The GHZ Forum

Phantasy Star Universe has officially shipped, and soon we will all be able to play it! I personally have been waiting for this game for the past 2+ years, and the 360 beta last week only whet my appetite further.

I'm going to be playing on the PC/PS2 side, so if anyone wants to meet up in-game then we should pick out an official meeting place or whatever. Post here with what version you're getting and whatnot.

Important links:
http://www.phantasystaruniverse.com/index.php - Official site
https://billing.playsega.com/ - Billing site

Once I get my new pc for my room and get it connected to the internets, you can colour me there.
I'd get the PS2 version, but I don't have an internet connection for it.

I really wanna get this, but I'm not yet convinced of two things:

1) Will importing the US version have any negative side-effects for me in the UK?

2) Will it run on a GeForce 4 Ti 4600 graphics card?

Popcorn wrote:I really wanna get this, but I'm not yet convinced of two things:

1) Will importing the US version have any negative side-effects for me in the UK?

2) Will it run on a GeForce 4 Ti 4600 graphics card?

1) Not sure, but I think some other UK people are importing the US version. You'll need to register a US account on the billing site, because the European site still doesn't have PSU subscriptions.

2) http://www.phantasystaruniverse.com/support_sysreq.php says yes.

If I play, I'm going to be on the 360 side of it. That all depends on if I get a job so I can pay the monthly fee.

I'll be there segaholic. Count me in.

Update for Popcorn: An American credit card is required to pay for the Guardians License, so don't bother importing unless you have one.

Segaholic2 wrote:Update for Popcorn: An American credit card is required to pay for the Guardians License, so don't bother importing unless you have one.

Thanks for that. That sure does outrageously suck. So they definitely don't accept PayPal or anything?

Nope, only Visa or Mastercard. Sorry.

At least your wait is only a month, barring any further delays. Plus we'll be able to play with each other.

I'll be in on the PC side once I can actually pick up a copy. Give it a week or less and I'll be there.

I'll be playing (the PS2 ver.) tomorrow evening once I get home from work.

Segaholic2 wrote:Nope, only Visa or Mastercard. Sorry.

Do you mean the game will only accept those cards with owners tied to American addresses, or simply that it only accept those cards? 'Cause, y'know, we have them in the UK, too. It seems unlikely to me that Sega will allow you to pay with anything else once it launches here.

No, they require American cards of those types. No other methods of payment.

Can't Popcorn just Paypal someone in the States the money and use their card?

I'm getting the 360 version sometime later this week. Gamertag is Jebus7.

Is there ANY way of playing without paying? Because that would be awesome. Call me old-fashioned but I'm really not that confortable about paying for an online game. Specially in dollars, geez.

take what you can get. Sign up to pay. Get the first month FREE. Then decide whether or not you still want to be old fashioned. All in all you get a whole month without paying for it.

oh yeah and cancel the account after the first month and you wont be charged.

Sounds good to me. I bet even if I payed that would probably be all I would play.

Light Speed wrote:Can't Popcorn just Paypal someone in the States the money and use their card?

It's more trouble than it's worth, especially since it's out here in a month anyway. Looks like I'll have to go down that old road of being 20 levels behind everyone else, then.

So, does the game kick ass?

The problem is that playing this one game costs more than the entire Xbox Live service and all the premium content downloads that I've purchased over the last two years (which admittingly isn't that much, just the maps for MA and Halo 2). That's pretty weak as far as I'm concerned, especially considering that the original waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in the day was free and was on SEGA's servers. When you factor in that Sonic Team has a horrible record of putting up additional content for the US versions of PSO and dealing with cheaters, it makes me wonder why anyone would want to put up with the same shit again, just prettier. In a couple of months I'd be curious to know how many people have the Room Clearing Needle +255, or if Sonic Team finally got their act together.

I'll definitely be getting the game for PS2 in November, but I'm not sure when or if I ever will get online. I very much want to, but I'd need to finally pick up a broadband connection which means I'd have to negotiate with my parents. I'm also unsure whether or not I'll be able to afford the License fee coupled with what I'd probably have to pay for broadband service. We'll see how it plays out in the next couple of months.

Sure, you can get the 360 version if you want to pay in addition to Live Gold and don't want to play with anyone cool.

You only need a Silver account to play PSU online.

Why is that even an argument? Pretty much everyone that is gonna get it for the 360 already has a Gold account so you are paying the same amount as PC anyway. That and apparently you only need a Silver, I didn't know that though.

Double-S- wrote:Sure, you can get the 360 version if you want to pay in addition to Live Gold and don't want to play with anyone cool.

I'm cool and I play with myself frequently.

I got the PS2 version, but finding a PS2 network adapter has been a bitch, so no online play for me yet :P.

So I've been playing the single player campaign and messing around with offline Extra Mode (pretty much just a single player version of the online mode, kinda like playing the original PSO offline,) and I'm enjoying it, but I can't help but feel that in the long run, I'll end up considering the original PSO to be the better game.

It's not really fair to compare PSU to PSO, since I haven't played online mode yet, and the two games are so different from each other.

Like I said, I'm feeling mostly satisfied with PSU... The graphics are pretty, the music is mostly good (with the exception of the audio gonhorrhea of the opening theme,) and the fighting system is fast and fun to mess around with. The character customization isn't as deep as I thought it was going to be, but whatever, it's good enough, I suppose.

The thing that really annoys me is the whole shortcut "pallete" thing. I really miss PSO's mappable face buttons. Having to open up the pallete, and somehow dodge enemies with the analog stick while moving to a monomate with the d-pad really brings back unpleasant memories of DC PSO :P.

But maybe I just have to adjust. I'm sure once I find a goddamn fucking network adapter (or just give up and upgrade to slimline PS2... or a 360,) I'll get addicted like I did with PSO. But PSO's status as my favorite game is looking pretty safe as of now.

Also: Ethan Waber is annoying and his weird accent doesn't help.