Paragon Studios has unveiled their next six months of "Statesman Loyalty" items for the next six months. If you maintain your VIP subscription from December 1st, 2011 all the way to March 31st, 2012, players will be eligible for the following items on April 18th, 2012:

• Tempered Through Fire, a new account-wide badge.
• The Helm of Zeus and Helm of Tartarus.
• Paragon, a new chest emblem.
• The Inner Will costume change emote.
• A non-combat companion pet.
• The Battle Fury Aura.

In their latest dev blog, powers designer Jeff "Arbiter Hawk" Hamilton discusses some of the challenges that come with designing new powers for City of Heroes' Incarnate system. In particular, Jeff notes that the team needed to be thinking far outside of the box in order to introduce powers that players would want to try out, while still keeping the game as balanced as possible.

If you're interested in seeing what sort of new powers might be on their way with Issue 21, take a read on the City of Heroes website!

NCsoft is celebrating Halloween in Aion, Lineage II, City of Heroes and Guild Wars. Here's the schedule:

• Aion's Harvest Revel.Oct. 26 to Nov. 9. This year the Harvest Revel stars the witches of Sanctum and Pandaemonium, tasking you with harvesting souls. Reward bundles for these quests include Sugarcrook’s Sack, Witch’s Sack, Witch’s Hoard, Witch’s Surprise and more. Each bundle contains a number of possible prizes – including Halloween costumes, scrolls, amulets and Harvest Ale.
• Lineage II's Halloween Treats. Begins Oct. 26. Your highest level character per server, per account will receive a Halloween Hat, a Halloween Gift Box and a Golden Jack O’Lantern Mask 7-Day Pack.
• City of Heroes – Dr. Kane’s House of Horror. Through Nov. 2. This event will add even more panache to the existing Zombie Apocalypse and Deadly Apocalypse, as you venture into a nightmarish mansion full of danger. Take on the doctor’s zombie horde as you make your way through this terrifying house of horror. Will you be able to stop the doctor from creating a zombie army?
• Guild Wars – The Mad King Thorn. Through Nov. 2. Once a year, Mad King Thorn and his spooky cohort visit the land of mortals for a creepy celebration full of holiday quests, the Costume Brawl PvP event, Halloween-themed guild vs. guild battles, two new costumes, and lots of other tricks and treats.

Paragon Studios has released the first episode of its new Signature Story Arc ViDoc series. In this episode, the team discusses the "Who Will Die?" story arc that will culminate in the death of one of the greatest heroes of Paragon City. They also talk about their future plans for City of Heroes Freedom, including monthly content updates.

To learn more about the game's newly launched free-to-play option, check out our interview with Executive Producer Brian Clayton.

City of Heroes Freedom officially launched yesterday, which means all players can now try out the 7-year-old superhero MMO for free. As if that wasn't enough, Paragon Studios also released Issue 21: Convergence at the same time to add a ton of new content to the game.

We had the opportunity to sit down with Executive Producer Brian Clayton to talk about the beginning of a new era for this veteran MMO. Keep reading after the jump to learn all about City of Heroes Freedom and Paragon's ambitious update schedule.

City of Heroes Freedom is now live, which officially makes the 7-year-old superhero MMO free-to-play for everyone! All Free players can now reach level 50 at no cost (with some restrictions) and choose to purchase additional items and content from the Paragon Market. You can also become a Premium player by returning to the game or purchasing Paragon Points to get some additional perks. Of course, you can always choose to subscribe to the game to become a VIP player and gain access to everything the MMO has to offer.

The launch of Freedom also brings with it the release of Issue 21: Convergence. This update features a new zone, an Underground Incarnate Trial for up to 28 players, new power sets and costumes, the debut of monthly Signature Story Arcs, new rewards, and a new starting experience.

If you're a new player who's been meaning to check out City of Heroes or a former player who would like to return, now's the perfect time to log into the game. Watch the launch trailer below to see what's in store for you in City of Heroes Freedom.

Paragon Studios just announced that it will begin reactivating all inactive City of Heroes/City of Villains accounts this weekend, which will effectively turn them into City of Heroes Freedom Premium accounts! It will take a few days to reactivate all of the accounts, but all of your old characters will be waiting patiently for your return.

If you don't already have a City of Heroes account, Paragon will be opening the doors to new free players next week! Active subscribers have been trying out the free-to-play features and Issue 21: Convergence since the VIP Headstart kicked off on September 13.

NCsoft just announced that the City of Heroes Freedom VIP Headstart Program will start on September 13, giving active subscribers access to the free-to-play update and Issue 21: Convergence weeks before they officially launch!

In addition to trying out all of the new content in advance, players in the VIP Headstart will be able to partake in a variety of additional benefits and activities, including:

• Costume Contests, judged by the development team, with a variety of prizes.
• Participate in the all new Death From Below and Underground Incarnate Trials with members of the Community team.
• Fend off massive Live Invasions by the forces of Praetoria and Hamidon across multiple servers.
• Exclusive sales bundles and promotions available only during the VIP Headstart.

NCsoft has not released an official launch date for City of Heroes Freedom, saying only that it will go live "later this year." With the VIP Headstart kicking off next week, it looks like players won't have to wait much longer until they're trying out City of Heroes for free!

If you're a City of Heroes VIP subscriber, you're going to get a head start to check out Freedom and Issue 21: Convergence before they officially launch! Paragon Studios said today that they'll soon be able to reveal the start date and duration of the VIP Head Start program, which will also give us an idea of when the game will go free-to-play for all players.

Paragon also announced today that the creation of new Level Pacts will not be available when City of Heroes Freedom launches, but the system will be revisited at a later point. Level Pacts created before or during the VIP Head Start will continue to work, so set it up as soon as possible if you'd like to synchronize your XP with another character.

In preparation for the upcoming launch of City of Heroes Freedom, Paragon Studios' Phil "Synapse" Zeleski has written a dev blog entry that discusses the design process behind the Beam Rifle Power Set that will be purchasable with the release of Issue 21. Here's a brief description of the power set:

"Beam Rifle is a new primary power set for Blasters and Corruptors and a new secondary power set for Defenders. This new ranged damage set allows you to harness the destructive power of advanced particle weaponry to disintegrate your foes."

Be sure to check out Zeleski's full blog entry for a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the Beam Rifle Power Set. Issue 21: Convergence will launch with City of Heroes Freedom, which will make the game free-to-play.