Being a HUGE fan of the PSO series back on dreamcast, and suffering from withdrawal symptoms since, even with the cube launch of episodes i & ii and then later episode iii c.a.r.d. revolution, the fact that you had to buy a seperate internet/network adapter AND pay the Hunters Licence put it out of my reach, especially with nintendo releasing a very small ammount of network adapters in the UK.

But Phantasy Star Universe was announced last Mat at E3 in LA. But not much has been heard since regarding wether it will have more to do with its Phantasy Star Online side of the family or the Phantasy Star series of RPG's, but Yuji Naka recently had an interview in American magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly, that 1UP.com posted on their website, in it Yuji Naka has stated that Phantasy Star Universe will be getting both a PS2 and a PC release and he also hints at both Online and Offline modes.

Offline and Online are supposedly different games, with Offline mode having around 40 hours of gameplay putting it in the region of the old Phantasy Star series back on the Master System and Mega Drive/Genesis. The game begins on the 100th anniversary of the formation of the commonwealth. Main characters Ethan and Lumia are attending. In the sky is an airshow, but it is soon disrupted by an alien race.The game appears to be mission based as you'll recieve assignements from in Ethans room. Battles seem to be action orientated like PSO.

Not many details are known about offline mode. What is known is that you can have a lot more customisation with your character than you could on PSO, and that the number of in game players has been incresed from 4 upto 65.

after spending alot of today browsing around the forums, i am absolutely astounded by how many fanboys have gathered in this one place. theres even nicknames for people who aligned towards nintendo, sony or microsoft. i feel as though it is my "quest" so to speak to spread the value of multiformat gaming and respecting another persons opinion, as this seems to be something that is missing from the message boards in general

Today i had to go to the Income Support office to find out what the hell was going on with my benefits (welfare to anyone in america). I had to wait for around 3 hours before me and my partner were seen. So luckily for me I had my GBA with me, and having got Golden Sun back, i decided to restart it, but I didnt get that far before i fancied playing mario kart. So I popped the cartridge out and began playing that instead, and boy have I become crap at it, I used to be able to wipe the floor with the AI controlled opponents, but in 150cc on the star cup i couldnt get any higher than 5th, I was just making mistakes everywhere. This sort of thing has never happened to me before, sure I've struggled with a game the first time I've played it but never when ive neglected it then returned to it. I think everytime I'm out of the house from now on and I've got some time where I'm sat down I'm gonna have to re-teach myself how to play mario kart properly