After a productive day yesterday sorting the lawn and the like, today I threw myself into some gaming.

After the announcement of issue 12 of City of Heroes I thought it was time to checkin on the game and see what had changed. So, after quickly re-subscribing I patched my client and logged in. I quickly got pointed to the Ouroboros time travel missions and I had some fun running through the first few of them. Revisiting Outbreak and seeing the Fifth Column again was a lot of fun. I’m looking forward to doing more of them.

Secondly, I’d been tempted to try out Exteel since it was mentioned in the same newsletter as CoH issue 12. Essentially its an online PvP game, where players pit their mechs against each other. In terms of game style, its classic FPS match types, with deathmatches, capture the flag and the like. Only its done from third-person view point.

I found it a lot of fun. Its free to download and play, with no monthly subscription. They’re obviously looking to make their money through upgrades, with some of the mechs, parts and weapons costing in-game credits, and others costing “N-Coins”. N-Coins being available from the PlayNC website for a minimal charge, they let you buy some newer weapons and the like without the pain of grinding to get credits if you’re a casual gamer and just really want a laser-sword.

Gameplay-wise its not high-art. Join a game, jump into the arena and start killing other mechs. But its good fun, and there’s a high level of customisation with the different mechs and weapons. Not one I’ll play long-term I’d have thought, but good fun for a quick half-hour gaming session.

I’ve put some extra screenshots up in my gallery.

Well, I10 Invasion is now live. I logged in to check it tonight, and good Lord! If the lag is anything to go by, its definitely got a few people back playing the game.

Still, its a really good piece of work. I managed to nab a video of me checking out a Dropship attacking Skyway. Once again Hyper-phase earns its keep. I’m going to miss that temp-power.

I’ve been talking to a friend a lot about creating a hero to reflect the fact I’ve been playing City of Heroes ever since Issue 1. So I finally got around to it tonight.

For the name, I went with The I1 Veteran for obvious reasons. I decided I wanted a grizzled, Nick Fury-esque feel to the character (hence the eye-patch really), and since the various faction logos are one of the later veteran rewards, I thought I’d get some use out of them by making him a member of the Paragon PD, with their logo on his flack jacket.

He’s an Invulnerable/Axe Tanker, although his character description just describes his powers as being “hard as nails”. I always find playing Tankers a bit more challenging, since my natural playstyle is for ranged, blaster-type characters.

The other day I noticed I hadn’t received any veteran rewards in City of Heroes since Issue 8 (in which they were introduced) had gone live. I went in and checked my account details, and sure enough what seemed to have happened is that only my UK account time was being taken into account.

However, I had originally had a US account for about a year, so I emailed the NCSoft Support guys asking if that shouldn’t have been taken into account. Well, GM Max got back to me, and sorted the whole thing out. So now I’ve got the full three years worth of veteran rewards and am proudly displaying my “Addicted” badge as my title.

Above you can see Reilly (my level 41 main) with his new Nemesis Staff and Clockwork pet, in our Supergroup base beside our new Longbow Chaser. Excellent

And here’s Colonel Lightning, my Electric Blaster with her Blackwand and Rikti Monkey pet.

I set up a test server copy of City of Heroes on my PC last night to check out Issue 10.

The actual invasion scenario itself is great. Above you can see my character tailing 3 dropships as they attack Peregrine Isle, carpet-bombing the streets below. Sadly my hyper-phase power had konked out, so I was eating floor about 10 seconds later.

The changes to the Rikti crash site look interesting, although they’re difficult to gauge on test server, as it involves a cooperative struggle with both villains and heroes trying to destroy Rikti pylons and then attack the mothership. With the test server actually pretty quiet, there wasn’t much point hanging around (those Rikti pylons eat blasters for breakfast). The Thin Red Line is good though, with the Vanguard base defenses attacking any wandering Rikti that get in range.

My only real complaint so far, is that its easy to be wandering around, oblivious to where the action is. With such a fuss being made over this big event, it can be frustrating logging on, and flying around for half an hour wondering what all the fuss is about. Some kind of pop up message when you log in, telling you which zones are currently under attack would be nice.

Well, issue 10 of City of Heroes has hit the test servers. The Invasion event is looking to be as much fun as we might’ve hoped.

Here’s a clip of a dropship flying through the city, only to be attacked by (presumably) a Supergroup that someone’s put up on Youtube. Looks like a heck of a lot of fun.

Typical, just as I’m about to cancel my City of Heroes subscription, they go and announce this:

Issue 10: Invasion

It looks brilliant, and a big server-wide story event like this should be really good fun.

Don’t get me wrong when I say I was going to cancel my subscription though, its not that I dislike the game. I’ve played since issue 1 hit the US servers, and its just that after 2 and a half years, I’d burned out on it, and was facing up to the fact that its been months since I played it. Plus with me getting into Lord of the Rings Online, paying for 2 MMOs seemed wasteful.

So, it looks like I’ll keep paying for both for just now.

Not that I’ve had much chance to play Lord of the Rings recently. I’ve been busy and stressed out of my head with work. But the other night I managed to get in some game time, and finally hit level 15. I’d hit a lot of Fellowship-only quests in the Elven territories so, since I was feeling anti-social, I figured I’d head over to the Shire and do some sight-seeing and get some more solo quests. Here’s a shot of me outside the famous Bag End

I’m such a sucker for MMORPGs. Granted, I’m quite an anti-social gamer, so end up playing most of them for about 2 days before getting bored and chucking it. Including World of Warcraft. Its more a commentary on what I look for in gaming though, rather than the games themselves.

The only real exceptions have been City of Heroes (which hooked me for ages - cracking game), Guild Wars (which I loved, but the time it took me to get around, only to die and have to start again got me down) and Star Wars Galaxies (prior to the last re-write anyway - not tried it since. I really enjoyed it though, but the lag in Mos Eisley really killed it for me).

But, as I say, I’m a sucker for them none-the-less, so yesterday I picked up Lord of the Rings Online. I’ve only played the tutorials, but the graphics are pretty, and its nice bumping into characters for the books. The next few days will probably tell whether I stick with it, or end up back playing Oblivion. But the reviews have been very good (no small thing in today’s MMO-staturated market), and I read its designed to be more solo-friendly than most MMOs, which was partly what really sucked me into City of Heroes.