Champions Online
10/24/09 Update:
Free play weekend coming up. From Friday 10/30/09 thru 11/2/09 Cryptic will be opening up the servers for a free play weekend! They will be celebrating their first free content addition (sorely needed), Bloodmoon, which will feature a Halloween event involving zombies, werewolves and a large PvP event which will unlock the newest "Celestial" powerset.
Enjoy!
Generic Info
For any of you that are playing that would like to get together in-game, feel free to post your @global handle and I'll update the OP with a list of "friends". I'll start things off... feel free to message me if I'm on!
SunnyD = @Miralenwan
Chronoshock = @Chronoshock
TheNoblePlatypus = @captainblarg
Gothgar = @gothgar
The powers that be have granted me a beta key for Champions Online. While I'm sure anyone that has been really following this game is already in the beta (due to pre-orders), I'm the kind of person who doesn't PAY for beta access, particularly after the Stargate Worlds fiasco.
Anyhow, keep an eye on this space for information, whatever I can provide at least. If there's any questions or anything in particular that anyone would like me to look out for, let me know. I'm personally interested because I have rather lofty standards for a superhero MMO, particularly because I spent so much time playing City of Heroes/Villains (The TRUE CoH). Given Cryptic was the original designer of CoH, I'm hoping to feel what was CoH before it was sodomized by the nerf bat repeatedly - that is actually playing a game where I truly feel like a super hero.
Anyway, keep an eye here for any info I can give you.
8/27/09 Update:
The beta is officially over after a brief "stress test" last hurrah last night. Champions Online is scheduled to officially launch 9/1/2009. As of 10AM PDT, Cryptic will be opening up the LIVE LAUNCH servers allowing those with preorders to get logged in and start their characters.
See you all in game!
8/17/09 Update:
If you happen to have a preorder key or existing beta key, the open beta officially started at 10:00am PDT today.
In other news, I'm horribly disappointed to announce that Atari and Cryptic have announced that Champions Online has gone gold. I had the pleasure of being in the closed beta for the last few weeks, and while it was fun - it was nowhere near complete. They were constantly making changes, and I'm talking huge 300-500MB patches. As it stood, last day of the closed beta there was still a lot of placeholder text even in the UI screens, and they even completely changed parts of the UI in the second to last playtest.
This is shaping up to be another early launch mess. Hopefully they can pull it off.
8/19/2009 Update:
Well I hopped on last night for the Open Beta. MUCH more refined. I tried hopping in on monday... the login server was hammered. Took about 30 minutes to get a response from the update server, then about an hour to patch. Last night was better.
Open Beta featured a character wipe, and with that I had to retool my characters. I made my Ironman clone by the name of Gear. After playing around with the character builder, now that I'm familiar with it, I came up with something that resembles Ironman quite a bit. Picked the starting powers (both out of power armor, though in retrospect if I really wanted to theme it better I should have taken the energy builder from the brute melee set). Got him to level 8 in a couple hours of play, and explored some more of the powers.
I'm really getting pleased with the game, though I wasn't sure I would be. The art style (comic-style cell shading) is growing on me, at first I thought it was hideous. They made a few aesthetic changes which I'm not terribly fond of - there is no targeting reticule now. Instead your target is outlined in a bright red or green depending on whether it's friendly or not.
All in all, the pacing still feels a little slow, but I'm sure it will ramp up as things progress. I just wish I had a spare $199 to spend like it was water for the lifetime sub.
10/24/09 Update:
Free play weekend coming up. From Friday 10/30/09 thru 11/2/09 Cryptic will be opening up the servers for a free play weekend! They will be celebrating their first free content addition (sorely needed), Bloodmoon, which will feature a Halloween event involving zombies, werewolves and a large PvP event which will unlock the newest "Celestial" powerset.
Enjoy!
Generic Info
For any of you that are playing that would like to get together in-game, feel free to post your @global handle and I'll update the OP with a list of "friends". I'll start things off... feel free to message me if I'm on!
SunnyD = @Miralenwan
Chronoshock = @Chronoshock
TheNoblePlatypus = @captainblarg
Gothgar = @gothgar
The powers that be have granted me a beta key for Champions Online. While I'm sure anyone that has been really following this game is already in the beta (due to pre-orders), I'm the kind of person who doesn't PAY for beta access, particularly after the Stargate Worlds fiasco.
Anyhow, keep an eye on this space for information, whatever I can provide at least. If there's any questions or anything in particular that anyone would like me to look out for, let me know. I'm personally interested because I have rather lofty standards for a superhero MMO, particularly because I spent so much time playing City of Heroes/Villains (The TRUE CoH). Given Cryptic was the original designer of CoH, I'm hoping to feel what was CoH before it was sodomized by the nerf bat repeatedly - that is actually playing a game where I truly feel like a super hero.
Anyway, keep an eye here for any info I can give you.
8/27/09 Update:
The beta is officially over after a brief "stress test" last hurrah last night. Champions Online is scheduled to officially launch 9/1/2009. As of 10AM PDT, Cryptic will be opening up the LIVE LAUNCH servers allowing those with preorders to get logged in and start their characters.
See you all in game!
8/17/09 Update:
If you happen to have a preorder key or existing beta key, the open beta officially started at 10:00am PDT today.
In other news, I'm horribly disappointed to announce that Atari and Cryptic have announced that Champions Online has gone gold. I had the pleasure of being in the closed beta for the last few weeks, and while it was fun - it was nowhere near complete. They were constantly making changes, and I'm talking huge 300-500MB patches. As it stood, last day of the closed beta there was still a lot of placeholder text even in the UI screens, and they even completely changed parts of the UI in the second to last playtest.
This is shaping up to be another early launch mess. Hopefully they can pull it off.
8/19/2009 Update:
Well I hopped on last night for the Open Beta. MUCH more refined. I tried hopping in on monday... the login server was hammered. Took about 30 minutes to get a response from the update server, then about an hour to patch. Last night was better.
Open Beta featured a character wipe, and with that I had to retool my characters. I made my Ironman clone by the name of Gear. After playing around with the character builder, now that I'm familiar with it, I came up with something that resembles Ironman quite a bit. Picked the starting powers (both out of power armor, though in retrospect if I really wanted to theme it better I should have taken the energy builder from the brute melee set). Got him to level 8 in a couple hours of play, and explored some more of the powers.
I'm really getting pleased with the game, though I wasn't sure I would be. The art style (comic-style cell shading) is growing on me, at first I thought it was hideous. They made a few aesthetic changes which I'm not terribly fond of - there is no targeting reticule now. Instead your target is outlined in a bright red or green depending on whether it's friendly or not.
All in all, the pacing still feels a little slow, but I'm sure it will ramp up as things progress. I just wish I had a spare $199 to spend like it was water for the lifetime sub.