Sonic Team of Japan again recently updated the Japanese version of Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst with another brand new quest!

• Kidnapped
• Episode I

The ruins is the location of this meaty battle as you attempt to recapture a lost soul! Spread across the differing difficulties of the game, this is no easy challenge, as many enemies stand in your way - Take it on alone, if you dare... or grab a few friends as this quest is playable for between 1 & 4 players! A reward awaits...

Sonic Team of Japan are more involved with PSO now, even though you'd have thought PSU was their major concern at this moment in time! Japanese Blue Burst is getting some seriously cool updates:

• 'Vagrancy Merchant'
• Pioneer 2 - All Episodes
• 30th May 2006

Some new guy has appeared on Pioneer 2! Who the bloody hell is that? Are illegal immigrants now making their mark on the world of Phantasy Star Online?! Well maybe, but who really cares, because he wants to make some great (And maybe 'dodgy' deals?). Got too much Meseta? Of course you have! Well this guy may be able to help you out. Rumour has it he'll be able to convert your shiny yellow meseta into cool new "accessories"! Rare Weapons? Items? There's only one way to find out what this guy's got under his coat - Give him some money! And do remember, this is a game of which the experience and games rating may change when you play it online! ;)

• Maximum Attack 4
• Episodes I, II, & IV

A new Maximum Attack quest is coming, and it's spread across ALL FOUR EPISODES! Amazing sounding stuff eh?

Coming this summer and lasting over a period of 6 weeks, to celebrate Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst's 2nd Anniversary - Which is on 8th July - Pioneer 2's findings show that there are abnormally large Photon readings coming from all four regions of Ragol. Emergency is declared and sweeping is to take place throughout all of the various locations thoughout Ragol to discover and reduce the Photon readings back to normal.

Each week a different subject for the main objective of Maximum Attack 4 may change, so there's a different target for all players to aim for.

The basic aim of the series of quests are to sweep through the different locations within a restrictive amount of time. However, the quest could take you from areas of one episode, to another, using all the different zones of all four episodes! A different quest each week means a whole variety of differing quest aspects each week, which could include (But not limited too) a different route, amount of enemies, time, and even rare drop ratio's. You may even at times pull a totally random quest out of the hat and racieve totally random benefits upon completion of the quest in question. And as if that wasn't enough, there's even a possibility of a few ALL NEW rares! It's all incredibly exciting stuff to look forward too this summer... but of course to be a part of it, you've got to play the Japanese version of Blue Burst. Sorry!

Apologies for the lack of updates recently, however if you have been curious as to the news Ragol.co.uk brought you earlier concerning the conversion of the Japanese Hunters License for the SEGA Dreamcast of Phantasy Star Online's online play, well now it's happened, and the License is now totally free to collect!

For people to play in this new way, new IP addresses for the DNS are required and are as follows for both the Dial-Up and Broadband adapter dial-up techniques:

• Primary DNS
• 202.221.244.21
• Secondary DNS
• 202.221.244.22

Obviously the lack of people interested and taking this news seriously is going to be very limited over here, but it's a nice big step to hear that servers for older versions of Phantasy Star Online are not being forgotten by Sonic Team despite the fact that we've come a long way since it's initial release on the SEGA Dreamcast.

Nintendo news site Cubed3 is reporting that SEGA Sammy have revealed what consoles they're developing for and releasing for in the next fiscal year (That is, between April 1st 2006 & March 31st 2007). So, what's SEGA got in store for us?

• PlayStation2
• 28 titles
• PlayStation3
• 17 titles
• Sony PSP
• 29 titles
• GameBoy Advance
• 2 titles
• Nintendo DS
• 17 titles
• Nintendo Gamecube
• 2 titles
• Nintendo Wii
• 7 titles
• Xbox
• 1 title
• Xbox360
• 14 titles

So, what have SEGA got in store for us within the next year? Phantasy Star Universe is heading for PlayStation2 & Xbox360 (As well as PC), but have we anymore surprises coming our way? There's only one way to find out! However SEGA are really upping their game by releasing so many titles compared to previous years, they're definately here to stay! The Sony consoles are definately getting the majority of SEGA Sammy's love, so have we something more there?

Guess what, English Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst has been granted the last quest within Episode IV's 'War of Limits' series! Be sure to check it out... but, oh wait, there's more!

For the next week, all Episode IV quests hold double experience behind every kill - There's never been a better time... EXCEPT if you prefer to go rare hunting, in which case Episode II quests might be a better bet as the week also holds a doubling towards Rare drops in all Episode II quests! Rares or Experience, rares or experience... oooh, tough choice...

Happy Hunting!

Recently had trouble with the Nintendo Gamecube Phantasy Star Online servers? Well don't worry, so has everyone else it seems.

Sonic Team has today issued a statement concerning the matter, which basically talks about how people who have been attempting to log in to Sonic Team's servers, have been experiencing the following errors:

• Connections being cut-off at the Ship Selection Menu
• Connections being cut-off after recieving Communication Errors

The source of the error is from external interference which is currently being investigated by Sonic Team having found the cause to be from illegitimate data packet forwarding.

The errors in question should now be gone, and service should have resumed normality since 6am BST of 12th May 2006. Sonic Team apologises for everyone who has been troubled by this event.

Yes, we all love Phantasy Star Universe, and we're even more in love with the fact that the game is never going to be released... BUT WAIT! There maybe some hope now as 'the_importer' has once again gotten in contact with Ragol.co.uk, and having contacted an aparently reliable games import website otherwise known as NSC (Online at http://www.nscx.com), the Japanese release date has been set for Phantasy Star Universe currently at 31st August 2006.

Also having had a quick gander myself at other websites, other Japanese import games site Lik-Sang.com has a release date, not for the Japanese version, but for the American NTSC version of Universe! That is set at 24th October 2006.

If the dates are indeed true (And they seem to be fairly on the money from what we all know at this time with it's official Autumn '06 release date), then we've still got a little wait on our hands unfortunately. Also if they're true, SEGA will really be trying their luck as releasing a game around the end of this year on established consoles will of course mean throwing Universe into a new console release impact zone as both Sony's PlayStation3 and Nintendo's Wii consoles are set to debut at just around this time.

What do you think? Post in our community forums - Click the 'Comments...' link under the headline!

The Japanese closed BETA test for Phantasy Star Universe has ended, and therefore it's only right we change the poll, but before we do, let's see what you said...

• What do you think to the current JP PSU BETA test?
  • It's AMAZING! I'm BETA testing :p
    21.7% (27 Votes)
  • It'd probabily be great, if it wasn't all bloody Japanese!
    46.7% (58 Votes)
  • I'm so angry i could smash my computer monitor - But i won't because it's currently on Ragol.co.uk!
    31.4% (39 Votes)
    • 124 Total Votes

It seems that the majority of people may be BETA testing, if it wasn't for the fact that it was all in Japanese! Well, that's what you get from a Japanese BETA test! :p Others were relatively angry at the fact that we're not allowed to BETA test the game (But didn't smash their computer monitors in anger because they were on Ragol.co.uk! Good for you!) while those who were BETA testing couldn't get enough of it - Dam you! Cheers for all the votes!

This time around let's see what you'll be getting Universe on now that it's also been announced for Microsoft's newest home entertainment system, the Xbox360. Has it made a change to the way you'll be walking into your local games shop when the game get's released, or will you still be makinga B-line for the PC or PlayStation2 shelves? Vote now!

According to Ragol.co.uk Forumer voxie (In this thread), games website GameSpot have been paying quite some attention to Phantasy Star Universe at E3 over the past couple of days (And who could blame them!). With this, GameSpot have uploaded a few Gameplay movies of Universe from E3, some of which also show how the game has been dubbed over in English.

Not a great revelation but an important one, as it means we're surely getting closer to a Western launch of the game at last as we wait for SEGA of America/SEGA of Europe to translate the game to fit our non-Japanese tongues.

Nonetheless, click here to go to GameSpot's media page where you can download them for yourselves to bask in their glory!

Straight from E3 (What, you couldn't make it?! We feel your pain), SEGA of America have released lots of great action-packed high-res screen work from Phantasy Star Universe (24 to be precise), and we've got 'em first, as well as the official Box Art (Also in very high-res!) for the game when it's launched in North America later this year for all three formats (Meaning that the game will not be a downloadable title on PC alike Blue Burst?).

Guess which one's which! Enjoy!

• Phantasy Star Universe North American (NTSC) Box Art

• Phantasy Star Universe High-Res Screenshots

Remember that we've also got the biggest Phantasy Star Universe article in town, giving you pratically everything you ever wanted to know about the upcoming Online RPG! Click Here to see it, with loads more media concerning Universe as well if you haven't already seen it (What are you mad?!)

'the_importer' has once again gotten in contact with Ragol.co.uk, having stumbled across an old Preview from just about this time last year for Phantasy Star Universe from GameSpy.

At the time GameSpy were previewing the PC version of the title, of which you can read by clicking here. But what's worthy here of note?

Well, you know that thing you need to play Phantasy Star Online online? Well you'll need one for Universe too! Yes, it's our good ol' friend, the Hunters License! What's worse though is that the license in question will cost you $13 US a month! Considering American hunters currently pay $8.95 for a 30 day Hunters License, that's quite a step up.

There is a possibility that it could also include a Hunters License for the other current versions of Phantasy Star Online, so hopefully there is a bit of comfort, although if not, it'll be a deep blow to your pockets if you want to enjoy PSO alongside PSU indeed...

SEGA of Europe have once again reshuffled their website homepage to accompany everything E3 2006! Everyday SEGA is planning on announcing yet more games, and with those games comes a teaser trailer on http://www.sega-europe.com.

So far there is footage of Super Monkey Ball Adventure & Medieval 2: Total War, while the other days have been cunningly darkened. If you gaze carefully though you get an idea of what to expect, and unfortunately it doesn't look like there's anything Phantasy Star there. But no worries, E3 hasn't even begun yet, and who knows what to expect? (Well... apart from SEGA of course!)

As we previously reported on, it now seems as if the man we all know and love from SEGA's Sonic Team has now left to setup his own games development studio. Yuji Naka has split from Sonic Team to setup Prope Ltd..

The split doesn't however mean that Naka-san has entirely left SEGA as the studio's are still partially funded by the games corporation.

"Prope (Pronounced "Pro-pe") is a latin word which means 'beside' and 'near'.

We named our company PROPE in the hopes of bringing game entertainment much closer to users, establishing closer ties between users and us, and creating near future entertainment."

Yuji Naka is the reason we've enjoyed franchises such as Sonic the Hedgehog & of course Phantasy Star Online, so who knows what genius will come from this all new studio headed by the man with all the crazy idea's himself!

SEGA of America & SEGA of Europe Ltd. today officially confirmed that Phantasy Star Universe would be one of many titles making it's mark at this years E3.

"Phantasy Star Universe gives players the best of both worlds by offering the depth of single player adventure and the thrill of online cooperative gameplay. Played offline, Phantasy Star Universe joins real-time action gameplay with rich character customization and an enormous solar system to create a fast paced and emotionally engaging RPG experience. Played online, the title gives players an opportunity to travel with a squad of other adventurers, enter urban sprawls teeming with hundreds of players, and build their avatars into powerful warriors. A rich and exciting universe awaits!" - SEGA Press Release

Phantasy Star Universe is just one a many titles that those lucky guys who are off to E3 in less then a weeks time can awe at, including:

• Chromehounds (Xbox360)
• The Club (PlayStation3, Xbox360)
• Full Auto 2: Battlelines (PlayStation3)
• Medieval II: Total War (PC)
• SEGA Rally Revolution (PlayStation2, Xbox360)
• Sonic Rivals (Sony PSP)
• Sonic the Hedgehog (PlayStation3, Xbox360)
• Super Monkey Ball Adventure (PlayStation2, Nintendo Gamecube, Sony PSP)
• Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz (Nintendo Wii)
• Virtua Tennis 3 (PlayStation 3)
• World Pool Championship 2007 (PlayStation2, Sony PSP
• Yakuza (PlayStation2)

Should certainly be a great E3 for SEGA this year, while the stole get's stolen by both Nintendo & Sony as they reveal more about the Nintendo Wii & PlayStation3 respectively, both due for release before the year ends.

Sonic Team of Japan have once more updated Phantasy Star Universe with even more goodies for those playing through the current Japanese closed BETA test. Wanna know what? Well read this way...

• Preserving the Mizuraki Defense

This quest is playable for between 1 & 6 players and can be found at the Outoka city counter.

• Flying Animal Supression

This quest is playable for between 1 & 6 players and can be found at the Kego plains counter.

• Dressings Shop Opens!

Just like in Phantasy Star Online's Dressing Room, a new shop has opened that allows you to change your hair colour, the colour of your lips, and much more!

• SUV Weapon's Enabled!

These exclusive Cast weapons have now been enabled and unlocked for use at the weapons shops - However, before you can use it, your character has to be over Level 20.

• Nano-Blast Enabled!

It's also now possible to equip the special 'Blast Badges' which unlock your characters Nano-Blast feature (Exclusive to Beast characters). To use the nano-blast, your character must be over Level 20.

• New Weapons Available!
• Long Stick (Rod)
• Long Bow (Bow)

Sonic Team of Japan have also adjusted many of the games properties following feedback from players of the BETA test so that... well, it works better! There are a lot of items on the list, so i won't post them here! Enjoy it you lucky, lucky people!