One of the main features of Issue #8: To Protect and Serve is the introduction of the Veteran Rewards program for players of City of Heroes and City of Villains. MMORPG.com has an overview of the system and a Dev Journal from Positron, where he discusses the design of the system:

Coming up with the Veteran Rewards was one of the coolest things I’ve done as Lead Designer on the “City of” games so far. It was really a challenge to come up with cool rewards that players have been asking for while at the same time making sure that nothing became the “end-all-be-all” reward that every character MUST have. In addition, I wanted to throw in some cool rewards that players hadn’t asked for, but that I knew would be useful for them and make the veteran players’ lives a little easier.

Head over to MMORPG.com to read their Veteran Rewards overview and the full Dev Journal from Positron.

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Marking the release of Issue #8: To Protect and Serve, Lead Designer Positron speaks to Computer Games Online about the latest free content update to City of Heroes and City of Villains:

Issue 8 gives a lot of the bells and whistles that Villains enjoy over to Heroes. Heroes get a random mission pool similar to the newspapers in the form of the Police Band missions, as well as their own version of the Mayhem Missions, called Safeguard Missions. We did a lot in this issue to bring parity in terms of features to both sides.

You can read the full interview over at Computer Games Online.

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Fancy seeing if the life of a hero or villain is for you? Well head over to Boomtown, where no less than 2000 free trial codes for City of Heroes and Villains are up for grabs right now.

These exclusive trial keys will allow you full access to City of Heroes and City of Villains for 14 days, completely free of charge. Get one now - they won’t last long!

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The NCsoft Europe roadshow rolled into Birmingham last weekend for our first visit to the Memorabilia show - and the first outing for one of Paragon City’s most famous and respected heroes, Ms. Liberty!

Joining us to help protect the public from the dangerous charms of Ghost Widow and to help us raise money for charity, Statesman’s granddaughter had a great time at her first show - as did everyone else.

As well as having the opportunity to pose for a photo with Ms. Liberty and Ghost Widow, showgoers had the chance to grab some NCsoft swag and get a sketch from one of the many comic artists who had kindly volunteered their time to Draw the World Together - all in return for a donation to charity. Of course, they also got see our games in action on our demonstration PC, try them out for themselves in our gaming area and meet the NCsoft team.

After two solid days, we returned to Brighton tired but happy, to discover that we and Draw the World Together had managed to raise a record-breaking £1,524 for EveryChild! We’d like to thank all of you who managed to make it along to see us for their generosity - we hope you had as much fun as we did!

Read on to see some of the highlights of the weekend in pictures…

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Issue #8: To Protect and Serve is now available on the European City of Heroes and Villains Live servers. The latest free content update introduces the Veteran Rewards program, adds Police Band and Safeguard missions for heroes, sees the rebuilding of Paragon City continue with an updated version of the Faultline zone and much more.

For more information about Issue #8, see our Feature Updates. Full release notes are available in our Game Patches section.

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Last night saw the inaugural Death Badger 500 races on both the Union and Defiant servers, with dozens of eager heroes taking the opportunity to display their badge-hunting skills and healthy disregard for their own safety.

Both races went very well, with many thrills, spills and mass deaths along the way. In the end, though, there could be only one winner on each server.

Union’s Death Badger 500, which started at 7pm GMT, was an extremely close-run thing. In a near-photo finish, Ninja Run just pipped runner-up Shank’s Pony to the line, entering the Founder’s Falls ICON store less than a second ahead of his rival!

Defiant’s race got underway at 8pm GMT. Although runner-up Kenya Mom put in a brave effort, the clear winner was Tiger Candy, whose go-faster pink stripes saw him cross the line in record time!

Read on for more details of both races…

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The next major update for City of Heroes and Villains, Issue #8: To Protect and Serve, adds many new features to the games, including Safeguard and Police Band missions, a revamped Faultline zone and the Veteran Rewards program.

Get a sneaky preview of these and more in the new Issue #8 trailer that’s just been added to the Movies page in our Media section.

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With Issue #8 almost finished and the Good vs. Evil Combined Edition of City of Heroes and City of Villains making it easier than ever to enter the world of Statesman and Lord Recluse than ever before, IGN UK has decided that there’s never been a better time to revisit the games and pronounce a new verdict on them:

There may be no crafting or trade to speak of in City of Heroes and Villains, but there’s still plenty of role-playing. No other game makes you feel quite this superpowered.

You can read the full review over at IGN UK now.

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ITV Meridian, our local ITV channel here in not-so-sunny-just-at-the-moment Brighton and all along the south coast, is celebrating the recent release of the Good vs. Evil Combined Edition of City of Heroes and City of Villains with a competition that asks its viewers to choose the super power they most desire - and why they want it.

The competition - which offers £500 plus a copy of the Good vs. Evil Edition to the winner as well as several other prizes for second place and runners-up - will be featured on the Meridian Tonight news at 6pm, but you can beat the rush and ensure you stand a chance of winning a prize by heading over to the ITV Meridian website and clicking on the link to the competition in the top-right - just look for Statesman’s face.

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Next Wednesday, 22 November, we will be holding the first ever Death Badger 500 across all the European City of Heroes servers. A variation on the classic Death Race concept that sees Level 1 characters racing across Paragon City, the Death Badger 500 also requires you to pick up some exploration badges along the way.

To take part in the race, you’ll need to create a new character and be at Back Alley Brawler in Galaxy City on the evening of Wednesday 22 November. The Death Badger 500 will start promptly at 7pm GMT on Union or Zukunft and 8pm GMT on Defiant or Vigilance, so we would recommend that Death Badgers arrive at least 15 minutes before those times. This race is for Heroes only, but if all goes to plan, the next Death Badger 500 will take place in the Rogue Isles.

There are some strict rules to taking part, so if you are going to come and face the challenge please make sure you abide by them, as we (and our GMs) will be watching! Read on for the full rules and details of the route that the race will be taking…

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We’re pleased to announce that the winner of the Creative Genius competition for October is Sar, for the continuing adventures of Eat Electric Death in Fury 101: The Brute Chronicles.

(Please note that the site contains occasional strong language, and as such is not recommended for younger viewers.)

Congratulations to Sar, who is now the proud owner of a ‘Creative Genius’ title on the official message boards and 60 days of free game time!

The Creative Genius competition is a monthly contest held on the Creative board. For more details, see the The Creative Board and Creative Genius thread on the official message boards. The Nominations for November’s Creative Genius will be opened on the Creative board in the first week of December, so there’s plenty of time to post your submissions!

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The weekend of 25 and 26 November will see NCsoft Europe’s first visit to the Memorabilia show at the Birmingham NEC, and we’re aiming to make it our biggest and best outing yet. In fact, there’ll be so much going on that it’s hard to know where to start.

First of all, Memorabilia will see the first public appearance of a very special guest, in the form of one of Paragon City’s most famous and influential heroes, Ms. Liberty! The deadly Ghost Widow will also be in attendance, and for a small donation to charity you’ll be able to have you photo taken with one or both of these iconic characters.

Speaking of charity, we’ll also be hosting another Draw the World Together event in support of EveryChild. A host of famous comic artists will be on hand to provide one of a kind sketches of your heroes and villains in return for a donation, including John McCrea (Batman, Judge Dredd, Hitman), Phil Winslade (Spider-Man, Daredevil), Andrew Wildman (X-Men, Transformers) and Mike Collins (2000AD), not to mention Jamie Sims, Simon Davis, Dave Taylor and Mark Dos Santos.

In addition, there’ll be all the usual freebies, spur of the moment competitions and giveaways, the chance to chat to both the City of Heroes and Villains community team and your fellow players, and much more.

Booking in advance will save you £1 on the price and £2 on parking, so head over to the Memorabilia site now to buy tickets, find out how to get there and check on this year’s special guests (in the unlikely case that Ms. Liberty, Ghost Widow and the rest of us aren’t special enough for you).

We look forward to seeing you there!”

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Two years after the Rikti invasion, the rebuilding of Paragon City had begun as a directive of Measure X. One of the principal locations targeted for the reconstruction effort was the area once called Overbrook, but known better today as Faultline.

The Overbrook rebuild had been underway for almost 6 months and the first neighborhood, New Overbrook, was close to completion. Under the combined protection of heroes and a small taskforce of the Paragon Police Department, the workers installed structural support-braces and started filling in major trenches in the area.

All seemed to be going well. It always does just before the storm hits…

Find out more about the newly redesigned Faultline in our latest Feature Update.

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You may recall a couple of weeks ago our Marketing team was snatched by some unknown and thoroughly evil force. This left us in a difficult situation, we had an advert booked to appear in the January edition of games™ and no-one to make it happen. At least, that was until you lot donned your creative hats and stepped up to the challenge of our ‘Create an Ad’ competition...

After poring over the entries and applying some rigorous creative analysis, the chin-stroking was over and a clear winner emerged from the towering stack before us. Congratulations go to Mother’s Love, whose winning concept was clearly a labour of love, the results of which can be seen here (click to enlarge). A version of this highly crafted piece of work will be appearing in the January edition of games™, don’t miss it!

... “but what about the Honourable Mentions" we hear you cry, well it’s funny you should mention that…

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Both Edge Online and Computer and Videogames are celebrating the recent release of the Good vs. Evil Edition of City of Heroes and City of Villains with competitions that give you the chance to experience life as a hero and a villain for free!

Edge Online has 10 ‘goodie bags’ containing a shiny copy of the Good vs. Evil Edition box, a T-shirt and a limited edition statuette of either Lord Recluse or Statesman! Click here for full details on how to enter.

CVG has 10 equally shiny copies of the Good vs. Evil Edition box up for grabs. You can get the full details by clicking here.

Good luck!

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