One Shots: Fried calamari
Good games require memorable villains, I've always said. And while suave, well-dressed British masterminds are good in a pinch, nothing can top 150 tons of ticked-off gigantopus. So rest in peace, City of Heroes, and be content that you will be remembered for haunting the darkest dreams of superheroes for all time.
"Here is my squid (a Kheldian Peacebringer in Nova form) as part of a team vs. a larger squid. This is the giant octopus Lusca, frequently seen in Independence Port," reader Ben sent in.
Seriously, that thing is like an elder god taking a steam bath. It's going to react to your puny eye beams and frost blasts by warping all of reality with a sneeze. Speaking of warped reality, get a load of our other player-submitted screenshots after the break!
No, your eyes aren't deceiving you; those are a whole bunch of clones in Lord of the Rings Online. Sauron was apparently experimenting with genetic manipulation because, duh, super-villain. This sort of thing could explain the over-proliferation of heroes and the constant "respawning" of mobs in these worlds, by the way. Dead guy goes in a hole; out pops a clone replacement.
Or you could just accept reader Mark's explanation: "This is of the Flynnakin -- a kinship made up entirely of people called Flynnagan (or some variation). They all look and dress the same, including the non-humans (spot the Hobbit on the right). There was a long line of them who came out for the seventh anniversary fireworks event that was taking place in Bree."
A while back I was really thinking about making a bunnygirl in WildStar for the ironic fun of it, but now that I have seen them in action, I think the devs took the concept a little too far and robbed the joy of a prospective roll. At least reader Becca looks as if she's having fun with hers.
"Here is my beta character Rozzybeta and her bot, Rozzybot (what can I say? I don't use my good names in betas!). They're taking a moment to enjoy the beauty around them. Dirty Aurin hippies," she wrote.
From the wild world of Lineage II, reader Ionut brings us another nightmarish vision of nature gone awry. And since I've already used my one-per-column allotment of Sauron jokes, I guess I'll have to let the giant eye in the sky thing go as if it ain't no thing.
"This one was taken in Wastelands, a low-level zone, showing the red sun of dusk," Ionut said. "This sun shows only in the week when the Order of Dusk wins over the Order of Dawn."
Your screenshot challenge of the week is to take a shot of some amusing or perhaps weird NPC dialogue. What do these crazy kids talk about all the time? Let's spy on them together!
Want to be featured in a future edition of One Shots? Send your favorite MMO screenshots to oneshots@massively.com, and don't forget to include your name, the name of the game, and a description of the scene. Large, colorful, UI-free shots that tell a story and really show off the game make for the best images. Look ma, we brought back One Shots!
