Phantasy Star 360 open beta
Now, until next Wednesday.
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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Comments (59) Latest comment 5 years ago
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Yippee. I wonder if it'll be up today or tomorrow though?
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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?).
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I just want to be greedy and play the BETA up until release. You know you want to SEGA.
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EDIT: so is it up? The XboxLive pipeline thingy doesn't say it is.. but then it might take a few hours to update, i don't know....
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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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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
@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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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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Yes, I was also thinking of the FF beta release that allowed Silver subscribers to try it for free, albeit it was through the Square servers as mentioned.
I'll monitor the boards for feedback and if it is getting postive reviews, I'll set up (another) passport account to try it.
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after playing world of warcraft for months i dont think a game like this could even touch it but i am willing to give it a try
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I loved Phantasy start online episodes 1 and 2 (though 2 was evilly hard!)
Need to get home and download this sharpish!
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Mine is downloading okay though, at 25% atm.
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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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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.
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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"
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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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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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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.
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/Buys Burning Crusade instead
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"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
Heh - half of those were me I bet. You should apply the same ethos to some of your more gargantuan posts
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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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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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"You should apply the same ethos to some of your more gargantuan posts"
Tried and failed before. Once my mind opens its like a waterwheel. I'm not the worst offender I'm sure, but I am up there up the suspect list
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It's going to be a long month waiting for this one.
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Im warming up to this a bit more now. Its still a shame it doesnt look nicer, but its not too bad when you get into it.
I just wish there was more slots on the beta server as its impossible to get on it once the yanks wake up.
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I'm sure theres a core of a good game hidden in there somewhere, however all I managed to do was wonder around the city, failing to chat with anybody wondering what the heck I was supposed to do, and if it was at all possible to try and start the tutorial again.
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