Ooh, new splash screen.

Other than the fact that States and the BCU look like they're falling in love, I kind of like the pic. It's iconic of a major clash, even if I'm not sure it's the right kind of clash. States' face IS weird under his mask. I think his Bruce Campbell chin is jutting a bit too forward. The BCU is awesome, though, largely because those don't have facial expressions. What is it with Freedom splashers and people making Randy Orton level of weird faces, by the way?

Personally, though, I'd have thought a more appropriate visual to the storyline would have been to see Statesman trading punches an Olympian in the foreground, with Lord Recluse and white suit Marcus Cole sort of grimace at each other in passive conflict. I mean, that would be much more faithful to the storyline. You'd have the Statesman opposing not just the Praetorian threat, but Tyrant himself, and it would do a much better job of conveying the level of threat we face to have THE biggest weapon the Praetorians have on the front lines. Recluse and Arachnos have been pushed sort of to the wayside (much to our continual requests, might I add), but they're still major players behind the scenes, so it would make sense for Recluse's underhanded politics to clash with Praetorian Michael Cole... Sorry, still have Randy Orton on my mind. It would make sense for Reclue's underhanded politics to clash with Marcus Cole's overt propaganda taking place quite literally behind the scene of the splash screen. It would have done a great job of condensing the entire storyline down to a single image.

The presence of the BCU on the splash page is kind of representative of a bigger problem, though. Just like the Splasher, the whole of the Praetorian war comes down to punching BCUs in the face. There's very little storyline behind it, there's very little fanfare, there are very few faces. For the most part, we're just punching robots and soldiers in the face while achieving remarkably little. If I run The Eternal Nemesis story arc, I'm not just opposing a bunch of Nemesis Army soldiers or Nemesis Army generals. I'm opposing THE Nemesis. And I don't just beat up some dudes and blow up missile tubes, as it were. I end up putting a pretty definitive, if temporary end to Nemesis' threat. It's a meaningful story that's not designed to explain why I'm doing it over and over again. When comes to the fight against Heel Cole, however, all we're ever achieving is secondary objectives.

And the splasher is the perfect representation of this. We're not fighting for the freedom of Praetoria, we're not fighting for the safety of Earth, we're not fighting for what's right or our own benefit. We're not fighting with and against major players. We're punching robots in the face. See? See? Even the Statesman is pretty much just doing that, while everyone else is absent from the picture.

Say what you will about how bad the current splash screen is - and it IS bad, what with the poorly-rendered random-button heroes - but at least it delivers the meaning of the game in a nutshell. This is a city full of heroes, so the splash screen has a whole bunch of heroes. The CoV splash screen is even better. You have the big bad in the background sending froth his armies at middle ground with his lieutenants right at the front because they're the faces of the storyline. The actual Arachnos soldiers, though they exist, are always the least important because Recluse towers over them and the Lieutenants are in the first foreground.

I like the splash screen as a picture, I just don't think it's representative of City of Heroes, City of Villains, Going Rogue OR Freedom, for the simple fact that it lacks storyline in it. It's just a pinup of the Statesman and a BCU about to kiss.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Sorry if this comes across as rude, but I'm not a fan of the artwork. Of course, there's States' face but the rest of him looks off too. Like he stopped working out for a few months and then tried to get back in his old tights.

Ohhhhhhh! I think this is great! Looks like a cleaner, brighter and more modern look

Despite the years of lore set up in CoX, I think it is great to see them moving on and giving a breath of fresh air to the franchise! New threats, new storylines and new beginnings. It's amazing how a simple change of imagery can help a franchise move on.

I think I'm so embracing of this because one of the positives about superhero universes (from what i've seen reading comics) is that it can be rewritten at any time and anything is possbile! Unless you take them on with a heavy heart, nothing is set in stone

Bring on FREEDOM!

It looks really nice. I'm glad it's not the GR one, that yellow hurts my eyes. I always have to dim it down a couple of notches in order to make a character.

Oh look. Glassy buttons. How very 2009

Because of this thread, I decided to launch my Beta install for the hell of it. I got errors when I tried to update it and then when I opened it is asked to do a repair and now I have to redownload all 3 gigs worth of it again...not sure what happened.

I'd love to see a new splash page tied to the Signature Story Arc du mois, as a way to showcase:

A: The Signature Story Arc of the moment

B: The progression of story in the game (Or the 'Hey, look, new story every month!' dance)

3: Various characters involved in the lore

: Something to look forwards to every first of the month!

$: A way to tempt Freemium players to go 'I want a slice of that pie, here's Ol Abe to get it for me.'

Not a fan. I'd rather see something that caters to both CoH and CoV, like the Freedom Phalanx fighting Recluse's patrons or something. Something epic that really shows the struggle between good and evil.

This is just States about to bop a robot. Really feels meh.

I wish they would have used one of the Praetors instead of a Warworks.

What the picture doesn't show is the rest of his team keeping a group of robots bunched up behind this one, they are bowling.

Have massive gun arm, yet go in for a melee attack... must be an MM pet.