Champions Online goes free to play

[hogarth]

Anyone playing Champions Online? Since it went free to play, I tried downloading it.

I've gotten some entertainment out of it; it scratches the same itch as playing "Freedom Force", although it's less funny and more repetitive. It probably helps a lot that I used to play Champions 25+ years ago, so there's a bit of nostalgia involved in the setting.

[TheFlatline]

My friend was a beta tester for the F2P model late last year.

He says that if you want to solo, the burrowing travel power is broken beyond fuck. There's few places you can't go, you don't aggro anyone as you travel, and you can pop up near your target, accomplish it, and burrow again to GTFO.

Otherwise he enjoyed it somewhat. There's a lot of content out for it right now.

[hogarth]

My friend was a beta tester for the F2P model late last year.

He says that if you want to solo, the burrowing travel power is broken beyond fuck.

I don't think burrowing is free in the final F2P version, so I had to settle for Flight. Or maybe I need to unlock it somehow?

[TheFlatline]

It might not be free. They ended up hooking him up with a lifetime subscription account as part of his beta testing and it looks like he gets to keep it, which is not a bad fringe benefit.

[DragonChild]

As someone who subscribed before, flight is awesome.

I played Champions for a month or two (I think two?) and while back, and the game was... a bit underwhelming. While pretty fun at first, with the actiony combat, it got boring very, very fast.

I just can't see myself going back to it, with Vindictus, LOTRO, and DDO all free.

[hogarth]

I played Champions for a month or two (I think two?) and while back, and the game was... a bit underwhelming. While pretty fun at first, with the actiony combat, it got boring very, very fast.

I just can't see myself going back to it, with Vindictus, LOTRO, and DDO all free.

While I don't doubt that it will get boring soon enough, it's head and shoulders above the free-to-play version of DDO, in my opinion. There just isn't that much free content in DDO.

[Surgo]

Out of all the character builders in every video game ever made, is Champions Online the best?

[TheFlatline]

Out of all the character builders in every video game ever made, is Champions Online the best?

It's been severely changed. It's possible to build your own character, but F2P options are generally nerfed if memory serves. They've gone to archetype/class, which does suck. You still can break out of that mold though thankfully.

[Sir Neil]

Out of all the character builders in every video game ever made, is Champions Online the best?

No. City of Heroes is better, but Champions builder isn't terrible.

Also, in Champions you have more control over the shape of their body and face. Some parts can have four different colors, instead of two in CoH. Champions can start with capes.

I can say that playing it is worth every penny they charge. If you have an X-Box controller, it might be even better than that.

[Fuchs]

There's also APB, a very detailed character builder (going free to play as well).

[Korwin]

APB?

[Parthenon]

Wait, what? I thought APB died a horrible, horrible death and broke the record for the least time an MMO is up before having its servers shut down? Its free to play now?

[Fuchs]

It's in the closed beta stage for the free to play release - another firm has picked it up after it got shut down.

[Fuchs]

"All points Bulletin: Reloaded" is now the title I think.