https://store.sonyentertainmentnetwork.com/#!/en-us/games/final-fantasy-xiv-a-realm-reborn-(beta-version)/cid=UP0082-CUSA00438_00-FFXIVARRPS4BETA1

I'm not sure if its actually live yet but the client download is up on the Web store. I'm pretty excited to check it out.

Apparently you can't actually play it until the 22nd, at least according to the description.

The beta will be available from Saturday, February 22, 2014 to Sunday, March 2, 2014. Characters created during the beta are limited to level 20 and progress will not be saved after the beta ends.

Yeah, can't play it yet until this weekend, but I'm downloading it anyway. Woo.

Thx for the heads-up. All that positive feedback for A Realm Reborn has made me curious. I've only played some of the beta for the original game's disastrous release on PC, and am genuinely surprised at the common notion that Square Enix has actually managed to turn this ship around. Need to verify. Also - I'm kind of in the market for a bit of MMO'ing, albeit I'll likely save up my appetite for Warlords of Draenor. Familiarity makes the heart grow fonder.

Shit... I definetly will go over my internet cap this month with all the stuff I downloaded.

Does anyone know what happen if I log with my inactive account? I'm not suscribed atm because I'm waiting for the ps4 but I have a hight level char on it. Guess I won't be able to play with it for the beta? Anyone know?

@darklight: These first round of beta characters will be temporary. Any characters you make during the second round of beta testing can be carried over.

@demoskinos: Yeah, what I meant was if I already have a character lvl 44 on the account I log in with (by playing the ps3 version for a while), will I see him on the selection screen?

Thinking about it now, probably not. They probably did not copy the existing character on the server they'll use to do the ps4 beta.

No but if you want to port your PS3 character up to PS4 you can do that once the full game goes live.

@demoskinos: yep that's what I'll do! ;)

Can't wait to play my paladin level 40~ish in dongeon and being shout at because I don't remember how to play....:p

And also be able to see fate which seemed almost impossible on ps3!

Thanks for the info by the way.

bit fates to see is also almost impossible to see on the PC as well. At least when I played and you went for the big ones. I do not know how they changed this now though.

Hopefully the EU update happens early tomorrow. Need to grab that Strider and this beta!

Yo. It was a bit of a bitch getting the Beta client from the browser version of the European PSN Store (it's not in the PS4 storefront itself). Currently updating the client. It acts like the game is up and running already. It's likely the servers came on for the midnight launch of the PS4 in Japan. Would be a neat little treat.

Looking forward to it.

Just finished updating the client. The servers aren't online yet. Sorry for getting your hopes up. It's still as scheduled. Tomorrow morning at 8:00 GMT, respectively 9:00 CET. Guess that's sometime late night tonight in America.

Do we have a Giantbomb specific guild/server ?

No idea what to expect from this, probably play a few hours and see what happens.

Interested...but unlikely to put more than a few hours in since it isn't using the actual game servers yet.

There's going to be two beta phases. Progress made in the second beta phase will carry over to the full game.

Guys, can I just say how much of a goddamn nightmare SE's account system is. After 45 minutes of trying to figure out what my Square ID and password was for the account registered to my G-mail I finally fucking threw my hands up and had to make an entirely new account on my old MSN email that I use for my Microsoft Account. I'm sort of annoyed as I would rather use my other email but whatever I guess. Everything is ready to go whenever they flip the switch on the servers.

Yep, everything related to Square's account systems (across all games and web sites) continues to be world-class bad.

@demoskinos: I just spent like 20 fucking minutes doing the same. Fuck companies for making us tie website accounts to games just to play. It really pisses me off.

If anyone wans to play, shoot me a friend request on PS4. PSN ID = anti-altair16

Be warned, I never played an MMO besides 10 minutes of DCUO so I'm going to suck bad.

@demoskinos: Yup, that shit is TERRIBLE! It's 2014, how is this still a problem?

Just downloaded it thinking it was today. Then I got super bummed out :(

@bobbyr: I think it goes live in 2 1/2 hours. =)

Wow, same here. I have a SE account that I used when this launched on PC and I kept entering the info only to be told my info was incorrect. So I did the "forgot password" deal and it said they would send me a code to enter that would expire in an hour. After about 30 minutes of receiving nothing, I tried logging into my SE account on my PC using the same info I tried on PS4 and it worked! So, I tried PS4 again and it said invalid. Whatever. I decide to change the password to something easier to type out and it asks for my security Q&A and it gives me 4 choices, even though only one is even the right question! I don't remember which question I picked that long ago. I tried all 4 with what would have been the correct answer to them and it said invalid every time.

I ended up just creating a new account after wasting about an hour. What a joke.

@demoskinos: If it's like the PS3 beta there's still another 2 hours until it goes live. They don't seem to schedule their beta times in regards to US timezones.

Is there a guild that all GB users can jump into on the PS4.

I have no clue how MMO's work... Is there a server I need to use to get up with some GB users?

All help is greatly appreciated.

So its goddamn 6:20am and I'm still awake. I had no intention of staying up for the servers being turned on but goddamn if I didn't get sucked in right away. Despite all of the shitty account management stuff earlier in the night er...well technically yesterday. I'm really enjoying it so far. Of course still getting used to playing this thing on a controller which is really weird but they have a good enough setup that its manageable.

You can straight up use the touchpad as a mouse if you want to which.... doesn't work very well but its there. Anyways I went with the cat ladies again because that is what I played in FFXI and well what the hell else was I going to pick? Also picked an Arcanist and finally got to lvl 4 and unlocked my Carbuncle right before logging off. Going to sleep for like 5 hours then getting up and playing a ton more.

What server are people playing on. I made a character on server 7 but have not done much with it.

I'm planning on playing all afternoon/night on Saturday and would be cool to play with other GB users.

PSN:MZ1990

@demoskinos: I had the same deal. I was up after 5 am and didn't want to stop when I did.

I absolutely love the touch screen being used as a mouse. So clever...

I'm on your PSN Friend List but have no idea how to meet up with people. If you have a crew you normally play with I would love to join in, if possible.

Thanks...

@jbg4: Um, well my character I'm working on right now is on Beta Server 5

@demoskinos: gotcha, I think I'm on 6 because everything else was full when I created my character.

It's cool... This BETA is actually doing a really good job of selling me on the game. I'm leaning towards picking up the full version on PS4 when it releases. I never played it on PS3 but I'm thoroughly enjoying what I'm playing right now.

Is there any way to increase the font size?

Buddy of mine tried to team up on the same world but even though it was one of three highlighted for me to join the world he was already in wouldn't accept me while the other two would. We're just going to make new characters when our third friend gets back to his PS4 on Monday, hopefully we can get on the same page.

But if the fonts HAVE to be that damn small, I doubt I'll play much. Reading all that text just seemed preposterous.

@jbg4: Yep. It definetly is pretty fetch quest heavy here at the beginning but sort of comes part and parcel to the experience of a MMO so I'm not horribly offended by it or anything. Few gripes but overall seems neat.

The UI seems to have shrunk rather noticeably from the PS3 version for whatever reason. I do hope it's something that gets fixed, because squinting at all that text is rather unpleasant.

Downloading now, figure it'll give me a reason to dust off the ps4 i haven't played in weeks

@zeik: You can scale/move/remove the HUD around as you see fit. You can find the HUD options under System Settings

Some things, but not everything. I can't scale the dialogue boxes or the character status screen, or even the chat box. (Although you can at least scale the text there.)

If you select the window and click R3(or maybe L3 I forget) it should cycle through the window sizes, even for stuff that isn't available in the HUD setup menu. At least that's how it is on PS3. You should also be able to grab the corner of the chat box to resize that.

Yeah, I only played the PS3 beta out of curiosity and by the end of the first phase I had pre-ordered it I was so impressed.

lol, says my sbcglobal email is invalid? wtf

*edit* guess there was an extra space after net smh

Ah, you're right, that helped. (I had to bring up the virtual mouse with L1+R3 to do some of it, which I had forgotten about.) It still doesn't seem like I can resize the dialogue boxes though, which is a bummer.

@zeik: I've been using the touchpad as a virtual mouse and I was able to resize the chat box. I moused over to the corner then clicked by double tapping the pad and on the second tap hold it and you should be able to stretch the box or even the map screen.

Ah. I knew you could use the touchpad as a mouse, but I couldn't figure out how to actually select anything. L1+R3 still seems easier though, because then you can use L2 and R2 as left and right mouse buttons.

Btw, does anyone know how to turn off the HUD? I know you could do it in the PS3 version, but I can't remember how. (I have a faint recollection of it requiring the select button, which is kind of a problem)

See I didn't know you could use L1+R3 for it so hey we both learned something today. =)

@zeik: I believe it's scroll lock to turn off the HUD(or maybe print screen, one is turn off HUD one is screen shot) I don't know if there's a controller only option.

I played a couple hours and this game is super boring. Can't believe they charge a fee to play this plus retail price? Guess it's the final fantasy brand name

Just keep getting error 20019. Haven't even got to try it yet.