Monster Rancher ? Is it like animal crossing ? I'm not a very nurturing person so the idea of raising critters do not appeal to me, unless we're talking about Zergs. I even refused to train Chocobos in FFVII to get the final summons ... Anyways, I read in one of your posts that you liked Monster Hunter. My very first posts on GS were about the PS2 game, circa 2005, I even reviewed it. That might be a game we'll be able to play together on the Wii, next March! I gotta kill Fatalis again.

Monster Rancher lets you raise monsters and fight them in tournaments. It's been compared to Pokemon but you're more closely involved by choosing training regimens and looking out for its mental and physical health. Each monster has its own likes, dislikes and temperament to work around. Some deal with stress well, some always want to play and others are easily frustrated and will run away with little provocation. A competent monster can also go on expeditions to find rare items or clues to generate rare new breeds. All monsters share one feature, though- they will die. Be it in battle, during training or just of old age they will pass on. If you freeze old critters before they die they may be combined with other monsters to foster hybrid critters that may inherit higher stats or moves known by their parents.

Monster Hunter is awesome and the PS2 version was great until the servers got shut down. The PSP versions are pretty much enhanced PS2 ports with new features like the farms for easier gathering of materials. Unite even added AI kitty companions for those without local buddies or a way to get an adhoc connection working over the 'net. I'm wary of the Wii version's long term viability because Capcom are notorious for killing off their servers. I would rather Capcom charge for online access like they've done in Japan to give them more incentive not to kill them off.

Edit: What sort of game site cannot render Alt-130. WHO ARE YOOOOU?!

I feel your pain. I was still playing when they shut the Outbreak servers. I'm glad I had already pulled 300+ hours of monster hunting and had retired.

They could charge for online play or let players be the host, much like what happens with the the PSP. I think most Capcom games for the PS3 now follow a more lose structure in which you only need the PSN to find a a partner and to update your stats but the connection is created between the two players.

Capcom is still considering if they'll charge for Monster Hunter, given it's still not a major hit on the US or Europe. http://kotaku.com/5373867/no-fee-and-maybe-wiispeak-for-western-monster-hunter-3

The PSP games have a more future-proof structure... there is no real online but the PS3's (pending) AdhocParty and XLink Kai can trick the PSP into playing with others over the internet. The only servers to speak of are for optional downloadable missions and bonus content.

I think the PS3 still uses the old method of making the publisher/developer maintain the multiplayer servers. Calling All Cars on PSN has already been shut down. It disturbs me. Demon's Souls even has a disclaimer in the TOS that they only have to maintain the servers until a certain date. After that the servers can be terminated with no notice.

The 360 doesn't work that way. The pub/dev supplies netcode but almost all games use MS's servers. The only exceptions are for MMOs, games with persistent conflicts and EA's games. Chromehounds is apparently totally dead because Sega wanted to handle both campaign mode AND matchmaking. Capcom was less idiotic and only used their own server for campaign mode in Steel Battalion: LoC on XBox so its matchmaking mode still works. EA is excessively stubborn and uses their own servers for 360 and PS3 titles and are very kill-happy. Nascar 08 is already dead across all platforms. Jerks.