was shared across all platforms - a player on a computer would routinely run into PlayStation 2 players in the same location, and, after 2006, Xbox 360 players too, and parties could be formed across all three platforms without restriction. Text chat, which is key for coordination in group expeditions, also naturally worked faster on a keyboard than through the on-screen keyboard operated with a gamepad that console players had to use.

Because it was a subscription-based MMO, the game received regular expansions and patches on PC throughout its operation and was not a one-off release that would remain unchanged afterward. Installation required a number of discs and a fairly demanding installation of the PlayOnline client application, through which the player connected to the servers in the first place - without it, the game could not be launched at all, whether on PC or on consoles. The PC version, moreover, was the first to receive any bug-fix patches and test versions of upcoming content before the same changes made it to either console. For many players who until then knew the Final Fantasy series only from its console installments, it was precisely the computer version through which they first encountered the online form of the brand.

Why play it: For Final Fantasy fans who knew the series only from consoles and want to experience its first online form as it was being born - the PC version was in fact the first to receive bug-fix patches and tested content ahead of the consoles.