360 and AotI...No Sale. (Probably.)

[Taris]

Now, bear with me...I'm one of THOSE people. I took the day off from work the day PSU came out, spent HOURS trying to find a store locally that would actually CARRY it, and then was...
1) Thoroughly ticked off over the course of the next few months over how little material we were allowed to play with online.
and
2) Was miffed that the offline Extra mode (the ONLY thing you could do with that thing offline other than playing Story over again) was as bare-bones and useless as could be, and never saw updating or mission downloading or ANYTHING that would keep it playable. (No mission downloading I can understand and tolerate, tho...to a point, since not everyone with an Xbox and PSU had a hard drive. But at this point, if you're buying a game like PSU, why the HELL wouldn't you have even the BASIC HARD DISK?)

Combine this with how very quickly it seemed EVERY online game was locked to keep out looters, and those not locked were...the looters, and I quit this thing after the third Ep2 mission came out, after putting over 150 hours into it online. And I cancelled my subscription and said goodbye to all that work without batting a damned eyelash. It was bad enough I paid $60 + fees per month for a game that was seemingly designed around selling as many PS2 copies as possible (pfft...), but the slowpoke effort Sega made to actually produce a viable online experience was the last straw.


So, here I was, months later, seeing that "the expansion" was coming out soon. And even better, the Xbox 360 version would be what I would consider an ACTUAL EXPANSION, meaning something you download to fit over the first game, providing more content. (Seriously, I don't know how you PC people put up with the setup Sega's given you here.) So I was thinking, hey, maybe Sega's going to give us Xbox owners some real love this time. Were getting that sweet offline Story mode that takes the place of Extra mode, and thusly an actual offline option in case I don't feel like playing online for a while. Ooh, maybe Sega'd recognize that if everyone had to download the expansion, they'd thusly have the hard disk, and thusly Sega could make downloadable offline content later on. Hell, I may have signed up for another License to play online and try out Ep3 down the road.

After reading well over 160 pages worth of threads here, tho (no exaggeration, I wanted to do my research), I see....

"The revamped Episode Two will only be available on the PS2 and PC versions. You will only be able to play offline on the PS2 and PC versions."


So, 360 owners are snookered here? No voice overs, no CG movie sequences...we're essentially paying to fit just the new online content (and I mean the content for MONTHS AWAY) over what we have? We can ALREADY play Episode 2 online...and I sure don't like spending another hundered hours griding another bloody character just to do that. Oh, and having to pay those fees each month. Everyone else gets a revamped Ep2 to play at home for "free", and we get...what now? And don't give me the "well you 360 owners get a cheap download, the rest of us have to buy a whole new disk" nonsense...downloadable game = almost pure profit for Sega, the least they could have done was offer a larger more expensive download for the "full experience".

Now I COULD just buy the PS2 version to play offline...if I felt like being stupid enough to shell out EVEN MORE MONEY to Sega just so I can play that way. But no way I'd be using the PS2 version online. Have an older model PS2 with no modem, and there's zero other games on the PS2 that I'd want to take online, so no freaking way I'm shelling out the cash to get the modem...on top of the game.


So, that's it? 360 owners are pretty much stuck with "online only" for ANY CONTENT that's come out since the release of the original disk?
If this is the case...no sale. I'd rather be stuck playing Halo 3 for the next 6 months with pre-pubesent, nasally boys who can barely communicate but still somehow know how to scream every bloody swear word known to man...

[omegapirate2k]

I think this is a topic for rants D:

And yeah, I'm guessing it's only online content, which isn't a big deal for me, honestly.

But to each their own.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: omegapirate2k on 2007-11-19 09:44 ]</font>

[Taris]

It was written more as a "please for the love of God, anyone downloading this thing tell me differently, and end the nightmare" kind of thing, but yah, on the third read, kind of rant-ish, huh.

[Jao]

me im buying the ps2 to play the story mode and downloading for my online play.
its just that fun to me

[Broodstar1337]

Lemme ask you this.

Would you buy 360's AOI if it had voice-acting and cutscenes? Because I can tell you one thing, I've played a hell of a lot of great games that had neither. We have a pretty big download (I still like to think 1.7 GB is a big download); imagine how much bigger it would be if we did get shit we didn't really need to better the part of the game we're not really gonna pour too much time into in the first place.

[Jao]

they should of made a new disc instead of a download i'll say alot of poeple would of been happy

[-Crokar-]

a damn good rant IMO

[omegapirate2k]

Eh, I'm betting somebody will youtube the CG videos so you can watch those if you want, and you can still play the episode 2 missions online, the only difference is that theres no voice overs and no CG, there is no extended episode 2 story, all the missions are still the exact same. The main thing your missing out on is the new extra missions included.

[Taris]

On 2007-11-19 09:55, omegapirate2k wrote:
Eh, I'm betting somebody will youtube the CG videos so you can watch those if you want, and you can still play the episode 2 missions online, the only difference is that theres no voice overs and no CG, there is no extended episode 2 story, all the missions are still the exact same. The main thing your missing out on is the new extra missions included.



But that's kind of what's ticking me off here...the fact that we have to miss out on ANYTHING just because of the platform we're on. I accepted with a grain of salt back then that PSU was going to be a "seperate but equal" game across platforms. But now we don't even get the "equal" part anymore. Which is nonsensical. The fact that I have to read thru a list of "no's" is mind-blowing.

"lol" at the idea of having to pay Sega so I can go to YouTube and watch a rip of their material, tho.



On 2007-11-19 09:51, Broodstar1337 wrote:
Lemme ask you this.

Would you buy 360's AOI if it had voice-acting and cutscenes? Because I can tell you one thing, I've played a hell of a lot of great games that had neither. We have a pretty big download (I still like to think 1.7 GB is a big download); imagine how much bigger it would be if we did get shit we didn't really need to better the part of the game we're not really gonna pour too much time into in the first place.



Yes, that was kind the point. I want the same dang game that the other people are getting. 1.7 gigs is nothing, considering the size of movie downloads, other game downloads (Oblivion anyone? Final Fantasy 11?), hell, the totallity of the Gears of War maps up til this point is more than 1.7 gigs. I don't care about the size, my hard disk is still fairly empty at this point. And shelling out a few extra bucks for the entirety of what others is getting is a nominal price.
And yes, I had put time into offline mode (both story and extra) if there was nothing to do online.

No offline mode for AotI means, and I have to state the obvious again, that AotI for the 360 is ONLINE ONLY thusly. Meaning even if I quit online again, the download is thusly uslesss and worthless, cos none of it is worth squat offline - can't even play Ep2.

[omegapirate2k]

I'd just suggest holding off on AoI until theres a level of content that appeals to you :/

Or just switching over to PC/PS2 so you can fall back on offline mode.

[ABDUR101]

I'd just recommend not playing PSU anymore. I quit awhile back, not long after they opened up the beast planet. Sega just seems to milk it's fanbase; which they can easily do because the majority of their fanbase are teenagers and die-hard Phantasy Star fans, neither of which mind shelling out cash and being milked for content 'releases'.

There are far better games to be enjoyed and experienced, some people just don't mind getting milked for content that should have been available from the get-go. I haven't even batted an eye-lash about the release of this 'expansion', because the core game is just alot of fluff to keep everyone busy and pre-occupied.

But, if everyone is having fun, let em have at it. But if you're done, you're done yeah? Sega has been making wonky and dicey decisions as of late, alot of their games are just programmed and handled poorly. The last GOOD Sega game I played was Chromehounds.

[Saner]

PSO, PSU and AOI in general were always about the online.

no offline mode really isn't a loss for those already planning to play online. they save 10 dollars from a episode that's already accessible through the online play.

yeah it's good to have more extra mode stuff whenever the maintence is down or people who can only play offline,

but in anycase, I was like you when joining first month PSU came out, ya it was super foolish to expect content the size of what PSU already has nowadays. so I think with AOI's release, the best time to join/rejoin would be this 4th quarter. Cause its packed with oodles more stuff than when PSU first came out.

so overall it's a sweet deal if you wanna play online.

[omegapirate2k]

On 2007-11-19 14:01, Saner wrote:
they save 10 dollars from a episode that's already accessible through the online play.

20 dollars, actually http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

[Nyreal]

Wait... I thought that the cutscenes and the like were going to be available online from the AoI disk? I would assume that that would work for the 360 as well... Meaning that you can still view the scenes online.

[XCOPY]

I'm in total agreement with the original post. AOI would've been the only thing to get me to seriously come back to this game...and Sega/ST decided to screw up yet again. It's like they specialize in disappointment and general douchebaggery. Most other companies probably would've handled this with some common sense(like making each version of the game's expansion equal in terms of content? Maybe I'm from Bizarro World, but that makes sense to me), but I guess you really can't expect that from this company anymore....especially not with this particular franchise. Really, the disappointment here is strong....I was looking forward to AOI for several months before finding out the 360 version would be different in a negative way.

It's not like the game was crazy popular in the U.S. anyway, really....I did my part in letting the few people I know that enjoyed PSU at one time(they've quit a long time ago as well) what the deal was to make sure they didn't end up wasting their money on this.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: XCOPY on 2007-11-20 22:35 ]</font>

[Sekani]

We missed out on EXTRA MODE. The stupid shit that no sane person would play anyway because it's lame, boring, stupid, pointless, and other negative adjectives.

And we saved twenty bucks.

People who want to play stupid mode that badly need to go get the PC version and shut the hell up.

[Taris]

On 2007-11-20 22:47, Sekani wrote:
We missed out on EXTRA MODE. The stupid shit that no sane person would play anyway because it's lame, boring, stupid, pointless, and other negative adjectives.

And we saved twenty bucks.

People who want to play stupid mode that badly need to go get the PC version and shut the hell up.




Troll. You aren't worth anyone's time, seeing as you obviously didn't read any of the above. But I'll nuke this nonsense into obvlivion anyway, cos it's just so easy.

"We" missed out on offline Story mode this time, not another Extra mode. They're one and the same this time, for all intended purposes. So obviously you must think Story mode is "useless and stupid", therefore Episode 2 and the upcoming Episode 3 are stupid as well. So let's see, if the Episodes aren't worth playing, then they aren't worth playing ONLINE either. Leaving only online multiplayer random-mission-item-hording mode left. And if you're the barometer for the average 360 player on PSU still, then no sale. No way in hell is this expansion worth the money, especially since once again all that new material is only available online, and will be doled out to us in drips and drips. "Saving $20" is more like "paying another $20 for a few right-away updates, then waiting for the rest again". Cos this game is now ONLINE ONLY for the 360, essentially.

We don't even get the offline mode to fool around with when online level-grinding gets boring, or when noone worth playing with is on, or during maintenance.

(PS: I'd love to see how many people out there would cry foul once someone denounces the offline story mode for either PSU or PSO. Oh, wait, yah, I HAVE seen that over the past near-decade. Some people actually LIKED the solo modes in each game. I wonder how many people got PSO Ep1&2 Plus for the GameCube just so they could have the Towers and the extra story missions offline. So big fail there, too.)


Side note: Not too thrilled with Square's new expansion for Final Fantasy 11, either. The info about the new jobs and the "new" areas (anyone who knows, knows why the word "new" gets quotes) isn't exactly thrilling, nor are the new monsters. And unless the actual mission content is MUCH more interesting than the near-horrid ToAU "missions", it's not worth running out and spending my money on it right away. It's just not. So, no console MMORPGs for a while for me, looks like.

That's OK, tho, for the price of $20, I could easily go out and buy some Atlus release for the PS2, and scratch my RPG itch for a good 60-80 hours or so. Somehow, now, I think the latest "Devil Summoner" title will be much more enjoyable than playing PSU with the 360 crowd right now.

[Mystil]

On 2007-11-21 08:02, Taris wrote:

On 2007-11-20 22:47, Sekani wrote:
We missed out on EXTRA MODE. The stupid shit that no sane person would play anyway because it's lame, boring, stupid, pointless, and other negative adjectives.

And we saved twenty bucks.

People who want to play stupid mode that badly need to go get the PC version and shut the hell up.




Troll. You aren't worth anyone's time,


Nah, he's just adapting.

[PhotonDrop]

On 2007-11-21 08:02, Taris wrote:
I wonder how many people got PSO Ep1&2 Plus for the GameCube just so they could have the Towers and the extra story missions offline. So big fail there, too.)


*raises hand*

The best part is that I can go play it right now, and all of my stuff will be there. I buy games that I can play far into the future. Fuck it all if the entire bulk can be cancelled by a wave of Sega's hand.

I was hoping AoI could revive my interest in PSU, but this has just been a further let down.

[Sekani]

I wasn't aware that having a difference of opinion was now considered "trolling". In that case, here comes some more "flamebait" for you to "nuke into oblivion".


On 2007-11-21 08:02, Taris wrote:
"We" missed out on offline Story mode this time, not another Extra mode. They're one and the same this time, for all intended purposes. So obviously you must think Story mode is "useless and stupid", therefore Episode 2 and the upcoming Episode 3 are stupid as well. So let's see, if the Episodes aren't worth playing, then they aren't worth playing ONLINE either.
All of the above is 100% true. Yes, people do exist who think all of PSU's offline incarnations are garbage, and that the story missions are garbage. I'd be willing to wager that they are at least equal in number to those who think like you, but since there's no way of proving that, no sense making a point of it.


No way in hell is this expansion worth the money, especially since once again all that new material is only available online, and will be doled out to us in drips and drips. "Saving $20" is more like "paying another $20 for a few right-away updates, then waiting for the rest again". Cos this game is now ONLINE ONLY for the 360, essentially.
Obviously you have a problem with this. The solution is to buy one of the other versions. Not that complicated.


We don't even get the offline mode to fool around with when online level-grinding gets boring, or when noone worth playing with is on, or during maintenance.
I'd rather play another game. There IS more to video games than PSU.


(PS: I'd love to see how many people out there would cry foul once someone denounces the offline story mode for either PSU or PSO. Oh, wait, yah, I HAVE seen that over the past near-decade. Some people actually LIKED the solo modes in each game. I wonder how many people got PSO Ep1&2 Plus for the GameCube just so they could have the Towers and the extra story missions offline. So big fail there, too.)
I can't comprehend for the life of me why anyone liked PSO offline either, but whatever.

[HAYABUSA-FMW-]

Locked up, going off topic venturing into a flameoff.

You can have an opinion without saying who needs to go "shut the hell up." Doesn't matter if its true or trying to help, nobody is going to care about that if you can't present it well enough anyway.