I was in the closed beta, and I made a lot of screenshots during that time.

Ladies, Geeks, Nerds and Gentlemen, I present you

Champions Online Beta Screenshots

This was my main superhero, a Soviet Union Dr.Who, from 1 to 40, I'm gonna miss him (closed beta to open beta transition included complete character wipe).

In Soviet Millennium City, Dr.Who salutes you!

At level 25 you had the possibility to create your own arch-nemesis. The arch-nemesis was another way to introduce content. You'll get to fight your arch-nemesis and foil his or her evil master plans. Dr. Who's arch-nemesis was Prof. Koninchewisz, a female half-cyborg mad scientist:

[Addendum]
I've been asked via email what my opinion is about Champions Online. Well, CO has potential, but in it's current state (I left when it went Open Beta) it is not worth my money. Here's why:

Power Unbalance:
There are powers that pretty much dominate everything, and powers that have been "nerfed" into oblivion because they were to powerful, i.e. useless powers.

Bear in mind it might have changed since Open Beta, but it was frustrating to see drain life being completely useless after it was way too powerful. Same goes for Concussion Beam. Lately I've heard the took the "nerf bat" to the travel powers. I can't figure out how this has affected PVE, but I surely can understand it from the PvP perspective.

Cryptic is doing it the wrong way, in my opinion. Seeing that a power is too good in PvP it has to be toned down, which in turn can become totally useless in PvE. They need to look at both perspectives, not only one. But that's just me.

Lack of End-content:
People will tell you about Unity and Omega. Well, about Unity. You get to do 5 (6?) daily missions, which are solo-able, after you turn them in you get a daily group mission to do. Keyword "DAILY", once a day.

Omega is supposed to be raiding, which I couldn't experience in my closed beta time due lack of people who were equally interested. So I can't talk about Omega.

But that pretty much is. There's not a whole lot to do, yet. Cryptic of course will deliver content continually in the future, let's hope it'll be good.  Still I can't figure out what to do once you hit 40, did ALL your low-level and remaining quests, and your daily Unity. Omega? That's it? Start another character? Yet another character?

Micro-transactions:
I loathe micro-transactions. I can't stand them. Although they will be "optional" and "mostly" "asthetic" it's been said, that IF and WHEN people can buy "game changing" stuff via micro-transactions this stuff WILL be available to everybody. Meaning you don't have to buy it, you can earn it in-game (investing a whole lot more time I'd guess).

This is usually a deal breaker for me because this WILL encourage a mentality like this "Why the heck would I grind, and grind, and grind for days, if I can just ditch out 10 buck?" among other things.

Just to clear it up: Champions Online will cost you a monthly fee on top of that you can optionally buy stuff via micro-transactions.

That being said, this game has a potential to be THE superheroes MMO. I hope it flourishes! I love superheroes games. I'll take a look at Champions Online at a much later time again.

Related posts:

1. Warhammer Online to be released…trimmed!
2. 2008, the year of delayed MMORPGs came true!
3. Resident Evil 5, Red Faction: Guerrilla & Batman: Arkham Asylum – Videos and Screenshots!

Well, big surprise... here's the confirmation of Warhammer Online being delayed again until fall 2008.

Addendum from Warhammer Online Newsletter-Subscription:

On the day we signed the agreement to license Warhammer from Games Workshop, I promised them that we would create a great and glorious game, a truly next-generation MMORPG. Today, I have news to report; we are going to delay the release of WAR until Fall 2008. While we do not expect this announcement to be met with fanfare and cheering crowds; the additional time will be spent hammering WAR into an even better game that it is today.

During the most recent phase of beta testing, two things have become clear. One was that our key innovations - Public Quests, Tome of Knowledge and Realm vs. Realm combat - were all coming along extremely well, as was the first stage of our innovative crafting system. The second, that the game would benefit from additional iteration time as well as adding a layer of polish or two. Fortunately, as part of Electronic Arts, we are able to do just that.

While I have no doubt that the community will experience a wide range of emotions over this decision, I urge you to remember one thing (and to keep the tar cold and the feathers on the birds), that our goal has never been to release a game by a certain date but to release a great Warhammer MMORPG. We have not wavered from this goal and with the full support of Games Workshop, GOA and Electronic Arts we intend to release a glorious next-generation MMORPG.

As always, I thank the community for its support, patronage and its patience.

Mark Jacobs

VP, GM EA Mythic

Let's see that leaves... Age of Conan to be delayed again, World of Arenacraft (Sorry, I meant Warcraft, my mistake): The Wrath of the Lichking to be announced. Anything big or at least highly anticipated MMOS I'm missing for this year?

Now is the time to say this, I TOLD YOU SO!

Be seeing you all,
Don Salva

Related posts:

1. 2008, the year of delayed MMORPGs
2. Warhammer Online to be released…trimmed!
3. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine (walkthrough)

Star Wars Galaxies was one of the most amazing mmorpg's I've played up until today. Mind you, I'm not talking Post-NGE SWG. The immersion of the characters into the world, the awesome sandbox principle...just awesome. (A few more games I've played are Everquest 2, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Vanguard, Anarchy Online, Neocron, Lord of the Rings Online).

Today I'm stuck in the canceling, playing, canceling, playing-circle of World of Warcraft. Although Tabula Rasa is a good game in between unfortunately it doesn't hold me long. Hence the circle.

My hope for this year's mmorpg to break free from World of Warcraft lies in 2 games: Age of Conan and Warhammer Online!

But sadly, Funcom announced that Age of Conan is being delayed additional 8 weeks, the new release date is listed as 23rd Mai 2008. The lead game director explains in this letter why it's being pushed back...again!

Now there's a rumor around, that Warhammer Online might get delayed until fall 2008. A bad scan, but I'll quote:

"BAD: 'EA can't get away from the delay bug. Last month it was Army of Two, this month it's Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. The game is expected in the summer or fall*. EA CEO John Riccitiello said, "We're going to give it a little bit more time, a little bit more work, and we think we'll have a little bit more of a hit on our hands."

Although CEO Mark Jabobs denies it it remains to be seen what the actual truth is.

My personal opinion is that Warhammer too will be pushed back until fall on the grounds that the Warhammer Online developers are too anal. The game has already been pushed back once. Back then they argued they need a little more time to iron out the bugs, ensure the quality and deliver a pristine game to the audience.

Now don't take me wrong I'm all for a close-to-perfect game with as little bugs as possible but one can overdo it. You have to draw a line somewhere, release the game and patch 'n fix the remaining bugs ASAP after the release. And by ASAP I do mean ASAP. Not months later!

A sad year indeed!

Related posts:

1. 2008, the year of delayed MMORPGs came true!
2. Warhammer Online to be released…trimmed!
3. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine (walkthrough)