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Phantasy Star 360 open beta News
Xbox 360 News by Tom Bramwell
Perhaps unaware that Microsoft was going to haul down Xbox Live for the whole of Tuesday, SEGA has a Phantasy Star Universe open beta planned for Xbox 360 users - starting this weekend and ending on Wednesday, 18th October.
The beta, explicit details of which can be found on the game's official website, will allow anybody with an Xbox Live Gold account to download the game, create a character and go adventuring with friends.
The download file, which is up on Marketplace right now (940MB), will be available until Sunday, and, as you might imagine for a beta, SEGA's hoping you'll offer some feedback using the form on its official website.
Phantasy Star Universe is due out on Xbox 360 from 24th November.
Meanwhile, SEGA has announced that the Guardians licence will be available for players on 360, PC and PS2 to purchase from 24th November - "The GUARDIANS License enriches the single-player story mode by enabling gamers to meet other players, strike up alliances, and embark on a huge variety of online quests within the Phantasy Star Universe environment. The GUARDIANS License will be available at ¤9.99 (£6.99) per month."
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27 September, 2006 [0]
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Emilia'sHorse
13/10/06 @ 09:14
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Excellent news. Memories of countless hours on my DC flooding back....bliss
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Eighthours
13/10/06 @ 09:15
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Is this really worth it now that we'll only get (at the most) 4 days to play it?
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Eighthours
13/10/06 @ 09:37
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Scratch my last. The download's under a gig. I was worried it would be a 3/4 gig monster, hence my "is it worth it?" comment.
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kangarootoo
13/10/06 @ 09:39
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@peterfll & Machiavel
Just register a new passport account and then use it to register a new XBLive account. That will get you the standard "free Gold membership for a month" deal. You can then check the game demo out. Then if you like it you can upgrade your normal ID to gold and play the game as yourself (telling the people you met in the beta your normal gamertag if you want to keep in touch with them) :) EDIT: FYI, its probably not a developer decision. Its probably an XBLive restriction that only gold members can play online. Now if MS coincided one of their "free gold for a weekend" events with this kind of demo it would probably work in everyone's favour (you reading this MS?).
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 13/10/06 @ 10:41
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crazyhorse174
13/10/06 @ 10:27
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Damn, damn, damn work to hell!
Have to wait til I get home now... ...I wonder if the dog could work out how to start the download?? |
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kangarootoo
13/10/06 @ 10:37
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@haowan
Ah, I didn't know that. I just assumed that MS would restrict online play to gold members as standard. I guess you pay extra for the FFXI license? If it cost less than gold membership it seems like a good idea for those who don't plan to play anything else online. Still, hopefully my suggested workaround would work in the event that this demo IS gold only. P.s. I think I can reasonably claim to have the username with the greatest number of abbreviations/alternatives used on these pages. I'm sure I've seen about 8-10 different ones :D @crazyhorse174 Is the demo number limited (well I suppose it must be eventually, but is it heavily limited to just a few thousand is probably a better question)? If so, I hope it tells you where things stand before you download the demo. I can imagine a few peeved gamers downloading to then be told the beta if full when they launch the game. |
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crazyhorse174
13/10/06 @ 10:42
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Good point Kanagrootoo.
Anyone any ideas about how many folks will be able to play the beta? Are there limitations on the gameworld population? ...time to get back to training the dog to use the 360. Pity I have to teach her to read first, then evolve some thumbs... ;) |
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ManicDrunkMonk
13/10/06 @ 11:26
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It says on the download screen that they are limiting the number of users at any given time.
Mine is downloading okay though, at 25% atm. |
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they will go about it like any other MMO
they will only have a certain number of server/s up, so although 20,000 may have downloaded the demo by tonight they may only be the connection capacity of say 6,000 concurrent users At peak playing times i would expect long queues waiting for a space depending on how much Sega has shelled out on hardware. '''' Anyone else having trouble even getting the DL to start?. It quits at 1% every damn time. '''''' Check your hard drive space... |
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Stormflood
13/10/06 @ 11:34
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86% for me
Yes, check your HDD space first. Inexplicably, the 360 lacks a 'hdd space low' warning, so it just stops the d/l if there isn't enough.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 13/10/06 @ 12:37
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reality_cheque
13/10/06 @ 12:46
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Hopefully something else that will be fixed in the twice annually updates.
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kangarootoo
13/10/06 @ 14:24
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@BraveArse
I've seen that once before. Had no bloody idea what was going on till I worked out myself that the drive was full. Come on MS, proper error please, that is just sloppy and should't really have got through QA. I don't really play MMOs (not since Asheron's Call 1) as they just eat up time like some kind of big hungry polar bear... that eats time... instead of fish and wildlife journos. EDIT: Oops, forget to say "so let us know how it plays by reporting back on this thread" :)
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 13/10/06 @ 15:25
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Got and tried ... not played a PSO game before so foolishly signed up for the tutorial. It panned about seemingly aimlessly occasionally popping an info window up a couple of times, then it just crashed mid-pan - I supposed it just got as bored as I did. So when you do get to play guys and gals, skip the tutorial eh? :-)
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kangarootoo
13/10/06 @ 14:56
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"I supposed it just got as bored as I did"
LOL, its like that old "died out of shame" joke. Computer suicide. I'm not saying the software is shameful, the reference just made me chuckle. |
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Mine crashed during the tutorial as well...Although I've managed to level up to level 3, purely by fluke as I got invited to a party and followed ppl around lol...
Anyway, does anyone know how to get back to the tutorial? Plus, my overall impressions weren't great; but then the only MMOs I've played are Star Wars Galaxies, WoW, and Guild Wars. |
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Downloaded and Played.
Poor. Very Very poor. Graphics 4/10. PS2 standard, at moments I had flashback of PS1 Interface/controls 4/10. Messy, complicated, tiny little icons. buttons can change use constantly. Game-play 5/10. Really dull. repetitive gameplay I had no real concern for why I was doing anything. I cannot believe anyone would pay a monthly fee for this. I was expecting after playing a mmorpg on a console I'd be hooked and end up paying the monthly fee. But absolutly no fear of that, I wouldn't be tempted to buy the thing even if all you needed was the gold account and the box price was £25.
Edited 2 times,
most recently on 14/10/06 @ 16:27
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Emilia'sHorse
14/10/06 @ 18:26
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It is just not good enough. Graphics are on a par with DC and on widescreen HD telly it is not nice at all. Game is overly clunky and old feeling..... And looking at Play.com this is to be a full price release unlike FFXI and still charge a whopping £6.99 a month. Sega you do not spoil us.
/Buys Burning Crusade instead |
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Its ok but nothing gobsmacking
I think they could have gotten away with it if theyd done a good job on the 360s graphics, but I agree with other posters it looks like a slightly higher resolution PS2 game. Very disapointed there. Still I am a sucker for games like this, it depends on how much they tweak for release and how bored I am when it comes out :) |
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I'll be happy to pay the monthy fees for this, as I've been having a great time so far. It might be because I've come from PSO, but the only complaints I've had so far are that the swear filters are so strict that it's hard to have a normal conversation, and that due to it being free you see loads of idiots running around accusing various peoples' mothers of whatever they can think off.
yazoo: "Wah I didn't realise it was 6.99 a month as well...Ummm no chance, unless this is a seriously buggy unpolished initial release." This is a beta, if you hadn't been paying attention. It's out so they can stress test the servers. |
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