Paragon and NCSoft Plan a Host of Content Updates with City of Heroes Issue 22
NCSoft’s favorite MMO the-mighty-in-tights City of Heroes superhero MMO is planning the biggest expansion of content that they’ve had since they went free-to-play with Issue 22: Death Incarnate. Amid the additional content, the MMO studio plans to add numerous tweaks to Dark Astoria—a mostly ignored hazard zone that contains flying masks and extremely upset zombies. Also planned is a new trial aimed at bringing heroes together to stop the rise of an evil sorceress… Hopefully we’ll see this content soothe the aging content of this amazing game. Massively has the story but you may want to see it on the official site.
It’s a City of Heroes Christmas and who doesn’t miss the Level Lord
Back in the early days of MMORPGs—and those days it was 2004—the MMOs started to realize that people wanted more to do than just new content involving episodes and new villains and higher level caps. Instead, MMO companies discovered that people wanted to experience in-game what happened to them outside in the global culture. So City of Heroes added the Winter Event.
With that winter event came some unexpected bugs…currently best described in the most recent MMO Anthropology article,
By far the most amusing phenomena that rose out of the original 2004 Winter Event in City of Heroes happened to be the city-region bosses the Winter Lords. These were gigantic snowmen appearing about ten stories tall, textured as if made entirely out of snow, with icicle noses.
…
City of Heroes Begins Macintosh Client Open Beta
The superhero MMORPG City of Heroes has recently opened up trials for its spanking new Macintosh client. Previously limited to the obviously superior Windows operating system, this new client will allow the desperate market sliver that makes up Mac users to experience the joys of eye beams and massive raids against an immobile sac of protoplasm.
The full release of a Mac version for City of Heroes is expected around January of 2009. Or maybe February. Could be March.
Lead designer Position posted the announcement in this forum thread. You can also sign up for the Macintosh beta test over here.
Tabula Rasa Goes Free a Month Early
We’ve mentioned before that the MMO Tabula Rasa would be going free for a while before closing its doors, but the folks over at NCsoft surprised up by laying out the red carpet a month early. Right now, yes, now, Tabula Rasa is free to play for anyone who can sign up with a PlayNC account. They’ve also poured in a swirling soup of new content to sample, because really, there’s no sense in holding anything back, is there?
Tabula Rasa is a strange combination of First-Person Shooter and MMO Role-Playing Game that plays out something like Halo with leveling and a total lack of fresh ideas. The game failed to open big thanks to its rather generic nature and technical problems, not to mention certain MMORPG elephants in the room that blocked out any chance the market might have had to discover the game.
Still, there …
NCsoft: One MMO Down, One MMO Up
So now that NCsoft has dug a grave for Tabula Rasa, what’s next on the unhallowed list of new releases?
Aion: Tower of Eternity is scheduled to release in Korea this year, and to the rest of the civilized world in 2009. The game involves a dream-setting, ancient god-monsters, and flying combat. It’s built around the same graphics engine in Far Cry, one CryEngine, and looks damn pretty if you’re into the asian Final Fantasy art style.
In the continuing tradition of unoriginality, Aion offers the standard classes, you know, beatstick, sniper, one-shotting ninja bastard, mage and priest. The only real wrinkle is that at some point, characters grow wings and take to the sky. Aerial duels seem to be a strong part of Aion’s design, but it remains to be seen …
Tabula Rasa Eats a Sci-Fi Shotgun
Just recently, NCsoft announced that their sci-fi shooter MMO, Tabula Rasa will be getting the axe at the end of February, thanks to slow sales and general suckitude. Tabula Rasa is a sort of MMO version of Quake, where players fight against an alien enemy for control over vital resources and strategic positions on a war-torn world. The game was praised for its unique combat system, which combined character-based dice-rolling with player skill in accurate targeting, an approach which worked well to counter the lag and slow response times common to MMOs. However, technical problems like memory leaks, random crashes, and a total lack of anything actually fun to do hurt the game during its release.
While several patches have come through since then, including a number of new content releases that added the necessary standards of an Auction House and crafting system, the damage had been done. …
City of Heroes Issue 13 Beta Goodies
City of Heroes, the superhero-themed MMO from Cryptic is currently shoving Issue 13 through their beta process. Be sure to jump on over to the test server to take first advantage of the new features. Among the highlights, you’ll find a Level Pact that binds two character from different accounts to the same XP pool. The upside here is that no matter how much one no-lifer plays his character, the other hero in the pact will advance at the same rate. Not all that great for power gamers, but likely a welcome feature for couples and those with a working life.
You’ll also come across Merits, a kind of currency you get for completing story arcs, Task Forces, and all those other role-playing, plot advancing mission types.
Crafting should be easier for the Villain side, with new “Abandoned Labs” in lower-leveled zones.
The details and …
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