Sega dreamcast - ... Not as bad as I would've thought-- PSO editorial.

Author

... Not as bad as I would've thought-- PSO editorial.

Shinnokxz

2005-03-30, 9:44 pm

So here comes this sudden urge to play the first PSO I had gotten as a
birthday present four years ago to the day.

It's a solid game, but I was put off by it in a lot of aspects because
of the online play. Not only did the dial-up irritate me with lag
spikes, but the community was not gentle. It was tough to level a
character up and still be able to pick up dropped weapons, as people
would pick them up before you.

Then the hacking came, and the game lost all integrity online. What was
the point of persuing a higher level and better artillery when hackers
were grabbing these upgrades out of their asses.

My sudden urge to play the game came from nostalgia (remember when
Gamespot TV praised this game? I remember when they were doing a feature
on it and I was actually playing with them at the time, so my
character was on TV) and the love of the music.

I have been neglecting my consoles as of late, so I decided to give this
a whirl again. Got to Level 5 tonight with a HUmar, and did about 9
missions. Pretty fun, and I forgot completely about the sour moments I
had with hackers and whatnot. All the loot is mine, and there's no
complaining about it.

I realize there are some rather unreasonable methods to get your DC
connected and online with PSO (I have version 1), but I'm not willing to
put up the effort. I got to play the hacked PC version of PSO online and
while it was fun for a few weeks, there were cheats being used within
the snap of a finger.

I don't think I'm willing to pay XBL AND Hunter's License fees to play
it on the Xbox. I already dish out $15 a month for World of Warcraft.

So basically, if you feel that losing the online play of Phantasy Star
Online has rendered the game unplayable, I suggest you check out what
you can do offline. The game has a solid engine, and even though the
missions are particularly interesting, it's fun to play it again without
worry.
--
Cory "Shinnokxz" Hansen - http://www.coryhansen.com
Life is journey, not a destination. So stop running.

Andrew Ryan Chang

2005-03-30, 9:44 pm

Shinnokxz <shinnokxz@charter.net> wrote:

quote:

>So basically, if you feel that losing the online play of Phantasy Star
>Online has rendered the game unplayable, I suggest you check out what
>you can do offline. The game has a solid engine, and even though the
>missions are particularly interesting, it's fun to play it again without
>worry.

The only thing I'd add is that PS Offline requires more patience
-- everything, particularly bosses, takes a lot longer when it's just you
killing everything. But I guess since online is hopelessly compromised
with cheaters... =P

--
"_Johann Sebastian Flathead:_ [...] His Symphony #981, the so-called Infinite
Symphony, contained over 60,000 movements; over the course of its only perfor-
mance, several members of the orchestra retired and were replaced by their
children or grandchildren." -Encyclopedia Frobozzica.

Shinnokxz

2005-03-31, 3:42 am

BelPowerslave wrote:

quote:

> Well, don't forget that Xbox PSO comes with a two month trial...which, when
> you think about it: You get the new version of PSO Ep1, and the all new Ep2,
> plus you can play it online, for free, for two months...all for about $15 or
> less(as you can buy used copies of PSO Ep1&2 and it'll still work, unlike
> the DC versions).

Does it really? Suddenly the $8.99 price tag for a used PSO Ep 1 and 2
for the Xbox looks really tastey. So say I were to go buy a USED copy,
would I still be able to take advantage of the first two free months?

--
Cory "Shinnokxz" Hansen - http://www.coryhansen.com
Life is journey, not a destination. So stop running.

BelPowerslave

2005-03-31, 3:42 am

> > Well, don't forget that Xbox PSO comes with a two month trial...which, when

quote:

>
> Does it really? Suddenly the $8.99 price tag for a used PSO Ep 1 and 2
> for the Xbox looks really tastey. So say I were to go buy a USED copy,
> would I still be able to take advantage of the first two free months?
>

As far as I know, the two month free trial is only associated with your actual
gamertag....now again, I can't guarantee you that it'd work, but I am pretty sure
it will.

More interestingly, what it brings up to me is this: If you were to have a
two-month trial card for Live(that comes with certain games). If you used that
trial, and then signed up for the two free months of PSO...after both were done,
were you to use another Live two-month trial with another gamertag...could you get
another two months free on PSO? I'm betting it'd work...;)

Bel
--
Whip XXX Gaming: http://www.whipassgaming.com/

BelPowerslave

2005-03-31, 3:42 am

> > Does it really? Suddenly the $8.99 price tag for a used PSO Ep 1 and 2

quote:

>
> I was thinkin the exact same thing, I see this used and super cheap all the
> time.
>
> Is the rampant cheating a problem only on the older DC servers, or is the
> Xbox version completely hacked up as well?
>
> TIA
>
> Wurm

Well, there *is* cheating on the Xbox version...but like v2 on the DC, you can
lock your game down so noone can come in. They based Ep1 v2 off of DC v2(of
course) so it'll still scan your inventory for hacked weapons and
whatnot...though it doesn't matter much as people have found ways to get around
that too. About the only way it's still a pretty enjoyable exp. is if you can
A) invite some friends to join you or B) find some people who are relatively
cool online.

Bel
--
Whip XXX Gaming: http://www.whipassgaming.com/