Time to re-visit Paragon City.

First we whet your appetite to give City of Heroes a try with Dalmarus' review of City of Heroes, and now NCsoft is providing incentive for ex-players to come back and experience the latest content added this week. From the email in my in-box today from NCsoft:

PLAY FREE ALL WEEKEND

In celebration of Issue 13: Power and Responsibility going live, we have reactivated your game account through the end of this weekend. Simply log on to City of Heroes®/City of Villains® between now and Sunday, December 7th, 2008 at 11:59PM EST and your account will be active* and playable!

In addition to the Shields and Pain Domination powersets, and the new Cimerora mission content, Issue 13 includes some of the most innovative features that have ever been launched for City of Heroes. Here's a condensed list of the exciting new content!

* Two New Powersets - Shields and Pain Domination!
* Day Jobs – Characters accumulate a huge variety of new rewards while they are offline based on the locations from which they log out
* New “Day Job themed” Costumes
* Multiple Builds – Players can respec a second build for each of their characters and switch between builds, giving them the flexibility to tackle any challenge!
* Leveling Pact – “Extreme sidekicking” allows two characters to split all XP regardless of who’s online more, so that each time they play together they are the exact same level
* New Cimerora Missions – New Hero and Villain story arcs expand upon the history and lore, and delve into the players and politics of Cimerora.
* New Invention Origin Sets
* Merit Rewards System allows players to earn tokens by completing Trials, Task Forces, Strike Forces, Raids, etc., offering more flexibility for selecting rewards
* Player vs. Player Rebalancing

It appears the game has changed quite a bit since I last logged in. Heck, some people may log in just so they can have a day job (sorry, bad economy joke). Since I'm a big fan of leveling and bolstering my character, the Leveling Pact and Merit Rewards are very appealing. If you see a guy standing in the middle of the city trying to remember what the buttons do, be nice to himm, it may be me! PlayNC has all of the rules, regulations and information.