Champions Online

I took the liberty (read: made the mistake) of re-activating my Champions account about a week ago.

I don't hate the game, but I don't consider the notion of having to pay by the month to play it to be a particularly good deal.

One of the main problems I have is that I'm just not a champion. One of my mains is a hero based on the Hulk. Built like a brick shithouse, blue/green skin colour, ripped like a mofo. Some kind of experiment gone wrong.

The travel power I chose for him is way cool. You activate it, and then your jumps are super jumps. I'm talking about being able to jump over buildings. I can cover ground faster than a hero with flight, and when I land, it leaves a crater in the ground.

When I move about the city, I get people come up to me to say thanks. I repelled an Alien attack, and they're grateful. It's not uncommon to walk past pedestrians making sweet comments, and if I click on someone on the phone, they pop out a "oh my god, you won't believe who's right here" to whoever they're talking to.

So what's the problem, you ask? Just about any random group of thugs just chilling on top of a skyscraper can kick my arse. Without breaking out a sweat.

So yeah, it's an ok game, but you're no hero. I'm not asking to be Superman, for fuck's sake, but then, I'm not getting killed by Lex Luthor, either.

Another problem I have is with the powers. You see, they're just about all the same. You can shoot fire out of your mouth, ice out of your hands, or electricity from out of your chest. The point is that the abilities are damned near identical, it's just different methods of delivery.

I kinda like my hulk-a-like, but after having experimented with many different power sets, my favourite is munitions. This stinks, because my idea of a superhero is not a guy running around with guns. But there you have it. So I'm having the most fun playing the skill set that feels the least like actually being a superhero.

A lot of the travel powers are pretty cool, but ultimately, I don't think it's a whole lot better than City of Heroes. I think I should have re-activated my account with that game, instead.