Earlier this summer we talked a whole lot about Champions Online based on the time we had playing with the game at the Toronto Fan Expo. Lead Designer Randy Mosiondz also promised us that it wouldn’t be very long until the game was going into beta, giving us the great generic timeline of “sometime in the fall”. Well, if you were excited by all the cool features we discussed with him and are interested in trying it out, you’ll be happy to know that sometime in the fall has arrived.

Applications for a closed-beta, PC only, are now open through the Champions Online official website (requires registration) and will give you a chance to roam Millennium City before the game releases in the spring of next year. While we were under the impression that the game would be just for the Xbox 360 and the PC, they have listed it as coming for PC and “next-gen consoles”, which bodes well for any PS3 users hoping to get a taste of the system. With Sony putting a lot of weight behind the idea of moving MMOs onto the console space with their system, I would be surprised to see a lack of a PS3 version, at least in some capacity, for this game. Another thing we still haven’t found out about is cross-platform and it’s something we’re asking Cryptic about and we’ll update this story with any additional information.

From the little time we had with the game at the Fan Expo, all the UGTV team was very impressed. For anyone who played the studio’s previous game City of Heroes/Villains it was a much more detailed take on the genre that had the benefit of a years of lore built up from the Champions brand and the style and care that was put into the game design of CoH. It played well with the 360 controls, which was a big surprise to all of us, and still had the authentic PC feel with a keyboard and mouse. It looked like a great, action-oriented massive world and if you’ve got a spare few minutes it would be worth it to at least apply for the beta and take a chance. Without much news on the pricing, we’re still sure you’ll have to pay for the game, so getting to try it for free is not a bad deal. As well, getting the kind of open world experience and seeing the community built from the ground up will be something that is worth the ride. Besides, if you won’t save the world, who will?

UPDATE [22/10/08]: We got an answer back from Cryptic Studios regarding the cross-platform play as well as any possibility of a PS3 version in the future. As far as we’ve been told, the Cryptic has already been playing around with the cross-platform technology and it is now a matter of “exploring all the effects” that this would have on the overall game. As for a PS3 version of Champions Online: “Cryptic has no current plans to develop on the PS3, but nothing is impossible!” With Sony currently gaining steam at a good rate in the US and worldwide market, we still expect this may be a pretty good possibility and would be a good grab for any PS3 owners. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Images courtesy of Cryptic Studios