Being a GM for Phantasy Star Universe means a pretty huge amount of time and work — and the thing is, I still very much enjoy just playing the game. The irony is that being a GM for the game means you don’t have nearly as much time to actually play anymore, but I’ve been doing my best to chip away at my “for fun” characters here and there.

We’re in the middle of an event mission now: In the storyline of the game, it’s a ‘virtual reality’ battlefield training program preparing the GUARDIANS for a major upcoming battle against the SEED. So in my capacity a GM I’ve been running the event missions & dropping in a bit with players — in my capacity as player, though, I’ve been doing some much needed leveling, taking advantage of the missions’ boosted experience point gains to finally give some much-needed oomph to my fortegunner.

By rule I’ve always been a fan of melee in any sort of fantasy / RPG / MMO game that even remotely allows it: preferably dual-wielding, and preferably with swords or daggers. That’s just how I’m wired: I like to kill monsters in a whirling storm of precision-wielded sharp objects. But Phantasy Star Universe, wouldn’t you know it, is a blast (pun intended?) to play as a gunner-type character. So in the interests of gunning down SEED-form monsters & expanding my GM knowledge of the game’s classes, I’ve been leveling my aforementioned gunner character. Here she is, ready to kill some bad guys and take their stuff:

What with the day-to-day business of Phantasy Star GMing I don’t get a chance to level her (or for that matter, my higher-level melee character) nearly as much as I’d like. Event missions for this game always bring out a nice crowd, though, and friendly GUARDIANS have been happy to run missions with me. Just one nice part about event missions like the one that’s going on now is that they offer substantially boosted experience from normal missions.

Why this particular event has been fun: in addition to the experience boost, the missions are fast-paced and feature lots of changes of scenery. Each of the two main event missions have multiple available routes you can run, lots of little secrets & spots to explore, and fast-paced tours of different zones to do battle in — since it’s a “virtual reality” simulation, every time you change spots in the level you get a different area from the game that loads up.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to run with a GM, and helped me level my “for-fun” character. She does still need work, though: I even got a comment at one point that my gunner’s Photon Arts were “terrible”. This was a fair point: For the record, though, my melee character’s Photon Arts are awesome. Consider my gunner a work in progress.

Incoming news item! Although the Protectors Alpha/Beta+ event missions will be gone at the end of this week, there’s a new update coming right on the event’s heels. Three new missions will be updated to S2 rank (each mission has multiple difficulty levels, from C — the lowest — to S2 — the highest), and, perhaps most excitingly, we’re getting a new story mission.

The Phantasy Star Universe story has been quite epic so far, as your player-character goes from a GUARDIANS neophyte to — well — there’s some new details revealed in this story that are definitely worth playing for, if you’ve been a fan of the game. The story mission has unfolded in gradual chapters since the release of the game, making it a true investment for the fans who have been following the narrative from the beginning.

For anyone who wants to see the full details for what’s coming this week, here’s the update page.

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SEGA Japan has partnered with Google Japan on Super Monkey Ball and Bayonetta to bring themes for Google Chrome and released this video, which includes the Chrome logo in the Super Monkey Ball world.

You can also read all about it on Google Japan’s blog, although obviously you’ll need to be pretty fluent in Japanese.

Roughly translated (thanks to Babelfish), here’s what it says:

This day, new feature joins in Google Chrome which from the thinking that is announced in 2008 September from high speed we would like to offer operativity and simple [uebuekusupiriensu] to the web user. That is “stylish”. The artist theme due to Google Chrome of 100 kinds or more which the artist in the world designed colors the web experience of the user stylishly.

This time, Google from Japan directing to the world, as for the theme which is dispatched 14 works. Music and interactive art are created, the virtual pop star “Hatune [miku]” which was created by the artists in “TENORI-ON” and the world and the nonstop climax action “BAYONETTA” which freely used the Gothic art due to SEGA and so on, the Japanese work art and technology fused every one splendid just ones. When this day is entered, 13 artists who spend talent and the energy which become great are introduced. (Honorific title abbreviation, sequential different) shape section one flat, public it is good thickly, Yuki Nakano and Nisida Takamori, PansonWorks and HIFANA, the Ueda baron, Crypton Future Media, TBS, Good Smile Company and Toei Co., Ltd. animation, YAMAHA, corporation Sega, SONY [konpiyutaentateinmento]. Everyone, thank you for offering the truly splendid work. There is a video which introduces the artist theme of Google Chrome from SEGA and NINTEA. There please view by all means. (As for the video of SEGA from this. As for the video of NINTEA from this)

As for the user of Google Chrome of by all means, now directly experience new artist theme. Still as for the user which does not use Google Chrome high speed operativity and simple, downloading Google Chrome which adds “stylish” by all means, please enjoy.

If anyone has better translation than this, please leave it in the comments.

Want a sneak peek at the new DS version of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games? You can download a demo now on the Wii Nintendo Channeln (US only).  The demo allows you to try out the touch screen controlled Alpine Skiing and you can play as Mario or Sonic.

If you haven’t yet, you can become a fan on Facebook, or see all the art on our Flickr feed. Keep up with the latest news on Twitter, and visit Olympic Video Games for everything there is to see about Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games.