City of Heroes

You might be too old to go trick-or-treating, but that doesn't mean Halloween needs to be abandoned altogether. All across the globe, MMO fans get together to celebrate the ghastly holiday together in their favorite virtual worlds, and developers often greet them with fun, featured content. We've assembled a list of some of the most interesting Halloween-flavored additions to MMOs, giving you an easy way to find out what sort of fun your virtual avatars can get themselves into as Halloween approaches.

We'll continue to keep this updated as more MMOs announce their Halloween plans...

Ugly scribbles and meaningless drivel? Or prophecies that predicted the future of gaming?

We're not gonna lie – this is a sparse month for games. The biggest publishers are saving their biggest products for September, October and November, leaving August with a very short list to choose from.

Fear not, however, because scattered across the barren wasteland of the next four weeks are some very promising oases of gaming goodness. Some of these titles will be just enough to last through the end of summer, while others have the potential to keep you occupied – and happy – right through the fall, distracting you completely from Call of Halo or Fallout Rising 2...

Find cow? Fund cave? Food core? We all sat round trying to work out what was written next to my name on the office whiteboard, my task for the week. Wait, I remember: ‘Find love’. That’s it. I have to find love in a videogame. This actually makes sense.

All the other games represented here are based on existing comic heroes (and Marvel ones, at that) - but only City of Heroes lets you make your own. A good deal of the fun in this massively multiplayer RPG comes from creating your own superhero, choosing from hundreds of various costume parts, accessories, and body types. Robotic arms, rotting zombie flesh, tattered kung-fu outfit, permanent goofy good-guy grin - put them all on one hideous character if you like. Design your outfit, create your