Champions Online: just doesn't cut it.

Some images here too. Mostly alien robotic themed.

The other thing is, they essentially cut all the faces down to ONE face. And all you can do is run around the sliders with that.

Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.

I think I might be the only COH player who thinks Champions looks fantastic.

i think it look good.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mauk2 Evil_Legacy became one of my favorite posters with two words. "Kick Rocks." I laffed so hard. Never change, E_L!

Well, don't get me wrong. It doesn't look bad, but it's not great either. I tend to prefer more realistic textures. I'm going to miss the grit from King's Row's sidewalks.

All right. So I've put in over 4 days /played into CO. I'm willing to eat crow (just a tad) and say it's not a bad game. I still don't like most of the character models. I still think City of Heroes is, in almost all respects, a superior game. But Champions is not bad. I do have fun playing it. I've managed to run all the lairs up until VIPER Nest (level 38) and have yet to run any of the 40 lairs. The missions, in general, do seem to get more interesting and a lot less... stupid later on.

Really, I guess it's not a bad game. Right now my only real complaint is that there isn't a whole lot of group specific content (Alerts, which are really generic and uninteresting, and Lairs, which few people seem to run). The issue seems to be, from talking to CO Vets, is that the player base of CO doesn't seem to want group content. The argument seems to be circular and self-defeating; they don't run group content because the rewards are abysmal but they don't want group content to provide decent rewards because it's somehow "unfair". So lairs provide crap loot and it's rather difficult to scrape together a team to do them.

Now, don't get me wrong here, I'm all for alternative methods to get good stuff, which is why even though I love Incarnate Trials, I was (am) a big fan of the Dark Astoria revamp (heck, my only complaint is I think it should've been released sooner). But the way they do it, Champions seems to make soloing more efficient than grouping.

Maybe I'm missing something somewhere? Honestly, I just want to do the lairs because I like to see as much content/mess around with as many systems in an MMO as I possibly can. I should just look for an SG that has a similar completionist (I think that's the best term for it) attitude.

But with that said, I like the game enough that if the lifetime sub ever goes on sale and I have the cash to spare, I'd buy it. Not nearly as good as City of Heroes, but a good game nonetheless. Of course, that doesn't make me any less sad to see CoH go, especially because Cryptic recycled several sound effects from CoH in CO, so every time I hear them, it reminds me of CoH and how much more I like CoH than CO. The character models, writing, and content aren't as good as CoH. Especially the writing. The only thing that comes close is the 37-40 zone, Vibora Bay, and even that is severely lacking compared to what has happened, was currently happening, and what was on the horizon for CoH.

EDIT: As Kurt Cobain once said, "Hey, wait, I've got a new complaint". Well, not new, but one I just remembered. My only other one, is that they also seem to be glacially slow with update patches. Looking at their website, they seem to count two of their seasonal events and their F2P transition as "content updates", and other than that, there have been, it looks like, six real additions to the game in the three years its been in existence. IMO that's nothing to be terribly proud of in the MMO space. I've played quite a few MMOs, and it's been my experience that most put out content and system updates far more frequently than that. I have to wonder how much Champions is suffering from Cryptic's apparent "churn-and-burn" approach to game development.

I meant "On Sale" for less than $300. :P Though if I ever have $300 and nothing else I'd prefer to buy, I'd consider it.

Also, my face when the following happens:
1. People in the CoX channel complain that it's hard to find teams
2. I offer to form a team
3. No takers.

Eh, I generally offer to form a team a few times every time I play, usually as soon as a log on and then once when I'm debating logging off, and often at least once in between if I'm playing for a particularly long time with very mixed results. So often the order is mixed (IE, I offer to form team, no takers, then people complain no one teams. Or, often, people complain no one teams but I never seen anyone take the initiative).

I don't sweat it too much, though since there's loads of solo content so it's not like I have nothing else to do.