Today marks the start of the annual quest in Monster Hunter Frontier, the MMORPG released by Capcom of the very popular action game.  Japan eats up everything Monster Hunter, whereas the die hard fans in America and other parts of the world have to do without for some reason.

The quest which starts today and ends on March 4th is specific to one monster’s “breeding season” as they say and will probably lead to many new and old hunters coming in to cause this beast as much trouble as possible.

There are annual quests related to the monster for all Hunter Ranks, but those in the 100’s and up will probably get the most out of the whole thing.  Readers in Japan: get your hunt on.  You might even see me out there.

Source:  Famitsu

Some people love the Monster Hunter series, me being one of those people.  I am always looking for info on the new Wii title Monster Hunter Tri and luckily Capcom delivers.

The new monster is called Boruboros.  He looks a bit like the rock styled dragon, but not as grey and boring.  With the style of his head, he may act a lot like a Rhino charging that big skull down on the non-attentive hunter.  He is massive, of course, and his skin looks like it will require quite the weapon to break on through.

Famitsu has a lot of pictures of the new field as well.  It seems to be an African plains-style look, with dry areas and sparse vegetation, to small ponds of water and some wonderful greenery around that.  Sadly, it reminds me a lot of the other desert field, so other than updated graphics it isn’t really all that much to get excited about.

I really wish the guys at Monster Hunter would do something funny like throw Godzilla or the Cloverfield monster in just for comical measure and to take out some anger from time to time, though they do release some rather well designed beasts of their own.

Source:  Famitsu

Apparently three long years of service were enough for the small community of gamers that still played Monster Hunter on their Western Playstation 2s.

Of course, it’s amazing that the love affair lasted as long as it did. Still serious business in Japan, sales of Monster Hunter games have been remained flat in the U.S. since their respective debuts. To date, the Playstation 2 version is the only one to feature actual online play, a major draw of the series in the first place (PSP releases only allowed ad hoc multiplayer in the same room).

For the seventy-or-so gamers logged on when the servers were shut off for good at approximately 12:25 PM EST, the departure must have been bittersweet. It wasn’t Capcom’s fault, though. According to a blog post on their community site a little over a month ago, the online capabilities of the game were outsourced to a company that no longer wants to remain in the business of networking Playstation 2 games (and really, what kind of business is that anyway?).

Ever the vanguard for its fans, Capcom even petitioned the nameless provider for a contract extension, but they weren’t having any of it.

It’s always kind of sad to see these small gaming communities disrupted — there’s something intriguing about having that sort of dedication to a game that most people have moved on from or completely ignored in the first place.

But progress must be made, and the pool of money to be made from providing support for a failed online platform must look more like a half-dried puddle these days, with everyone moving on to newer consoles.

Since they belonged to the same company, the servers for Resident Evil: Outbreak have been permanently removed, as well.

Earlier today, Capcom brought forth the sad news on their blog that the (seemingly nameless) external company hired to support the online capabilities for two of Capcom’s top franchises will be pulling the plug at the end of the year, exiting the PS2 online business altogether after more than three years of providing service to virtual hunters of monsters and zombies alike.

Fortunately, unlike the ill-fated Steel Battalion: Line of Contact for the original Xbox, whose gameplay was limited strictly to online combat, the offline single-player campaigns for both Outbreak and Monster Hunter will remain intact and unaffected by this announcement, though one might suppose it’s purely subjective as to just how great a consolation that would be to owners of these two titles.

Capcom adds that, while these were indeed older titles from their catalog (relatively speaking, anyway), they did want to make an effort to keep their fans happy in continuing support for online play. Doing what they could, they attempted to extend the contract, to have it transferred elsewhere, but it was to no avail. Their hosting partner is quitting the business entirely, and apparently can’t be bothered to expend the time or effort to port the service somewhere else, and so everyone else can apparently go screw. Thanks, nameless/faceless company!

From Capcom, however, they wish to thank everyone who “kept these games fun online for so many years.” And with all due respect, I’m sure at least a few gamers will hope that Capcom picks a better partner with which to support any future online ventures.