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PC Games (Games) Role Playing (Games) Entertainment Games

City Of Heroes Beta Evaluated As Game Goes Gold 95

Posted by simoniker from the up-up-and-away dept.
Thanks to GamersWithJobs for its detailed impressions of PC-based superhero MMORPG City Of Heroes, given just after the game reached gold master status, with an "official launch [of] April 28", and a (slightly inflationary?) "monthly subscription fee of US$14.99." The preview, from a "long time tester and fan of the game", notes: "When I entered City of Heroes for the first time, one of the things that quickly grabbed my attention was the scale--the towering statues, the twenty story buildings", before discussing the action-oriented gameplay: "Unlike almost every other MMORPG out there, combat in City of Heroes is designed to be fast paced and fun" The author concludes: "It's not a perfect superhero game, but it's a very good superhero MMORPG."
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City Of Heroes Beta Evaluated As Game Goes Gold More

City Of Heroes Beta Evaluated As Game Goes Gold

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  • No capes!? (Score:4, Funny)

    by American AC in Paris ( 230456 ) * on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @03:59PM (#8852002) Homepage
    Sorry, no capes. No, don't ask about them. Please.

    Gah! No capes! That's like a street-racing game with no oversized wings and Type-R windscreen decals, or a shmup without a spread cannon!

    No capes! Gah!

  • Another MMO game that is crying for PvP (super hero's vs Villans) that doesn't include it. Can someone please do something different than the PvE (player vs enviornment) friendly co-op mode all of these games are coming out in? Some of us want MMORPGs where combat against humans is allowed and maybe even (akk) encouraged.
    • PvP is being tested for FFXI, think there was a slashdot article mentioning it a week or so back
    • I was under the impression (from over a year ago, around one of the FIRST game delays) that there was going to be a PvP arena that would allow characters to challenge each other for fame and popularity and whatnot.

      Granted, it's not nearly the same as PvP in normal environment, but at least it was considered.

      Has this changed from the up and coming release, or is it still a planned way off?
    • Go play Lineage 2. The company chose what they wanted to do and they did it. If you can make a better game then do it. Don't say that a game needs something unless you have ever designed one. Some game needs PvP, some don't.
      • Read the parent again.

        I agree, some games do not need PvP. But others would benefit from it immensly.

        We're talking about a game with superheros. It's the whole "Need evil to define good" thing. Especially when it's superheros.

        And making the villians PCs as opposed to NPCs makes it that much sweeter. For every one hundred "run around and kill people" PCs you'll have maybe 5 PCs who are truly roleplaying evil (and trying to kill you) that will make it worthwhile.

        From someone who once RP'd a sli

        • Now when you RP'ed an evil theif, you would still fight against the same mobs as a good theif would to level, is that correct? I assume so since I have played almost all the MMO's and never seen any other concept. Now what are the villains supposed to level against? Bank tellers and 7-11 clerks? Or would there be NPC heroes they would level off? It just doesn't make sense on what a villian would do to level, since all Super Heroes in the game are PC's. You as a villian would be constantly Pvping or fi

          • Re:Another MMO with no PvP (Score:2, Funny)

            by Anonymous Coward
            Now what are the villains supposed to level against?

            Rival factions of villians.
            • Doesn't make sense in a comic book world.

              • Re:Another MMO with no PvP (Score:1, Informative)

                by Anonymous Coward
                Red Skull vs. Kingpin

                They were fighting over drug turf in New York. They used single combat to avoid having a protracted gang war.
          • For one, there is no such thing as thief in a MMORPG. It's physically (well, I guess that should be virtually) impossible as of yet because the thief is more oriented towards non-combat actions, rather than combat actions. Closest thing you can get is a Assassin/Scout/Ranger character.

            For two, Evil characters (Villians) can level against anything. Good guys, bad guys, neutral guys, you name it. Besides, in City of Heroes, you don't level just against Super-Villians, you level against normal thugs and s

    • Re:Another MMO with no PvP (Score:5, Insightful)

      by kaisyain ( 15013 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @04:58PM (#8852826)
      The wild success of games like The Sims which lack PvP seems to strongly indicate that while a vocal minority of hard-core gamers demand PvP, the vast majority can live without it just fine and would rather see efforts focused on other areas. Small wonder that developers chose to focus on the desires of the majority.
      • And with the popularity of vanilla as an ice cream flavor, it's no wonder that developers have stopped worrying about trying to come up with new flavors. After all, who needs more than one ice cream flavor?
        • If the cost of developing the new flavor is greater than the revenue generated by the new flavor, they don't make the new flavor.

          Your silly analogy proves nothing; other than you don't even fundamentally understand the issue.
          • If the cost of developing the new flavor is greater than the revenue generated by the new flavor, they don't make the new flavor.

            But if you don't sell the new flavor, you can't know how much revenue can be generated by it.

            Your silly analogy proves nothing; other than you don't even fundamentally understand the issue.

            I fully understand the issue, it's the same one that faces music and movies and most other industries. Companies would rather stick to proven formulas rather than try new things.
            • Actually you can know. There is no rule preventing a company from asking the consumer if they want it. This is called "research".

              And for MMORPGs it isn't an "issue", they are making money. If they would have to spend 2 million to get your 9.95 per month, its pretty clear they know exactly what they are doing.
              • This is called "research".

                Wow, this "research" stuff sounds great. I bet with it you never have any surprises -- either successful or failures. Everything always happens exactly according to plan.

                And for MMORPGs it isn't an "issue", they are making money. If they would have to spend 2 million to get your 9.95 per month, its pretty clear they know exactly what they are doing.

                And what of the recent articles claiming the MMORPG market is NOT growing? New games are basically cannibalizing the old use
                • Wow, this "research" stuff sounds great.

                  It is and it does. But hey, when you are playing with your own tens of millions, feel free to piddle them away however you want. Until then you are just another internet loudmouth.
      • The wild success of games like The Sims...

        You're kidding, right? If not, thematic with the topic of discussion, I suggest you return to whatever planet you came from.
        • I'm guessing that the previous poster was referring to the success of the original Sims games and expansions. It is true that those games have been wildly successful. However the MMO incarnation, The Sims Online, has been a disaster. Ironically, even without PvP and PK, a number of players in the Sims Online have managed to come up with myriad seedy ways of harassing other players.
      • And then there's Lineage and Lineage 2, probably two of the most hardcore PvP games out there. One of which has more subscribers than Everquest (last I knew), and the other of which is looking to end out just as busy. Yeah, vocal minority.
      • The wild success of games like The Sims which lack PvP seems to strongly indicate that while a vocal minority of hard-core gamers demand PvP

        I wouldn't say that the sims online is a wild success. EA was shooting for a userbase of 200,000 the most I ever read them having was around 80,000 and they are down to 50,000 now. I would also say that MMO's aren't bringing in new users at all. That is because the players that want PvP (Probably the majority) are playing other games. Most games are based on pla
    • Why would they? PvP isn't desired by the majority of people. Even the ones who do desire it don't like to lose most of the time. In a total PvP game, half of the players per combat will lose. People don't play [and pay] to lose most of the time.

      Further, allowing PvP makes the game exceptionally difficult to balance so a few people don't run roughshod over the others.

      • Why would they? PvP isn't desired by the majority of people. Even the ones who do desire it don't like to lose most of the time. In a total PvP game, half of the players per combat will lose. People don't play [and pay] to lose most of the time.

        Again this is a falsehood brought on by the whiners that now populate MMO's. People don't pay to lose? Tell that to all of the people who have dropped money playing any 2 player arcade game. Tell that to half of the counterstrike, ut2k4, Q3 fans. The majority
        • People don't pay a subscription charge in a PERSISTANT game to lose. If you want to play quake, play quake.

          It's not a falsehood. You're in denial.
          • People don't pay a subscription charge in a PERSISTANT game to lose. If you want to play quake, play quake.

            What is the subscription fee? Most of them are like $10 a month. Give me a break, people drop that in an arcade easily.
            • What is the subscription fee? Most of them are like $10 a month.

              It's not the fee that matters here. It's the time investment that they care about.

              Players don't like to spend 9 hours camping the zombie-lord for a bone-necklace +3 only to lose it when a higher-level PKer jumps out for a mugging.

              In online Quake or arcade Tekken, the game world isn't persisent. When somebody kills your character, you've lost only 15-90 seconds of your life. The XP loss from an MMORPG death can equate to days of wasted le
        • As the other reply notes, if someone loses at an arcade game, or quake, or a tabletop game, they play the next game on an equal footing. A persistant MMO game generally does not start the next fight/game on equal footing. Something was won or lost in the first battle.

    • Another MMO game that is crying for PvP (super hero's vs Villans) that doesn't include it.

      No matter what game it is you play, even GTA, the player is always viewed as 'the hero.' If a player was considered to be 'the bad guy' or 'the villian' then his goal would be, presumably, to 'destroy the world' or 'take over the world'.

      So what would happen if a clan/guild of 'bad guys' actually went out and succeed in that? The servers go down and never come up again, game over? Considering there are players in MMOG

      • So what would happen if a clan/guild of 'bad guys' actually went out and succeed in that? The servers go down and never come up again, game over?

        Clearly. Because when you beat a game, you can never, ever play again. Of course, WWII Online has players that are on the "Axis Team" (AKA: the Bad Guys), and when one side wins (it's been the Axis side about half the time, I believe), the game starts over. Or they just shut down the servers forever. I can't remember which.
      • If a player was considered to be 'the bad guy' or 'the villian' then his goal would be, presumably, to 'destroy the world' or 'take over the world'. So what would happen if a clan/guild of 'bad guys' actually went out and succeed in that? The servers go down and never come up again, game over?

        The struggle for control of a virtual world would be never ending. Even if one clan managed to rise to power and control the world in some way, you don't think there would be rival clans and people looking to k
        • I've actullay had a helluva good time doing this on the Lineage 2 beta. The game does not show what other players con to you and I use this to hunt PKs. I kept my set of starter armor and weapons and when I'm bored with PvE I put on that stuff and head to the noob areas and start killing; acting like I'm leveling up on wolves or goblins. Without fail some PK runs by and tries to kill me. I usually run away at first, playing the coward, putting on my real armor and weapons as I run. Then I whip around an
      • True story : My friend bought Asheron's Call 2 a month after the game came out. He said it was cool so I picked it up. I finished the newbie area in the beginning and then went through the portal to enter the world.. only to get smacked down by 2 level 20-30 wizards who were owning the newbies as they came out. Some players tried to run down the hill to get away, fireballs chased and kill them. Others tried to jump off the hill... but were killed when their wimpy level 3 selves smashed into the ground 5 sto
    • Some of us want MMORPGs where combat against humans is allowed and maybe even (akk) encouraged.

      Most of us, however do NOT. That's why it's not being included from day one in several current and pending games.

      I'd only play a game that included PvP if it was completely consensual, and there was NO content that required PvP activity to access (IOW, if it doesnt' affect me AT ALL, I dont care if it's in game).

      I'm not going to pay a subscription fee to be someone else's victim, and I have no desire to victim
    • 'They' did. It's called EVE Online [eve-online.com]. You pilot a spaceship, run missions, hunt mobs (PvE) and there's LOTS of PvP. The gameplay is good, the client is well-polished (now) and the graphics are first-rate. But if you don't want to join a corporation you're pretty much sidelined and anyone who did join one can own you in combat.

      If I were into PvP and clans I'd still be playing. EVE is, in my opinion, no good for the casual solo player. For those that like that sort of thing it can't be beat.

  • Pvp in expansion (Score:5, Informative)

    by nemui-chan ( 550759 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @04:27PM (#8852402) Homepage
    I have heard that PvP is going to be added in an expansion a few months after release.

    I am also playing in this beta, and things I have to say about are "wow". The beta is more stable than any of the day 1 releases I've played in, and I've played in pretty much all of them. The devs are making changes based on suggestions people are making (holy crap, devs that listen?).

    Its also fun, because you can pop on and play for thirty minutes and quit. If you're friends are hella high level because they play religiously, no sweat... you have the Mentor/Sidekick system. So basically, ANY levels can group together... no more getting left in the dust by your friends who have no lives. ;)

    • Obviously you haven't played in many betas. Normally, even during the last days of a beta (the 'stress test' days), the game plays far more stable than it does on the first days after release. Also, I would remind you that the day 1 release of Dark Age of Camelot went without a hitch and is widely considered the best launch of any mmporg. It wasn't until people started reaching the Realm vs Realm levels that the servers began to crunch.

      I've been playing this game from alpha, and while I love it, I wont

      • I have to agree with you there. The performance has definately been going down over the past few weeks. Every time I logon now I get "Lost Connection to Mapserver" about once every ten to twenty minutes. If there is a very heavy load (like on Saturday evening) I get the lost connection message every few minutes.

        I enjoy this game a lot and am having a ton of fun leveling my char up. I am only a lvl 12 with my highest character (Homer Simpson), but I have enjoyed every minute I can get in to play that ga
    • Its also fun, because you can pop on and play for thirty minutes and quit. If you're friends are hella high level because they play religiously, no sweat... you have the Mentor/Sidekick system. So basically, ANY levels can group together... no more getting left in the dust by your friends who have no lives.

      Honestly, if you are dishing out $50 to get this game, then $15 every month, then getting on for 30 minutes isn't worth the cost of the game. That's why MMORPG's will eventually die. They are too ex

  • Article (Score:5, Informative)

    by stoutstreet ( 95533 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @04:59PM (#8852860) Homepage
    One of great things about the Gamers With Jobs community is that our forums are teeming with gamers who also happen to be excellent writers. Paladin is no exception and today he has been kind enough to send in his impressions of the City of Heroes beta. He's been playing since January and he's been lucky enough to have played right through to the highest level range the game has to offer. This article is not to be missed if you have any interest in the now-gold MMORPG. Get to it!

    Introduction

    City of Heroes - long touted as the last, best hope of comic book fans everywhere, this MMORPG is finally nearing release. After years in development, a major change in the game's fundamental design, and fears of vaporware, comic book junkies everywhere will finally have a chance to get their gaming fix. Before I begin, a disclaimer: I am not a critic, or a professional reviewer, and this article is in no way intended to be an objective review of City of Heroes. Neither am I in any way associated with or employed by Cryptic Studios or NCSoft. I am, however, a long time tester and fan of the game. I've been waiting for this since I signed up on the City of Heroes forums in October of 2001. It's been a long wait, and to my delight I'm not disappointed.

    In the Beginning

    When you start up the game for the first time you have to create a character. Character creation is definitely one of the high points of City of Heroes, and most people will spend a lot of time making character after character. I know I did. I managed to fill up all eight slots on each of my two beta accounts (closed and pre-order).

    The first decision is to pick an Origin. The Origins are Natural, Technology, Magic, Science, and Mutant. At this point, Origin has little effect on gameplay other than to determine who your first enemies will be, and what enhancements you can use. This may change at a later date but at this point it's more of a role-playing, character concept choice than anything else. I decided to pick Science, as it fit my character concept.

    The second decision is to choose an archetype. There are five archetypes in the game, which roughly correspond to the basic classes of other games. Each archetype has a primary and a secondary powerset. The primary powerset is the defining power group for the character, and represents their most powerful abilities. The secondary powerset is used to supplement their primary abilities, and isn't as powerful. The archetypes are as follows:

    Tanker:
    City of Heroes' immovable object. Tanks are designed to soak damage for their team, and do so far better than any other archetype in the game. The Tanker is also an able bodied meleer, able to dish out decent damage at melee range. Tankers get to choose a Defense powerset as primary, and a Melee powerset as secondary.

    Scrapper:
    Equivalent to a light tank, the Scrapper specializes in dealing out mass amounts of melee damage as quickly as possible. Scrappers are more fragile than Tankers though, so don't really want to be the focus of enemy attention. Scrappers get to choose a Melee powerset as their primary, and a Defense powerset as their secondary. One quick note here--the powers available to Scrappers and Tankers are different, with only a few sets overlapping. Both have access to the Defense powerset Invulnerability, but all Scrapper melee sets are unique to Scrappers, as are their other defenses.

    Defender:
    Defenders are the closest thing you'll find to a cleric in this game. Healing, while nice, is not a necessity in City of Heroes, and many Defenders don't even have healing powers. Defenders get to choose a Buff/Heal powerset as primary, and a Ranged attack powerset as secondary. Sadly, the Buff/Heal powersets available to Defenders are exactly the same as the ones available to Controllers, except that the Defender powers are stronger in effect.

    Blaster:
    The ranged damage king, this is City of Heroes' nuker archetype. As fragile as most mages,

  • Its a great game (Score:3, Informative)

    by Tobias Luetke ( 707936 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @05:10PM (#8853006)
    This game is really great.
    Ive played about every mmo game which came out since uo and non makes such a good first impression as COH.

    If they will play their cards right and give trials versions to everyone and their mom it will be big.

    The game is basically a GTA gone online. Everyone is a super hearo ( obviously ) and gets the super power he desires easily. At level 6 you can pick up powers like flying or hulk style super leaping ( they mean it, you will jump over buildings ).
    When you just walk around in the very busy streets you will see gang wars you can break up or see old ladys beeing robbed of their purse. You pick up missions ( unfortunatly pretty simple ones ) from your different contacts who usually put you up against different villain groups.
    Fighting is the best part of the game by far, Its amazingly action packet and moving while fighting actually can give you an advantage. It absolutly statisfies my need for action, i don't have to fire up a FPS after a long play session to get my balance back :)

    anyways, give it it a try if you can, chances are you will enjoy it. The game will not put you up against rats I promise :)

  • Worth the costs? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by TheBishop613 ( 454798 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @05:16PM (#8853094)
    I'm playing in the Beta and am having a really fun time with the game. I'm impressed with the stability and what has been worked into the game so far, and I'm more than patient to see what other cool things they work into the game in the future. A game can't support everything from the offset, gotta have some room to grow, so I'm not concerned about the lack of PvP and other things that seem to bother a lot of people.

    The one thing I am concerned about though is the price. I'm not really interested in dishing out $49.95 for the game (and one month of playtime) and then $14.95 a month thereafter. That's just too much for cash for me to justify. I'm not anywhere close to poverty stricken, I make good money and can afford to spend that much on a game. Unfortunately as much as I'd like to participate I don't see it as *worth* my money. Am I alone in this thinking?

    Droping $49.95 and having 3 months worth of online play, that seems worth it in my books (I'm still thinking high, but I'd pay it), but this cash grab just strikes me as unreasonable.

    • Re:Worth the costs? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Goyuix ( 698012 )
      I am absolutely with you on this. Two years ago (more or less) when it was first announced and they had some trailer featuring game footage - I was extremely excited about the whole premise. The fact that it is coming out at least a year late, and now carries a nearly $15 per month price tag, well that is just unnacceptable for me. Again, not that I can't afford it, just that it is too much.

      I understand fully that it costs "resources" to maintain servers, but $15 is just waaaaaaay too much for me. Particul
      • Uhh development cost to recoup and servers farms to maintain, hullo? I don't know where you get your numbers from but it cost's alot. Plus they have a live team on staff thats always adding new content which needs to be tested by a staff of testers. Plus all the admin and associated buisness cost. Plus $15 a month is not really alot. Thats 3 movies rentals which will entertain you approx 6 hours while you could easily get that in two days of playing a fun game. I know there is Netflix which is $20 but
        • I hate you and everyone like you. Are you insane?

          When I purchase/subscribe to a MMORPG, I'm not renting a movie, I'm not GOING to a movie, and I'm not going out to dinner. I'm buying a GAME. Don't compare prices to other types of entertainment, compare prices to other GAMES!!

          I can buy UT2004 for $30. I can play UT2004 for as many hours a day as I want. I can play it online, or offline. I get free content updates from the developers, not to mention there will be a constant inflow of user-created c
          • Keyword=100,000 in your argument. Thats alot to try to keep over a six months period, alot of MMO haven't been able to do it. Now no one is forcing you to buy it and paying the monthly fee but the market justifies the price. It would take them that long to recoup the development cost. "The problem is...there's no publisher alive that will ever release that information to the general public" It is possible for find out how much some games were developed by going to Gamasutra and read their articles, plu
          • If we can't compare to movies, and we can't compare to FPS's...

            O.K. But what if we compare it everyone's favorite FPS movie serial [redvsblue.com]?

            Oh, wait. That doesn't compare well either. Never mind.

          • Re:Worth the costs? (Score:3, Insightful)

            by Tofino ( 628530 )
            (I figured this out, making assumptions on pay rates for employees, bandwidth costs, server maintainence and replacement, based on 100,000 subscribers. At the $12 price point, a MMOG makes $50,000 NET PROFIT a month. That's AFTER all expenses (including personnel.)

            Who modded this Insightful? If I had a large business that was pulling down $50k a month, or by your assumptions 50 cents per subscriber, I'd be damn sure that my company wasn't publically traded. We'd get absolutely killed in the market with

          • Well, I'm one of those people you "hate"; I run an online RPG which charges a monthly subscription fee and feel it's a better deal than most other entertianment, games included. But, allow me to point out some fallacies in your argument.

            First, let's get the money out of the way. You think $50k profit on 100k users is impressive? That's $6/year per customer. That's a shameful amount for any business. Many companies make at least that much profit off a customer in one visit without the costs of developi
            • From the sounds of things Meridian 59 is much more in line with what I consider reasonable pricing (actually, I consider it exemplary pricing, although I've never played the game myself.). I appreciate the fact that although there is a monthly fee there is no upfront charge to 'buy the game', and $10.95 is (IMHO) a very attractive monthly pricepoint.

              My initial post in this thread may not have described it properly, but I have no issue with a monthly subscription charge. For this kind of game I actually *
          • I keep seeing people replying to you regarding what they see as huge costs for added content needing to be recouped in these monthly fees. I'll disagree with them with two points.
            1. expansion packs... games like everquest don't give you added content for subscription fees. they require the purchase of expansion packs.
            2. if the game is so great already to warrant the $15, why do they need to immediately add new content? If it doesn't need to be immediately added, then why are current users paying for added c
          • The point is that your time is orders of magnitude more valuable than $15 a month, given the amount of time the average MMORPG gamer plays in a month. When something is dirt cheap like that, why should anyone spend their limited time playing something that isn't what they most want to play, just to save the difference of $3 to $5 a month between this and a cheaper game? If City of Heroes is the game you'd most like to play for the next few months, then play it. If not, don't. A few pennies per hour of e
          • Of course you can compare forms of entertainment. I chose whether to watch TV, read, troll /., or play games often. If I can compare on the basis of "which one do I want to do", I certainly can compare how cost-effective they are and come up with something meaningful.

            But all this is moot anyways, captalism rules here; if you don't want to play, don't. But your sense of 'value' certainly isn't mine; I have no problem whatsoever paying the monthly feel. Unless the game is a Diablo II or Half-Life, there'
      • Are you out of your mind? Or just have no idea wtf you are talking about? $5k a month to maintain? Maybe if they were only expecting 350 players a month that would work. And they didn't pay anyone. $5k wouldn't even pay a week for a decent admin. Since they're expecting to actually make money and produce a product that isn't rogue it's going to cost actual money. $5k isn't even in that range. You obviously don't understand what kind of "resources" it costs to maintain a decently connected internet service.
    • I certainly recognize that I might get more play time out of a month in a good MMO than a $50 boxed game, but the difference is I can get my full value for the boxed game even if I don't play it like I have no life or *gasp* put it down and come back months later.

      I'm currently playing the online version of the Lord of the Rings CCG [decipher.com]. This game does have the unfortunate CCG pricing model (i.e. the more you pay, the better options you have) but it's certainly possible for a player with a good idea of what

  • Can someone explain how these pre-order boxes at places like Best Buy work? What is actually in the box? How do I get the actual disks?

    Thanks
    • well this is a little off topic and could probably be found on Google or something but I'll answer anyway. You pay something like ten bucks and it reserves you a copy for when it comes in. You have to pick it up when it comes in and as far as I know there's nothing in the box.

    • Re:preorder? (Score:5, Informative)

      by InfoVore ( 98438 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2004 @07:01PM (#8854398) Homepage
      First, grab your pre-order box quick and get registered. You will get a nice 'prestige power' that only pre-orders get. Basically it is Sprint with cool graphics. The graphic is different depending on which store you buy your pre-order from. I got mine at Best Buy and all my characters have this cool multiple ring/ripple effect trailing them when they run.

      The pre-order box does contain a CD. It does not contain the game, though. The preorder CD installs a registration program and a nice little Macromedia-esque intro to the game. If you follow their instructions correctly, at the end you will be pre-registered for the game. Write down your login name and password. You get a different username for the beta bulletin boards than for your game login, so write down both and both passwords. Otherwise you might not be able to log in later. It is a little awkward and confusing.

      After an indeterminate amount of time, you should get a letter from NCSoft saying that you can download the Beta Client installer. Its a bit over 1GB, so plan for a long night if you are running dialup.

      Once the beta is installed, run the Update application. It will ask for your login name and password and then will download all the current patches. Once that is done, it throws you into the game login. Once in, then you get to spend a bit of time creating a character. Its fun, but time consuming. Be VERY careful what you name the character in your first slot. That is the ONLY name that is guarenteed reserved. When the game goes live, you don't get to keep your Beta characters, but you do get to keep the name in the first slot.

      Its a great game and I am already addicted. Its got the ease of play of a traditional MMORPG, and is a fast-paced combat oriented. The missions are well thought out and fun. Getin a big group at any level and you will have a great time blowing up, frying, whacking, pounding, freezing, and otherwise causing big hurt on Bad Guys.

      Cheers,
      I.V.

  • I am liking City of Heroes a lot. However, I only really started enjoying it when I replaced my ATI 9600XT with a GeForce 5900XT: the game was crashing constantly with the ATI card.

    There are server issues (well, it is a beta) but it is pretty stable.

    One annoyance though is that you pick your name AFTER the creation process, so you might not get the name you want, making that big G on your chest sorta useless if you can't get your name.

    Anyhow, back to playing!
    • I've got a 9500 Pro, and the client randomly locks up on me, every other day or so. Though I'm not shelling out money for a new video card.

      And usually, I'll start with the costume creation screen, and once I find something I like, go back and choose the archetype and origin. I tend to pick rather unique names, so I haven't run into any name conflicts yet.
  • Having played in the beta for both of these up-and-coming MMO's I was amazed to hear that CoH is going gold.

    Just today I saw multiple bugs in CoH - broken quests, getting stuck in the terrain, people exploiting hover combined with ranged attacks, mobs with no pathing that wouldn't move to attack you, to name a few.

    Not to mention the massive changes they are making to various powers in a seeming last minute attempt to balance the combat system, and quests that take hours to find the overcamped spawns y
  • I'm not big into online games, much less mmorpg games. I am into superheroes however, but at $14.95 US per month, plus the initial cost of the game, I'm not going to be into these superheroes.

    I read in a thread that its $49.95 for the game (including a month online), and $14.95 per month, after a year of an and off playing, it'll cost you $214.40 USD. Imagine that. That is ridiculous.

    RETARDED EVEN!!!

    Besides the cost, there is an idea at work here that I just find nauseating, and should no longer be co

    • Re:Why god why?? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by chazmo ( 738348 )
      Alright then, go ahead and start building a server farm to host the tens (maybe even hundreds) of thousands of users who will be playing online at once. Take over the development necessary to improve gameplay and add new worlds/zones. As the game becomes more popular, pay for even more rack space and servers to load balance the MMORPG. What you don't understand is, all of this requires money. Money to pay for rack space at a Network Operations Center, money for the servers, money for the huge amount of

      • Re:Why god why?? (Score:2, Interesting)

        by iamghetto ( 450099 )
        I understand all of that, but what I'm saying is they can go one way or the other. They can charge an upfront fee for a game and let us play it online, or build an online game and charge us to play it online. Don't charge us for the game, then charge to play it online. I'll pay for a game if the game itself is going to be providing my gaming experience. But I think its just wrong to pay for a game, and then pay to play it when other users (who are paying to play it with me) are making the game worthwhil
        • Ahh... okay, I see your point. While I somewhat agree about the initial cost of an MMORPG, I can also see where the developers are coming from. Let's say the development studio worked on this game for about three years. That's three years of not making any money. I'm guessing that $40-50 initial cost of the game is to cover those years of development, while the monthly fee covers the cost of maintenance and updating. However, I would think that over time, the monthly fees would decrease. Everything fr
    • I'm not trying to troll here, but I have a job, I earn resonsable money, a mesely 14.95 USD isn't going to bother me at all. Hell, I pay 70 UKP (125 USD) a month for my fat internet connection, 15 USD is chump change and I'm not earning way above everybody else here (I'm only 24, working for a Telcoms provider as a Service Developer earning average wages for that sort of role, which is a pretty middle of the road profession for a /. reader).

      I see people on boards and free-trialers complaning about subscrip
      • I agree with you. I'm a mild-mannered Oracle DBA (ok, not really mild), and I don't mind paying $15 a month to be super hero. I vastly minded paying $7 + popcorn to see hellboy. It wasn't a horrible movie, but it wasn't worth $7 for two hours.

        -Jeff
  • Looks like Lineage II [lineage2.com] and City of Heros will be launching on the same day. I cant imagine how anyone could launch two MMOGs in one day. Especially when Lineage II choked with the start of open beta.
  • Tighty Whiteys and a cape! Seriously, though, there's going to be a big hike in "costume sales" once this thing hits market....

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