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| | The Ragol.co.uk Hunters Gazette |
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IN YER FACE! |
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We've come a long way baby over the past few years, and we turn back the hands of time for this fortnights Ragol.co.uk Hunters Gazette to celebrate just how far Phantasy Star Online has come. |
Arguably the very first online console game, the game that defined what online gaming was all about, Phantasy Star Online went about telling other developers how the internet can be used to play games today, and although it's home, the SEGA Dreamcast fell, PSO rose up above the rest and stayed in people homes with it still being played on today by hundreds and thousands. Released just 4 days before christmas in Japan in the year 2000, SEGA had a unknown golden child, and it all started after some clever employee brought up the idea of reworking the SEGA MegaDrive's Phantasy Star (Which started in 1988!), to work with the SEGA Dreamcast to show of it's true capabilities. 
The SEGA Dreamcast got its release in September 1999, ready to bring the games industry into the new millenium, with all new features, bigger and better graphics, greater games, and so forth. It was a revolutionary console. It had controllers with vibration functions and screens to help you feel like a bigger part of the game, and it had normal 4 player multiplayer support aswell as the huge aspect of internet gaming.  At the time, the internet was no where near as big as it is today, and because this is probabily one of the SEGA Dreamcasts biggest features, this is in my opinion, why the Dreamcast failed to really take off well. Broadband was really unheard of, and everyone had 56K... well the few who actually knew about the Internet and wanted to use it that was, aswell as pay a fortune to use it.
The internet was slow, expensive, and not as popular as today, and wasnt really great for games with a lot of LAG and long connection/loading times with new players connecting upto the games networks. However, despite this, SEGA demanded there was a way to show people the true potential of an online games system. Sure there were a few games that had tried, but never really showed any potential, so SEGA decided to do it itself, and Sonic Team, the creators and geniuses of Sonic the Hedgehog & Co. were set the challenge. They decided to re-establish a previous games series that had also been popular at it's time. To do this the series would have to have had a storyline that could be reworked and built upon, had a fairly big fanbase to help kick the new game off, and had a futuristic appeal that could be used to base the game around, because, afterall, the internet was really a very futuristic kind of item, so a futuristic game to go with it would be like putting bread and butter together. They decided to build upon Phantasy Star - The games set in the future, with space travel and the Algol Planet System, a lot of action, adventure, and many aspects that could be incorporated into a new game to give gamers a real hit. With Phantasy Star the chosen series, it was now time to rework it all to fit into the SEGA Dreamcast, with as many features as possible to show off the Dreamcasts power. Obviously with the Dreamcasts grapics capabilities, it had to be 3D, so no more of the Phantasy Star 2D, because that just really wouldnt do anything for the game in terms of how it shows off the potential. Also, turn based combat wouldnt show it off, it needed to give people an adrenaline rush of sorts. A full blown adventure game, now you're talking. With plenty of action, characters would run around set levels, and kill different monsters there and then, with swipes of different weapons. You put a lot of factors into the main game, you've got a fast paced action adventure with a difference, that will definately take to a lot of peoples likings. Now to show it off on the Dreamcast, we HAVE to give it online support. A huge adventure with lots of fast action on a 56K modem? Surely wouldn't work, but it will do, and will be perfect to show people what Dreamcast and online gaming can do. People will chat in chat rooms before they are put into the action part of the game so they can get to know one another and choose who they play with. That way they can play with personal friends from all over the world, instead of having them all come over to the same room just to play together. It's an amazing idea, but can the Dreamcast really handle it? Yes, yes it can. The SEGA Dreamcast is an immense machine, that SEGA have built and put together for such great games with such great power, such as this new game, made for this reason, to show people what it can do. The game that is called Phantasy Star, Online. It's a HUGE game, that took off straight away. It sold by the thousands, it shifted SEGA Dreamcast consoles, with people now knowing just what can be done. Everyone loved it, with the game getting raving reviews from the gaming press at the time, and even still today, the game is remembered well. IGN Dreamcast DC gamers have been waiting for a good reason to get online. And here it is. 9.3/10 EGM Phantasy Star Online continues in the tradition of one of the most popular series of all time, and becomes a revolutionary and truly global gaming experience in an online, persistent world. It even won many awards, and to date has picked up several internationally including a BAFTA! So as you can see, the game had an instant success overhaul and Sonic Team had really done it again. Today the game has been reworked several times, appearing also on the Nintendo Gamecube, Microsoft Xbox, and now the PC in the form of Blue Burst. Just before we go, we've got an amazing blast from the past for you all to enjoy. This is the very original Japanese television advertisement for Phantasy Star Online. It's fairly short, but amazing to watch and really will take you back as you watch it being advertised to it's fullest. Click Here to Download or visit the Downloads Page [4.51Mb] If you'd like to comment on this editions main article, then do it in our forums, in this particular Ragol.co.uk Forum Thread! Share your point of view with the world! Do you agree, dont you agree, DO post on our forums!  He's back! After about a month's holiday (I hear he went to the Casino Village - Must have been all those savings on eBay!), our great Chao is back reporting on the greats available to all you budding eBuyers. What have you got for us this time, Chao?  Some neato items there, so if you're interested - click on the item! All prices were correct as of 14th July 2005 (Afternoon GMT)
Chao, for now! - European Hunters to receieve the Future Expectations (2004)
- The PSO Illustration Olympics Kick Off! (2004)
- Episode III and Episodes I & II lobbies to receive joint ownership! (2003)
- Episode III too difficult?! (2003)
 | | The Ragol.co.uk Hunters Gazette |
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Credits July 15th 2005 Hunters Gazette Edition by: Lee-yoshi
Images: Lee-yoshi
© Ragol .co.uk |
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