Last Remnant coming to PC in spring Comments by Ellie Gibson

Hopefully it won't be as poor as the 360 version

Hopefully they will at least sort out the stuttering frame rates. I knw that hoping to do away with load times would be too much, though.

You've missed nothing. The game's full of bugs, aweful execution (the framerate is beyond bad) and repetition. The first hours were great, but it went downhill from there very rapidly. Don't know why Squenix bother with the PC and PS3 versions. The game is crap...

Crap on 360, typical bad SE port...yup, PC will have it worst.

if they can't get this game to work well on 360, god help the ps3

Looks like most of the game's problem on the 360 are the typical ones that plagues most Unreal-engine games on that system. Framerate, texture pop-ups and long loading times should hopefully not be a problem on the PC.

How's the game itself, technical hiccups aside?

@UncleLou

utter shit...... read EG review and -5.

Well maybe at least they can get 30 fps stable on radeon 4850 then :D

Unreal Engine 3 runs a hell of a lot better on a PC so this is great news. The Last Remnant is pretty dreadful technically on the Xbox 360.

But then that's to be expected since a typical PC has more memory and a faster hard drive than any console. For example, both Mass Effect and Unreal Tournament 3 run at higher resolutions, with more detail and smoother framerates even on my ageing setup (2 GB, Athlon64 X2 4200+ dual-core CPU, RADEON HD 3850 graphics, Windows XP SP3 @ 1680x1050) than it does on the 360 and, thus, both are more enjoyable to play.

Just don't mention GTA IV... ;)

@Uncle Lou - you are right in your assessment of the technical problems of the engine, and as always (as far as I've seen) with Unreal engine powered games on the 360 it seems that the extent of these problems vary from console to console. I've read posts (not on here mind, but elsewhere on the internets) where people swear blind that loading into a battle in Last Remnant takes 10 seconds plus, then the game crawls at less than 10fps for another 10 seconds, and that it does this each and every battle - yet its something I've never experienced. Then again, I didn't experience the severity in issues others were having with Lost Odyssey until I played it on a friends 360 over the summer and finally realised what everyone was talking about with regards to the intro battle slow down... It does drop occasionally during the course of a battle, but its never been that bad (especially considering the amount of units usually wandering around the battle at the time).

As for the game itself, I seem to be in the vast minority that enjoys the game - the story is no worse than the usual RPG fare (certainly far less yawn inducing for me than FFXII, but I guess thats all a matter of personal opinion). They have (for me - personal enjoyment may vary) nailed the best combination for battles by showing encounters on the screen yet switching to turn based combat once they are encountered. They have given the player a deep tactical system with the use of Unions (groups of units that act as one entity, just in case you don't know, that can be tailored into different formations and groups to suit different needs). There is a basis but useful crafting system in place in the game, with different skills to learn from different weapons (and the ability to 'level up' a weapon several times via crafting, plus the ability to reclaim some components from a weapon/item once it is no longer of use). There are plenty of side quests (the majority of which fast travel the player to their location, and then back to town once they are completed - cutting out lots of backtracking that people always seem to moan about in games, but that does admittedly make the game feel a little disjointed at times).

Hmm, thats a bit of a wall of text right there, sorry! I guess either its a bit of a Marmite game (I hate Marmite, just for the record), I'm totally wrong and in the minority in thinking its good, the majority are totally wrong in thinking that its shit, or the game falls somewhere between the two... Personally, were I to rate it (something that I hate doing anyway), I'd say for me its pushing an 8/10 - but I'm a bit of an RPG whore and so some things that annoy other people may very well be things I accept as part of the game. Also (in an attempt to justify a little of where I think some of the hatred for this game is coming from - not explicitly from people here mind, but from some quarters) I might point out that I don't think the Final Fantasy games are the best RPGs ever made, and so don't want to cry wank when a game comes from Square that isn't another FF game!

Heh, no need to apologize, thanks for the thorough reply! :)

I'll definitely keep an eye on it, I like the sound of the battle system, and it's not like I am drowning in JRPGs on the PC, anyhow.

I utter LOATHES marmite!

/Scarred by the fact the rest of the family loved it to bits and the smells of marmite on warm toasts drives me up the wall!

marmite is great.

I'd have much rathered a port of Lost Odyssey, but I suppose SE can't do much about that.

@ wickerman

I'm with you on this one. Been playing for well over 20 hours and am really enjoying the game. Lost Odyssey, i felt was also a great addition to my slim JRPG collection.

UE3 can't lead to good results as far as I'm concerned. Lighting is beyond awful and it confines games to corridors. You'd think it would work well with RPG battles as they basically play out in a single room but apparently even that is too much to ask for. Shame it's getting more and more expensive to develop an own engine for developers.

/continues to try and stoke the flames of the small Last Remnant love in, whilst pouring scorn on those who have expressed a like for Marmite ;)

@Les - I totally agree. I'm not quite sure why RPG games keep popping up using it (bar Mass Effect, where it kinda made sense). Sooner everyone goes back to using Bioware's Infinity engine (for PC RPGs at least) the better!