City of Heroes unleashes the Animal Pack [Updated]

Ever feel like howling at the full moon or flying into the sun on golden wings? We don't really need to hear about your dreams -- ours are freaky enough as it is. But if you've been looking for a way to express your inner animal in City of Heroes, NCsoft has you covered.

With the upcoming Animal Pack, players on both sides of the conflict will be able to create even more superhero-beast hybrids than ever before. Not only does the pack include a number of new animal-themed options for the character creator, but the savage amongst us will enjoy creature-themed emotes and a new level 4 travel power, Beast Run.

The pack includes over 60 new heads, body patterns, manes, and tails themed after cats, birds, minotaurs and wolves. Roleplayers should like the Sniff, Hiss and Feather Fly emotes, while everyone will be able to appreciate two unique auras. One of these auras, we kid you not, is a flea aura. Get ready to start scratching!

The City of Heroes Animal Pack will go on sale on February 23rd at the NCsoft store.

[Update: We've added the Animal Pack gallery below and the video after the cut... enjoy!]

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Reader Comments (24)

Ahahah!
A buyable pack?
God, they are greedy :/

I know cryptic did release a lot of paying packs for CO, but there is enough available customization available freely to make all of them really optional.

@Tazmanyak

Cyborg Pack
Magic Pack
Science Pack
Martial Arts (Natural) Pack
Mutant Pack

Wedding Pack
Valkyrie (Mac Special Edition) Pack
Good vs Evil Pack
Going Rogue Complete Collection Pack
Party Pack
Origins Pack

This isn't the first time they've done this, and we keep buying them to fuel further development costs. $10 isn't that much. If you can't afford or feel like you shouldn't have to pay for it, well, you said it. Optional.

@Shirogetsune
Ok, i do respect your point of view.
But, releasing a skins pack, 1 month after the game release, that will cost 10$ or more?
The skins were already ready when the game was released. they could have put all of it in the base client.

And my comment, i think, didnt deserve a negative vote :p

@Tazmanyak

One month after the game release? Uh.. City's been out of 6, going on 7, years. The last expansion was August of last year.

.. Are you thinking of DC Universe Online?

@Tazmanyak This is City of Heroes -- it launched back with Lineage 2. Years and years ago.

@Tazmanyak City of Heroes launched April 28th 2004, nearly 7 years ago. I really don't see a problem by having these "packs" of costume options every now and then for a game that is as old as City of Heroes, and still having a decent amount of players.

Champions Online and DC Universe Online should be lucky to still be as popular 7 years from now. DCUO might have a chance, but i'm not holding my breath for either of them.

@Meurik

Well half the problem with DCUO is the PS3, the two previous consoles lasted around 6 years each so I have doubts the PS3 will still be here for 7 more years which means half the playerbase is gone and they've wasted effort on keeping both versions compatible rather than really tailoring the PC version.

@Protoavis What about Final Fantasy XI which launched on the PS2? Its still around today...

@Shirogetsune
Ok ok!
Stupid i am, may i say?
apologies to everybody ;)

About friggin' time. Arrrooooo!

But where is the source of this info? Nada on the main website or forums...

@Jeromai

As of right now, this is the only statement. But Paragon Studios seems to be releasing the info today, for sure. Screen shots here:

http://www.gamereactor.se/bild/?textid=26068&

Actually, the trailer for the Animal Pack JUST went live on Paragon's YouTube account!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFpofz4RLWo&hd=1

Great now more toons to make :)

Thanks devs ...now to find $10 ;)

Sorry, $10 is just too much to pay in my opinion. I wanted to buy a pack or two, but I could not justify that much. Sorry NC Soft...

@Zantom
I agree, $10 can go a long way during the Steam sale.
If $10 can buy this much what is $15 per month subscription is being spent on? I like COH, but not enough to justify paying subscription for it not even speaking about some costume/emotes pack. Unless NCSoft manages to up the ante with something of "Cataclysmic" proportions, COH could go the way of dinosaurs. And that would be a big shame.
Indeed, COH has been around for almost as long as WOW and EVE, but it seems that it has managed to evolve the least. It got lucky with CO's publicity screw ups and missing content, and DCUO is targeting different audience for now, but how long can it survive once DCUO will go F2P and TOR will roll out?

@Luk CoH also releases almost-quarterly 'free' issues that are much more content rich than the free updates I've seen from many other MMO's-- much of your subscription goes to that... and server expenses. New zones, new task forces, new story arcs, and new tech. Virtually every other issue has been NOT just a content update, but a tech update too- from adding markets and inventions to the architect system to the newly styled zone events in Praetoria.

CoH also has been around LONGER than WoW. You're right in that it hasn't had the development budget that WoW has... it was made for under a quarter of WoW's budget and had less than a twentieth of its subscriber base.... but it has done very well with the resources it gets through its own subscription.

@(Unverified)
Yes, the almost quaterly updates (issues) are "free", but are they really worth $15 or should we say $45 that you pay for 3 month if we agree that updates are quarterly. Considering that the new content in question usually can be done in less than a week of casual gaming, does that sound like a "good deal" to anyone?

Not to me and this is why I would rather get a real paid expansion on a quarterly basis than keep paying subscription in hope that those "free" updates will be actually worth it. It will give also me a choice on what content I would want to play or skip. Power to the consumers :)

The "Three Werewolf Shirt" is pretty funny, but I'm not really impressed by these models. Compared to Champions Online's nonhuman options, there just isn't a lot to this. But with the costume change emotes you *do* get to finally "Wolf Out".

Ah, the legion of catgirls will be happy.

Meanwhile, now I want a hawk man hero.

Can we say "Thunder, thunder, thunder cats, hooooooo"

I don't see why people are complaining, its an optional costume pack not an expansion so why make a big deal about it? Champions is pretty good with their character creation and all that and you can make an animal type toon but its another game so who cares? Let people buy what they want its their money, they did something to earn it so let them spend it like they want.

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City of Heroes unleashes the Animal Pack [Updated]

City of Heroes Boosters

Reader Comments (24)

Posted: Feb 8th 2011 9:35AM Tazmanyak said

Posted: Feb 8th 2011 10:30AM Shirogetsune said

Posted: Feb 8th 2011 10:56AM Tazmanyak said

Posted: Feb 8th 2011 11:16AM Shirogetsune said

Posted: Feb 8th 2011 11:22AM Nef said

Posted: Feb 8th 2011 12:48PM Meurik said

Posted: Feb 8th 2011 4:02PM Protoavis said

Posted: Feb 8th 2011 4:10PM madbassman39 said

Posted: Feb 8th 2011 5:29PM Tazmanyak said

Posted: Feb 8th 2011 9:37AM Jeromai said

Posted: Feb 8th 2011 10:32AM Shirogetsune said

Posted: Feb 8th 2011 11:12AM Samuraiko said

Posted: Feb 8th 2011 11:51AM AT3374 said

Posted: Feb 8th 2011 2:28PM Zantom said

Posted: Feb 8th 2011 4:13PM Luk said

Posted: Feb 8th 2011 4:48PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 8th 2011 5:43PM Luk said

Posted: Feb 8th 2011 5:02PM JonBuck said

Posted: Feb 8th 2011 5:02PM Stormwalker said

Posted: Feb 8th 2011 6:05PM Magnux said

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