But I don't see it on the European PSN... Can anybody put it up for download somewhere?

i didnt see it last night when i got the infamous demo il have a look again when i get back homw

Well for newcomers just keep in mind the full game eases you into the experience better... It may be tough to take on the demo bosses right away not knowing what stuff does. Keep at it, it'll click soon enough. Maybe check these out to learn more first.

Huhu, I noticed yesterday the demo was FINALLY up on the European PSN as well! I downloaded it last night and I played it just now and I must say it's everything I hoped for. The demo doesn't let you explore the village or pick your missions, you can only choose to hunt one of three monsters in single player or co-op mode but I must say I greatly enjoy it so far. The camera control is not intuitive but you deal with it, just like you deal with it in a game Portable Ops.

Anyway, it's my first time actually playing a Monster Hunter game (but I've read up on them quite a bit) so I chose the first monster (one difficulty star) and fought it with the lance character and managed to beat it after about 15 minutes. I have no idea how to do the dodges yet but as far as attacking goes, I don't see why people say it's hard for newcomers, it's actually rather simple, and fun. After I killed it I tried again with the great sword and beat it again, though i really need to take a look at the controls and see how to evade cos I'm sure the tougher monsters will kick my ass, even though the demo gives you many potions and great potions.

My right hand's last two fingers always get extremely sore after playing on the PSP for a while, but I'm now even more excited for the Wii's Monster Hunter 3 since it brings so many new features to the table, looks gorgeous, and it will also fix the camera control issues for me. Thanks for continuing to bring the franchise to the West, Capcom. I hope it does better cos it certainly deserves it.

I couldn't complete the mission I tried. I didn't have a clue what was going on actually. I'd rather play the full thing if I play it at all.

You're just tasked with killing the biggest monster in the area basically, in the demo missions. You're equipped with the weapon you chose and the game also gives you potions and other items to use. For the lance which I liked the most so far, the actions were rather simple.

Triangle unsheathed the weapon, or if it was unsheathed did up to 3-hit combo. You could unsheath during a run to also do a hit right away. Circle also did a 3 hit combo but aiming high. Triangle + Circle together started charging (but it used up stamina). You could finish that with Triangle hits or Circle to stop charging.

With the weapon unsheathed holding down R blocked with the shield. With the weapon sheathed holding down R was sprinting (uses stamina).

Square sheaths the weapon or if it's sheathed uses the selected item (like a potion, plant a bomb, or whatever). So if y ou want to use an item, sheath your weapon, step away from the monster (or maybe it's going to be busy with your cat helper) and then tap it again to actually use it.

With the weapon sheathed Circle is used to examina/loot/climb ladders, ledges, etc. It's like an action button.

Holding down L then using the Square and Circle buttons as if they're arrow buttons you highlight the item you want Square to be using as above.

Tapping R re-adjusted the camera behind you.

The d-pad was used to rotate the camera or change the angle, higher or lower.

Select did a kick. Start opened a menu where you could choose to do various gestures, combine items, and other stuff.

The great sword was similar but much slower and you mostly alternate between vertical and horizontal slash for the combos (Triangle and Circle) and both buttons together did a backward swing instead of a charge. The rest was very similar. I think overall the controls are mostly intuitive and work really well for the game's style.

Before you choose to play it has a control screen which shows the different moves and such but I only gave it a glimpse and then dove right in. That's why I don't know how to dodge yet xD

They're really not convoluted once you play with them a little. I mean, I only played it twice and remember it already, and I think I use it decently effectively. It's only the camera control that gets to me, and that playing on the PSP for a prolonged period makes my right hand's unused fingers numb for some reason... I don't have that issue with any other system/controller.

Yay, I found how to dodge. Pressing X toggles crouch, but pressing a direction + X makes you roll that way (huhu). There's probably other moves you can do depending on the gear you chose, I don't know them all yet, I only played twice. So, yeah, all the actions take a while, they're not so instant like fast paced action games. You have to play it very methodically and choose carefully when to do what if the enemy is a tough one, you can't just button mash or play it like Phantasy Star Online. Good stuff, I can't wait for more.

Wow, a lot of newcomers.  The first real boss (assuming it's the big pink bird) is the easiest in the game.  It's the basically the benchmark for any hunter.  The controls seems convoluted until you play with it a bit more.  It took me 3 tries and about 1 year apart from each to actually get the game when it was on the PS2.  This is very much a hardcore game like the original Megaman, there's not a lot of hand holding with this game.  It relies on memory and reflexes.

Pro tips for the first boss (Yian Kut-Ku):

1. Attempt to get a weapon that has green, even a slight amount of green is good.  This means using metal weapons is the preferred choice.

2. Learn the pattern of the Yian Kut-Ku.

3. Stick to your right a.k.a. the wyvern's left.

4. Don't forget that some weapons like the sword and shield have block and that you can dodge.

General tips:

1. Early in the game collect everything you can.  Even dung.

2. Learn your item queue.  Make sure to know where everything is and in what order.


Also, every weapon I think has a dodge move.  Most are just the regular dodge move, but some like the long sword and lance allows you to hop backwards.  I think the lance also allows you to strafe.

Meh. I put 55 hours into Monster Hunter Freedom 2, but for some reason never really felt like I got my money's worth. I love the game's art style, its structure, its enemy design, and even its combat, but it was too cumbersome for me to enjoy alone for very long. It just never felt very rewarding. This demo didn't feel any different. Might as well pick up the old versions, unless you want to play with Ad Hoc Party.

Create an American account. Did you know that rag-doll kung fu is free in the American store?

Kinda off-topic but I'm just glad to actually hear people love on this game in English on Giant Bomb. My eyes are tearing up. I have the original MHF and I'll get MHFU soon. Can't wait.

I liked it too, but it's basically Monster Hunter Freedom 2 with a new name slapped on it and a Felyne sidekick... :/

BTW you can see the control layouts for each weapon on the demo

I only have Freedom 1 and about a day after I decided to get Freedom 2, they announed Unite so I'm planning to just jump to that.

" I only have Freedom 1 and about a day after I decided to get Freedom 2, they announed Unite so I'm planning to just jump to that. "

Well I caved and bought this off PSN since it was 20 euros cheaper than retail price here. Finished the 1 star quests and liking it, though I suck at it, it took me 5 tries to beat that 1-star urgent quest boss (after you do all the normal ones). Somehow the demo (at least the first boss) seemed easier even though it's got monsters more advanced than the first boss in the full game. I guess it was the good gear it gives you.

Why can you only save 6 downloadable quests at a time? That's pretty lame. I can't do most since they have hunter rank requirements but yeah, I thought I'd just save all the releases quests and such and keep them until then, but no.

Eh, just run past whatever isn't your objective, don't try to kill everything :-P

Like in one of the first quests the Tigrex appears out of nowhere but you're in no position to defeat it so you just run off and try to find more herbivores to kill as the quest asks :-P

Oh I would run past it if it wasn't showing up in the middle of me fighting my objective, then charging me into a corner. 

That never happened to me. It was only showing up in the high areas in the first environment. Still, learn to beat it, it's not so hard. Try different weapons. Maybe one that can block, though you should be able to just avoid the charges. If you can't beat that you have no chance against the first boss, it's one of the blue dinos, but bigger and with more health, but it's also surrounded by a few small dinos which harass you :-|

The game reminds me of 
phantasy  star online a great deal

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii, I just crafted my first armor. The Giadrome based set (is -1 to dragon resistance - from each part - bad? I don't think I'll fight dragons soon?). I also crafted a new 1h sword + shield, though I may not use it since I upgraded the first great sword quite a bit. I did beat the Giadrome again with it though, and the giant boar boss. It's so sweet when you finally manage things after getting beaten around by the bosses xD

The bosses I've defeated :-)

3 (I think) variants of these:

 
And these:

 

Yeah it's pretty hard to learn what everything does. I have sword sharpener with a decoration but I don't know what it does or if it's even enough of a + to make a difference, lol. I like how different beasts need different weapons so you can't stick to a single type. I was trying to beat the congalala with a great sword but half my swipes were getting bounced off, then I read it's best to use small weapons that don't as accidentally reach its hardened parts and I managed to beat it relatively easy, though I did use 2 traps and some poisoned meat bait.

Woot, just beat this too :-D

Nope, no PS3. I'll have to wait for Monster Hunter 3 to play with other people. I'll try to get the Khezu armor then (it's good right? doesn't only look good?), but I'll need to get a different set first, I don't want every Khezu fight to be as hard as this time was, lol, I'll upgrade before tackling it again.

In Japan all home console Monster Hunter games had a fee. The online service also had nothing to do with Sony on the PS2 and nothing to do with Nintendo on the Wii, it's all powered by CAPCOM, to whom the fee goes. They also have a Japan-only PC version that's only played online with a fee. But in the West they didn't charge for Monster Hunter's online mode, ever. They've said they're redoing the online mode for Tri's Western version as well (with potential voice chat, but not promising anything) though they didn't go in specifics, but I imagine it will once again lack a fee for the Western audience since they're trying to get the franchise to be more popular here and a fee could harm that. As for the weapon types, they've also added one, the slash axe, and now the bowguns are customisable in 3 parts, stock, barrel and, uh, whatever other part they have, while there are also new combos and even weapon specific specials. They've also added the underwater gameplay, the torches, redone animations and graphics for the returning content, added a bunch of new monsters (holy shit @ the mountain dragon), and it's all taking place in brand-new areas. There's also a split screen mode though I think it restricts itself to the arena mode. It sounds good to me, I don't exactly see the downsides. It's the first true sequel since the last PlayStation 2 game considering the PSP titles are ports of those with enhancements to fit the new portable platform. Not to mention finally playing it with a full controller that allows for far more natural camera control (whether you prefer the Wii's classic controller or not). Besides, they had to leave some stuff out for the inevitable Monster Hunter Tri~G, right? It's CAPCOM after all...

Edit: The online works fine as you can see, excuse the weird image colors/quality though, whatever the guy used to capture it...

Well I finished the 2-star elder quests, and done a few 3-star ones (wow, forest area looks sweet),  and these bosses, fun fun fun ^_^

Monster Hunter 3 and Lost Planet 2 next year will be very nice.

Woot, Blagonga owned.

Captured it on my first try too, thanks to my trusty paralyzing weapon. Heh, it was funny, just as it was almost out of the pit trap I set, my weapon's paralyze effect kicked in, then I threw a couple of tranq bombs and it was downed (after taking most of its health off, darn thing kept escaping and I had run out of paintballs so it was already recovering health (I think? When they sleep?) when I re-found it):-)

Khezu armor is for the Assassin's Creed fans.

New title announced for the PSP yesterday at the MH Fiesta in Japan. The new game will be called "Monster Hunter Diaries" 
 
http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http://www.famitsu.com/game/news/1228844_1124.html&sl=ja&tl=en&history_state0=

Oh come on, just as I got this? Damn you CAPCOM! Diaries makes it sound like a spin off as the article says though, we'll see...

Edit: The title is apparently Monster Hunter Diary Poka Poka Airu Village... Yeah, wait and see I guess. I doubt they'd do something shovelwary with this one franchise though, so even if it's a spin off it's probably something worthy of attention. At least it's not Tri Portable, that'd be lame!

Interesting.. Itl be a long while before it comes out here though, so your safe.

Oh well. Carrying on. I'm trying to make butterfly armor cos I like how it looks. I have the chest and gloves only so far, damn rare bugs.

Constant timeout by Nargakuga... HR7 Urgent anyways...  I hate fighting Nargakugas, my kill record is only 1(lowbie kill) for a reason.
  
Soloing the bastard is pretty tough, it has a lot of hp (Used Golden Falchion). Maybe I should hammer (Sanctioned Hammer) the bastard. He's a quick one though.  
 
Any soloing advice for the guy would be nice, I swear I bet he's actually harder than the other HR8 mobs.  (I dare say Akantor seems like a baby compared to this bastard.)
 
 
 

Anyways, the butterfly armor is kinda.... well, I don't think it's good for serious combat.

Every single version of Ceanataur armor is absolutely excellent, and really easy to make. The lowbie version is superb as well , since it's great starting gear to collect other gear from harder mobs.

Well it has more armor than my current, status attack up skill and 3 resistances, while it doesn't seem too hard to get, I'm only missing a few bugs for the rest pieces and the three monster fluids (grah! let me carve you, stupid insects).

Kinda hit a stumbling block and haven't played much but I just beat this :-)

I'm on 4 star quests. I didn't clear all 3 star ones though (but I did the urgent quest for those). I can't beat those damn plesioths.

I'm really interested in this game, we should get some Ad-Hoc party going.

Can't, no PS3.