The beginning of 2004 saw Ragol.co.uk host a second Episodes I & II competition after the success of the first Battle Tournament! However, due to the difference in the way it was played, and players not responding, the tournament was abondoned half way through :(

Also, the original Phantasy Star Online, Episodes I & II on PC had its servers closed down to make way for the much improved Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst. Meanwhile, Episode III played host to its much anticipated official competition, the SEGA Famitsu Cup!

"No more Phantasy Star Online?!" were the shocks of the month after an interview with Episode III Director Yojira Ogawa of Sonic Team stated that Phantasy Star Online was no more, and no games were in the pipeline for the future from the series. However, his comments were swiftly put to an end after E3 came around. Rumours also started up as SEGA announced this month that they will be supporting the newly announced Nintendo DS with many of their much loved franchises.

Lovers day, that is Valentines, of course was a focus as ever for Sonic Team, updating Phantasy Star Online for the holidays with their special touch including decorations for the lobbies, and a special romantic quest. Awwww...

To wrap up the month, Challenge Stage 3 of Episode II's Challenge Mode was to be added to the Nintendo Gamecube servers, whilst February also played host to yet another Episode III tournament, for Japanese website Dengeki.co.jp!

Right at the beginning of March, SEGA announced that it had begun BETA testing of the very popular Blue Burst online, with BETA releases downloadable from the Japanese website. More importantly to us here though, was the release of Episode III: C.A.R.D. Revolution in the U.S.A! For the first time, importers could now get ahold of an English version of Sonic Teams strategic masterpiece!

Not long after this, Japanese holiday 'White Day' took an affect on the PSO servers, with 2 quests (White Day and The Gift of Governor-General). Addition-wise, Challenge Mode also increased with Challenge Stage 4 of Episode II, and many Gamecube quests added to PSO on Xbox!

However, none of this compares to the biggest news of all in March... that of course being Ragol.co.uk's 1st Birthday! Many competitions were held, and much fun was had by all, may we live on for another few birthdays yet. ^_^

April kicked off with Sonic Team finally giving the new PC PSO a name... Blue Burst! on the console version of PSO however, there were truely hundreds of additions! With Easter came lobby decorations, and the true ending to Episode II, the brilliant quest 'Blue Star Memories'.

Later on in the month, came Challenge Stage 5 to Episode II, with more lobby decorating! Episode III however had 3 downloadable quests and 2 maps added, however unfortunatelt the quests were for a limited period only.

Other PSO news included many rumours of Episode III's European release, after being added to SEGA of Europe's website, Sonic Team announcing they were to crack down on 'cheating' in PSO by adding a e-mail address to the American website, and the 50Hz European server 'Fomalhaut' being unfortunately closed down due to inactivity :(

May was truely the biggest month for PSO in the year, beginning it with news finally of a European release date for Episode III, which retail store GAME quickly jumped at the chance of getting exclusive rights to sell in the UK - Not lasting very long with it!

This was also quickly followed by news from Nintendo of Europe promising us that the shortage of Nintendo Gamecube Broadband Adapters would be over when Episode III got its EU release. Something else which also didnt last long!

Episode III also had yet another official tournament held on its servers in association with Japanese gaming magazine 'Game Gather', which went down a storm as the G-1 Grand Prix! Also on Episode III were news quests including 'Ripple' and the 'EGM Quest' once again based around a video game magazine where you have to save the Editors!

Episodes I & II had Battle Rules 7 and 8 added for online play, and also piggybacking on top of the european release of Episode III, a new payment system was added for 90 Day Hunter Liscenses! The Xbox version of PSO also gained in the forms of Episode II's Challenge Stages.

Blue Burst went live for more BETA testing for all those lucky Japanese PSO-addicts to enjoy, and also got the chance to meet Sonic the Hedgehog on the servers while they were at it - as if one new game wasnt enough eh?

Finally, E3 was of course the main attraction in May, which saw millions of gaming media flock to L.A. for all the big announcements. To the shock and horror of all of us here, E3 included the announcement of Phantasy Star Universe, with a sweet trailer being shown, accompanying the news that it was to be the biggest MMORPG to date! Sadly, that was all the news for us, but to be honest, it was enough.

Its open season! In June, people from all over the world had an opportunity to get a mark of their own on Episode III as Sonic Team announced the Phantasy Star Online Olympics! To coincide with the Athens world Olympics, Sonic Team wanted in on the action by hosting a competition with no similarities whatsoever! Draw your on piece of PSO art, send it to them, and you could see it in the lobbies to show the rest of the world!

Corporation-wise, as SEGA was getting into a bit of financial trouble, re-organising all of its internal studios, it announced they were merging with Japanese arcade manufacturer Sammy to become SEGA Sammy Holdings. SEGA as a games company though did not change thankfully!

After much confusion, Episode III finally saw its European release on June 11th 2004, and Sonic Team added all of its previous download quests back to the servers for another limited time only so us Europeans wouldnt have missed any of the essentials after all ^_^

Episodes I & II on Gamecube and Xbox saw 2 completely different updates as usual in the month of June, including Wedding Decorations in keeping with a Japanese tradition at that time, and also to celebrate Sonic the Hedgehog's birthday! On this note, SEGA of Europe announced on its website that Sonic would himself be roaming around European lobbies on June 21st!

Quest-wise, the Xbox recieved the final installment of Episode II's Challenge Stage, while Gamecube recieved 'The Respective Tommorrow' after the popularity of 'Towards The Future' online!

As the year grew on PSO only got bigger and stronger, so be sure to check out part 2 of our 2004 special next fortnight, only on Ragol.co.uk!

For more information on all of the years events, why not check out previous editions of the Hunters Gazette, all available on our Articles pages ^_^