Players of the US version of City of Heroes got to celebrate the start of the new year in style yesterday, with the release of the long-awaited third update for the game. Issue #3: A Council of War was freed from the ‘Training Room’ test server and unleashed on the live servers last night.

Issue #3 adds many new features to City of Heroes, including the first two Epic Archetypes in the form of Kheldian Peacebringers and Warshades, a new zone called Striga Isle featuring missions and storylines for mid-level characters, Ancillary Power Pools with which higher level players can round out their hero’s abilities and, of course, the rise of a new threat to Paragon City from the villain group known as The Council.

The European version of City of Heroes will include all of the Issue #3 content straight out of the box - for full details of what you have to look forward to, you can check out the Features Update page on the US City of Heroes website.