CoH: I am a Superhero

I started playing City of Heroes (CoH) this past weekend... and I must say I am impressed so far with the product.

It's an older game, came out over a year ago... maybe even nearing 2 years ago. That being said, it doesn't feel dated graphically. System requirements are low-ish too - I have it running on my Athelon 2800+ w/ an ATI Radeon 9800Pro 256MB, but I betcha it would run fine on my 1GHz Athelon using an older GeForce 4 card too. I am impressed with render distances for the city, and how they handle the city buildings rendering distances separately from the objects used to populate the world (citizens, mobs, crates, cars, mailboxes, etc.) Their decision to handle the rendering differences using separate algorithms/routines makes the world seem more real to me since I've not yet experienced the world flitting in and out near the horizon - something EQ2 suffers from, sadly.

Having said that, I've only scratched the surface of the game... I don't even have a level 6 character yet... so I may become disappointed at some later date, but right now I am quite impressed with the overall look of the game.

I've created, gads... 7 characters now? Right now I've come up with a Fire/Fire Blaster and named him "Thermoblaster" (I am surprised that name is not already taken, actually). I've made mostly blasters too; I think they are the nukers in this game, and that's what I usually play. I have a blue bug guy I named Bugged Out (sonic guy), a Fire/Ice guy named Box Heater, an Ice/Ice guy named Coleman Cooler, I created a Mylene character (but can't remember for the life of me what she is), Created a Fire/Ice guy named Karnatos (but I dunno if I'll use him really - Karnatos is not a good Superhero name), and I made a scrapper named The Shawarma Chef - I might play him now and then for kicks.

So, as you can see - I've made a few characters. The character generator is quick extensive... I don't think it's as amazing as some people tout, but I do agree that it is extensive. It has so many combination possibilities that everyone you meet has a unique look to them - something that is important to creating a character that you identify with since you look different than others.

I don't have any good screenshots to post yet though. Once I figure out how to rotate cameras to see my guy head-on I'll get some picture-taking action going on; some things look very slick in this game.