I mentioned it on another board but since Mark or Tom have not mentioned it yet I thought I would drop the gaunlet. The news? A new online RPG (YAAAAWN). Ok but, this one is SPECIAL, a superhero RPG! Yea that's right!!! Champions and Guardian AOJ surviviors have some joy finally. With Irrationals project going off radar the last few months this is great news! It will be interesting to see which superhero game gets released first. And will it effect the one that follows? Here is the press release... Some nice screens too and the high concept seems hint at potential meaty play for gamers interested in the genre....

Cryptic Studios Announces Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game, �City of Heroes�

Comic-Book Style Adventure Filled with Superheroes and Fearsome Villains to Release in Summer of 2002

San Jose, CA � September 26, 2001 � Cryptic Studios proudly announces �City of Heroes,� a massively multiplayer online world home to an entire universe of super-powered, comic book style adventure. When the game releases next summer, thousands of players can take on the roles of superheroes, fight villains, and help create the story in a stunning, 3D graphical world, courtesy of the San Jose-based developer.

Super Powered Action and Adventure

City of Heroes is the first superhero themed online RPG and will offer a host of exciting and compelling gameplay features. Players create their own heroes, choosing from hundreds of different powers, skills, abilities, and items and design their own unique costumes. Then they can band together with other players to fight evil, build their own secret headquarters and strive to become the premiere hero group in the city.

Gamers will confront super villains, aliens, madmen, monsters, criminals, and other fearsome foes. They can take on personalized missions and rid the city of dozens of different evil organizations and hundreds of individual enemies. With success players acquire power, wealth, and fame and come to bask in the spotlight and rake in the rewards as their powers and fame grow with each successful mission and every defeated foe.

City of Heroes takes place amongst the skyscrapers, slums, sewers and streets of Paragon City, a sprawling online metropolis that offers unlimited adventure and countless surprises. Players become an integral part of many and varied different ongoing story arcs as the villain groups menace Paragon City and react to player victories and defeats.

�With City of Heroes we�re bringing a new and exciting genre to online gaming: the world of superheroes,� says lead designer Richard Dakan. �We�ve designed this game to not only capture the excitement of comic book heroes but to offer a unique gaming experience. With this game you can literally �become your own hero.� Players can not only design their very own superheroes from the ground up, but they can have a direct impact on what happens to the city they live in.�

Cryptic Studios plans to release City of Heroes in the summer of 2002. For a gameplay movie, screenshots, and additional game information check out the City of Heroes Web site at www.cityofheroes.com.

About Cryptic Studios

The Cryptic Studios staff combines proven talents from the computer and book publishing industries into a single team devoted to creating innovative, top notch games. Based in San Jose, California and fully funded by private investment, Cryptic Studios currently focuses all of its prodigious resources on the company�s first product: City of Heroes. For more information about the team and its projects, check out www.crypticstudios.com.

Thanks, but we did mention it. :)

It was on Wednesday's news, but the link was not right so you probably missed that day if you were backtracking. I fixed it now.

It does sound intriguing. Also weird. How can everyone be a hero? That's the weird thing.

I think it's a fantastic idea.

Here are some things I hope they realize...

1. Superheroes don't die (for the most part). So, here's the chance to create a true PvP universe --without the annoyance of losing your character and trecking across the world as a ghost to recover it. Death equals, maybe, a loss of prestige or reputation.

2. I'd prefer if there wasn't leveling at all. Maybe your powers get better or something, but not to the point where anti-social losers can dominate the "city" as villains or heroes.

Anyway, I'm not much for MMORPG but I have been hoping for a true Superhero RPG for a long time now. Maybe...

Until then, there's Freedom Force, which I hope is a massive success (and is good enough to deserve that success).

-Andrew

Yeah, I hope that you can choose to be a villain or a hero--I think that would give the game a bit more depth. If it's all just heroes, then there really won't be any competition.

I must say, they get full points for originality. This is one idea that I hadn't thought up before they annouced it. ('Course, I'm not into comics like a lot of you guys, so maybe it seemed totally obvious to you.) It's a neat idea. Doesn't really appeal much to me -- I'd never pay to play it or anything -- but if they do an open beta or something, I might check it out.