I've been spending a fair bit of time on Xbox Live over the weekend - partly getting beaten at Table Tennis, but mainly trying to get play Phantasy Star Universe. I haven't managed it yet - the servers have been constantly full -but I'm keen to see how the latest instalment of the online RPG matches up to my nostalgic memories of the Dreamcast version. Back in the painful dial-up days it was a revelation, with four players able to battle through four levels of sci-fi act... ok, it doesn't sound like much in the these days of WoW and Guild Wars but Phantasy Star Online was a console revolution in that dark pre-broadband era. Anyone managed to get on Universe yet?
Talking of online gaming, Eurogamer have had a look at Sony's PS3 offering. With Microsoft's Live service setting the standard for online console gaming Sony have got a lot of catching up to do and you can imagine there will be a few more articles like this popping up over the next couple of months as the PR machine grinds into action. The good news then is that Sony appears to be getting the online side right, which is obviously in sharp contrast to the rest of the PS3 launch. The Playstation store in particular sounds impressive, especially so when you consider the navigational nightmare that is Xbox Live Marketplace.
But there is still no firm news on how or if Sony will replicate Microsoft's addictive gamerpoints system. More than one person has told me they will buy the 360 rather than PS3 version of the same game purely because they will "get points for it". Online console gaming has come a long way since the Dreamcast first pioneered it.
