| PSO Blue Burst USA Beta
- by Simon Dominguez |
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"Every time I think I'm out, they PULL ME BACK IN!"
-Al Pacino, Godfather 3
"How many times have we done this forest level? I mean, is there even a number that high?"
-Mike Krahulik, Penny Arcade
PSO's always been one of those guilty pleasures, like a tendancy to watch Doctor Who. You know that in its most sublime moments, it's an evergreen, a pure hit of everything wonderful about its genre. You also know that your mates are probably going to walk in during Delta and the Bannermen. To this end, Sega have finally brought Blue Burst - the game that fixes a hell of a lot that was EMBARASSINGLY wrong with the original game - stateside, and we've been up there seeing how things have been going.
The first big difference in Blue Burst is that the offline mode has been completely removed. All info is now kept serverside. No more save hacking. No more carting your X Box around if you want to play on the go. No more icy terror that you've lost your Cube memory card and your level 144 FOmar. No more losing items to FSOD. Play anywhere at any computer in almost total safety. So far so good.
The second big difference in the game is the restructuring of the main plotline. Instead of blandly burning through each of the four sets of maps with the odd bit of text to keep you company, each area is divided up into three to five seperate missions with specific tasks, character requirements and puzzles. Not only does this improve the flow of the narrative and the feel of immersion, but it makes the main quest more of a challenge and forces players to go out and find a team rather than relying on power levelling. The desperate escape from the collapsing mines can get awfully fraught, and the task of locating all the crystal structures in the ruins and escaping within half an hour is nothing short of evil.
Finally we have the inclusion of clans into the menu system. Anyone can join a team and earn points for them, which in turn unlock luxuries for the members. Such perks include the ability to use chat avatars (can't wait to see someone's balls above their character's head, really), free use of the wardrobe and a larger team roster amongst other things. On the Japanese servers players can trade points in for extra levels, bosses and - for the latest revision - a sword for the team leader which boosts the stats of all other teammates present. Equally cool is that membership of a team gives you a permanent IRC style chat channel to all online teammates, meaning you'll never get bored levelling up with the ability to chat to your friends wherever they are.
If there's a fly in the ointment so far, it's simply with the inclusion of a competitive system. Sonic proved with PSO 3 that they had no idea how to structure a PvP game, and Blue Burst is no exception. Team merit is decided only on how many red boxes members sacrifice in return for points, which seems a boring an arbitrary method on which to decide personal advancement. Needless to say that backbiting has already set in with large clans raking the more profitable runs for rares, while their poor cousins sit in the darkness and bitterly complain that they are being INSERT PLAY TACTIC HERE whores.
Joyfully though, it's not something you'll ever have to bother with. At the core PSO is still the same as it always was - one of the most mindlessly addictive slices of gun and run ever produced by humanity - only now it's even better. The game goes online for proper this month, with Episode 4 to follow.
*low hiss* Joiiiiiiiiin usssssssssssssss. |
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discuss PSO Blue Burst USA Beta feature on the NTSC-uk forums
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