"Champions Online is going to be unlike anything MMO fans have seen before"... You must be thinking - who could possibly be so self-centered, so out of touch with reality and with common sense, to make such an idiotic statement? I'll tell you who: Cryptic Studios. Since their previous project, that Marvel MMO was clearly too fucking awesome to be released (which would perfectly explain why it was cancelled), they decided they don't need Microsoft or any other publisher to tell them how much they pwn. So they took matters into their own hands, and are now planning to self-publish their next game, Champions Online.

Well, that much we knew already, but now we have some new details announced for this superhero MMO, along with some early screenshots.

"Champions Online, based on the popular pen-and-paper Champions RPG, will give players the power of total customization of their hero experience while they explore a vast universe of richly detailed 3D environments. (...) Champions Online is all about total customization - it will offer a near infinite amount of character customization so that all players will have a unique game experience. Gamers will be able to create their hero's name, back story, costume, powers and abilities as well as design their own personal arch-enemy and his or her back story, which will guarantee a truly unique experience."

If this sounds like your kind of game, then by all means, feel free to read more about it on its website. For the rest of us, the only other thing worth mentioning is that Champions Online should be released on the PC and Xbox 360 in spring 2009. Not that it will make any difference.

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 Continue reading 'Champions Online Details, Screenshots'...

The folks from Cryptic Studios will just have to pardon (or ignore) me if I'm wrong, but this sounds an awful lot like the Marvel MMO that was confirmed as cancelled just a couple of days ago. They may have lost Microsoft's support, but the makers of City of Heroes / City of Villains are still determined to waste our time with another superhero MMO game of super-dubious quality - renamed called Champions Online. Game Informer will have the first look at the game in their March issue, and they say it's coming on PC and consoles. That doesn't really fill you with hardcorish feelings, now does it?

The poor thing has been rumoured as dying for too long, so Microsoft's Shane Kim finally took pity on it - and its potential fans - by confirming the cancellation of Cryptic Studios' Marvel Comics MMO, in an interview with MTV Multiplayer.

"I'll confirm. Marvel and we have agreed to end development on the MMO. It was an amicable decision... It's just something that we felt that, for us and for them, it would be better if we ended development. Which is disappointing, because that had a lot of promise. But sometimes you have to make these decisions."

In other words, the game sucked fireballs. Besides, you'd have to be insane to launch another MMO game in the next five-to-ten years. With WoW still going strong, what's the point? (yes, I'm gossiping about you, Conan!)