...what?

So, apparently, the Chinese (their government, or something, I assume) complained so much about being cast as the bad guys in the "Red Dawn" remake AND the producers realized the loss of the Chinese market would be big, therefore....

the movie was edited in post-production to make the bad guys the North Koreans.

....

I got nothing.

So...

City of Heroes is shutting down on this upcoming Friday (fuck you, NCSoft), so I thought I'd give DC Universe Online a try, as I've already played Champions Online a bit, and wanted to see what, to the best of my knowledge, the only other superheroes MMORPG looked and felt like.

Impressions:

1) Jesus Christ, I thought the Champions Online costume creator was bad. City of Heroes remains the gold standard in costume creators that don't suck. Don't get me wrong, there are/were some bad things in the CoH costume creator, but it is a very well thought out system compared to Champions Online (where if you can make your character look the way you want it, it's generally a happy accident), and DCUO (where there's a very small number of options in comparison, because you get costume parts as loot).

2) The combat system is a touch confusing, but all of the things you fight at first (minions of Brainiac) are so relatively weak, that it really doesn't matter. Hope you like the same few animations on your character though, because you're going to see them. A lot. Mind you, combat was fairly fast-paced, and while the targeting system sucks, it did feel very comic-booky.

3) Welcome to level 1, here's your travel power. See, this was awesome. You're a new super-hero (or villian), and you already can fly or have super-speed, or I forgot the third choice. Flying is still probably the best one, though. True 3-D movement rocks. (Was it teleportation? Eh, whatever.) Sure, you get them soon enough in City of Heroes and Champions Online, but it does kind of suck getting around until you get them.

So, I get through the tutorial, and with the assistance of Bruce Campbell's chin on Superman, beat the massive waves of Brainiac's minions. I then teleport down to, presumably Metropolis or Gotham City (I wasn't paying attention as I was getting another soda) and... I am greeted by the sight of an ersatz Green Lantern disco-dancing with a Booster Gold knockoff.

.....

yeah.

Hey, Brainiac, can you digitize that memory out of my head? Thanks.

Anyway, that right there is probably the one reason I won't continue playing DCUO. I really don't need to see dozens of DC character clones running and flying around. Hell, before I logged, I easily saw another half-dozen, and that was just in the one room I was in.

.....

I'm going to miss City of Heroes, damnit.