More news hot outta Tokyo Game Show! Careful you don’t burn yourself. Sega’s announced Phantasy Star Online 2 is hitting the PC in 2011.

No footage as yet, and not even any details, which is definitely cutting it a bit fine for a game that’s only a year away but nevermind. If you don’t know about Phantasy Star Online, it made its debut on the Dreamcast and pioneered online RPG shenanigans on consoles. The original game has since gone on to spawn a strange collection of half-sequels and has developed a fanbase that I will now politely describe as “friendly and rigid”.

Course, this TGS I was hoping for an entirely different Japanese online-focused console game to be announced for the PC. Click through to find out which one.



Monster Hunter, man!

I cannot count the number of genius things Monster Hunter does that Western MMORPG developers are paying no attention to because they’re all so busy aping World of Warcraft like sodding backup dancers. But while I might not be able to count them, I can at least name a few.

Monster Hunter’s combat is centred around tactility rather than numbers. You don’t take damage because you have inferior stats, you take damage because you were standing in the wrong place, or because you didn’t block in time. And Monster Hunter doesn’t need to lead you by the hand through some tiresome plot, because it has a raw concept that’s immediately engaging and totally bottomless: You are a member of a primitive society in a world full of enormous monsters. The bodies of those monsters contain all kinds of valuable ichors and bones that can be sold, planted, crafted into weapons, anything. Therefore, you should kill these monsters to become wealthier, stronger, and improve your little personal farm. That’s it. Go!

Not to mention that Monster Hunter takes the only characters of a massively multiplayer game, that of “Many players in the same world”, and gives you a world which is actually conducive to many players working together. I am talking about the size of the goddamn monsters here. Look at the bastards in that trailer! Of course you need a whole team of players to take them down.

It’s even more irritating because Monster Hunter is as ludicrous-sized a smash hit in Japan as World of Warcraft is outside it. Course, technically Monster Hunter is out for the PC, but it only came out in Japan and that was back in 2007 in any case. Gah. If anyone needs me I’ll be in this corner, continuing to bang my drum.