While the Western side of the world is all excited regarding the upcoming launch of DC Universe Online, Japan is prepping for its own MMO of superhuman proportions, courtesy of Namco Bandai's Dragon Ball Online. Join QJ.NET as we begin our character spotlight with Dragon Ball's most prolific bad boy: Vegeta.

A couple of weeks ago, we were all surprised when Dragon Ball Online literally exploded into QJ.Net's front page. A DBZ-themed MMO video game is really huge, when you really think about it. We know you all enjoyed playing the Shin-Budokai titles but imagine creating your own characters and slugging it out with multiple Saiyans in a virtual universe.

Well, the Saiyan part is not a hundred percent sure yet as details of the game are yet to be released. What we only know is that it's set around 200 years into the future of the current Dragon Ball Z universe. So don't go expecting meeting familiar characters as NPCs but then again, we can never tell.

Aside from the details mentioned above, Dragon Ball Online will allow players to become a part of the "Time Patrol Trunks," a group of warriors entrusted to re-unite the world after an evil organization divided it. Going back to our Saiyan hope, Akira Toriyama is heavily involved in the making of the video game so it is never complete without that bit.

While we're waiting for further details on Dragon Ball Online, which is being developed by NTL and to published by Namco Bandai, feast yourselves in the meantime with these few screenshots that we managed to grab.

Thanks Jay C. for the heads up!

So, what's better than having Dragon Ball Z on the PSP and the Wii? Having a DBZ-based MMORPG, that's what. While we've been playing all those characters in the fighting-genre of the Shin Budokai franchise, now, we can actually reincarnate our very own selves as avatars in the Dragon Ball universe. That's if the game will be released in Western shores though.

In Japanese magazine V-Jump, it's now been confirmed that Dragon Ball Online will hit Japan come 2008. This summer though, it's already going to start its testing phase in Korean labs. Details about the game in general are still a bit scarce, however, we've been able to squeeze out some info from the scans.

• The game will be designed by none other than Akira Toriyama - from characters, backgrounds, and urban settings
• It's set some 200 years into the future of the current DBZ universe, where most, if not all, of the major characters we know are already dead (pressumably)
• Your main quest, together with a team called the "Time Patrol Trunks," will be to help reunite the world which was divided by some evil organization

Here are higher-res scans from the magazine care of Jeux-France:

 

Over at Gamasutra, the winners of the Quantum Leap Awards for role-playing games have finally been announced. They have gone on to ask game industry professionals to cast their votes as to which RPG, on any platform ever created, "has brought the genre forward in the biggest way". In that same sense, voters were posed with the question: "Which role playing game over the entire history of the genre do you think has made the biggest 'quantum leap', and why?"

Well, the votes have been cast, and the top five have been named. But since five is such a small number, one can't help but give out honorable mentions to other game titles which have helped the genre and the industry.

Want to find out who these honorable mentions are and which games are held in high esteem by RPG experts? Read on, and find out!

Read the full article after the Jump!