Thank goodness for developer diaries. I was getting very tired of explaining the tiered class system and combination skills to all of my friends. Now I can take care of it in one fell swoop by directing them to this video. As of right now, I've played 5 of the 8 final classes, with Ranger, Cleric, and Gladiator being my only blind spots. Chanter and Assassin are probably my favorites, really coming into their own once they branch off from the starting class.

Champions Online takes the rich character creation that Cryptic created for NCsoft's City of Heroes and brings it to the next level. Not only can you spend hours designing the perfect superhero costume, the ability to pick and choose your powers rather than relying on set archetypes means that no two character need be exactly the same.

It also means that it is a bit harder to manage group roles in the game. With players able to select their own powers from a pool, players will have different ideas as to what constitutes the tradition roles of tank, damage, crowd-control, and support. At least it won't be dull, right?

Mucking about with monsters!

Shooting lasers!

Honking and bellowing!

These all came out on the 28th over at GameTrailers, and I saw them on Aeropause, who had about as much to say as I do. One thing I will note about these trailers is the sound. The dynamic music is good, if not particularly stand-out, but the sound effects are top-notch. I love the monster croaking. Eliza Gauger