http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1T77zNtCS8

Let's get this out of the way up front: yes, the Flash has a ridiculous contraption called the Cosmic Treadmill that he runs on to somehow transport people back in time. It's weird, it's goofy, and it's going to provide some of the coolest gameplay moments of any superhero game ever.

How can a treadmill of the cosmos possibly provide such mind-blowing gameplay experiences? Well, just think of the most memorable, awesome events in DC comic history. Now, imagine getting to play out all of those events and see them unfold first-hand. That's the power of the Cosmic Treadmill, my friend.

We sat down with DC Universe Online's Creative Director Jens Andersen, who walked us through all of the content in the big Flash-themed update releasing next Tuesday, and teased us about his big plans for the future, including revisiting the origin stories of DC's biggest villains and heroes.

The first origin story is coming in next week's big update and is, of course, centered around the Flash himself. In a new two-player Duo instance - balanced for players with top-end Tier 3 gear - you and a buddy will be transported back in time to stop meddlers from screwing with Barry Allen on the fateful night he gets struck by lightning and turned into the Flash.

The first portion of the Duo was my favorite: you're tossed in a long hellish hallway filled with crazy electric minions trying to sabotage your attempt to travel back in time. A whirling vortex of time is constantly moving up behind you, threatening to suck you in, and if you can't clear the baddies fast enough, you're going back to modern day and Barry Allen is doomed. I felt the same panicked sense of urgency I get on those Super Mario Bros. levels where the screen is constantly moving to the right. One slip-up and you're toast!



Once you break on through to the other side, you find yourself in a Central City police station from times-past, with all the colors bathed in a light sepia tone to complete the old-timey look and feel. I won't spoil the story of the encounter, but there were a few elements that I really enjoyed about it and want to point out. During the demo, Jens told me that one major thing they'd learned from player feedback on existing content is adding more interactive objects to Duos. So, Central City's police station is loaded with secret areas, computer terminals, and robots to interact with that can provide extra challenges or alter the way boss fights work.

For example, if you take your time and snoop around the office area, you can hack terminals to disable security robots that are protecting one of the bosses. In another room, prisoners are breaking out of their cells. Some of them start releasing their fellow prisoners, while others make a beeline for the wall of guns in the back of the room. Who you decide is the bigger threat and take out first will change how the fight in that area plays out. It's a lot of small twists that add up to a diverse set of possible outcomes that should make these repeatable instances more exciting for players tackling them frequently.

The other thing I love about the Duo is that it features The Pied Piper. I have to admit I'd never heard of this guy before, but he's a villain that plays a flute to mind control people (such as the well-armed cops surrounding him in the police station). It's a cool concept that allows for some very fun combat mechanics throughout the instance, and I'm really excited that the devs are using these lesser-known characters in DC history, who would never get a chance in the spotlight in a limited-world game like Arkham City, to create unique and interesting content.



Of course, the Duo is only one part of the content pack, which will be free for subscribers and 10 bucks to F2Pers--a tremendous value for all the content it opens up. The pack also gives you access to a huge zone loaded with new daily quests, collections, and gear sets; about 10 new bounties for both factions (villain players hunt the Teen Titans and hero players hunt the Rogues); and a brand new Electricty powerset that has DPS and healer roles.

The Electricity power set is a lot of fun to play as. A few of my favorite abilities were Lightning Arc, which shoots a bolt of electricity at an enemy that bounces between other people near him (the closer the enemies are together, the more times it will bounce between them) and Tesla Ball, which launches an orb of high-voltage pain in a straight line out from you, continuously zapping anyone too distracted to move out of the way. The overall flow of the power set was strong - the healing lands somewhere between Nature's high-burst reaction heals and Sorcery's slow-and-steady prediction heals, and DPS isn't quite as frantic as the other recently-added Light powerset, but has the same level of fun visual effects.



Central City, a modestly sized city plot instanced for 50 players at a time, is probably the closest thing we're going to get to a third large city for a good long while, now that DCUO is doing quarterly updates. (There's no current plans to build another city on the scale of Gotham or Metropolis, according to Andersen, but the team does want to start making origin stories a regular occurrence in DCUO.) The city offers some new areas to explore, but it's not the sort of place that you're going to be hanging out in during your downtime. Still, it's leaps and bounds more exciting to fly around a city with alleyways, shops, and little nooks and crannies than run around an island that you can see immediately see everything it has to offer, which is what so many other MMOs add in updates like this.

Andersen saved the best part of our demo for last, though. After we'd taken down the Pied Piper, he used cheat codes to summon all of the new characters being added as open-world bounty targets in Gotham and Metropolis to let them duke it out in front of us. With collective nerd-breaths held tight, we watched as the Teen Titans did battle against the Flash's Rogue gallery. Cyborg blasted Captain Boomerang with lasers, The Trickster chucked out toy helicopters and JLA action figures that came to life and harassed Donna Troy, and some weird "villain" named The Top twirled in circles semi-quickly to annoy everyone while Weather Wizard, Nightwing, and the rest duked it out. After the dust settled, Titan and Rogue lay side-by-side, and Cyborg emerged victorious. So there you have it, fellow geeks, we can all cross one "What if..." question off our comic book fight club lists. Cyborg wins.

The superhero MMO has been super-punching above its weight since its shift to free to play with news of a massive bounce in player numbers and profits since the shift. Massively spotted Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley tweeting some quite interesting stats. The superhero MMO has seen a "700% increase in daily revenue" since it relaunched earlier this month.

Smedley also says that "DCUO's playerbase is growing at 6% a day," adding that 47% of the boosted profits are coming from the PC version. The rest are from the PS3 version. Smedley also says "we are over 1000% of our pre-F2P concurrent numbers" and "more than 85% of daily log-ins are returning players."

Lag and long log in queues are proving to be a problem for many players at the moment. "We're very aware of the long queues and other issues. We're on it," says Smedley, adding "very bluntly this has been a wee bit more successful than we planned on." The DC Universe Online client is available to download for free on Steam.

Flash Fact #1: DC Universe Online's transition to free to play has been very successful, with huge numbers of players joining since the switch.

Flash Fact #2: Sony are capitalising on this by working on a new DLC pack called Lightning strikes.

Similar to the Green Lantern themed Fight for the Light pack, this pack offers a new set of content themed around one of the iconic DC characters, in this case The Flash. New with Lightning Strikes will be an Electricity power set, a new map based around the Flash's home town of Central City, new gear, new characters and more.

Check inside for a rundown of what's included and some early screenshots:

Included in the DLC pack are:

Electricity Powers - Including powers like Tesla Ball, Shockwave and Ionic Drain
Central City - A new zone with solo and group missions
New Gear - Including a Professor Zoom inspired set for villains and a Black Lightning inspired pack for heroes.
New Characters - Including Livewire, Black Lightning, The Top, The Trickster and Static.
The Flash Museum Duo - An adventure starting in the Flash museum where players travel back in time to make sure Barry Allen becomes The Flash.

 

Payday is that bit in every heist movie since time began where the poo hits the fan. At some point, our gang of four criminals in clown masks were hunched over a table in a smoky room, working out their every move with mathematical precision. Now they’re trapped in a crumbling building with the loot, every policeman in the world is kicking in the front door, and their only hope is to survive long enough to make a miracle. And then do it again on a harder difficulty setting, because Normal mode is for wimps.

The most surprising thing about Payday is that, while it obviously owes Left 4 Dead the kind of debt that gets people’s legs broken by angry Russians with tyre irons, it only takes a couple of heists to start appreciating it as a very different experience. Unlike zombies, cops attack using helicopters, smoke grenades and automatic weapons, making the always-ranged battles fast and brutal. Each of the six heists also offers very different experiences, from Heat Street treating you to a familiar leg-it-through-town map, to Panic Room giving you a building to defend while you try to retrieve the stolen loot. Finally, where Left 4 Dead occasionally blesses you with a moment of relaxation, Payday’s 20 to 30-minute maps love to keep piling on the pressure.



Getting to the good stuff can be frustrating though. You can technically play Payday on your own, using AI partners to fill the slots, but only in the sense that you can technically drink your own urine. Finding a game can be harder than some of the levels: there’s no matchmaking, only a server list, and Payday is yet another of those games that uses RPG-style levelling to render a rookie player practically worthless. You get no weapon choices, no handy items to help the team, nothing. Try to join internet games, and get used to seeing the message: “You have been kicked from the server.”

The idea is that by levelling up, you’ll unlock the kit and competence to keep these levels feeling fresh. In theory, perhaps. However, it’s unlikely that you’ll want to run through them too many times, even on higher difficulty levels. There’s no scope for playing especially smart or coming up with your own criminal plans, with the action firmly about hitting up the preset objectives and gunning down cops until the smell of fresh bacon starts wafting out of your DVD drive.



The shooting itself does play out differently each time – especially on higher difficulty levels – though the more grounded subject matter doesn’t allow for anything like Left 4 Dead’s AI-directed shifts of fortune. There, you get the sick realisation that a Witch is hiding round the corner. Here, maybe you end up retrieving a bag from the roof instead of a balcony, or a bank key that worked last round no longer does, forcing you to take hostages and shoot more police for longer, but you rarely have time to notice such details, never mind care. You will notice other things, like the AI’s habit of glitching out, but even then you’ve usually got enough on your mind to let it pass.

Payday obviously suffers next to Left 4 Dead’s amazing polish, but that doesn’t stop it being a surprisingly compelling alternative – especially at this price. While flawed in many ways, it easily has enough spirit to be worth checking out next time you’re getting friends together for a LAN party. Stuck on your own though – or if you’re primarily going to be reliant on internet games with strangers – it’s a crime that’s unlikely to pay off.