Thanksgiving is fast approaching. You might remember that around this time last year, PSU GMs announced a new time attack competition known as the Great Gurhalian Cup. It was basically a GM-run event in which teams of players raced one another through various missions, in a tournament-bracket format, to be declared "time attack champions" and win some prizes.
If you were wondering whether or not the competition would return in 2009, you were probably the only one. But don't worry! The second annual Gurhalian Cup time attack tournament has been announced on the official PSU forums. The team rules have changed for this year's competition, and they're pretty confusing, so be sure to read the announcement thread if you're interested in entering the contest.
Overall, I think it's nice that Sega of America does things like this to mix up the grind and generate some renewed interest in the game. However, as I've said all along, events like these really don't excuse the lack of content updates.
Last year, PSU GMs said that the Gurhalian Cup would not interrupt regularly scheduled content updates. A lot of people (including myself) were skeptical, but fortunately we were proven wrong. This year's event actually doesn't start until January 2010 -- hopefully the game will see some new content before then. At this point in the game's lifetime, when a lot of players are leaving, it would be devastating to use this event as a method of holding players over until the next update.
Here's hoping that we'll see new content alongside the Gurhalian Cup in 2010!
Monday, November 23, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Little Bit Ridiculous
A point of contention in the PSU community lately has been whether or not to offer digital downloads of the PSU client to potential players/subscribers. I suppose this is because hard copies of the game have become incredibly hard to find, and console players whose discs are failing after long periods of use are losing out.
On the official Sega forums, GM Edward has started a thread in which he asks for suggestions on a digital download feature for PSU. Personally, I think it's a great idea -- it could provide a way to get new players into the game -- but that's not why I decided to write this blog entry.
A post in the thread shows that you can still get hard copies of the original PSU game on Amazon -- for a price. I couldn't believe what they were charging for the Xbox 360 version, so I had to check it out myself.
That's right. Now you too can own the original Phantasy Star Universe for the low, low price of $113.99! Honestly, who would be stupid enough to buy this?
On the official Sega forums, GM Edward has started a thread in which he asks for suggestions on a digital download feature for PSU. Personally, I think it's a great idea -- it could provide a way to get new players into the game -- but that's not why I decided to write this blog entry.
A post in the thread shows that you can still get hard copies of the original PSU game on Amazon -- for a price. I couldn't believe what they were charging for the Xbox 360 version, so I had to check it out myself.
(Click the image to view it full size)
That's right. Now you too can own the original Phantasy Star Universe for the low, low price of $113.99! Honestly, who would be stupid enough to buy this?
Monday, October 26, 2009
Oh no, a new Mission Spotlight is on the way
I've noticed that there was a topic asking about Mission Spotlight with a poll for possible missions. GM Edward has allowed the poll to determine what the mission will be and unfortunately it seems that Bladed Legacy has won. Not only is the mission horrible but it has also been done TWICE already for the Mission Spotlight.
I could go into the whole thing about how it's not fun, doesn't have great drops and how having cheap monsters/attacks isn't equal to being difficult but I'd rather not beat that dead horse anymore.
I'd rather have some updates than this filler but at the very least a better mission could have been chosen for it.
In related news: There was a Mission Spotlight last week at the mission "The Black Nest" but I didn't care enough to post about it.
I could go into the whole thing about how it's not fun, doesn't have great drops and how having cheap monsters/attacks isn't equal to being difficult but I'd rather not beat that dead horse anymore.
I'd rather have some updates than this filler but at the very least a better mission could have been chosen for it.
In related news: There was a Mission Spotlight last week at the mission "The Black Nest" but I didn't care enough to post about it.
PSU Turns Three
And to think I almost missed this occasion! This past Saturday, PSU officially made it through its third year of existence in the United States and Europe.
Last year at this time, I put together a similar anniversary post in which I ranted about the slow trickle of content updates being made available on the US/EU servers. I argued that continuing this policy of drip-feeding content in the third year would cause many players to quit the game:
Let's take a look back at Year Three and see what significant new content we've gotten since last October 24.
Sega has done a lot better with events, however. In the past year we've had four events, which succeeded in bringing back some players (at least for a little while). However, the regular population continues to decline on both the PC/PS2 and Xbox 360 servers in between these events.
The next major content update hits October 30, with the Guardians Colony GBR, the Colony rare mission, and a level cap increase to 170. However, this seems about on par with the monthly update strategy that Sega seems to be employing, so I don't expect the population situation to change anytime soon. There are certainly some interesting times in store for the next year. Will we make it to a fourth anniversary?
Honestly, I'm rather amazed that we made it to the third anniversary!
Last year at this time, I put together a similar anniversary post in which I ranted about the slow trickle of content updates being made available on the US/EU servers. I argued that continuing this policy of drip-feeding content in the third year would cause many players to quit the game:
As we enter the game's third year, there's still quite a bit of content left to see. Events, S3 missions, story missions, and plenty of other stuff is out there. Sega needs to get on the ball and get the game back on track, though; otherwise, PSU may not ever make it to October 24 again.
Let's take a look back at Year Three and see what significant new content we've gotten since last October 24.
- - Master classes and new story mission (Ep3 Chapter 6) -- December 19, 2008
- - Winter Mission Carnival -- January 23, 2009
- - Desert Arms Shop -- March 27, 2009
- - Shred the Darkness -- April 17, 2009
- - Innocent Girl -- June 12, 2009
- - Protectors: Gamma/Delta -- July 3, 2009
- - First S3 missions -- August 7, 2009
- - Moatoob Relics (Citadel of Sand) and new party mission (Security Breach) -- August 28, 2009
- - Protectors: Alpha+/Beta+ -- September 25, 2009
- - New story mission (Ep3 Chapter 7) -- October 6, 2009
Sega has done a lot better with events, however. In the past year we've had four events, which succeeded in bringing back some players (at least for a little while). However, the regular population continues to decline on both the PC/PS2 and Xbox 360 servers in between these events.
The next major content update hits October 30, with the Guardians Colony GBR, the Colony rare mission, and a level cap increase to 170. However, this seems about on par with the monthly update strategy that Sega seems to be employing, so I don't expect the population situation to change anytime soon. There are certainly some interesting times in store for the next year. Will we make it to a fourth anniversary?
Honestly, I'm rather amazed that we made it to the third anniversary!
Friday, October 23, 2009
GameGuard Not Fixed for Windows 7 RTM
That's right. The GameGuard errors that first appeared in the Windows 7 Beta nearly ten months ago have still not been fixed.
Back in January I didn't really have a problem with this. Most companies generally don't develop software fixes to work with beta versions of operating systems. However, now that Windows 7 is released and available to the general public, there is simply no excuse for this. An official fix for this error should have been in production prior to the release of the RTM build, but it doesn't look like that happened.
That doesn't mean you can't play PSU on Windows 7, though. A special Windows 7-compatible version of the GameGuard executable is available for download at this site. Once it's downloaded, extract the GameGuard.des file to your PHANTASY STAR UNIVERSE Illuminus program files folder (not the GameGuard folder) and start the game. Or, if you're running Windows 7 x64, you could try the workaround we posted back in January.
In any case, GameGuard's continued lack of official Windows 7 support is a little bit irritating. INCA Internet, Sega, and anyone else responsible for making PSU work in Windows 7 should get working on it.
Of course, Sega could also do the smart thing and drop GameGuard altogether...
Back in January I didn't really have a problem with this. Most companies generally don't develop software fixes to work with beta versions of operating systems. However, now that Windows 7 is released and available to the general public, there is simply no excuse for this. An official fix for this error should have been in production prior to the release of the RTM build, but it doesn't look like that happened.
That doesn't mean you can't play PSU on Windows 7, though. A special Windows 7-compatible version of the GameGuard executable is available for download at this site. Once it's downloaded, extract the GameGuard.des file to your PHANTASY STAR UNIVERSE Illuminus program files folder (not the GameGuard folder) and start the game. Or, if you're running Windows 7 x64, you could try the workaround we posted back in January.
In any case, GameGuard's continued lack of official Windows 7 support is a little bit irritating. INCA Internet, Sega, and anyone else responsible for making PSU work in Windows 7 should get working on it.
Of course, Sega could also do the smart thing and drop GameGuard altogether...
Friday, October 2, 2009
PSP2, PSU, and PSO: I'm Still Confused
Back in March, I commented a little about the relationship between Phantasy Star Portable and PSU. The two games are not all that different, but despite all of the critical acclaim PSP received at launch, the population of PSU remained in decline. I figured that Sonic Team would use the success of PSP to make some changes for PSU.
As usual, I was wrong. It seems instead that Sonic Team has put all of their efforts into the development of Phantasy Star Portable 2, a sequel that looks more to me like Phantasy Star Online than the current incarnation of PSU. In fact, it almost looks like a hybrid of PSO and PSU -- at first glance, the game appears to mix the best of PSU's gameplay (combat, PAs, items) with some of PSO's game mechanics (character-based PP, level-based skill disks, etc). And unlike the original game, Phantasy Star Portable 2 will have a true online mode (as opposed to just the ad-hoc mode PSP1 had).
That begs the question: what exactly are Sonic Team's plans for PSU? Is Sega content to just let the game die while the PSP games grow in popularity? Hopefully not -- I'd like to see the console version continue to exist, either through some sort of update or through the development of a brand new game. PSU has more potential for improvement and expansion than any of the portable games ever will, and it would be nice to see Sonic Team use the PSP games as a way of getting new players into PSU.
Sadly, that doesn't seem to have happened yet. Hopefully Sonic Team will figure it out once PSP2 hits retail.
As usual, I was wrong. It seems instead that Sonic Team has put all of their efforts into the development of Phantasy Star Portable 2, a sequel that looks more to me like Phantasy Star Online than the current incarnation of PSU. In fact, it almost looks like a hybrid of PSO and PSU -- at first glance, the game appears to mix the best of PSU's gameplay (combat, PAs, items) with some of PSO's game mechanics (character-based PP, level-based skill disks, etc). And unlike the original game, Phantasy Star Portable 2 will have a true online mode (as opposed to just the ad-hoc mode PSP1 had).
That begs the question: what exactly are Sonic Team's plans for PSU? Is Sega content to just let the game die while the PSP games grow in popularity? Hopefully not -- I'd like to see the console version continue to exist, either through some sort of update or through the development of a brand new game. PSU has more potential for improvement and expansion than any of the portable games ever will, and it would be nice to see Sonic Team use the PSP games as a way of getting new players into PSU.
Sadly, that doesn't seem to have happened yet. Hopefully Sonic Team will figure it out once PSP2 hits retail.
Friday, September 18, 2009
GameGuard and Common Sense: Sega, Read This
Since the spring of 2005, PSO Blue Burst and PSU players have been plagued with the cancer that is INCA Internet's nProtect GameGuard. The so-called "anti-hacking" software has been bundled with each game, despite player complaints that it doesn't play nice with other software, or even other operating systems.
To make things worse, the software often fails to do its job correctly, as many of us have undoubtedly seen on more than one occasion.
While Sega doesn't seem to be ditching GameGuard anytime soon, it looks like one company has seen the light (at least for now).
NCsoft West has announced that they will be dropping GameGuard from their newest MMORPG, Aion. The game had apparently employed the "services" of GameGuard in seven prior beta tests in the United States and Europe, and it seems that enough players had problems with the intrusive anti-cheating software to convince NCsoft to get rid of it for the final release (again, at least for now):
If only Sega thought like this! Instead, the company remains committed to GameGuard, even after 4+ years of duping, glitching, hacking, and other general GameGuard frustrations. A little bit of effective in-game monitoring would go a long way to keep hackers out -- not to mention taking action when hacking or glitching issues do arise.
Decisions like these go a long way in proving the ineffective nature of GameGuard. Though Sega may not want to get rid of it, hopefully more companies running online games will.
To make things worse, the software often fails to do its job correctly, as many of us have undoubtedly seen on more than one occasion.
While Sega doesn't seem to be ditching GameGuard anytime soon, it looks like one company has seen the light (at least for now).
NCsoft West has announced that they will be dropping GameGuard from their newest MMORPG, Aion. The game had apparently employed the "services" of GameGuard in seven prior beta tests in the United States and Europe, and it seems that enough players had problems with the intrusive anti-cheating software to convince NCsoft to get rid of it for the final release (again, at least for now):
After analyzing our open beta test results Aion will not feature GameGuard at launch. We will however continue to pursue ways to effectively utilize GameGuard within Aion in the future. Right now we're focused on providing players with the best possible Aion experience.
If only Sega thought like this! Instead, the company remains committed to GameGuard, even after 4+ years of duping, glitching, hacking, and other general GameGuard frustrations. A little bit of effective in-game monitoring would go a long way to keep hackers out -- not to mention taking action when hacking or glitching issues do arise.
Decisions like these go a long way in proving the ineffective nature of GameGuard. Though Sega may not want to get rid of it, hopefully more companies running online games will.
Monday, September 14, 2009
I heard you like your PSU dead.
So I haven't been motivated to play PSU much since that boring Moatoob GBR came along therefore I haven't bothered to post here. I'd rather have had the Summer Event/Protectors missions extended so Alpha+ and Beta+ could have been released; Sega could have just shortened the GBR or canceled it. I wouldn't matter to me the Moatoob missions from the original game suck, seriously.
Anyway it seems that the apathy created by the Moatoob GBR is contagious. The PC/PS2 servers no longer get a solid star on any universe, there is a post with an image of it from last month in a screen shot topic.
Oddly enough about a year ago I posted about how the PC/PS2 servers were passed the point of no return in regards to the population recovering; it's unfortunate that my pessimistic outlook has come true. While I knew there was no hope for recovery I secretly hoped I was wrong, after all PSU is a game that I like despite its problems; but with a failing community it gets harder to justify paying to play the game.
The Xbox360 servers also seem to have had a population drop as well according to this post, although it isn't anywhere as bad as the PC/PS2 servers. I think it's a good time to merge the servers, but that won't happen.
Well I'll see if I can get motivated to play the game before it's totally dead. Sega can help by speeding up the release of updates and cutting down the time given to boring events (ex: GBR).
I've created a crude tombstone for PSU; I'd like to think that I put more effort into it than Sega of Japan did for our updates. Lol, zing.
Anyway it seems that the apathy created by the Moatoob GBR is contagious. The PC/PS2 servers no longer get a solid star on any universe, there is a post with an image of it from last month in a screen shot topic.
Oddly enough about a year ago I posted about how the PC/PS2 servers were passed the point of no return in regards to the population recovering; it's unfortunate that my pessimistic outlook has come true. While I knew there was no hope for recovery I secretly hoped I was wrong, after all PSU is a game that I like despite its problems; but with a failing community it gets harder to justify paying to play the game.
The Xbox360 servers also seem to have had a population drop as well according to this post, although it isn't anywhere as bad as the PC/PS2 servers. I think it's a good time to merge the servers, but that won't happen.
Well I'll see if I can get motivated to play the game before it's totally dead. Sega can help by speeding up the release of updates and cutting down the time given to boring events (ex: GBR).
I've created a crude tombstone for PSU; I'd like to think that I put more effort into it than Sega of Japan did for our updates. Lol, zing.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Update for August 28th
GM Edward has posted there will be two new missions this Friday.
They are:
Free mission: Citadel of Sand (aka Desert Stronghold)
Co-op mission: Security Breach
More information can be found on Sega's Quest Update page.
This is a decent update and certainly better than what I expected. The new co-op mission sounds pretty cool too.
They are:
Free mission: Citadel of Sand (aka Desert Stronghold)
Co-op mission: Security Breach
More information can be found on Sega's Quest Update page.
This is a decent update and certainly better than what I expected. The new co-op mission sounds pretty cool too.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
I've got nothing
Well I haven't posted in awhile mainly because I've got nothing to say. I've been pretty bored lately so I haven't played too much PSU. So being extremely bored and not seeing Minus on PSU I did this last night:
And you know what? It actually worked. I didn't expect anyone to join and if someone did I expected them to tell me I suck at the game for hating "challenging" missions; because we all know that to be challenging a mission has to be boring as hell and have monsters with cheap attacks right guys!? Plus I figured everyone would be too busy getting their 50% GBR boost and booting those that didn't have it.
Instead the first person that joins agrees with me that Moatoob sucks. I did not expect this at all. One thing lead to another and the party was full, we ran a number of missions and it was fun.
Thanks for the game guys, it was awesome.
And you know what? It actually worked. I didn't expect anyone to join and if someone did I expected them to tell me I suck at the game for hating "challenging" missions; because we all know that to be challenging a mission has to be boring as hell and have monsters with cheap attacks right guys!? Plus I figured everyone would be too busy getting their 50% GBR boost and booting those that didn't have it.
Instead the first person that joins agrees with me that Moatoob sucks. I did not expect this at all. One thing lead to another and the party was full, we ran a number of missions and it was fun.
Thanks for the game guys, it was awesome.
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