Phantasy Star Online is the game that simply will not die. It has spawned nigh countless incarnations from the Dreamcast to the Xbox. And now it has combined its aging graphical engine with an extremely odd counterpart: collectible card battling.

The game is quite apparantly far from finished as the demo is extremely linear and confining. From what I can gather, the card system works to equip and defend your character against an enemy with their own set of cards. However, unlike Magic the Gathering, Middle Earth, or even Lost Kingdoms, the power of the cards does not directly affect anything. This is primarily because before any action can take place you must 'roll a die'. Depending on whether or not your roll is higher than your opponent, your attacks might be more or less likely to miss, inflict damage, inflict status anomalies, or do anything else for that matter. This extremely random element of combat seems sorely out of place and is the source of most of Episode 3's currently visible problems.

It may just be my humble opinion but PSO needs to be retired before we find ourselves collecting 'pocket monsters' on Ragol.