Champions Online

Just a shade over a month until launch.

http://www.champions-online.com/

The good, it's by the guys that did City of Heroes. So all the stuff they learned from COH/CoV will be put to good use. (Hopefully it isn't another Asherons Call 2)

This was actually supposed to be Marvel's MMORPG. They wussed out, Champions stepped up and we still get another game.

They say this is still coming to the Xbox 360 in addition to the PC.

http://kotaku.com/5319869/champions-online-combat-preview-challenge-accepted

http://www.massively.com/category/champions-online/

I know DC Universe is coming too. However after the Star Wars MMO fiasco I just can't get excited by anything Sony touches. It looks good, I'll give it that. But I can't see preordering that one.

If you never played the Star Wars Galaxies, let me break it down for you:

A pet rancor, a speeder bike, an R2 unit, a medical droid and a 4 person land speeder. What do all these thing have in common? I carried them all in my pocket. Getting ready for a fight I would throw a full grown rancor out of my pocket like I was the Ultimate Pokemon Master.

When the game launched, you would often need to go to a particular planet. So you would go to the spaceport and find out that you needed 3 connecting flights to get where you needed to go. The ships left at 10 minute intervals and you couldn't buy tickets ahead of time. You would literally spend 30 minutes in the worlds weirdest airport simulator, jumping from planet to planet and praying you would make the connecting flight without the game crashing right when the ship landed. The path to Jedi was at first idiotically complex. You basically had to start your career over from scratch 4 times, spending many months getting to jedi. Once you became a jedi, jackass bounty hunters could one-shot your robe wearing butt from half a mile away. Apparently the other use for a lightsaber was laser bolt attractor. I actually felt sorry for jedi. So Sony had them loosen up the restrictions. The bar to enter the order was lowered to "can wear pajamas". Not that I had a problem with that, after all that was why people came. It was just insulting to the guys that worked their butts off.

Did I mention that original jedi's could only die three times. After that, it was perma-death.

Then they jacked with all the characters and everyone basically started over. Most people quit en masse.

There are even people writing server emulators, so the fans are making the game they want using SWG as the front end. Weird.

 

Oh yeah, I should have mentioned the arch enemy thing.

It could be very interesting. They level with you too. The possibilities of a classic style of enemy is intriguing.

You could set up a Brawn vs Brain ala Hulk v The Master. Brawn vs brawn ala Hulk v The Thing or Superman v Doomsday. Opposites like fire vs ice. Or good vs evil with similar powers ala Spiderman v Venom.

 

So check it. I get an email today.

It is pimping the preordering of Champions. OK, fine.

They list out the locations and what you get. Which is cool. I got the swanky versions of GTA4 and Fallout 3, neither of which do I regret.

Let me paraphrase the email.

Wal-Mart: The game, and they will give you some in game bucks and I dunno, kill someone. That guy over there. The box will have a decal and be shiny too.

Best Buy: The game. Some bucks and spit on you for 10 minutes. Well, the first 100 will get spit if they are lucky. After that we switch fluids. And a little buddy with early access to the game.

Amazon: The game. Some costume pieces that sound like they should have been included in the first place and maybe a body fluid or two.

Game Stop: The game. Early access to the game. And the POWER OF FREAKING FLIGHT BABY!

I'm sorry. What was that last one again?

FLIGHT out of the box.

Uh... That little buddy look like a Thai prostitute? No?

I think I'll go flight then.

 

It is pretty tempting. I played CoH about 40 months, which was $600 in fees. $200 is a pretty cheap alternative is you plan to play any length of time.

 

Ordered my copy today. Starting Friday they will start sending out the codes to start playing on Monday.

And yes I went flight.

 

Wanna bet?

There is a 3 gig patch you have to download first. I was at 1.6% after an hour and a half. It error'd out and started over.

Hopefully it picked up where it left off but the screen makes it look like it started completely over.

 

http://forums.champions-online.com/showthread.php?t=30449

Follow these directions. You need to start the download, then quit and move some files around. It takes that 3.2 gig dl down to 900meg. Still big, but not as bad.

I sat at about 2 meg for 10-15 minute. In about 30-45 seconds I jumped to 40 meg. So I think they got a fix in for something.