When we reminisce to our past gaming experiences on the Dreamcast, we remember it for providing us with online gaming out of the box. Sega's online ambitions were coupled with a slightly over-exaggerated “up to 6 billion players” slogan which tried to send the message that Dreamcast will bring the online scene to the living room but the lack of both software and marketing just made it a failed attempt at drawing in a specific group of gamers. There was one game, however, that demonstrated just exactly what Sega had envisioned for the Dreamcast: Phantasy Star Online. A mindless hack and slash action game that can be played with 4 players simultaneously from anywhere, at any time, with practically no language barrier thanks to the chat translation system. Great wasn't it? Well no. With the benefit of hindsight, it was rubbish. A totally mindless battle system that could fry your brain, lacklustre animation, colourful yet basic visuals and cheated to high heaven. Oh and did I forget to mention the tacked-on storyline? So why did we play this for so long with all of the flaws present? The answer can be given in three simple words: glorified instant messenger. PSO's main game may have been addictive to begin with, taking a month of your life, the chat system was the one thing you and I came back to.

Now that the Dreamcast is deceased and Sega are still milking the PSO franchise with no real gameplay innovation and denying online gamers an engrossing game to play with, Capcom have decided to do it themselves in the form of Monster Hunter for the PlayStation 2. An instant hit when released in March and with a US release slated for this August, you'd better not be going anywhere this summer as this game is stunning.

Admittedly, the name won't be the most imaginative in your games collection. At first thought some may even confuse it with a Pokemon style monster RPG, but it’s not. As PSO fans have begun to learn, simplicity can be pretty sweet. The single-player game has no storyline whatsoever, and quite rightly so, as in the prehistoric ages you wouldn't expect a good guy versus bad guy fairy tale. Instead you're given a choice to either create a male or female character , then thrown into the game world. Taking your first venture out into the first area will give a pleasant ambient aura, the same feeling you got when you first walked out onto the streets in Shenmue. With little to no use of ingame music, the feeling of being present in a prehistoric environment is very well done, and notably adds to the atmosphere.

Unlike PSO's character creation system, Monster Hunter does not force you to excel at one type of weapon only. There are 6 weapon types to use: Short blade, long blade, lance, light bowgun, heavy bowgun and hammer. Each weapon has its strengths and weaknesses along with a purpose in battle. Hammers are used to smash the ground to bring out monsters that are hiding, while bowguns along with the correct ammo type can be used to heal or buff team-mates, or even inflict damage from sniping positions. The combat is fast paced and is helped by the intuitive controls that Capcom have mapped onto the Dualshock controller. The left analogue stick is used for movement while the right is to attack with your weapon. Pressing the right stick upwards will result in your character using a forward slice/poke with his or her weapon. Left and right directions have the same side attack command, while the down direction can inflict damage to an enemy from behind. Each weapon type has unique actions and animations which make you want to try them all. The downside is the inability to switch between different weapons at one time while in combat. You will use only the weapon you have equipped as you leave town. Perhaps this was done for balancing purposes. The R1 and R2 buttons allow you to guard and sprint respectively. If you guard an opponent's attack or sprint, your stamina meter decreases. After a period of time, the bar's limit will be reduced meaning you must eat roasted meat through an amusing and quirky cooking mini-game. The game camera on the whole is fine and can be manipulated with the D-pad if need be. On the whole you could say they are perfect.

As a hunter, you're given numerous quests in order to earn money and improve your armour and weapons. Offline may be a good start to help you get used to the game controls and even obtain your first set of armour, but the online mode is the sole reason why this game was created and will be the single reason why you bought the game. After meeting three other companions in the game lobby, you must then select one of the available quests for your rank. After completing a set of quests, you will gain access to higher difficulty quests for higher ranks. In order to rank up you must complete numerous quests within a 50 minute time limit to be rewarded with experience points. Once you have enough, your title will change from Rank 1 named Ranger all the way until you are acknowledged as the almighty Monster Hunter. Getting to the 20th rank is not an easy task, however it is an enjoyable and immersive experience. After every 2 sets of quests completed, you must then defeat the Genkai (Japanese for Limit) quest, which will put you against a large boss.

Each set of quests comprises of 4 types of tasks: Defeat, Capture, Mine and Gather. The Gather types are somewhat annoying: your task is to travel across the map and carry back a heavy egg. If you are hit on the way then you lose grasp of it and it breaks. Do this successfully three times and you'll begin to wonder what on earth Capcom were thinking. Mining has zero challenge to it and simply demands you to go to certain spots to mine a number of materials. The Defeat and Capture quests however are nothing short of bliss. For the most part you'll want to slay endless amounts of large wyverns. From fire-breathing to earth-worm types, they're incredibly varied and pretty smart for such small-minded beasts. PSO's forest dragon has nothing on these. Accompanied by an excellent battle tune, they roar and fly in the air like they should. The game's stages are split into "zones" just like Capcom's other PS2 online game, Biohazard Outbreak. Wyverns and other special monsters tend to travel from zone to zone for any specific reason, whether they're hurt and need to sleep in order to regain health, or if they try and lure you into their nest. The difference between Outbreak and Monster Hunter's zoning is that even though Monster Hunter has no PS2 HDD support the loading times are very quick, only taking a second or two. It will take some getting used to but thankfully it does not hinder your experience and will soon become accepted.

With great attention given to spectacular boss fights, a certain Genkai boss known as Rao Shen Long must be mentioned. A huge walking dragon has appeared making its way to the castle gates. Your objective is to either damage it enough so it changes direction and runs away, or kill it entirely. Unlike all other missions, you are always against time - if you waste time not hitting it in the crucial areas enough, you will fail. Slashing and shooting Shen Long until you find yourself at thecastle gates, with time running out and the castle's HP decreasing, you won't notice how tense you've become during these 30 minutes. Win or lose, you'll want to take a breather, wiping the sweat off and returning to reality; you've just experienced one of the most tense, fun and engrossing boss fights in your life. Hats off to Capcom, pure genius.

A neat feature in Monster Hunter is the ability to synthesize monster parts and turn them into weapons and armour. Pressing the circle button on a downed beast will allow you to "skin" it for items such as its wings, claws or whatever else it features. Defeated a cool looking fire-breathing wyvern? Great, soon you can start to look like him. The selling point of boss battles and synthesizing is the fact that you never ever gain the traditional "level up" found in common Japanese RPGs, meaning your only two stats, defence and attack, can only be boosted by upgrading your armour or weapon. All the more reason to hunt down and defeat those tougher dragons as you progress along the game.

In an ideal world, games would be perfect, but in this world we live in today, they are not. Since you'll be spending a fair amount of time in town synthesizing, you'll no doubt become annoyed with the NPC grunts and noises. Such sounds cannot be explained in words but only understood by the ears; do yourself a favour and mute the volume. Even though combat is great fun, getting knocked back by a team-mate's weapon isn't. Thankfully you receive no damage from other human players but it can be quite frustrating. Realism? Maybe. Frustrating? Definitely. One particular area where PSO has the advantage over Monster Hunter is the chat system. Why on earth do you have to press a button on your keyboard to get the initial chat box to display, before being able to type your message is beyond me. Really off-putting and a shame for a game such as this. These are all nuances that can be forgiven over time but not forgotten.

Overall it is by far one of the better PS2 online games and a must have for those with an interest in online gaming, especially the type of gamers who simply do not have the time to spend hours upon hours finding a party in an MMORPG. The pick-up-and-play formula works very well here and will no doubt keep you addicted for many months.