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We interrupt your regularly-scheduled Age of Conan launch news to bring you a little something about City of Heroes. As you may already know, CoH Issue 12 has gone live today, bringing with it the introduction of time travel to ancient Roman and Greek-inspired lands. This time-traveling Task Force content brings us the beautiful persistent area of Cimerora, which is described as a unique place of its own, using its very own mission and zone content which will all be interconnected.

So in a recent developer's diary at Ten Ton Hammer, Senior Art Lead Ken Morse walks us through some of the conceptual phases behind Cimerora from beginning to finalized product. It's certainly an interesting read if you're curious about the entire conceptualizing process, or just love looking at the pretty pictures!

Congratulations! You finished your taxes (at least you did unless you're Wesley Snipes, or an extension-getting slacker like me), and now there ain't nothing to do but sit back and... work for another year only so you can pay them again. But in the meantime, there's lots of MMO playing to do! So, since it's Friday, we're asking yet again: What aRe yoU Playing in the world of MMOs?

Massively's people are super busy playing games. Cameron Sorden and I are both hooked on WoW still; "I'm addicted," Sorden says, "which is why all of my articles are WoW-flavored lately." Tastes like chicken. Krystalle is busying playing Phantasy Star Universe on the Xbox 360, and says she's about to finish Story Mode. And Chris Chester is still grinding away in Tabula Rasa: "Must reach level 30. It won't happen, but I can try."

So what are you up to this weekend? Back in CoX getting ready for Issue 12? Playing a game that's almost in open beta? (We know you're out there playing that game, folks -- we can see right through that NDA!) WRUP this weekend?

Previously on WRUP...

Anyone playing the City of... franchise must know that the game's latest free content update, Issue 12 is on the horizon, including epic archetypes for villains. And though here at Massively we can't make issue 12 arrive any faster, we do have the scoop, straight from NCsoft, on the the new Blood Widow and Wolf Spider archetypes.

For the level 50 villains in the audience who can't wait to get started playing the new archetypes (or the heroes wanting to know what they'll be up against), keep reading for a preview of the new archetype abilities. All we can say is it makes us want to start leveling a villain. In fact, while you watch this video, we'll be in-game grinding our way towards infamy.

Holy highway robbery!

NCsoft NorCal "announced" today that they're dropping a new feature into their superly duperly costumed heroes and villains game. Visual Sounds are cool words that pop up on the screen (both in games and famous caped crusading TV shows) based on the old school comic book technique known as onomatopoeia. It's the use of a word to replace a sound. The upcoming Issue 12, which has been renamed "Issue 12: Pow, Biff, Boom, Bam!" will include this all new system.

Brian Clayton, Executive Producer and head of the NCsoft NorCal office, said all their research shows that many gamers are building their own computers now, and sometimes they forget to buy speakers or headphones. This is their small way of helping those forgetful types. Matt "Positron" Miller, the Lead Designer on the CoX titles, is a big advocate of the theater of the mind and likened this to reading a book where you give the characters their own voices. Literally.

While players will be able to disable Visual Sounds... they shouldn't. Why? In order to make room for the visual sound files all actual in-game sounds are being removed from the players' hard drives. DOH!

Over on TVG, evil genius Doctor Brainstorm has unveiled the powersets being redistributed among Heroes and Villains in Issue 12, and there are some surprises. It's clear the Devs have gone for powers that make sense conceptually, rather than supplying what some might think of as more attractive choices.

Obviously, any increase in variety is a good thing for the game. More available powers means more concepts can be brought to life. Even if it means a loss of exclusivity for the blue or red side, it's a net gain for the players as a whole.

From the PvP angle, however, it's a different story. There have been long-standing complaints that villains aren't given the benefits heroes are. Chief among these, perhaps, is the contrast between the hero Ancillary Pools and the villain Patron Pools; the former is what allows the heroes to combine Power Build Up with mezzes and debuffs among other things, while the latter are a rather bland and tragically unchangeable collection featuring no really outstanding powers, with the possible exception of Soul Storm.

Dr. Brainstorm is at it again.

If you're a tight wearing do-gooder or vile evildoer within the City of... universe then you can't miss this exclusive broadcast (from an undisclosed location of course) made by Dr. Brainstorm.

During yet another crazy experiment (this time involving Rikti technology, Hypothetical Frameworks and invisible, mystical networks) the good Doctor has made a startling find regarding one of the most anticipated features of the upcoming free expansion Issue 12: Midnight Hour - Powerset Proliferation.

With the help of his newly built Resonance Manipulator, Brainstorm can now alter the energy strands connecting every Hero and Villain to their powers. New characters (both sides) will be able to access additional primary and secondary powersets they didn't have access to before.

[Via GameZone]