City of Heroes Expands

NCsoft Corporation (KSE: 036570.KS), the world's leading developer and publisher of online computer games, has launched the first update to Cryptic Studios' best-selling City of Heroes massively multiplayer game. The update, Issue 1: Through the Looking Glass, gives players new challenges by adding ten play levels, dangerous new zones, exciting missions, and nasty new villains, as well as an in-game costume customization component.

The update is free to all City of Heroes subscribers via automatic download.

The City of Heroes costume customization feature has been highly praised, and in Through the Looking Glass, players are given the ability to change their costumes in-game. Icon, a company in the game's fictional Paragon City, will make costume and body modifications. Heroes will also be able to earn additional costumes over time, so they can wear the costume that fits their mood. In order to earn additional costumes, the heroes will need to do a few favors for the Icon tailors.

In this update, players will see adds three new villain groups. The Malta Group is a shadowy military organization that uses three levels of Titan robots to terrorize Paragon City. The Carnival of Shadows is a subtle but deadly threat to the citizens of Paragon City who attract the unwary with their spectacle and manipulate their audience to serve their own twisted purposes. The worst new menace to Paragon City is the Praetorians who are extra-dimensional versions of Paragon City's most famous heroes. The Praetorians have emerged from an alternate Earth to become the greatest threat Paragon City has faced since the war with the Rikti aliens.

Through the Looking Glass also introduces new zones, including Peregrine Island located off the coast of Paragon City. The island is home to the headquarters of the Portal Corporation, which created the teleportation technology used throughout Paragon City. The denizens of Peregrine Island include Malta Group strike teams, Crey covert-ops forces, Nemesis troops, and Rikti beasts that threaten Portal Corp. and its employees while creating major challenges for Paragon City's heroes.

In addition to Peregrine Island, Through the Looking Glass introduces the Rikti Crash Site. Heroes can explore one of the Rikti war's epicenters – a section of the city the Rikti use as a command center. As the military forces cannot contain the Rikti forces, the heroes of Paragon City will be called upon to help keep order in this area.

City of Heroes is available at most major North American computer game retail outlets at a suggested retail price of US$49.99, which includes the first month of online game play. After the first month, players will be charged a monthly subscription fee of US$14.95. Sixty-day game time cards are also be available at many North American retailers for a suggested retail price of US $29.99. The game is rated Teen by the Entertainment Software Rating Board.

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