Gazillion Entertainment held an event in San Francisco this week and revealed a few tidbits on what we can be expecting from the new Marvel Universe MMO. “Free to Play” seemed a bit of a suprise to us, but with all the other power MMO’s (besides WoW) heading to free subscriptions (relying on in-game “microtransactions” only) this seems to be the safest route of attack for a game that has to compete with other hero games like NC Soft’s City of Heroes…anyhow here’s a few confirmed goodies.

What we know for sure:

Marvel Universe will be free-to-play, and was planned that way from its inception.

It’s being developed by Secret Identity, a sub-group of Gazillion that was formed in late 2009 specifically to build Marvel Universe.

You can play as Marvel characters, and other players can be the same hero as you at the same time, which the devs believe creates “lots of problems and lots of opportunities.???

You won’t have to choose only one character, but will be able to play as all of them.

Some of the characters you will play as are: Captain America, Iron Man, Wolverine, Hulk, Thor, Spiderman, Nova, and Squirrel Girl.

Doctor Doom will be the game’s main villain (at least at launch).

You will play through existing stories that are told in the comic books.

The game world exists within the canon Marvel Universe–this is not an alternate reality scenario.

Marvel Universe is being made primarily for adults (as opposed to Gazillion’s other kid-focused Marvel MMO, Marvel Superhero Squad). They want to target core gamers first, and also make it accessible for everyone else.

So does that mean I can’t make my own super hot hero chick that flys around in lingerie saving lives and kicking ass? Looks like it. /sadface

[Source]

"Ryan Reynolds? Seriously? I hate you guys."

I miss playing City of Heroes.

I don’t miss the level grinding, the occasionally difficult “solo??? missions, and the often distracting names and costumes of my fellow “Heroes??? that always seemed to interfere with my becoming completely immersed in the game. So I guess I don’t miss playing City of Heroes but I certainly miss the concept of playing City of Heroes which is running around as a super powered being, fighting crime.

I know there have been some major overhauls to the game since I played several years ago but each time I almost convince myself to put the virtual tights back on, I come across a screen shot of a brown and green clad Hero named “Captain Dookypants??? and the urge flees. Rapidly.

But the urge has been particularly strong recently and I’ve been keeping a critical eye on the development of the superhero MMO “DC Universe Online???. The screenshots and video that have come out from the game make me want to be a superhero again, that old familiar feeling I had when City of Heroes first came out.

That kid that used to tie towels around his neck and run around going “WHOOSH!??? is still in here somewhere, co-existing with the grizzled video game player I’ve become. I’ll admit to being particularly jaded when it comes to MMOs. It doesn’t take much for me to decide an MMO isn’t worth it and move back to my single player RPGs thinking that maybe next time they’ll get it right.

But that’s the problem. When CoH came out, they did just about everything right. The character creator was almost perfect. I’d spend hours on my Heroes’ costumes, tweaking their features and making sure the colors were just right. I’d have a backstory in mind when I started and that story would be told, quietly, through the creation of my character.

Here’s my prediction, however, when DCUO launches…  There’s going to be a ton of people who don’t want to make their own original character. They’re going to want to make a clone of Superman or Batman. Within minutes of launch, my character is going to be surrounded by “Souperman???, “Sooperman???, “Siouxperman???, all clad in blue, red, and yellow. My carefully thought out, meticulously created character will be lost in a wash of photocopies of DC’s most popular heroes. And that’s not even considering what will happen when the Marvel fans start making their clones…

The urge, however, is growing stronger every time I see the screenshots. It may be enough that I still want to play a superhero to brave a world where Star Labs went a little crazy when cloning Superman and now the world’s new and upcoming heroes have to wade through those masses of the Man of Steel.

Maybe they’ll let me add some kryptonite to my costume when I make my character.

Gritskrieg – End of Line

Last week, NCsoft’s massive multiplayer online rpg City of Heroes went live with a new update that allows the players (you), to build and orchestrate your own story arcs for other player generated heroes to participate in. It is no secret that us here at BusyGamer.com are no novices to the MMOG realms, and the fact that in this game now, there will be user generated content – something that is rare to find in a large scale MMO.

Several of the larger game publications are talking great things about this innovative feature that NCsoft has implemented into their online game, granting them a nice edge on the competition.

Ever wanted to see your own story line in the game? Now you can. And others can too.

-Crutchboy Out