Things To Play: Phantasy Star Phace-Off!

So what's the deal with both off these games and how is Sega almost getting back on track to making a proper sequel to PSO? Let's discuss, bitches... Phace-Off BEGIN!

Phantasy Star Portable does so many things that Universe dropped the ball on. PSP has more armor and weapons then Universe and has no synthing (item creation.) This means no more shit rares that COULD make you something cool provided you get the REST of the items needed for the recipe. Next up is XP is earned faster. Your character levels faster and so does your techs (spells and weapon skills.) When you create a character you also start out with a fully leveled, grown PM (Partner-Machine, an NPC whom helps you.) The character you make is your single player AND multiplayer character which is always nice. Best of all Masterclasses are now skilled fighters who really feel they are the masters of all things combat. (SEE PICTURE)



With all those improvements there is a few things that Universe has that portable doesn't. The multiplayer portion of Portable feels tacked on. There is no server-side saving which means that because of how extremely easy it would be to dupe items there is NO item trading, which also means NO COMMON BOX AND NO SHARING WITH OTHER CHARACTERS ON THE SAME MEMORY CARD! To make up for this all players receive the same rare when one is picked up.
Universe looks great in 1080p and Portable has almost a Silent Hill grain-filter or something... It's pretty gross looking, but on the PSP it does the job.

Overall, if you like the series, get them both, but each is good for what it does and let me make that my final point. Universe: Excellent multiplayer experience (provided you have friends, I don't.) Portable: Awesome single player, should have been the real follow-up.

Sega, don't despair! Somehow, slap some REAL multiplayer on Portable and run with it... OR give us what we REALLY want: PSO II

Things To Play: Phantasy Star Portable

*In the style of so many lame infomercials!* "Do you wish you could take your favorite game with you? How about if it's streamlined? How bout we cut the shit? Who bout we make it like it should have been in the first place?!??!?! Phantasy Star Portable is here!"

Ah yes, you now know where this is going... Phantasy Star Universe is not a bad game... It just let a quite a few (under exaggeration) down. How does Phantasy Star Portable (PSP... wait a second PSP is on PSP CLEVER! ROFL!) *AHEM* How does Phantasy Star Portable (PSP) fair on a handheld system? Very damned well. I picked it up Wednesday and I'm torn playing PSP over PSU...
If you have a PSP get yourself PSP *GROAN*
Stay tuned for a decent article talking about PSU and PSP's strengths and weaknesses.

Things To Play (TTP): Phantasy Star Universe

So, I've been playing Phantasy Star Universe (PSU) on the 360 since it's launch and it's a great online game that doesn't rape your soul away. It combines the best of Diablo-style games and MMOs into one. It pales in comparison to it predecessor Phantasy Star Online (PSO) but what can you do? I like games where you are always looking out for the next best thing to equip like PSO, however this game is nothing like PSO. Most equips (weapons and armor) need to be made. I REALLY like crafting systems in MMOs but Sega dropped the ball because PSU is NOT an MMO... What results is a clusterfuck of people who all have decent equipment or those whom have WAY too much time on their hands who run around with the same "rare" items EVERYONE ELSE with too much time has. Anyways, I DO like the game, it's faster than an MMO and my attention span appreciates that, plus with the right people it can be alot of fun... Speaking of which I really wasn't playing it for quite a while, but then my brother joined me. It got better... I'm not a very social person and don't care to play games with people I've never shared a room with in teh RLz. (LAME) My sister and her boyfriend recently joined us and it got way better... We all spend about 2 hours or so a night killing shit and generally giving my brother a hard time. (God bless the spazz.) I encourage those with a 360 to give PSU a shot. It's fun and with the right people the hours fly by. AMAZON LINKIES!

Asian Edge (AE): Uzumaki

Listen up people! I LUV (I'm so retarded...) asian movies. I especially love ones that make "normal" people uneasy. Uzumaki does that on a different level. How? Well it combines a HEAVY Lovecraftian influence with the manga aestetic of storytelling that gets under your skin. In fact the movie is based on an even better manga. What's the plot? How 'bout a review? NO! All I need to tell you is that people die in ways regarding the geometric outcast that is the SPIRAL... It's sick, it's twisted, it's fun. Easily one of my treasures... Go buy it! AMAZON LINKIES!!! My collection LINKIES!

Eargasm (EG): Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero

Year Zero is easily one of the best albums of 2008... Trent Reznor paints an awesome picture of the boundary between church and state dissolving and the Government taking control all while otherworldly forces are moving behind the scenes . Many of the songs are haunting and the source material he released on the 'net (NOTE: I'm still not hip) creates an awesome world we very well could end up living in. The websites he created to flesh out this album are well thought out and rest of the promo material is equally cool. Yes, it's a "concept" album and many people don't care for them, but given the time the album has been out and the praise that it has received show that it's easily going to become a timeless release. If you haven't listened to it yet check it out, just make sure you look at the online supplimental stuff as well. LINKIES!

Cover art reimagined by me via MSPaint!

My favorite links (MFL): Hardcore Gaming 101

OK guys, this one is a dozy. Easily on the highest echelons of fuckin' awesome is the site Hardcore Gaming 101. There is so much info on so many great (and often times obscure) games it crazy it's all localized on one site. I found this page by accident while trying to find out which Super Famicom Parodius titles I just picked up from my job. In my opinion the jewel of their collection is an 11+ page article on the Shin Megami (Megaten if you're hip, I however am not...) series. Seriously, if you are a fan of video games at all you owe it to yourself to check out this site. Way to go guys!
LINKIES!

Wow, I post so frequently...

In an effort to keep my readers* happy I will try to update at least once a day. This was something that I wanted to do for myself, yet I cannot be happy if I don't do anything with it. SIDENOTE: I'm getting quite good at typing on my eee.





*Jeremy