Happy Ten Years Online Gaming Addiction, I mean PSO!

There is a game near and dear to me. Without this game, I'm not sure If I'd be writing this. Sure, I'd have a social life, but think of the memories! The year this game came out, a young gamer didn't have Xbox Live, no World of Warcraft. You either had Ultima or Everquest. Those were the big contenders. Also, computers were still pretty pricey at the time. Now you can pick up a value computer and do alright on most mmo's, granted you aren't trying to play them at max graphics. With the Dreamcast, though, it was the first console to even risk putting a 56k modem in it. Yes, SEGA was being the console badass by adding the possibility for the Dreamcast to connect to the vast tubes of the internet. Sadly I can't think of too many games that took advantage of it. But one did, and I don't care if it was the only game to go online. That modem was built for Phantasy Star Online, oh yes. Before, when I played an RPG, my other teammates were either computers or me just having to control them in some manner. No, these people were real-fucking-human-fucking-beings! Holy Shit! It was mind blowing.

 That dude on the front looks fucking serious bro!

Everything about this game was epic at the time. The soundtrack was beautiful and would send chills down my spine. The atmosphere the game offered you was beautiful, too. The graphics were just stunning for the year. The lag on the game was almost none, even on 56k. It seemed SEGA had created the perfect online RPG! But there's always a downside. First off, when you died you dropped your weapon and meseta (currency). With the anonymity of the internet, it wasn't surprising to get your stuff stolen. A lot. Heck, I got some of my best weapons through theft shhhhh! Eventually the game took the route of a seedy cantina. Hackers and cheaters were running the game and SEGA had no fucking clue how to stop it. It wasn't too long before all the uber rares were in the hands of the public, being massed duped, having hacked percents. That was just the tip of the iceberg. Soon, people were able to crash whole lobbies, send you a guild card that could erase your character, turn your character into a level 5 gimp named NOL, and even ruin your runs by giving you the infamous BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH. When you played online, you had to protect your neck. This caused a lot of turmoil and I swear it interfered with the major success of the game.

Original, new content, right?

About a year later SEGA released V2. At this point in my life I ate up anything PSO related and went, like a lifeless zombie, to the store ASAP to get my reserved copy. This game wasn't free to play, unlike PSO. You had to cough up 8 bucks for 2 months. Still, I didn't care. Why? Well, it added all sorts of fun new features. Ultimate mode was one. In Ultimate the monsters and scenery looked different, and the drops were oh so sweet! They added a lot of sweet new weapons and armors, too. There was also battle and C-mode. C-mode was a great little concept that, sadly, players weren't too into. It revolved around a set dungeon, and you basically started as a scrubby low level and worked your way up. At the end of it all you got to CREATE YOUR OWN FRIKKING WEAPON, if you completed it quick enough. Finally, I could have the Hamburger saber. Battle mode, in my opinion, was fairly lame. It was unbalanced and just wasn't very fun. PvP wasn't really PSO's strong point. The level cap went up a whole 100 levels and it was pretty damned hard to hit cap! Before, it was pretty damned easy to hit cap. I guess they wanted to make sure they got our 4 bucks a month. Oh, if you happen to have your copy still laying around its pretty lulz worthy to read the back and see them bragging about their new anti cheat software. Guess what it did? Nothing. That's right. When this game was released, SEGA was assuring players they found a way to stop cheating. Well, they didn't and we still had the problems from before.

Well the Dreamcast tanked, lets try that new cube based system.

Fast forward a year and then we start seeing PSO being rehashed for different systems. This was a good thing, because I know a lot of PSO fans who started on these versions and not the Dreamcast. These new releases also added a whole new episode and even some new classes. Another neat addition was that you could play local multiplayer on a split screen. This was a great idea if you had some friends who liked PSO, too. This kept your files from getting raped by a hacker wannabe and it made sure all the loot within your game was legit. 10 years later, I still play the Gamecube edition and it's one of my favorites because of multiplayer. Other than that, it was basically your same game. They released a PSO+ a year later which had more offline quests added and a couple of glitch fixes. Well now that PSO has been re-released so many times, it was about time for them to do something. Right? ..Right? Well, they took a new direction for the series.

Did someone say Phantasy Star III? No? Wrong game? Shit!

2004 – SEGA gives us Phantasy Star Online Episode 3 “C.A.R.D. Revolution.” At first I was like WTF? Then I LOL'd. Then I just went out and fucking bought it because it had the word PSO on it. As the title so plainly suggests, this is a card game. Yep, the action RPG was turned into a card battle game. Now before you groan and whine, I think if you haven't played it then you should give it a chance. If you are a fan of any kind of CCG like Magic The Gathering I think you'll actually have a blast with this game. The soundtrack is very ambient, and sets a great mood to some very nice playing maps. The game play was decent, but sometimes card games just seemed a bit redundant. The true addiction within the game was after the battle. This is when you picked a booster pack, and getting new cards was just a good enough reason to keep playing. The game got decent scores by critics, but I think the fans were a bit upset by it (I know I was a bit upset). Alas, this is a PSO game and I do have some pretty good memories with this title. Like choosing to buy this game instead of new work boots. Hey, I can walk on busted ass shoes for another week, it's a new fucking PSO GAME!

Sounds like cold medicine. Wonder if I play it enough if I'll robo-trip?!

About a year later (noticing a pattern?) PSO was once again RE-RELEASED. I know, I know. You're probably sitting there wondering how many times these grubby little assholes are going to do this. Well, this is it for the old PSO series. This is Blue Burst. This was a PC only title and, amazingly enough, was free to download. All you had to do was pay a subscription fee. Nice, SEGA. There were also a few little upgrades to the game itself, too, which made it IMO the best online version of this game. First off, you couldn't play this game offline; everything was server side. This kept wannabe hackers from tinkering with their files and taking them online. It did reduce cheating a little bit, but I'm sure it was still around. They also added a whole new episode. I never liked the new episodes, I'm an episode I kind of guy. Sadly, after this, all of PSO as we knew it started to die. First the Dreamcast servers shut down. Then, in 2007, the Gamecube and Xbox servers. And finally, in 2008, the BlueBurst servers. It was sad times for gamers who dedicated all those gaming hours into their PSO files but, like a phoenix, PSO rose from the ashes and began a new life on private servers. These private servers, which can still be played on today, unlike the SEGA servers, were free and they were run for the LOVE of the game. They cared about keeping the game legit, and adding new things. Of course that didn't last long, either, as the main private server got handed down. Now we don't hear jack shit from the guy, not to mention the ban happy admin staff from hell!

But, hey, what about that other game? You know, that one sequel to the series..............

Check out Part II of this article, soon, for my memories of the games that came after our beloved PSO.