With Easter fast approaching, Easter rappies will soon appear online replacing love rappies. The exact date is currently unknown. Easter rappies will drop easter eggs containing random items not currently available yet on PSO GC.

The items are:

• Wok of Akiko's Shop
• Huge Battle Fan
• Panther's Claw
• Drill Launcher
• Rocket Punch
• Demonic Fork
• Marina's Bag
• Sonic Knuckles

You can see other holiday rappy drops here.

However, there is a word of caution you might want to read: "Please do not take any items from the Easter event into American or European lobbies until you see the Easter mode turned on in those countries! Also, don't log on with them in your inventory until you hear that the items are safe here. If you get them, please keep them in your bank until you know it's safe." Read the full warning as posted here.

Please note that this is just a precautionary warning and is not verified or confirmed yet, and will not be until the Easter mode goes live. You will know when the Easter mode is placed when the lobby will have Easter themed decorations like the ones you can see here. To help you find Easter Rappies, you can use Vulpes' guide here. Use the love rappy maps and locations since Easter rappies will replace love rappies. Remember that they will only be online meaning you will not be TP'ing for them, you will only be using the guide for maps.

We repeat, this is coming soon and is not available in game yet. So please don't go looking for Easter rappies.

psosaladwood writes, "The Mag, Quest, Item and Section ID Discussion forum is back up and running. We will now be working on moving all the related threads that are in General back to the the Mags, Quest forum where it belongs. The forum search is also now back and functioning. Thank you for being patient with us while we worked on the problem.

Thanks Gamespy!"

Kalbelgarion writes, "According to IGN: "An official Phantasy Star Online keyboard adapter will be available for free with a shipping & handling charge of $6.95 with the launch of PSO on April 15. The offer expires December 31, 2004. The PSO keyboard adapter will work with any USB-enabled keyboard. For those curious if keyboard functionality will be possible with other Xbox titles, the adapater 'is for use exclusively with Phantasy Star Online.' Though the offer is not currently on the site, check back here on April 15 for the full skinny.""

ST announced that Battle rules 4, 5 and 6 will be available on Tuesday, April 15th.

The rules are:

• Battle 4: Most Meseta wins and use what you find, Meseta will be scattered around in the map. Takes place in Temple.
• Battle 5: Most Meseta wins, keep level, equipment, items. Teams allowed, Mags not allowed. Takes place in Temple.
• Battle 6: Most kills wins. Start at level 20, use what you find. Final level: 50. Teams allowed. Takes place in Spaceship.

There will be a server maintenance on Tuesday, April 15th from 3pm til 5pm JP time. At that time, the rules will be added and the current spring themed lobby decorations will be taken down. Please do not connect during this time and please end all games before the scheduled maintenance. All online games will be disconnected.

Sharpen your BA skills and check out our guides and maps for all the BA modes here.

TerribleDeliMeat writes, "Microsoft has posted a new article on the Live section of the official XBOX site. It tries to explain the reasoning behind PSO requiring a monthly fee on top of the Live subscription. It cites wild accusations of new quests, weapons, maps and ''other goodness'' on a regular basis."

Here's the full article for you guys to enjoy:

"Never let it be said that Xbox Live gamers don't have opinions.

Ever since it was announced that there would be a charge of $8.95 per month for the Phantasy Star Online Hunter's License (it's a license to play PSO on Xbox Live), the forums and fan sites exploded with wild accusations, vociferous rebuttals, name-calling, and petitions.

We love how passionate you are about games and Xbox Live (not to mention your hard-earned cash), so we want to clear up a coupla things...

First of all, many game publishers that deliver ongoing content charge a subscription fee. This makes sense for them because cool new quests and maps do not come from the content fairy. It takes teams of producers, artists, programmers, and other developers to create this great stuff. And as much as they love what they do, they still gotta pay the rent.

Sega doesn't charge an online playing fee for any of their great sports titles (you know you love NFL 2K3, NBA 2K3, NCAA 2K3, and NHL 2K3), and that's a sweet bonus. Phantasy Star Online is a different story, and for that one they charge a subscription fee. If you play PSO (and face it, those of you who do log hundreds of hours!) on the Dreamcast or the GameCube, you're already paying for a Hunter's License?and you can't even talk to your party! (The Xbox version, of course, supports Voice?as do all Xbox Live enabled games.)

Here's the deal, if you buy a copy of Phantasy Star Online you can play it on Xbox Live for two whole months for free! That's 14,000 hours of gratis gaming, people! After that, you cough up for the Hunter's License and the fun continues. If you don't feel like parting with the cash equivalent of a couple of drive-through lunches, then don't do it. Keep playing offline. If you choose to pay, know that your ducats are going right to Sega and Sonicteam to support the development of more, more, more PSO content. That's new quests, weapons, maps, and other goodness provided on a regular, ongoing basis.

So, no, this is not the tip of the iceberg or the beginning of the end?there are still lots of games that don't charge anything extra for online play, and there are more on the way. This is just one instance in which gamers can choose to pay a little extra each month to play online and receive premium content."

Anonymous writes, "Here is a link to www.lan-kwei.com a import specialist that has produced a new convertor to use pc keyboards on GC. Just letting you know though, that they ship somewhat slow. "

Nice to see yet another keyboard solution especially when the Datel keyboard is reportedly having problems.

psosaladwood writes, "We realize that the Mag, Quest, Item and Section ID Discussion forum is currently down right now, and we're trying to rectify the issue with Gamespy. Thanks for bearing with us while we get this fixed! Until then, please feel free to post in the General forum."

Kalbelgarion writes, "On Tuesday, Gamestop.com changed their release date for XBOX PSO from 4/22 to 4/15. They now join Electronics Boutique, Amazon, Gamespot, BestBuy and others in proclaiming that XBOX PSO will be released next week."

Let's hope this date holds true!

EU servers are reportedly up and running as normal again! Sound off with other EU players here.