The main feature of Issue #9: Breakthrough, the new Inventions system adds a whole new range of customisation options for heroes and villains alike. Now, over at MMORPG.com, you can view an exclusive video introducing this flexible new addition to City of Heroes and Villains. Just the thing if you’re interested in Inventions but aren’t sure how to get started - and even more experienced players can pick up a tip or two…

UPDATE: Versions of the Inventions Tutorial movie are now also available over at Eurogamer and, for our Swedish-speaking players, at FZ.se - enjoy!

We’re pleased to announce that the winner of the Creative Genius competition for March 2007 is Scarlet_Shocker, for her fiction, The Death of Great Wulf:

What about Corona?”

“We’ve got a signal out for her.” T’lara gave a nod to Gravikoi, who scooted to the Control room and began to hammer on the mainframe keyboard. X-Jen, who had hidden in the room the moment Scarlet appeared, leaned in close to Gravi. “What are you doing?”

“I’ve pointed a laser at the sun.” said Gravi, sotto voice. “Now we wait.”

“Wait for what?”

“Corona.”

Congratulations to Scarlet_Shocker, who is now the proud owner of a ‘Creative Genius’ title on the official message boards and 60 days of free game time!

The Creative Genius competition is a monthly contest held on the Creative board. For more details, see the The Creative Board and Creative Genius thread on the official message boards. The Nominations for April’s Creative Genius are now open on the Creative board, so be sure to let us know what your favourite submission was last month!

If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to lead the life of a comic-book villain, spreading chaos and destruction in your wake and plotting to take over the entire world - or you know someone who would - now’s your chance to try City of Heroes and Villains absolutely free, with 14 day trials of our favourite super-powered MMOs now available from…

The June issue (#175) of PC Gamer magazine features the full City of Heroes and Villains game client on its cover-mounted DVD.

Inside, you’ll find details of the web page where you can grab your free trial code, good for 14 days of adventure in the world of Paragon City and the Rogue Isles.

Issue #175 of PC Gamer should be available in all good newsagents across the UK from today. You can find out more about the magazine on the official PC Gamer website.

Over at Eurogamer you can pick up one of 2,000 free trials being given away via their Eurogamers community site.

All you need to do is register for a free Eurogamers account - which also gives you access to a customisable home page, messaging services, discussion groups and a whole host of other community features specifically designed for gamers - and then pop over to The City Of Heroes & Villains Key Giveaway page.

Another 2,000 trial codes are also up for grabs at TotalVideoGames.com (also known as TVG). Just register for a free membership to the site, then point your browser at their City of Heroes\Villains Trial Code Give-Away page (or just follow the links from the main page of the site).

Just a quick reminder that Rockjaw, Amboss and Bridger will be running the NCsoft Europe stand at the Bristol Comic Expo this weekend, 12-13 May. As well as meeting members of your community team, you’ll be able to pick up copies of our games at crazy bargain prices, grab some free swag and have your favourite characters sketched by the famous comic artists who have kindly agreed to donate their time to Draw the World Together.

(Remember to print out some screenshots of your characters and bring them along for the artists to use as reference in case we have any difficulties with internet access.)

See the Bristol Comic Expo site for details of the show, how to get there and ticket prices - and check out the updated list of the artists who’ll be available in Rockjaw’s post on the official message boards.

Since the release of Issue #9: Breakthrough, the chaps at Boomtown have been inventing up a storm, and the result is the first review of the new free update:

The developers at Cryptic have created a brilliant system that fits on top of the existing game. You don’t need ever to bother with inventions if you don’t want to – you’ll still be just as cool as you used to be, the real difference won’t be felt till later the higher levels anyway. But if you do dig into the system, you’ll get a new flood of options that will make any hero/villain player happy.

You can read the full review over at Boomtown.

We’re pleased to announce that the European City of Heroes and Villains servers have been updated with Issue #9: Breakthrough, the latest free update from the Cryptic Studios development team.

Issue #9 introduces the Invention system, Consignment Markets, Statesman Task Force, newly evolved Hamidon encounter and more. You can view the full release notes on the official message boards or here in our Game Patches section. We also recommend that all players take a look at the current Known Issues list.

You can find out more about Issue #9 in the Feature Updates in our Game Guide section, which includes an overview of the new features and a detailed look at the evolution of Hamidon. See the City of Heroes site for more information about the Statesman Task Force.

We’d also like to take this opportunity to thank all the players who helped us with the testing of Issue #9 on the European Training Room over the past few weeks. Your time and dedication were vital in finding and fixing bugs and helping to make Issue #9 such an exciting new addition to City of Heroes and Villains.