We all know that Sega's Phantasy Star Universe is going to be on the 360, PC and PS2 but most of us, haven't played the beta. GamerTagRadio conducted an audio interview with one of the staff members of PSO-World.com and Phantasystarmonthly.com. He was one of the lucky ones who got to play PSU's open beta. He rallied information on how this game will be offline and online, the difference from past games and the story itself.

Download: [PSU Audio Interview]

An email has been sent to all people who pre-ordered their Guild Wars Factions Collector's Edition saying "We have received word from the publisher NCSoft that Guild Wars Factions Collector’s Edition has been delayed beyond the April 28th launch of Guild Wars Factions. At this time, we do not have an ETA for the Collector’s Edition, although the regular edition is still scheduled to ship on time. This delay affects all US retailers." Actually it's not only the US, UK is also experiencing the same problem. If this is the case, then how about the players who participated in the Head Start Event since it will apparently reach the 10 day duration? Is NCSoft trying to commit suicide? They must fix this problem quickly before the gamers who pre-ordered go on a riot.

MMORPG.com has recently interviewed Ken Johnston, the CEO of Persistent Worlds about the company demographic, and their upcoming MMORPG Carpe Diem. From the screenshots, Carpe Diem looks a bit "backward" but the CEO states that certain features cannot be found in other MMOPRGs. One of the unique features that Carpe Diem has is that Uzziel, the big bad boss, is played by a real person, so expect a "real" challenge when facing him.

There is also a new system they call "possession" that enables users to morph with each other and become one fighting unit - kinda like the trading card game, Magic the Gathering's Banding ability. Unlike in other MMORPGs, mounts can be acquired early on in the game and can fight along side the owner when he acquires a high level riding skill. "Weapons of legends" are also up for grabs for for players to use against Uzziel. Pick from any of the 3 race namely Humans, Fey and the Dragonbloods. Just like your typical MMORPGs, this will have PvPs, parties and guilds.

When asked about plans for beta testing, he said "Things are going great at the moment. We are working on the game to try to give a really different MMO experience. So far, so good. We hope to be in closed beta in early summer with an open beta following in the late summer."

In closing, Ken stated "My personal belief is that MMO’s are the true future of gaming. Once you have played an MMO it is very hard to go back to a standard console game. The interaction with other people makes it such a different experience. Now with the online power of the XBox360 and the PS3, I predict that in three years time most games will be based on open worlds with a massively multiplayer feeling. I feel that instanced games may well prove to be the bridge between the PC and the console for MMO’s, even though I personally don’t like them so much. Overall, it leaves me with the feeling that this is a great part of the games market to be working in. And I love it."

Amen to that. Persistent Worlds hopes that they'll be able to release Carpe Diem by early autumn. Read on to see the full interview.

Webzen, the creator of the Diablo-wannabe MMORPG, MU Online, has announced that the open beta for Soul of the Ultimate Nation, or SUN for short, is going to be delayed. Their original plan was to launch it on May 2 but it was pushed to May 15 due to the fact they want the Mission Competing System complete. There would be a 2nd pre-open beta testing date on May 8 to May 12. In Webzen CEO Nam Ju Kim own words:

“After the success of MU, as a leading company in this industry, we want to continue to lead the next generation games through SUN. Even taking into consideration all the risks associated with the service delay, we believe that through these new contents, we will be able to satisfy all the SUN users with high anticipation.

In the open beta test, players will have a spacious field map with a detailed quest system. Besides the typical missions and PvP, SUN has a survival mode that enables the player to compete with each other to survive. There is also a Time Attack mode where a player hunts down as many monsters in a given number of time. Due to this intense competition, there would be a ranking system to determine who is the best. If the user isn't the competitive kind, SUN introduces the Area Conquest System that makes the player get benefits whenever he contributes in a particular area. All in all, Webzen is getting ready for the open beta and will unleash Soul of the Ultimate Nation on May 15.

Ran Online, the Rival Schools-like MMORPG, is ready to celebrate their first year anniversary this June. Congratulations! A lot of exciting countdown events are planned throughout May. Time to log in to your RAN account and join up. One of these events is that they introduced Fate Boxes that players can get in the RAN Item Shop. However, they faced technical problems when the new Fate Boxes were put into action so they will delay it for now and will announce the new launch date once they resolve the issue. Despite the problems, the promotion of these Fate Boxes will only last for 5 days from 4/24/2006 12.00pm (GMT+8 ) until 4/28/2006 12.00pm (GMT+8 ). All students should remain on their toes for there are still a lot more events in store.

If you already have Prophecies and recently activated your Factions pre-ordered account, then you will have two new additional character slots during the Factions Head Start Event. Lucky for those people who pre-ordered because they will be able to try out the two new characters. These new slots will take effect on 27th of April, it's only till the end of the very next day so be sure to take advantage of it to make other gamers turn green with envy. When the Head Start Event ends, you can't access your new slots until your retail key is activated. You are given ten days to enter the key and make these slots permanent.

Age of Conan has released 15 new screenshots today. Since their last update on the main site was around the 16th of April, maybe this is their way of saying "sorry". Play as a barbaric hero faithful to the true Conan lore created by Robert E. Howard; expect to go to familiar (for Conan followers of course) legendary places and also meet important characters as you adventure throughout the mythical land of the barbarians. If you want more information then check out this preview and class system. Age of Conan is also rumored to be released on the Xbox 360.

You've seen and read the power sets for Issue 7. City of Villains has released two new screenshots to give us an idea what does a certain power look like. Take a look at the first screenshot, the power shown there is gloom which allows you to use your own Hit Points to keep enemies near you Disoriented and unable to use any powers. Endurance cost for this is minimal, but the power can be dangerous to use. In the second screenshot, the villain is casting Dark Embrace which shrouds you and grants resistance to Lethal, Smashing, Negative Energy and Toxic damage.

Another set of 2 new screenshots has been released for the awaiting fans of the upcoming MMORPG Pirates of the Burning Seas. You play a pirate helping to guide the ship and your fellow crewmates to pursue glory and fortune. Basically, these screenshots show us a female pirate just running in the highlighted port. You want more? Then check out these old screenshots and developer journal.

Finally, Guild Wars have just announced that you can buy additional character slots for your account. I admit that having 4 character slots isn't enough because I don't want to delete the characters I've spent my precious time on just to try another class combination which I may dislike at some point. This promotion starts at the beginning of this summer for 9.99 USD for each new slot. It's kind of expensive but thats better than paying monthly fees.