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Giant three-faced underwater monster in latest Champions Online screens
Whatever's going on in that screenshot above, we'd wager that those superheroes royally pissed off that giant monster with not one, not two, but three faces. You don't even want to know what else is going on in the other screenshots.Now look, if we had all sorts of superpowers you could bet we wouldn't care too much if we stepped on the toes of a crime boss or an alien bent on world domination -- but a three-faced underwater monster? Sorry, but you can count us out of that scuffle. Well, unless you give us a few more levels to work with, then maybe we could deal with it proper-like, you know?Three more beautiful screens of the underwater zone Lemuria await you nary a click or two away.%Gallery-17946%
Massively webcomic: Grinders - The Good Ol' Days
Grinders is a new weekly cartoon here at Massively devoted to chronicling your adventures in your favorite MMOs! If you have a funny story or just a funny character, submit your tale complete with a screenshot to lemuel.pew@weblogsinc.com. The best will be etched in stone and displayed in the town square for all to see. Or just put in the comic.Lemuel Pew is a webcomic artist and MMO player with the attention span of a guppy. Between sketching gamers in cartoon form and making too many alts in City of Heroes, he draws an online comic called Blank It. Feel free to watch his Twitter at your own risk.
Introducing the Massively webcomic: Grinders
Grinders is a new weekly cartoon here at Massively devoted to chronicling your adventures in your favorite MMOs! If you have a funny story or just a funny character, submit your tale complete with a screenshot to lemuel.pew@weblogsinc.com. The best will be etched in stone and displayed in the town square for all to see. Or just put in the comic.Well, what's Grinders really about? How about last week's raid-gone-bad, or that time you danced on the head of a giant mob? Or that famous thing that Jenkins fella did? It happens all the time, you just need to write it out and send it in! Be sure to include screenshots so Lem knows what to draw, and include character names, games and even your server so credit goes where credit is due. We look forward to seeing your online tales of wit and woe!Lemuel Pew is a webcomic artist and MMO player with the attention span of a guppy. Between sketching gamers in cartoon form and making too many alts in City of Heroes, he draws an online comic called Blank It. Feel free to watch his Twitter at your own risk.
Freshly baked Champions Online screens expose environments
For a while we've been worried Champions Online was going to be all jungle and snow, as you can't help but worry about these things when you're looking forward to an MMO. That's all changed now that we've got new screens featuring environments with plenty of personality.Coming from a technical standpoint, these new screens are certainly pushing more visual power than in previous looks at the game. But what really makes them pop is the art direction and, more specifically, the color palette combined with a good dosage of visual fidelity. It's still an incomplete concoction of four-color inspired yet modern visuals, but so long as progress like this continues to occur, a visual concern is highly unlikely on our part.We would be remiss for not mentioning that the cityscape screenshot is probably overall the most impressive, though. It's a hopeful sign that Cryptic will be able to paint some awe-worthy vistas within their new superhero world.%Gallery-17946%
Writer Marv Wolfman signs up for DC Universe Online
Earlier this week we heard about a secret comic book "legend" joining the DC Universe Online development team. The silhouetted individual was supposed to be revealed at New York Comic Con next weekend. Of course, you didn't expect it to remain a secret until then, did you? The latest issue of Wizard magazine (via BigDownload) has let the Black Cat out of the bag: writer Marv Wolfman will be enlisting with previously revealed comic veterans Geoff Jones and Jim Lee and the rest of Sony Online. The creator of Blade and writer of Crisis on Infinite Earths will be expanding and adding to the narrative already written by Jones, while Lee is handling the art direction. Even though the surprise has apparently been spoiled, you'll still be able to enjoy a brand new playable demo at the convention. Look for the DC Universe Online panel on Saturday, February 7.
Jim Lee on how he came to work on DC Universe Online
Comic book fans and gamers looking forward to DC Universe Online are likely familiar with the work of Jim Lee. What some comic fans may be less familiar with is Lee's interest in videogames, even before he got involved with DCUO as Executive Creative Director. Indeed, Jim Lee's twin passions in life are comics and videogames, he said in an interview with 1UP's Billy Berghammer. Lee discusses how he came to work on a project that brought those passions together -- DC Universe Online -- and what he's doing to breathe life into the game. The interview ranges from Lee's first steps into the comic book industry to creating the best-selling comic book in history, and beyond. Lee also brings up some of the goals he and the DC Universe Online team have in terms of storytelling, including the introduction of tertiary characters from the DC universe that haven't ever been featured in videogames before. (Ambush Bug and The Metal Men, we're looking at you.) "Introducing this to a crowd of gamers that never has seen these characters before is really exciting. Putting them in context and creating storylines with these characters is really the fun part of working on this game, and we're in the meat of it," Lee says.
The 26 Shields of City of Heroes
When we logged into City of Heroes to check out the new Shield powerset released in yesterday's Issue 13 patch, the one thing that we were not expecting was to find 26 shield types to choose from. It took us quite a while to settle on a shield, as our impulse was to have them all. Once we did make our selection though, it dawned on us that we should share this amazing catalogue of bodily protection with the rest of the world.We'd like to stress that this isn't every mutation of all the shields, otherwise this would be called "The 4,532 Shields of City of Heroes" and that just doesn't have the same ring to it. Plus, we value what little social lives we actually have. So without further day we present to you, our dear Massively readers, the 26 shields of City of Heroes.%Gallery-38575%
Cryptic reveals first Star Trek Online in-game trailer
This download is for all of you -- us included -- who've been patiently awaiting the arrival of some in-game footage of Cryptic's Star Trek Online. Everything you're seeing in this trailer is in-game footage and while the art direction is a tiny bit "cartoonish" for our tastes it's certainly not bad by any means. Though we do have to admit that EVE Online looks like it may trump Star Trek Online in terms of shockingly beautiful objects floating around in space. It's still early though so all bets are off. In fact, for all we know there could be some crazy black holes or binary star systems just waiting for the chance to grab ahold of our jaws and slam them to the floor.We do have to admit that the combat looked pretty well developed for a game that just got announced. The fact that there's both space-battles and in-ship battles being shown in the first trailer gives us hope for an earlier-than-expected release date. We guess that we'll just whittle our time away with some superhero MMO until that time comes. Right, Cryptic?
Cryptic has something to ask you
You probably already know that Cryptic Studios plans on coming to Gencon Indy and PAX this year. What you may not know is that Cryptic would like you all to tell them what you want to see. What team members do you want to meet? What panels do you want them to attend and discuss? All of your questions can be asked in the discussion thread.Our personal suggestion is definitely related to PAX, where we'd love to see Jack Emmert, Randy Mosiondz and John Layman. Last year at PAX there was a very interesting "Future of MMOs" panel that we would love to see get some Cryptic input. Although truthfully we just want to find a bunch of you guys and chat about all things superheroes, MMOs and pen and paper RPGs. Oh and of course if we could get some crazy demoing of Champions Online, that'd be super awesome too. It's probably asking a bit too much, but it's nice to dream isn't it?
Paragon City: All But Child-Free
There seem to be two children in all of Paragon City, and their names are Penny and Jimmy Preston. If you don't already know Penny, she's a mutant 'store' contact in Founder's Falls. Okay, there aren't any schools for kids to go to, even if one of the Westin Phipps villain missions does have you destroying a shipment of schoolbooks. But what strange side-effect of the Rikti Invasion has apparently concealed all of Paragon's other children from view?Super-powered kids are a comic book staple. The Marvel Power Pack is the best known, but super children have been showing up in comics ever since the infant Kal-El revealed his Kryptonian nature. So why aren't there any in Paragon, except for the Prestons? (Baby New Year doesn't count. That bizarre little anthropomorphic personification is a law unto himself.)
4-player arcade game with 'well known' superheroes in the works
We know what you're thinking, because honestly we're thinking the same thing. Who goes to arcades anymore, right? Apparently there's still some life in the old girl, at least according to hardware and software developer Signature Devices, which just sent word that it has put the final touches on a new 4-player arcade game that "will include several well known comic book and television superheroes." The company has left us guessing as to what characters exactly will be included, stating only that players will take control of "earth's mightiest heroes" in co-op style gameplay, leaving us to wonder if we'll be dropping quarters to play as Superman or the Wonder Pets. Either way, as we remember how much fun we had playing Captain America and the Avengers in the 90's, this news already has us scrounging through couch cushions for loose change.
NCsoft Europe's Ultimate Heroic Weekend!
UK residents, NCsoft loves you! And to prove it, they're holding a 4-day social gaming event appropriately entitled the 'Ultimate Heroic Weekend'! Starting at 8 PM on Friday, March 21st, and continuing until 8 PM on Monday, March 24th in the capacious Omega Sektor in Birmingham, the UHW will challenge and satisfy gamers of all types with a veritable cornucopia of superhero-related joy.Similar to their recent convention, yet much more -- dare we say -- massive, the fun all starts on Friday with a meet and greet with Melissa 'War Witch' Bianco, who will remain for the entire weekend and provide details on the upcoming City of Heroes expansion, Issue 12! There will also be prizes for Best Heroic Costume and PC and console gaming until midnight.And the event truly kicks off with a bang on Saturday ...
New goodies, and baddies, coming to Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
Xbox 360 owners, traded in your Marvel: Ultimate Alliance disc yet? If you did, then you'll be missing out on the opportunity to fork over your Microsoft points in exchange for some additional characters. In April you'll be able to purchase either a 'Heroes' pack or a 'Villains' pack for 500 points apiece, or both for 800. Whoever said that Activision doesn't like to make a deal and pass the savings along to you?The Heroes pack includes: Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Hawkeye, and The Incredible Hulk. On the flipside, the Villains group consists of Venom, Magneto, Sabretooth, and Doctor Doom ... which sounds like an 80s hair-band mega-metal tour. Both packs will include new achievements as well, breathing some life back into this game. Hopefully this is a trend that'll continue for awhile, because we like adding some shelf-life and playability to our games. Of course, we're still waiting on additional achievements for Whacked!, but that's a different story.
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance forged on DS
After beating the radioactive, magical and often otherworldly crap out of each other in Capcom's excellent Marvel Vs. series of 2D fighting games, it seems that the comic giant's major superheroes now find themselves forced to cooperate for the good of the entire Marvel universe. Activision has officially announced Marvel: Ultimate Alliance for PC, current and forthcoming consoles, as well as handheld platforms. I don't know about you, but my hands are usually the first choice when it comes to holding the DS. Developed by Raven Software, the game will be an action-RPG, no doubt similar to the X-Men Legends series (but hopefully a whole lot better). Various levels of customization are touted, but the one that has us most pleased is the ability to create a custom vehicle for your team. When I'm done with that, the Fantasticar won't know what hit it.No word yet on how the DS version will differ from the rest--would cooperative Wi-Fi play be too much to ask for?
