Those worrying about potential content take note that the game site references loot that you can customize looks of, as well as pve content that "requires a team of friends to back you up."

uhwhutnow

I really like the CoH/V game(s) and have been subscribed for 45/46 months straight now.

This is interesting that the game will be coming out so soon, comparetively speaking....

The graphics/shading does look nice and it will be interesting if they'll have power customization along with lots of other things that people have wanted in CoH/V.

smd31

I'm excited because the Cryptic devs seem like they're really making an effort to respond to complaints about CoX from the hardcores.

Case in point, power customization. A lot of people's dream character didn't fit in the original because it lacked this feature. A character called the "Silver Shielder" looked silly with Green only Force Fiels, for example.

knulpm

This rival thing might cause just enough consistent story to keep me interested... I want an MMO without stock MMO quests... I realize a super hero sometimes need to "go beat up ## thugs" sometimes. But not every singe fucking mission.

I love the cell shading.

z357x is judge, jury, and executioner.

I'm really looking forward to this, I hope they do an awesome job and give the game more longevity than CoH had, since it got too repetitive for me in the late game.

Chillblain

@Randomcitizenx:
Ah, I didn't realize that. Seems odd that a game company is willing to carry the risk of loss but Microsoft won't. If this is hugely successful I'd expect Marvel to change the way they license this stuff.

Mattjay

As a CoX fan, it makes me cry that I might have to look into a different MMO, because I really can't justify paying two monthly fees. I also spent years on CoX, so I find it hard to just throw it behind me even though that's what I do with all my other games really when I stop playing them and never look back at them.

I am concerned about the "customize your powers." To me that reeks of potential "If you don't have one of these three builds I don't want you on my team" mentality which I saw a lot of in WoW. God forbid someone do something unique with their character. It's also what drew me to CoX - while there were still "best builds" considered in the metagaming community, CoX was made in such a way that you could get away with doing some interesting things.

I never had the stones to try a petless mastermind though.

Saxboy

I don't play MMOs, but it would be cool if they released a stand-alone (and free) character creator.

Forkball

PPS: @OmegaX123: NCSoft bought CoX in November. The game was release in April '04. Cryptic has been running it for, proportionately, a teensy bit more.

Asper

finally my life as a Humanoid Ninja pirate alien robotic anti-hero will now be realised.

I'm i glad i held off from WoW.

Onizuka-GTO

PS: @Asper: Cryptic left CoH, NCSoft took over full operation (and added a new studio, NC NorCal, or NC^2). So it's OK for Cryptic to have forgotten it, since Cryptic is no longer involved.

OmegaX123

CoH2, pretty much. The arch-villain thing was one of the most requested (and at one point actually mentioned by the devs as 'maybe') features for CoH. Disappointment, for me as a CoH player, because now if I want a nemesis (actually integrated, rather than just roleplaying that Frostfire [you fight him enough], Vahzilok, etc, or some player character, is your nemesis), I need to go out and buy a whole 'nother game... and pay a whole 'nother monthly fee... That's taking money-grubbing to a whole nutha level, to quote 'Annoying MadTV Guy'.

OmegaX123

I personally have always felt like Cryptic fired and forgot City of Heroes. Yes, there were issues, but they were often fixes and things that should have been in the game to begin with. Obligatory added levels that no one really needed. The story to this day (what, three years in?) has barely been pushed forward at all.

I have to put my Pessimism Cap +1 on here. I have no reason to imagine they'll do differently here.

Asper

I spent hours in the CoH/CoV toon editor, Champions was cool shit. This could turn out pretty good!

-EDGE-

@Aethyr: I know its cell shaded, but the variety of cell shading they're using still really looks like crackdown's half 3d half cel-shaded look.

...not that thats a bad thing mind you

FLYBOY611

I would probably create a Jack Thompson as the villain so I could repeatedly pound on him as I progress the story on my character.

City of Heroes was a great game but with a few fatal flaws in my opinion. Character Creation for CoH was one of a kind and I spent HOURS creating and creating new characters just for the heck of it and running around town collecting if i remember correctly "medals" hidden all around the city.

But it gets old quickly once you get all the skills for your class and the only option left is to gain levels to increase the skill powers and trying to progress the storyline with a group or just flying around exploring stuff. Without standard MMO fare things such as items/equipments/weapons to further improve your hero so that they are different from your fellow peers other than your hero's looks and a lack of 'end game' content. It gets old fast.

Btw, I stopped playing right before City of Villains came out so lots of things may have changed since then

Banedon38

@FLYBOY611: Cel-shaded games all look alike.

Aethyr

Anyone else think the art style REALLY REALLY REALLY looks like Crackdown?

FLYBOY611

I just creamed. I don't even know what it is, but I want it.

justhesh

I want now.

Nisori

Long were the hours of my youth spent creating supers with bizarre powers with my friends and then playing out bank robberies and the like. This is beyond awesome. Jack Emmert mentioned Foxbat in today's blog entry. Will I finally get to see his Centipede-mobile? Lock horns with Fiacho and Eurostar? Be part of an UNTIL operation? Show Seeker my kung fu is superior? Oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy!

Phaelog

I liked City of Heroes. They almost made the combat fun with that one. If they pull off their promise of action oriented combat in this I'll be sold.

The ability to design your character's nemesis is completely awesome.

Gouki4u

On a side note, I'm praying they release the character creator separate from the main game for testing early like they did for the Asia release for City of Heroes.

uhwhutnow

Looks alot like City of Heroes, which isn't a bad thing.

Medicine Seller [ZTF]

Say what you will about the lack of content in city of heroes post-release, the execution of it as a pure comic-feel game was impressive (only rivaled in sheer "i'm a superman" feeling by the PS2 Hulk game).

I've never even heard of Champions before, but I am now eagerly awaiting it.

uhwhutnow

Man, there are a lot of MMO's. This one sounds fun too. Guess I'll have to look into it.

Hmm...if the us army decided to make a FPS as their video game, what branch would make an MMO? RTS? More?

Calabast

Yeah I remember Hero's... I did art for them and they screwed me out of 2k. At the time they told me they were going out of business.... well, I guess this means they weren't going out of business. Hero Games = dogshit.

Oni_Sushi

argh, why only good characters to start with? villainy should be available as well!!! =\

sirsonik

This. is. AWESOME.

I totally agree with some earlier comments that CoH/V was fun, but could stand to be a little more in-depth.

Honestly though, the fact that you can create a hero and his arch nemesis? That alone is enough to make me want to see it in action for at least a month or so. Foregoing the fact that it appears to be a pretty gorgeous game, even if these are bullshots.

The real challenge will be if this game can branch out from the suuuuper repetitive structure of CoH/V.

Vorpal

hmmmm, I'm intrigued. I liked CoH, it was just a tad too grindy and group-based for my liking. Definitely going to be watching this one.

SnakeCL

Here we have City of Heroes' younger, amibitious brother.

The next couple years are gonna be pretty damn interesting.

Sabre_Justice: Look, I have a long name too! Yay! I'm such a trend whore!

I am really really looking forward to this. If they can take a lot of what they did right in COH and change a few things, I'm in.

t3rb0

Can I hear a price tag of 'free' please? No? Then I guess I might actually pay for this one.

blackadvent

Gameinformer has all the great exclusives :D. But this developer has some other really cool projects in the works, one is Aztecs/Lovecraftian and the other is fantasy

TheNocturnalSun

@Randomcitizenx: Oh I am :) I think is sounds great man.

Irenicus-the one and only

Oh man, I LOVED the Champions / HERO rule set when I was younger.

My friends all preferred Fantasy stuff like D&D and RoleMaster, but I made many a Hero just because it was so much fun!

Keen to check this out, and hopefully by 2009 they would have gotten rid of all the bullshit in MMOs that just bores me to tears!

FunkyJ

Must have now!!!

This game sounds awesome and I really like the cell-shaded look of the artwork.

I really really want something different than the usual "fantasy" mmo stuff that has been coming out in waves lately. =(

goddessakasha

@Irenicus-the one and only: If it failed there would still have been some people who had picked it up, and most companies will keep their servers running in case the game will pick up later. As far as Champions goes, it is actually a pretty good IP that has been in print for over 20 years. If you are interested in comics it would definitely be a good idea to check it out in 09 when it hits PC and 360.

Randomcitizenx

Hmmm I hope this comes to consoles, but i know it wont. Console makers say they lose money from MMOs. Thats why the only console MMOs are FF11, PSU and that everquest game for the PS2.

Kazkame

@Randomcitizenx: Hmm, but they could have failed and close it down though, but maybe you are right. I still think it is lame to not take the risk with such a great license and basically no MMO competition on the 360. Age of conan is not gonna come out for the 360 until 2009. Seems 360 won't get any MMO's like the old xbox (except Phantasy star and FF.) I'm still pissed off and sad that I never got true Fantasy for the old xbox :(

Irenicus-the one and only

The website looks exactly like COH/COV.

Does that help answer the latter question?. Even the animation and the particle effect looks just like COV.

I haven't delved into it more then a month, but my roommate was an absolute fanatic :/.

Fyren

@Irenicus-the one and only: The main thing that you need to remember with the publishing costs of an MMO is the recurring costs associated with maintaining the game. Too Human is basically a fire and forget game for Microsoft, where MUO would have been a continued drain if it failed.

Randomcitizenx

@Hiero Glyph: I completely agree that the amount of customized animation should be limited. I wasn't thinking of unfair, combat-related exploits though. I just don't want to log in to this game and see that half of the heroes have some kind of flying penis attack.

exaggeration17a

@ryanfrost: I disagree with inventions adding more depth, because mostly it's just more "different" enhancements. More enhancements doesn't really improve depth much. I played for about November-December of last year, and was engrossed for about a month of it, before falling back into the same old rut.

But about this game, it looks awesome, sounds awesome, but I'll have to wait and see if it tastes awesome, if you know what I mean. CoH also looked this promising before it came out. This time I'm adopting the "wait-and-see" method.

KeyBoa

@Tenth: It is pretty funny, they consider that to be a risk but not Too Human and some other titles. Meh. I bet they had other reasons.

Irenicus-the one and only

Man, I used to love playing Champions with my friends ... this might actually get me to play an MMO again.

jayntampa

@Mattjay: It wasn't Cryptic and Marvel... it was Cryptic and Microsoft:

[kotaku.com]

Microsoft said it wouldn't make them enough money.

Tenth

@Guild_Navigator: ooohhh somebody tie my hands :P

Irenicus-the one and only

The main site says that you design your own arch nemesis. That alone gives me a geekgasm.

Guild_Navigator

@DarknessMyOldFriend: when did you leave? inventions added a good bit of depth to the game, and there have been a lot of good qol changes, so you may want to give it another look to hold you over till 09

ryanfrost

@Mattjay: Everything I have seen basically makes it sound like Microsoft just couldn't find a way to make it the right level of profitable. The Champions deal came after MS pulled their publishing of Marvel and is actually being published by Cyrptic themselves.

Randomcitizenx

Needs more Marvel license.

I'm happy we're getting a console MMO like this, but I'd love to hear what went wrong behind the scenes with Cryptic and Marvel.

Mattjay

Man, when this comes out CoH/V is going to go dead in the water isnt it..

Murrytmds

@Hiero Glyph: Exploits like you are talking about only matter in a pvp environment, MOBs don't care if your particles are invisible.

I doubt they will be 100% customizable though, but even being able to choose from multiple pre defined animations and pick the color of your powers will be a HUG improvement over CoH.

ElijahDProphet

I have been engrossed in the forums there all day, and I have to say that I am very impressed in what has been revealed so far. If they can live up to all the promises they are making Cryptic will be able to surpass their previous brainchild.

Randomcitizenx

As long as they keep that jackass Emert in the marketing department and far away from the 'game balance' department, this will be FAR better than City of Heroes. Hell, it'll probably be the game CoH SHOULD have been.

MasonL87

There was a really good article in GI on this.. Sounds pretty awesome and looks promising. I'm definitely keeping an eye on this one

JerrD74: hopes his license issues get fixed soon

I am so incredibly excited for this game. City of Heroes was a lot of fun, but lacked the depth to really keep me around. Every now and again though I think about going back.

Now I know I just have to wait for CO.

DarknessMyOldFriend

@Spoony Bard: no, it will share some similarities with coh,but it will be like eq and daoc, similar theme but not related in any way. due to jacks involvement, but coh/v still continues with almost all of its original developers, plus several new ones, due to its change of ownsership.

ryanfrost

The slew of features this MMO claims to offer have lit up my rainy day!

JohnnytheFuture

Looks awesome......I am going to keep an eye on this one.

Kilbe

If this delivers, it will be truly awesome. The Heroes system (Champions) is one of the best and most flexible out there. If they can translate that into an MMO faithfully it will be amazing and I will definately be playing.

lilibat

@Doomstink: Hopefully you do not customize everything. I can think of a few exploits already due to limited animations and invisible particle effects. Too much freedom will lead to the game being exploited very easily, so hopefully there are some general restrictions in place to keep everything fair.

Hiero Glyph

Well, if they can make the gameplay more fun, because I got bored with CoH pretty fast and the controlers was killing me when trying to fly. I love heroes, they are good people :) So a game about them and me playing it is wonderfull, I want to see more for sure.

Anyone knows if Sony/SOE still makes a DC comic MMO? I know MS canselled their one :(

Irenicus-the one and only

I just noticed it has a cell-shaded look to it... nice.

Tenth

@Doomstink: I can finally be the GUYVER.

manjikengo

I'm officially excited. What made CoH so great was the fact that your character ALWAYS looked different from other people (unless you made Mr. Generic Character).

Customizable powers? Holy shit, I hope that is as good as it sounds (it would be amazing if we get to pick everthing related to the power all the way down the particle effect representing it).

Doomstink

Yeah, I would happily settle for a "rehash of City of Heroes" coming to a console - that game belonged on something with a control pad from its initial inception. Here's hoping for a teeny-tiny subscription fee, knowing that free is a long-forgotten notion...

bigdaddyj

What I mean is...will it act AS a defacto sequel to those games?

Spoony Bard

I'm confused...is this a sequel to City of Heroes/Villains?

Spoony Bard

seems really cool.

manjikengo

...As a current HUUUUUUGE fan of City of Heroes fan, this news is the biggest thing since sliced bread since half the fun in CoH was character customization. Taking it to the next level can only mean good things.

Zenian

I am liking the artstyle here on the models and the textures in some of the SShots. Looks like it could be good.

slowpc

Tears of joy...been waiting 25 years for this. I haven't been to the Complete Strategist in a while. Kind of makes me want to visit for old times sake.

Tenth

Finally, an MMO I could give a shit about. Anyone remember the RPG Golden Heroes?

Cruithne

Just read the game informer wrtie up on this. Sounds VERY cool. Has more of a freedom force angle with the way you can customise more of your characters powers and atitude. Setting special effects and the like to how your character uses they're powers. Also custom animations to set your character apart from the crowd as well! The Action RPG angle, and PC/360 cross platform system is icing on the cake! Can't wait for 2009! Its gonna be an awesome year for CRPGs.

Cameroo