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A Mild-Mannered Reporter: A marvelous, titanic super-hero September
I'm breaking up my usual format a bit for this month. Part of that is just out of necessity; DC Universe Online launched a big DLC pack that I talked about in the last column, which obviously was the focus for most of the past month. Champions Online just had an invasion event going that I didn't actually take part in; I've had enough invasion-style events to last the remainder of my natural life, even if the rewards for this one do look pretty awesome. Call me cynical. No, this month I'm focusing on two games, only one of which is actually out at the moment. One of these games has been firing on all cylinders and might force cynical old me to eat a bit of crow, which I'll happily do if it means that the game is better for everyone enjoying it. And the other... isn't. You can probably guess what I'm talking about, but you can also go ahead and jump past the cut to eliminate any possible doubt. I encourage it!
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Another look at Plan Z
When life hands you lemons, you build a new life. Out of lemons. The metaphor is a bit tortured, but the ultimate point is still the same: When City of Heroes fans found out the game was shutting down, some decided to band together and make a new game to incorporate all of the best of CoH while not being, you know, shut down completely. It's something that I've discussed a few times now because it's a really neat idea that also has some really big potential pitfalls. The Phoenix Project and Heroes & Villains are the two big games working at getting themselves together, and they've had about half a year to do so. Both have been moving forward, networking, and putting together everything needed to make the games actually exist. And there's good news and bad news about both, some in tandem and some separately. So despite the possibility of missing an important context clue or two, we carry on with our look at what's going well and what is... less so.
