Sega of Japan has posted the first official Phantasy Star Online 2 trailer on the official Web site, as they promised several days ago.
Surprisingly, the folks at Sega of Japan were nice enough to translate the text in the video to English, hopefully as a nod to the Western community that this game will see a U.S. and European release.
Of course, there's still a long way to go before the game is even released in Japan. Let the speculation begin!
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Sunday, April 24, 2011
At Last, Some PSO2 Gameplay Screenshots (Updated)
In the time since Phantasy Star Online 2 was announced over six months ago, information about the game has been extremely hard to come by. When the game's Japanese alpha test was announced in February, it was done without showing any gameplay videos or screenshots.
Sega told players that more information about the game would be revealed in the coming months. And earlier today, we finally got our first glimpses of what Phantasy Star Online 2 will look like!
Larger versions of these screenshots, as well as more PSO2 images, can be found on Sega's official Phantasy Star Online 2 Web site. In addition, some brief glimpses of gameplay can be found in a video posted at PSO World (you might have to fast-forward to see them). A high-quality version of the trailer will be posted on the official Web site on Thursday.
Based on these screenshots, it looks like PSO2 will retain at least some of the visual style of Phantasy Star Universe, which is not necessarily a bad thing. The forest level pictured here certainly seems brighter than any level I ever played through in Phantasy Star Online, though I guess that could change if you were to throw in enough creepy-looking monsters. Atmosphere is key; it's difficult to tell from these screenshots and the video whether or not the environments in PSO2 will have the dark, post-apocalyptic feel that areas in PSO had.
In any case, this is a nice start. It's a good thing to finally see what this game actually looks like!
Sega told players that more information about the game would be revealed in the coming months. And earlier today, we finally got our first glimpses of what Phantasy Star Online 2 will look like!
Larger versions of these screenshots, as well as more PSO2 images, can be found on Sega's official Phantasy Star Online 2 Web site. In addition, some brief glimpses of gameplay can be found in a video posted at PSO World (you might have to fast-forward to see them). A high-quality version of the trailer will be posted on the official Web site on Thursday.
Based on these screenshots, it looks like PSO2 will retain at least some of the visual style of Phantasy Star Universe, which is not necessarily a bad thing. The forest level pictured here certainly seems brighter than any level I ever played through in Phantasy Star Online, though I guess that could change if you were to throw in enough creepy-looking monsters. Atmosphere is key; it's difficult to tell from these screenshots and the video whether or not the environments in PSO2 will have the dark, post-apocalyptic feel that areas in PSO had.
In any case, this is a nice start. It's a good thing to finally see what this game actually looks like!
Saturday, April 23, 2011
First "Update 3rd" Content Appears Next Week
The Japanese PC PSU servers will be receiving their first set of "Update 3rd" content next week to coincide with the start of a new event.
Sega's Japanese PSU Web site announced the update on Wednesday. Three new field areas will be added to the game, the first such content update since Ambition of the Illuminus was released nearly four years ago.
The release of this content coincides with the start of Maximum Attack Infinity, a special crossover event with Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity. The event runs until Thursday, May 26.
Of course, it goes without saying that players on the US/EU servers are probably going to be grumbling about this for awhile. Now that the Japanese game has begun to get legitimately new content, it will be even more difficult to swallow the schedule of mostly rehashed updates on the Xbox 360 servers.
There has been speculation in the US/EU community that "Update 3rd" could steal many of the hardcore Xbox 360 PSU players away from the regional servers. Whether or not that happens remains to be seen. However, if it does happen, Sega should make a note of it when deciding on region-separated servers for PSO2.
Sega's Japanese PSU Web site announced the update on Wednesday. Three new field areas will be added to the game, the first such content update since Ambition of the Illuminus was released nearly four years ago.
The release of this content coincides with the start of Maximum Attack Infinity, a special crossover event with Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity. The event runs until Thursday, May 26.
Of course, it goes without saying that players on the US/EU servers are probably going to be grumbling about this for awhile. Now that the Japanese game has begun to get legitimately new content, it will be even more difficult to swallow the schedule of mostly rehashed updates on the Xbox 360 servers.
There has been speculation in the US/EU community that "Update 3rd" could steal many of the hardcore Xbox 360 PSU players away from the regional servers. Whether or not that happens remains to be seen. However, if it does happen, Sega should make a note of it when deciding on region-separated servers for PSO2.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Slightly Off Topic: See, This Is What I Mean
Today I spent a little time at nVidia's geforce.com Web site getting driver updates for my graphics card. While there, I stumbled upon an interesting interview with Battlefield 3 executive producer Patrick Bach.
In the article, Bach argues that the consoles are holding PC gaming back. Because the majority of developers continue to view the consoles as "the superior platform" for gaming, they start development of new games there instead of on the PC. Bach says that by doing this, the vastly superior processing power of the PC is never harnessed.
He then discusses his solution to the problem, one that I wish more developers would use. Sonic Team, are you listening?
I agree with Bach on this subject -- I've even touched briefly on the topic right here on this blog. It would be nice if developers would do a better job of targeting the PC community when creating games. When they port console games to the PC, they usually don't bother adding any additional features or effects that can be handled more easily by a PC graphics card.
Case in point: think back to version 3 of Phantasy Star Online for the GameCube and Xbox. There were parts of Episode 2 in the GameCube version that featured great water effects. (Yes, at 256x192 the effects are a little difficult to see -- to better see what's going on, try browsing YouTube for some videos, or play the game!)
However, when PSO: Blue Burst was released, those effects were surprisingly absent. PCs at the time were more than capable of displaying them, so what happened?
It turns out that the Blue Burst PC code was ported from the Xbox version of the game, which lacked the water effects. Similar effects in the Seabed level were either missing or badly ported. (Also see: telepipes).
Of course, Phantasy Star Universe and its expansions suffer from a similar problem. Since that game was originally developed on (and ported from) the PS2, it lacks the ability to take advantage of features on modern-day graphics cards.
Thanks to these two examples, I generally try to steer clear of games that have been ported to the PC from a console, whether it be the PS3 or Xbox 360. There are some instances where the developer writes the game for consoles and later releases a texture patch to make the game look prettier on PCs; such was the case for the PC version of Dragon Age II, which got a DirectX 11 patch shortly after release. However, most developers don't do this and such games are few and far between.
This, among other things, is why I fear a console version of Phantasy Star Online 2. I've been fairly optimistic so far because neither Sega nor Sonic Team have indicated that a console version of the game is coming. Hopefully that doesn't change.
Sources:
DICE to Focus on the PC with Battlefield 3 (GeForce.com)
Hi-Res Texture Pack for Dragon Age 2 Available (TomsHardware.com)
In the article, Bach argues that the consoles are holding PC gaming back. Because the majority of developers continue to view the consoles as "the superior platform" for gaming, they start development of new games there instead of on the PC. Bach says that by doing this, the vastly superior processing power of the PC is never harnessed.
Most games are actually still based on the same core idea that the consoles are your focus, the superior platform or something. I don’t know why. That was the truth 5 years ago, but the world has moved on. PCs are way more powerful than the consoles today and there are actually almost zero games out there that actually use the benefits of this.
He then discusses his solution to the problem, one that I wish more developers would use. Sonic Team, are you listening?
So for our target of what we want to hit, we are now using the more powerful platform to try and prove what we see gaming being in the future rather than using the lowest common denominator, instead of developing it for the consoles and then just adding higher resolution textures and anti-aliasing for the PC version. We're do it the other way around, we start with the highest-end technology that we can come up with and then scale it back to the consoles.
I agree with Bach on this subject -- I've even touched briefly on the topic right here on this blog. It would be nice if developers would do a better job of targeting the PC community when creating games. When they port console games to the PC, they usually don't bother adding any additional features or effects that can be handled more easily by a PC graphics card.
Case in point: think back to version 3 of Phantasy Star Online for the GameCube and Xbox. There were parts of Episode 2 in the GameCube version that featured great water effects. (Yes, at 256x192 the effects are a little difficult to see -- to better see what's going on, try browsing YouTube for some videos, or play the game!)
However, when PSO: Blue Burst was released, those effects were surprisingly absent. PCs at the time were more than capable of displaying them, so what happened?
It turns out that the Blue Burst PC code was ported from the Xbox version of the game, which lacked the water effects. Similar effects in the Seabed level were either missing or badly ported. (Also see: telepipes).
Of course, Phantasy Star Universe and its expansions suffer from a similar problem. Since that game was originally developed on (and ported from) the PS2, it lacks the ability to take advantage of features on modern-day graphics cards.
Thanks to these two examples, I generally try to steer clear of games that have been ported to the PC from a console, whether it be the PS3 or Xbox 360. There are some instances where the developer writes the game for consoles and later releases a texture patch to make the game look prettier on PCs; such was the case for the PC version of Dragon Age II, which got a DirectX 11 patch shortly after release. However, most developers don't do this and such games are few and far between.
This, among other things, is why I fear a console version of Phantasy Star Online 2. I've been fairly optimistic so far because neither Sega nor Sonic Team have indicated that a console version of the game is coming. Hopefully that doesn't change.
Sources:
DICE to Focus on the PC with Battlefield 3 (GeForce.com)
Hi-Res Texture Pack for Dragon Age 2 Available (TomsHardware.com)
Saturday, April 9, 2011
JP PSU "Update 3rd" Content Rollout Begins This Month
Back in January, news broke of yet another set of expansion content coming to the Japanese version of Phantasy Star Universe. A few glimpses of new content were shown at the time, but no specific details were provided about the update.
However, a Web page has now appeared on the Japanese PSU Web site offering actual screenshots of the new content, dubbed "Update 3rd" and slated to hit the Japanese PC servers beginning this month.
Of particular interest are the new environments being added. I, for one, was happy to see that an actual beach level is finally being added to the game. It will be interesting to see what kinds of enemies will inhabit these areas. Hopefully we'll get to see some actual new enemies with new moves and abilities, instead of boring reskins. In any case, I must say that this is actually making me want to play on the Japanese servers!
Of course, these updates are made possible because the Japanese version of PSU has finally been freed from the shackles of console support. With the shutdown of PS2 support imminent, Sega / Sonic Team can now theoretically release as much genuinely new content as they want for PC players to enjoy. In fact, Sega has indicated that the content pictured on the Web page is only the tip of the iceberg.
If this had been done earlier, could the US/EU PC servers have been saved? Nobody will ever know. However, if this is the kind of support we could get for PSO2, then I sincerely hope that a console version of that game never sees the light of day.
However, a Web page has now appeared on the Japanese PSU Web site offering actual screenshots of the new content, dubbed "Update 3rd" and slated to hit the Japanese PC servers beginning this month.
Of particular interest are the new environments being added. I, for one, was happy to see that an actual beach level is finally being added to the game. It will be interesting to see what kinds of enemies will inhabit these areas. Hopefully we'll get to see some actual new enemies with new moves and abilities, instead of boring reskins. In any case, I must say that this is actually making me want to play on the Japanese servers!
Of course, these updates are made possible because the Japanese version of PSU has finally been freed from the shackles of console support. With the shutdown of PS2 support imminent, Sega / Sonic Team can now theoretically release as much genuinely new content as they want for PC players to enjoy. In fact, Sega has indicated that the content pictured on the Web page is only the tip of the iceberg.
If this had been done earlier, could the US/EU PC servers have been saved? Nobody will ever know. However, if this is the kind of support we could get for PSO2, then I sincerely hope that a console version of that game never sees the light of day.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
The Catch-All News Post of the Week
PSU GM Edward has announced that there will be server maintenance this week to fix a previously reported bug involving the Ares Espada SUV. The Spring Event is still going on, and it continues until maintenance on Friday, May 13, as previously reported.
In other news, players are reporting intermittent service outages and disconnections on the Xbox 360 servers. There's been no word on whether or not this is an ISP issue or just bad connections to the servers. These kinds of problems always seem to surface during events -- hopefully things will be sorted out before too long!
In other news, players are reporting intermittent service outages and disconnections on the Xbox 360 servers. There's been no word on whether or not this is an ISP issue or just bad connections to the servers. These kinds of problems always seem to surface during events -- hopefully things will be sorted out before too long!
Friday, April 1, 2011
It's PC/PS2 Shutdown Day Again
One year ago today, Sega pulled the plug on the PC/PS2 PSU servers in the United States and Europe. Affected players were reflecting on their time in the game, moving to the Xbox 360 servers, or just moving on.
At the time of the shutdown, PSU GMs had argued that the closure of the servers would clear the way for faster content updates and the potential to catch up with the Japanese version of the game. Since the PC/PS2 servers were shut down, the Xbox 360 servers have received the supplemental update, a handful of missions, and the Absolute Zero event. Last week, the "Spring Event", aka the Third Anniversary Thanks Festa, appeared on the regional servers.
That might seem like a fair amount of new content. However, in the same time frame, the Japanese game has received even more events, and a third expansion for the game has been announced. Therefore I would argue that the pace of updates has not really changed at all; in fact, I think we might be further behind now than we were at this time last year.
Perhaps the PC/PS2 servers were not profitable; I suppose that would be sufficient justification to pull the plug for any major company. However, I don't think that the server shutdown has provided any long-term benefit to the Xbox 360 servers, aside from a population increase due to the migration of PC/PS2 players. So while those servers may stay around for at least the next year or so, players shouldn't get their hopes up when it comes to playing catch-up with the Japanese.
At the time of the shutdown, PSU GMs had argued that the closure of the servers would clear the way for faster content updates and the potential to catch up with the Japanese version of the game. Since the PC/PS2 servers were shut down, the Xbox 360 servers have received the supplemental update, a handful of missions, and the Absolute Zero event. Last week, the "Spring Event", aka the Third Anniversary Thanks Festa, appeared on the regional servers.
That might seem like a fair amount of new content. However, in the same time frame, the Japanese game has received even more events, and a third expansion for the game has been announced. Therefore I would argue that the pace of updates has not really changed at all; in fact, I think we might be further behind now than we were at this time last year.
Perhaps the PC/PS2 servers were not profitable; I suppose that would be sufficient justification to pull the plug for any major company. However, I don't think that the server shutdown has provided any long-term benefit to the Xbox 360 servers, aside from a population increase due to the migration of PC/PS2 players. So while those servers may stay around for at least the next year or so, players shouldn't get their hopes up when it comes to playing catch-up with the Japanese.
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