Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

To say that the three superhero-based MMOGs have been at war for your affection since the start of the year would be an understatement. But the veteran on the block, City of Heroes (CoH), is not yielding in the slightest to newcomer DC Universe Online or the recently switched free-to-play Champions Online. In fact, I dare say Paragon Studios has stepped up their game with lots of new content and plenty of updates in recent months.

This week the CoH team served up another pair of updates with a new "Producer's Letter" and a sneak peek at Issue 20. The latest letter from Nate "Second Measure" Birkholz is all about Incarnates. The team has put together the new challenges in such a way that they should be accessible to a large number of players, requiring only a commitment of around 30 minutes to an hour and a half per trial. The first couple of trials will require at least 8 to 12 players, but new changes have been added to the LFG window to help facilitate finding a quick group for the trials. For more casual players, there is a different option.

For our more casual players, we have added an option for you to continue to build your way up the Incarnate Tree by collecting Incarnate Shards without doing any Incarnate Trials--you will even get Incarnate Shards when you are exemplared down. It will take longer than it will take by participating in Incarnate Trials, and you'll miss out on some epic storylines, but you will be able to claim your seat at the Incarnate table nevertheless.

In the second update, Sr. Designer Chris "Baryonyx" Behrens offers a look at Issue 20 and the long-awaited CoH endgame that's coming with it by way of the Incarnate Trials. One of the new Incarnate Trials, the Behavioral Adjustment Facility, pits players against Nightstar and Mindwashed Resistance fighters. Behrens gives a good account of how the trial will play out; complete with what can be consider a few spoilers, so only read it if you want to know. Check out the full Issue 20 sneak peek on the CoH website.