Hunter's Gazette - July 24th 2004

Welcome to Ragol.co.uk's newest feature. All stand and rise as the newest PSO publication around comes to your favourite Phantasy Star Online resource! It's the Hunter's Gazette!

Every fortnight you can look forward to a brand new edition of the Hunters Gazette which will feature articles of PSO events and happenings, special investigations, news, and much more!

In this first ever edition of the Hunter's Gazette, you can read up about the biggest event of them all as far as Video games are concerned (E3 & Phantasy Star Universe), and what the future holds for Phantasy Star...

E3 this year was special because it was the 10th Anniversary of the trade show. Held as always in Los Angeles, in sunny U.S.A, many announcements were made by all major parties that shocked us all. Trailers were shown that made us say "ooooooooh", News was detailed which made us say "aaaaaaaah", and some events just made us laugh!

Nintendo showed us what they're made of with new Legend of Zelda footage which caused quite a stir amoung every Video Game fan and especially in our Forums, and new handhelds were shown off by both Nintendo & Sony in terms of the DS and PSP.

However by far the biggest event at E3 as far as we at Ragol.co.uk are concerned, was the showing of a brand new Phantasy Star title! Yahoo!

Phantasy Star Universe

The game was of course shown at SEGA's E3 press conference, and all they did was to show a trailer. Did they even mention the game? They left us drooling for more information and all they did was walk away. Nothing was said, and all that could be known about this new title was what we could make out from the trailer. What console was it to be released on? Will it be similar to Phantasy Star Online? Give us a clue here!

It's been over 2 months since E3 took place now (Time Flies eh?), and little more has been known, but what we do know makes the game sound like a must have!

The trailer showed both the words Phantasy Star and Phantasy Star Online which could mean that Universe will be a mixture of the 2 series. In the footage, classic Phantasy Star characters were shown which means that the game will be a long awaited sequel to Phantasy Star from the SEGA MegaDrive days, but at the sametime, SEGA have stated that this game will be a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) which also means its a sequel to the Phantasy Star Online series of which we all currently live in.

News also broke out not so long ago that following on from the MMORPG news that compared to Phantasy Star Online, Episodes I, II, & III, oh so many more people will be able to play at once compared to the 4 player limitation on the current series. When we say many more we mean thousands more. Sonic Team is obviously taking this MMORPG theme seriously after all. Also the game is due to include many more races and levels then we're currently accustomed too.

Which console will it be released on? Well if we were to run a bet on such a question, of course the odds would be lowest on the Nintendo Gamecube. With the rest of the series currently being available on this console, of course it's the favourite, but you never know! News however has shown that Sonic Team have ruled out the Sony PlayStation2 because it's uncapable of handling the game.

As far as release dates go, it's all very sketchy! Sonic Team added to the Phantasy Star Universe website that they started work on the game in late June (Despite us getting a teaser at E3 in May). The only other rumour heard concerning Universe is that it is currently had a date pencilled in of Winter 2005 for Japan. However no doubt this will be altered nearer the time.

I seriously look forward to this games release whenever that is, but its not going to be available in Europe until Mid-2006 earliest in my estimation. You've got quite a wait there unfortunately :( Whenever anymore news is released, you can be sure Ragol.co.uk will be updated with it all accordingly!

Nintendo DS & Phantasy Star DS ?

Also at E3, as i have already said, Nintendo showed off their new piece of innovative hardware known as the 'Nintendo DS'. This item is (Incase you have been living under a rock) a new handheld console which is to appear on the market very soon. Please make it known it is not the new GBA, it is a totally new machine which will be sold alongside the GameBoy Advance and Nintendo Gamecube!

The Nintendo DS will feature 2 screens. One being a touch screen, and the other being... well just a usual screen! Unlike the GBA however, the bottom screen is used as the control pad. What you do on the Touch Screen affects what you do in the game on the Top Screen. This new piece is also much more powerful then the GBA. It is capable of Nintendo64 style graphics, and also comes complete with Voice Recognition Microphones, Wi-Fi (For wireless LAN play... or even possibly Online play), and a GameBoy Advance cartridge slot! For more information you can visit the Ragol.co.uk Forum thread linked at the bottom of this Article. Why am i talking about the Nintendo DS and not the Sony PSP you may ask? Because it is highly rumoured that Phantasy Star will make an appearance on this console aswell!

Phantasy Star DS (Working Title) is very exciting news indeed alongside Phantasy Star Universe! With all that the Nintendo DS is said to offer, it makes you wonder what Phantasy Star DS could offer. However alike Universe, incredibly little is known, if Sonic Team have even started working on it yet! Could it make use of the Voice recognition microphone? Could it even be Online using Wi-Fi?! We all live in hope, and again as soon as any of us here at Ragol.co.uk learn more, it will earn a place on the frontpage of the website!

The Future?

The future is indeed bright for Phantasy Star fans. What will we expect after Phantasy Star Universe? Well who knows. Will it be a huge success? We all hope so, but if it flops, could it spell the end for the series? And with the state SEGA are currently in financial-wise, will the company still be around to host another Phantasy Star game? All is unclear and only when the time comes will everything become clear, but for the moment, we all live in hope of SEGA making a full recovery, alive and well for a long time to come!

That's it for this edition of the Hunter's Gazette. I hope you've enjoyed reading the very first publication, and remember if you have any feedback on anything raised then don't be shy to use the Ragol.co.uk Forums! It's free to use by anyone, and all feedback is appreciated, whether it be about Ragol.co.uk, the Forums, or even this Hunters Gazette!

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