City of Heroes ups customisation

NCsoft's long-running superhero MMO City of Heroes has released its 16th free update, Issue 16: Power Spectrum.

The update includes the long-awaited ability to customise the appearance of your powers, improvements to the character creator, new difficulty options, the opening of more powersets to more character archetypes, and enhancements to the side-kicking system that allows low- and high-level players to play together.

City of Heroes no longer stands alone in the land of the spandex MMO; original creator Cryptic launched its rival, Champions Online, this month. Many of the Issue 16 features reflect the design of Champions Online. Will the 2004 game be able to stand up to the new contender?