DC Universe Online reviewed on PlayStation 3 by Allan Walsh. Game supplied for review by Sony Online Entertainment

Well, I've been flying around doing kind deeds in DC Universe Online (DCUO) for a short while now and my first impressions are of a game that will appeal to a broad spectrum of players; mainly because of the ability to create and name your own super hero or villain; helping the law abiding citizens, or cause mayhem according to your starting choice of good or evil (cue dramatic eerie music).

There are two cities at your disposal as well at The Watchtower (a huge satellite above earth). Superman's sunny home town of Metropolis, complete with The Daily Planet and gloomy, perpetually dark Gotham City, resplendent with Arkham Asylum.

So far everything seems bright and cheesy, as befits a game with characters in ridiculous costumes, mainly with their underwear on the outside, flying or running around at breakneck speeds listening to inane comments from grateful locals or threatening ones from minions of your true enemies.

The game has a few flaws at the moment, although thankfully none I have encountered have been game breakers. Parts of the sound stop and start during battles and there are a few graphical anomalies, although again, nothing of much worth. My main problem was the lack of real direction at the beginning. I was never exactly sure where to go until I studied the (very sluggish) menus and figured out how to use waypoints. Hopefully these problems will be corrected in the coming weeks rather than months and weed out those moments of frustration that can ruin an online experience; even one with such a dashing fiery superhero as myself (with twin automatic pistols no less).

I do have a feeling the lack of direction might just be me though. Being a man, I was hardly going to stop any passing hero/villain and ask for directions was I? Once I found my way around though, the structure of the game opened up to me and I found myself flying from one mission to another, battling power crazed loons or brain washed citizens for a slice of the XP pie. Yes, the game still has eXperience Points but, if you want to grind to build on your count you will have a long fight ahead of you since very little XP are awarded for defeating the average baddie.

Missions are where the big figures are. Complete a few in a row and you'll level up quicker than you realise. I certainly did.

I haven't really used the chat options much so far either because unless you use voice chat it's a royal pain in the backside to have a meaningful/helpful chat with a controller. That and the fact that you have to type /shout before every phrase so anyone can see your message. So yes, I gave that a miss. Plenty of time for typing another time. I'm typing this am I not?

I did try my hand at a spot of racing to get used to the flying controls and it's very more-ish. It involved me flying through hoops, each one with an arrow pointing to the next, giving you time to orientate yourself to go through it at the right angle. It didn't seem very fast but then I have a few stats to build up yet to gain some speed and power.

From here I decided to potter around rescuing damsels in distress and little babies. You know the drill. Of course it's mostly just locals running around like headless chickens and there were no babies to save anywhere. So I did the next best thing and attacked anything that had a red reticule on it. Red means danger after all, unless it's my costume of course, or Superman's, or Wonder Woman's, or, oh never mind.

During my foray into the indoor missions, I found the areas to be large enough to have a decent scrap and I did notice that most enemies have different abilities and tactics during a fight so they were never boring for me. I don't want to give too much away at the moment. I'm saving that for a final review when I can give you all a fair, knowledgeable review. After all, that's what BoomtownX is about.

For the moment though, I'll say there are plenty of things to do, from those races against the clock, to rescue missions and PvP battles where you even get to play as one of your favourite characters. You can also meet most of the DC heroes by wandering around the game world or playing missions with said characters at their core.

I must warn those of you who despise tacky dialogue and plots though. It's (obviously) all based on a comic book world so realism is not its forte. You have been warned...