Considering I’m not a PC gamer, whatsoever, it sounds like this’ll be a chance for me to finally experience something like City of Heroes, only better.
From GamePro magazine:
“The Best Game You’ve Never Heard Of: Champions Online”
Champions Online is a superhero cross-platform MMO for the Xbox 360 and PC scheduled for a spring 2009 release.
“In development by the same team that brought City of Heroes to life, Champions Online is Cryptic Studios’ superhero MMO for the next generation. Design a unique superhero from a flexible character creation system that even allows you to choose the appearance of your superpowers. And what’s a superhero without an arch nemesis? You’ll also design your very own super villain, choosing a costume, name, and powers, that will thwart your hero throughout his or her career. Champions Online features real-time combat without the monotonous auto attacks and annoying recharge times currently used in most MMOs today. Stay tuned, there will be more to come on Champions Online in upcoming issues of GamePro magazine.”
The open beta is live and the NDA is down and so far I’m having a blast. It’s City of Heroes amplified, with a deeper world, the public quests from Warhammer, and a freer power system. No more power sets – if you want to be a guy who hurls lightning bolts and wields a sword, you can. If you want to be the Hulk with telekinesis, go for it. And it looks great. There are some things that are status quo for betas – lag, rubber-banding, etc. – but it’s definitely got my attention.
Very pleased to hear that. I’m in the midst of a break from WoW right now (3.2 was so underwhelming) and have been thinking about picking CO up. It looks like a damn fun MMO that won’t suck my soul away.
Originally Posted by Brad MilletteView Post Might give it a shot. I had a good bit of fun with CoH, even though the longevity of that game was really lacking.
That’s my concern with this as well. I loved making characters in CoH, and the zones are really well designed, but when you go into the same goddamn warehouse layout for the hundredth time, it gets a little tiring.
Originally Posted by Richard DicksonView Post That’s my concern with this as well. I loved making characters in CoH, and the zones are really well designed, but when you go into the same goddamn warehouse layout for the hundredth time, it gets a little tiring.
I’d bet that I spent more time creating characters than playing CoH. 2 or 3 missions was all it took to realize how repetitive the game was going to be, and creating your own characters was so detailed and so much fun that I realized I had more fun doing that than actually playing the character after. I only ever got 1 character to the point where he could get one of the travel skills and I quit shortly after that.
I really want to think they’ll address those issues with this game.
Just joined the Fileplanet open beta. Yeah, the character customization is addicting. I spent nearly 2 hours trying to my character, Lord Dulcolax, just right. From not playing a MMO since UO and just leaving the tutorial zone, this seems alright. I have absolutely no idea how stats or equipment work though.
The only thing approaching a negative for me so far is that, after the Marvel lawsuit against City of Heroes, Cryptic is being extremely gun shy about the character names it allows. If even part of your name belongs to even a 3rd or 4th string Marvel or DC character, it won’t allow it. I tried making a character called Night Shrike and it wouldn’t allow me to use “Shrike”, even though the comic characters are just Shrike and Killer Shrike. They’re not taking any chances that Marvel or DC will see anything even remotely resembling one of their characters. Not a huge deal, it just forces you to be a little more creative when naming your characters, but MMOs are often not the last bastion of the creative.
Sad thing is, I’m still seeing names like “Wolfereen” and “Hulkk”.
I tried making a variant of Billy the Kid (deceased), but it wouldn’t let me; I wonder if there’s a trademarked character with a similar moniker. I now fight crime as Zombie Jesse James.
I made a Gadgeteer over the weekend and it was alot of fun. After getting little gun drones that follow me around Im just decimating NPCs with no problems but I find myself getting my ass handed to me in pvp quite alot, not sure what Im doing wrong there. I’m only level 12 but I really hope they have pvp zones other than just the cage match because three fights in and its already wearing thin, especially since people just fly around on top of the cage instead of actually fighting in them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Judas BoothView Post Is this game a system hog like AoC is, or can a lightweight computer handle it?
Its cell shaded so I think it should scale pretty easily no matter the PC.
Originally Posted by Judas BoothView Post Is this game a system hog like AoC is, or can a lightweight computer handle it?
I’m running it on a midrange laptop: Intel dual core 2.5 GHz, 2 GB RAM, Quadro FX 570M (512 MB) GPU. I’ve had to turn down several lighting options (it was a bit sluggish but still ran) but it’s otherwise running well. If I use hacked drivers (my system is designed more for AutoCAD apps than gaming) I’d probably be able to turn all that lighting back on.
Thanks for the feedback. I’m getting bored with AoC and I’m trying to decide if I want to leap into another game or just hold out until SW:TOR hits. Hell, I even booted up Guild Wars for the first time in a year and played that for a half hour before logging off from boredom.
Im tempted about getting this one as mi first MMO (aside from a WoW trial months ago) through Steam when its released, but I how do monthly fees work with steam? Anyone can clear me up on this?
The Swinging travel power is one of the coolest things I’ve seen in this game. It takes a little bit to get the hang of it, but once you do, it’s awesome. It does look kind of weird using it out in the middle of the desert though.
Yeah the beta ends tonight, but if you pre-order from GameStop or Best Buy, you can still get the head start and start playing this Friday as opposed to the launch date next week.