New City of Heroes update released

Although Doom 3 has knocked City of Heroes off the top of the PC best-seller chart, that hasn't stopped NCsoft from keeping its superhero massively multiplayer online role-playing game up to date. The American arm of the Korean publisher-developer announced today that it has released the second update for the game called "Issue 2: A Shadow of the Past."

The new update begins with Paragon City, the game's setting, being invaded by a horde of monsters from a dimension called the Shadow Shard. The creatures will arrive through time-space rifts that appear at random in every zone of the game, allowing heroes of all levels to do battle with them.

For players at higher levels, the City of Heroes update has a variety of goodies. Heroes on levels 20 and over will receive capes, while heroes on level 30 and over will be granted new visual effects such as auras. Heroes on level 24 and up will "be able to adjust their superpowers in a special mission in the Terra Volta trial zone," according to NCsoft. The official City of Heroes Web site has a complete breakdown of the features in Issue 2: A Shadow of the Past.