If you thought the character creation system was already brilliant, you’ll really enjoy the updates planned to be introduced with Issue 12: Midnight Hour. From streamlined costume creation allowing you to choose a full costume set with a single choice, to detailed information about the powers you are choosing, the new character creator makes creating that perfect Hero so much easier! To get all the information and view six new screenshots detailing the changes, head over this way.

If you missed the articles on Total Video Games late last week, we’ve now got both available here for your reading pleasure! Find out how Dr. Brainstorm made extra powersets available for all Archetypes and which specific powersets you can look forward to using in future!

Community member Lady_Leprechaun has launched a great new community event: the Supreme Superbeing Awards. Going beyond just a simple costume contest, this event aims to award the Hero (or Villain) with the best combined character concept. Judging will cover all aspects of a Hero’s (or Villain’s) costume, name, title, biography and more! The event will take place on the Training Room on Sunday, April 6th at 19:00 BST (20:00 CEST). For all the details, visit the Supreme Superbeing Awards page on ParagonWiki and then head over to the Hero and Villain sign up forum threads to pre-register!

An exclusive broadcast recounts a massive explosion and the details behind it from none other than Dr. Brainstorm! Read the fiction behind one of the most anticipated features of Issue 12: Midnight Hour, the next free expansion to City of Heroes and City of Villains! Find out all the details Total Video Games, and check back soon for part 2 of this feature!

Level Designer Melissa “War Witch” Bianco gives us a blow by blow account of what is changing in the Hollows with the “Gameplay Makeover” for the zone that will be included in the next free expansion, Issue 12: Midnight Hour. With copious amounts of detail about spawn changes, the reasons behind the changes, new repeatable missions and more this is definitely worth reading!

Issue 12: Midnight Hour, the twelfth upcoming free expansion since the launch of City of Heroes, will introduce a host of new content, challenges and features!

For all the details, click here.

Matt “Positron” Miller, Sr. Lead Designer for City of Heroes at NCsoft NorCal, discusses what’s happened since NCsoft fully acquired the franchise, and looks ahead to Issue 12: Midnight Hour and beyond. Click here to read the full article.

Continuing our hugely successful partnership with charity project Draw the World Together, NCsoft Europe is proud to bring three amazing comic artists to this Easter’s Ultimate Heroic Weekend at Omega Sektor - including one very special guest. Any of these artists will happily sketch your City of Heroes character in exchange for a donation to our charity, EveryChild (normally just £10!). The artistic roll call will include:

It wouldn’t be an event without Andrew Wildman - Draw the World Together’s founder, and a veteran character sketcher (his drawing hand can attest to that). Andrew’s sketching speed and prowess is legendary, with his speed only equalled by his incredible ability to recreate just about any character, regardless of the crazy costume! Andrew’s professional work has appeared in dozens of comics, in all kinds of genres, but he is perhaps best known for his long-term stint as the official artist for Transformers. To see a gallery of Andrew’s work for Draw the World Together, click here.

Second we have Neil Edwards, who is relatively new to Draw the World Together but is fast becoming a fan favourite. Neil’s realistic but dynamic pencil style has made loads of players happy already - you could be next! A designer by day, by night Neil draws the official Primeval comic and occasionally sleeps. Neil’s work for Draw the World Together can be seen here.

Last but not least, we are very pleased to announce that David Nakayama, long-term artist for the official City of Heroes comic, will be flying in to Omega Sektor all the way from California - and he’s bringing his pencils and markers with him! David has already made his mark sketching for City of Heroes players in the US, and now we’re extremely proud to bring him to Europe. To see some examples of David’s City of Heroes work, be sure to visit his official web site, with a gallery of convention sketches!

All three artists will be sketching all day on Saturday and Sunday (March 22nd and 23rd) only at Omega Sektor in Birmingham. If you have never had a sketch from Draw the World Together before, please read the official FAQ on the subject - and make sure you try and bring reference material.

If you haven’t bought a ticket for the Ultimate Heroic Weekend yet, don’t worry - you don’t have to! You can turn up on Saturday and Sunday and pay just £5 to get inside Omega Sektor for an entire day’s worth of gaming. For more information, read our previous story about the event. We’ll see you there!

Welcome the newest member of the NCsoft Europe line-up: The Podcast. In Episode One, Stephen ‘Rockjaw’ Reid takes a look at what the European City of Heroes Community Team has planned for the next couple of months. From running for charity to a massive Easter weekend MiniCon event featuring a range of great activities, it looks like they’re a busy bunch!

Staying with the City of Heroes theme, there’s an interview with the stars from the recent in-game wedding event that saw Manticore and Sister Psyche tie the knot. Matt ‘Positron’ Miller, Sean Dornan-Fish and Jen Dornan-Fish answer questions from Rockjaw covering a range of ‘City of’ topics.

Closing out the featured content, Rockjaw corners Martin Kerstein, Guild Wars Community Team Lead, for a brief look into the Guild Wars bonus mission pack. Finally, there’s a challenge for all of you: “The NCsoft Europe Podcast” is an uninspiring name, so Rockjaw is inviting everyone to send him their ideas for naming this new feature. Got something witty? You might win a prize!

You can download the Podcast in audio and transcript forms from PlayNC.

The looming threat of the Rikti Invasion Force still hangs like a dark pall over Earth.  Despite the best efforts of humanity, aggressive Rikti incursions still plague the planet.  Advance warning systems indicate the Rikti are massing for attacks on the following dates throughout the year:

• March 7th through March 13th

• April 25th through May 1st

• June 13th through June 19th

• August 1st through August 7th

• Sept 26th through Oct 2nd

• November 14th through November 20th

Prepare for a desperate battle to save Earth from the Rikti Invasion Force! Aggressive Rikti forces will attack Paragon City and the Rogue Isles with increased frequency at any time during the above dates! 

When you’re in the heat of battle, the smallest delay can be the difference between life and death. Sana Security’s Primary Response SafeConnect not only protects your PC against malicious software, it also makes light use of your memory and CPU, leaving you with the resources you need to seal victory!

Head over to Sana’s website and find out how Primary Response SafeConnect can help protect your PC, without killing performance. The full press release can also be found over at PlayNC!