City of Heroes

[Head Mutant]

If anyone else is playing, I'm over on the Infinity server. I haven't settled on a main character yet, just making and trying them out, but I'll post who I settle with.

So far... pretty graphics, superheroey gameplay, and all the depth of a four foot kiddie pool. But the atmosphere is cool.

[Head Mutant]

Gotta say, this has to be the easiest MMORPG to get into I've ever played. The interface and controls are simple and well-done, and I've rarely had to look up help for anything I needed to figure out.

Having fun so far. Leveling takes a while, I'm just level 5, but the missions are wonderful to take your mind away from grinding. Unfortunately, once you're done with the missions in one area, you have to grind to level up in order to survive the next area (where the next set of missions are), which is where I'm at right now.

I've settled on a Mutant Defender named Weather Girl (behold my pink and black baggy pants!), who has storm summoning and radiation blasts as her two power sets. I'll probably create a permenant secondary character too, just haven't decided on what type.

You eventually get over 20 powers, so even at the start, combat isn't just hitting one button (by level 2, you have 3 powers to switch between, plus a generic hit). I usually start fights by throwing an ice storm at a crowd of baddies (slowing them down), hit them with an AOE irridate (which hits everyone for a stream of damage), fire away with a little neutron blast, and once in a while use a gust of wind to throw everyone back so they don't smack me upside my head too much.

So anyway... we'll see how the long-term fun holds out, but as for right now, it's very enjoyable to play, the graphics are awesome, and the only glitch I ran into I fixed with updated video card drivers.

If anyone's on Infinity, give me a buzz!

[DocD83]

Is this one of those things that require a subscription? How much is it?

[Head Mutant]

1st month comes with the purchase of the game, then it's $15/mo, unless you purchase multiple months (3, 6, 12), in which case you get a discount.

[PoolMan]

Hey J, can you post a screenshot of your character? And any others you've created? I've heard the character creation is some of the best ever made, and I'd be curious to see what you did with it.

[Head Mutant]

I actually did take a few screenshots, but for some reason, they're of an "unspecified file type" and my graphic program won't open them. I'll give it another go.

But yeah, you're just in heaven making your characters. I've had a lot of fun walking around and checking out the other costumes and get-ups, and I haven't yet seen two remotely alike. My character is about 4'8" tall, so she comes up to the waistlines of most bigger guys... so it's more funny to me to see her knock out entire crowds of baddies.

The character creation process takes maybe... 10 - 15 minutes, if you're being picky about it. I had one character (who I deleted) who had a robotic arm... and then it let me select from about four different types. But when I went in with a new character (different body type), the robotic arms were completely different. I have no idea how many options there are, but they are staggering.

[Head Mutant]

Figured it out...



Me! Weather Girl!



Me and two other guys... Mr. Fist Pumper over there is a highly excitable moron who keeps going "WOO!" and doing exaggerated emotes. Weather Girl kicked him in the crotch, that ended that.



Another shot of Weather Girl. Goggles on loan from the Cyclops collection.

And before I get blasted for playing a girl, two things in my defense:

(1) Notice that Weather Girl does not have the skin-tight spandex lookitmyboobs wear... she's modestly awesome

(2) My secondary character will be a hulking guy

[PoolMan]

Hey man, nobody was picking on you... feeling defensive?

That's quite cool. I have to admit, you're tempting me mightily.

[Landatauron]

I'm just waiting on my pre-order to get here (I'm in Japan so it takes longer). I was in the beta and the 3 day head start for pre-orders. Planning on making a natural blaster. Haven't decided on a server yet so maybe I'll start on Infinity. How did you get the screenshots? I tried a couple times during the beta and couldn't get em.

[Head Mutant]

Defensive? Around you? Never. Because you're just the kind of guy who never picks on anyone. Right.

Right.

You just hit the Print Screen key for screenshots now. It saves to a .tga file.

[FiveMileSmile]

Just for the record, I'm SO buying this game this weekend.



- Rich

[Head Mutant]

Just some small cool things about the game:

* The removal of loot (for the most part) solves so many headaches... you don't have to worry about saving up for stuff, because there's not much to buy. And what loot there is is randomly distributed in group fights, so no loot robbing.

* Laughing at the unoriginal idiots who try to model their character off of an actual superhero, only to find themselves awash in a sea of Incredible Hulk clones.

* You just feel powerful. Even at level one, you're stomping out crime like no one's business, and you can unleash impressive and enormous attacks that make you drool for what the future powers will be like.

* My favorite part is when you save civvies from the bad guys, and they come up and thank you, bow to you, and sometimes give you gifts! I like being worshipped. Ahhh.

* There's really no stat screen to speak of, which is kind of frustrating when you want to know how an enhancement you used on a power increased that power precisely.

[DocD83]

The game only just came out, right? It cost $50 at the one retail place I checked...are these guys selling it on ebay for $25 legit or will I be scammed out of my money if I buy that?

I probably won't get around to it for a few weeks but it does sound like fun.

Oh btw, what are the system requirements? I can't find that online.

[FiveMileSmile]

Update: Considering that there isn't even a confirmed UK release date for this yet, I'll NOT be getting it tomorrow.

Stupid stupid non-global title launches.

- Rich

[Head Mutant]

If you buy it off eBay, you might get the game but NOT the access code (or the code might already be used), rendering the game unplayable.