NCsoft, today announced the next free update to its highly successful comic-book inspired MMO, City of Heroes. The release of Issue 13: Power and Responsibility introduces several innovative features to the MMO genre. Macintosh players won’t be left out as open beta testing for the new Mac version of City of Heroes is just around the corner.

Issue 13: Power and Responsibility unveils some pioneering features to the MMO genre. Multiple builds is a character customization option and delivers the ability to have two different build-outs for each character. This offers enormous flexibility for players who can now switch back and forth between their two character builds, depending upon the task ahead of them, by visiting contacts in game.

Pact leveling is a new innovation for MMOs. This system allows two friends to enter their characters into a pact before level five, and have their XP permanently in sync, regardless of how much each character is online. This way when they play together they will always be the same level. It’s similar in concept to City of Heroes’ already popular Sidekick feature which allows players on different levels to play together.

Also City of Heroes’ new Day Job feature offers a way for players to progress their characters in the game even when they are logged out of the game. In addition to providing an XP rest bonus to all characters, specific Day Jobs are determined by where you log out of the game. There’s an associated Day Job at many key locations in Paragon Cityor the Rogue Isles. Once characters have accumulated the required amount of time for each Day Job, they are rewarded with the appropriate Day Job Badge, increasing their “earnings” for that job. Multiple Badges can be combined to unlock Accolades and the ability to accumulate additional new rewards.

Other features released in Issue 13 include the new Shields and Pain Domination Power Sets, new Cimerora mission content, the Merit Rewards System, Villains Patron Power Respec, Supergroup Base Repricing, and player versus player (PvP) powers rebalancing, paving the way for new PvP features to come.

Players can apply for the upcoming Mac Open Beta by visiting http://www.cityofheroes.com/macbeta.

The City of Heroes Mac Special Edition digital product will be sold at the PlayNC store and at GameTreeOnline. The City of Heroes “Good Versus Evil Edition” PC game pack may be purchased at retailers across North America or through digital download at the PlayNC Store. Both products include the complete City of Heroes and City of Villains games, as well as a set of exclusive bonus items. Customers receive the first month of play free and both games can be played for the single monthly subscription price of $14.99.

City of Heroes is rated “T” for Teen. For more information about City of Heroes go to http://www.cityofheroes.com.