Now the Invasion is upon us, you can get a behind-the-scenes peek at the development of Issue #10 in our latest Feature Update, where lead designer Matt ‘Positron’ Miller reveals some of the inspiration behind the world-shattering events now unfolding in the world of City of Heroes and Villains.

Warning! If you haven’t earned ‘Omega Level Clearance’ and completed the Rikti Task Force introduced in Issue #10, this developer diary contains ‘spoilers’ for several important aspects of the Rikti, the first Rikti War, and the new Task Force. 

Issue #10 has arrived, and with have come the Rikti. While attacks continue across the world, the most vicious and desperate battles are being fought at the site of the Rikti mothership brought down in the first Rikti War - and Gamespot have an exclusive video tour of the new Rikti War Zone that’s one of the major features of the latest free content update for City of Heroes and Villains.

Click here to see the video, narrated by none other than City of Heroes and Villains Lead Designer Matt ‘Positron’ Miller.

Update: The video can now be found on our site as well - Head over to the Media / Movies-page.

The unthinkable has happened. Five years after the superhuman efforts of the world’s finest heroes brought an end to the Rikti War, the aliens have returned - and returned in force.

The second Rikti War has begun.

See the Issue #10 Release Notes for full details of the new features of the latest free content update for City of Heroes and Villains, and check the current Known Issues on the official message boards.

NEWSFLASH! Check out the special emergency issue of the Paragon Times for the latest news on the Rikti attack.

We’re pleased to announce that the winner of the Creative Genius competition for May 2007 is Zurra, for this excellent character sketch of Royal Flush.

Congratulations to Zurra, 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 June’s Creative Genius are now open on the Creative board, so be sure to let us know what your favourite submission was last month!

Vanguard’s primary role is to defend the world against alien invasion, no matter the cost. But not everyone agrees with their tactics or principles, and Longbow has compiled a Top Secret report on Vanguard...

According to Paragon Times reporter James Stark, US Senator Gilmore (Rhode Island), has announced an inquiry to examine the United States’ role in funding of Vanguard. He asks “Why are we still paying for an outdated dinosaur like Vanguard today?” According to Senator Gilmore, Vanguard is an “outdated, old-fashioned institution” with their “old standard bearers long gone”.

Read the full story in today’s Paragon Times.

The world of City of Heroes and Villains is soon to be rocked by the return of the Rikti. Over at CVG you can get a glimpse of what the future holds in the first Issue #10 video, and learn more about how Issue #10 came about straight from the horse’s mouth. Well, from lead designer Matt ‘Positron’ Miller, anyway:

With Issue 10 we decided to advance the storyline. Like any ongoing game we have many unresolved plot threads and each is a great opportunity for introducing new game content. Our first thought for Issue 10 was to bring back the 5th Column, a villain group that disappeared when the Council was introduced in Issue 3. But in the end we decided to focus on one of the greatest threats to Paragon City and the Rogue Isles, the aliens known as the Rikti.

You can read the full Dev Diary over at CVG now - you’ll find a link to the Issue #10 teaser video on the upper right-hand side of the page.

Just a reminder that Aero has organised a City of Heroes and Villains player meet in Brighton this coming Saturday, 7 July.

The meet will be based at Gamer Heaven, site of the original official player meet last year. As well as a variety of competitions and events, Aero has also arranged a special all-night gaming session just for City of Heroes and Villains players - if you’re feeling hardcore enough, you’ll have the whole of Gamer Heaven to yourselves from 10pm through to 6am on Sunday!

For more information, see the Player meet in Brighton Confirmed - Sat 7th July! thread on the official message boards.

If you just can’t wait for Issue #10: Invasion, the next free content update for City of Heroes and Villains, to be released to the Live servers, you can try the current version on the European Training Room (Test Server) now.

Head over to the Training Room section on the official message boards for instructions on how to access the test server and the current release notes.

Once you’ve battled the Rikti invasion forces, be sure to let us know what you think and report any bugs or problems you discover, and you’ll also be helping us and your fellow players by ensuring that Issue #10 is as polished as possible before it’s released.