We came, we saw, we conquered the Hess Task Force! Last weekend saw NCsoft Europe’s first visit to Continuum, the biannual roleplaying, freeform and board games convention, which took place at the University of Leicester’s Beaumont Hall from Friday through to the small-hours of Sunday night.

It was a great convention, and the eight PCs in our online gaming room were rarely given a moment’s rest as newcomers and old hands put the latest NCsoft games through their paces - including, of course, City of Heroes and City of Villains.

The highlight for those of you who came along to see us, though, was Saturday night’s Task Force - we had so many people who wanted to play that Rockjaw generously bowed out, allowing seven players to team up with myself and take on the might of the Council on Striga!

Read on to see the pics and find out how we did…

In a new article, GamesRadar has named City of Heroes one of the “five truest superhero experiences” available in gaming today:

It’s a very action-oriented experience, but more than anything, it’s your action-oriented experience. With deep and creative customization, a respect for comics’ past and a winking sense of humor, City of Heroes (and its evil twin, City of Villains) delivers every comic fan’s dreams.

You can see the list of the top five comicbook games on the main Above the Law page, or jump straight to the summary of City of Heroes here.

Heroes, prepare to experience our first ever Double XP Weekend event! The rules are simple - all characters will receive double the XP for all of their accomplishments in the game for the duration of the event. What’s more, Influence and Prestige awards will also be doubled during this time!

The Double XP Weekend will begin at 9am BST* on Friday 21 July, and run through to 9pm BST* on Sunday 23 July.

If you have any questions, head over to the announcement thread on the official message boards. Otherwise, good luck and have fun!

* British Summer Time, or BST, is the current time in the UK (GMT+1). The majority of Western European countries are 1 hour ahead of the UK, but please check a time zone converter (many are available on the web) if you are unsure about how your local time relates to BST.

We’re pleased to announce that the winner of the Creative Genius competition for June is Corona for the superb Shock Tactics group shot, which received multiple nominations.

It was a close-run thing, though, with stiff competition from the excellent Monte Cristo at Croatoa by soulasylum. After much discussion, Corona’s piece just pipped it to the post, but if soulasylum produces more work like this, it won’t be long before he grabs a Creative Genius title of his very own.

For now, though, congratulations to Corona, 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 of the recently revised competition, see the Creative Genius - A new start thread on the official message boards. We’re still accepting nominations for October 2005 to May 2006, which will bring us back up to date.

The Nominations for July’s Creative Genius will be opened in the first week of August, so get posting!

The First Open MoX Gumball Rally will be held on Union this Wednesday, 19 July at 8.00pm BST (UK time). All you need to enter this race around the Hollows for fame, fortune and prizes including a unique title on the official message boards is a Level 5 Hero.

For more details, including a map of the course, see the MoX Gumball Rally thread on the boards. In order to sign up for the race, head over to the MoX Gumball Rally : sign up thread.

Over at GameDaily, the extensive Casual PvP Guide is now complete, with the last two sections building on the advice and tips from the first three.

Part 4 continues where Part 3’s overview of the Archetypes left off, switching its focus from Villains to Heroes and running through the PvP strengths and weaknesses of each of the Heroic ATs. Part 5 then takes a closer look at various tactics, powers and PvP concepts, including a detailed discussion of Stalkers and how best to deal with them.

The first three parts of the Guide can be found on GameDaily’s City of Heroes and Villains Feature Articles page.

The latest episode of GameZone‘s Spirals of Fate - a work of serial fiction set in the world of City of Heroes and Villains - has been published. Click here to read Chapter Two, Part 3, or catch up with the story so far with the Spirals of Fate Table of Contents.

Last weekend saw NCsoft Europe’s first appearance at the London Film & Comic Con. The good news is that not only did we have a great time, but so did everyone who came along to see us. The bad news is that we may never be able to listen to Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds again.

After some last-minute rearranging of the PCs on the stand, things got off to a good start on Saturday morning, with several regulars from the boards making an appearance and stopping for a chat. In the meantime, our fiendish tactic of giving away free stuff attracted many other visitors, none of whom went away empty-handed.

The eight PCs on the stand were kept just as busy showing off City of Heroes and Villains, as well as Guild Wars and Auto Assault, while our shiny new projector screen allowed us to give sneak peeks of some of our upcoming titles.

Meanwhile, Ghost Widow proved a big hit yet again, posing for photos and making new friends. To see more - including Rockjaw meeting his match at last - read on…

The second part of the second chapter of Spirals of Fate, GameZone‘s serial fiction set in the world of City of Heroes and City of Villains, is available now. You can read it by clicking here.

If you want to catch up on the eariler episodes, you can reach them via the handy Spirals of Fate Table of Contents page.