PGC gives the low-down on what happened in San Francisco.
It was a rather misty evening as Andres and I walked up the steps of Dolby’s theatre building in San Francisco. After checking in, we headed up to the third floor to check out how well Sega’s first online GameCube venture fared.
Soft lighting and the sweet sounds of PSO greeted us as we exited the elevator. One of the PR personnel mentioned we were a tad early and suggested we try out the game while we waited for the main event. Picking up a controller, the two of us played for a good half hour, taking a quick peek at what the final version had to offer.
Shortly after the group was ushered into the screening room and we were treated to a teaser showing off all sorts of items from the game, along with a new version of the opener that graced both DC versions. Character classes were displayed with using favored weapons in battle sequences in the all-new areas of the planet Ragol.
After the video, Sonic Team president Yuji Naka took the stage and explained briefly about the game, touting both the progressive scan features and the fact the game ran in Dolby Pro-Logic II surround sound. He also emphasized the ease of online setup and the fact he hoped this incarnation would appeal to the even wider demographics the GameCube had to offer.
Now it was time for us to see a demonstration of the game in action via a GameCube outfitted with four WaveBirds. A level 200 HUmar named “Sonic” was taken to action and soon joined up with other members of Sonic Team who were in Japan. After warping to “VR Mission Temple Alpha” the players explored the level fighting familiar monsters in a new backdrop.
While the demo was running, Naka-san explained new features of the game, including revamped Battle and Challenge modes. The most intriguing was probably the re-affirmation that one would be able to download a GBA version of NiGHTS through PSO. However, today Naka-san revealed how: sometime in December, players will be able to complete a Quest and then be allowed to unlock the game and download it to their GBAs via the GC-GBA link cable. Other games were shown in the teaser, such as a version of Puyo. Nintendo is referring to this as the “N-port” and it was quite refreshing to see a third party take advantage of such a new idea so quickly.
As lights brightened once more, we left the screening room to take another quick run through of the game. As luck would have it we ran into Mr. Naka just before leaving and were able to ask him a couple of quick questions. First we asked what was being done about the infamous “dupe bug” that allowed Japanese players to duplicate items so as to illegally obtain rare weapons or armour. He assured us that the offending bit of programming code had been removed for the US version. He also mentioned that he would be willing to add more games to the N-port feature if the PSO gaming community took to it. Unfortunately there are no PSO Cards planned a la Animal Crossing, the game does not even recognize the E-reader.
With all this and copious amounts of gameplay the two of us left satisfied.
Be sure to read Daniel's and my gameplay impressions of PSO I and II, along with the updated preview.
