City of Heroes gold

In article <eb47ea2a.0404150851.2f785da9.DeleteThis@posting.google.com>,
Jonah Falcon <jonahnynla.DeleteThis@mindspring.com> wrote:
>And there's also a Game Card for those of you who don't want to use a
>credit card to pay:
>
>http://www.ebgames.com/ebx/product/241745.asp

And now that the NDA is up, I can let you guys know this: City of Heroes
rocks. I've been beta-testing it, and it is my favourite MMORPG ever.

A little background on me: I've played a fair bit of UO, and a tiny bit
of SWG, so I'm not exactly an MMORPG veteran (a bit of time on MUDs as
well, but not much). I've been playing computer games and video games
since, oh, Pong. I've been playing super-hero roleplaying games since 2nd
(I think) edition Champions was pretty new (Champions II wasn't out yet).
Supers is probably my favourite genre in just about any medium, whether
comics, games, or movies. So I may be somewhat biased.

But I'm loving it. Power creation is maybe not *quite* as flexible as I
would have liked -- I'd say Freedom Force has it beat. That said, in a
game with levels and other players, balance is more important and so power
creation flexibility is going to take a hit. You pick from one of five
different types of Origin and five different types of character (like
Tanker, Blaster, etc)...character type largely determines your powers,
which also go by category. For example, you could pick "Ice Powers" as
your primary power, and you could start the game with one of two or three
Ice Powers -- later ones would be opened up to you as you gain levels.

The city really looks and feels good -- oh, and have I mentioned the
graphic design of the characters? I cannot recall a game that had it
better. Imagine something like Heromachine (although with only 3 body
models -- Female, Male, and Large Male), only in full colour and 3D. You
could easily spend an hour or more designing the look or your character,
and they can look _good_ (unless you make them look dumb on purpose, which
you are of course also free to do). The missions are pretty fun, too --
four main types, but most of them have some game flavour to them.

It's still in Beta, so the "world" as far as the players' part in it goes
hasn't really taken shape -- there's nothing like the cities and
organizations that started up in UO, but that will probably come after
launch. And there's lots of support for social stuff -- plenty of
graphical emotes (more can always be added, of course), you can have
friends, form temporary teams or long term supergroups (read "guilds" --
and groups even get distinctive costume colours and symbols).

I'm only in the low teens with my highest level character, but I've heard
that even the upper levels have good gameplay -- low level starts out fun
(no killing rats or birds, you go right to the muggers, evil robots, and
zombies at first level) and it's just getting better.

Check out the FAQ, of course, but if anyone has anything that's not on
there, especially from the perspective of a PNP SHRPGer, ask away!


--
chuk