IGN Does City of Heroes at E3

IGN's E3 Coverage pages are sporting a new City of Heroes preview. Staci Krause, possibly the only person at E3 who was busier than our own Ophelea, cornered NCSoft's Jack Emmert for a tour of Paragon City. Here's a snippet:

Jack took us through character creation. The first thing players will do is choose an Origin. There are 5 types of Origins, which basically set a tone for how the superhero got their powers. The origins are mutant, science, technology, magic or natural. Players will get origin bonuses based upon which origin they choose.

The second thing players will choose is an archetype. There are four types of archetypes we were shown. The Blaster is good at offense but is easily hurt. The Defender is great at long-range activities. The Tanker can dish it out as well as take it. The scrapper is really good at hand-to-hand. The Archetypes determine a players power set. These are what players heroes will be known for. There is a primary and secondary power and players will choose these up front and will not be able to return and choose another.

Though Staci starts out with the bad news that a public beta target date hasn't been set yet, this quite lengthy preview is just about enough to make me want to go shopping for some spandex underwear.

Once again we find another development team working to enter a saturated market, but once again this group is sporting a truly original approach that nearly guarantees them a spot in the small handful of games bound to survive.

While City of Heroes has already been over a few bumps with the public, I have little doubt that they're in for a long and interesting tenure as a major player in the MMOG market.

Click to read Staci's Full Preview at IGN