I was actually surprised that no one even talked about Rift here so far, so I'm volunteering.

Rift is a new mmo coming out that many claims to be sure to bring WoW down. Personally I find it rubish, as Blizzard will never let it's gold mine to run out, but the game is actually quite enjoyable and really well done.

The graphics are top notch, and even playing it with medium configurations(Damn notebook!) I was astonished by the amount of detail put into it. Even more so as I reached the first dungeon of the game.

The class aspect is also one of the things that really stand out in this game. In the first few lvls you will be introduced to the usual mmo starters, with go there and kill those guy, or collect those sparkling items. But in the meanwhile, some of those quests will give you the chance to collect a new soul, which is a fancy way of saying skill tree.

You can have up to 3 souls activated at one time, with the possibility of learning new one through some quest or other(not that hard either). That means that along with choosing 4 main classes, warrior, mage,priest or rogue, you will also be able to pick up 10 or so(more, maybe) subclasses, and change then at will(with a slightly cost, of course) to fit into your needs.

As you go along your jorney(too much drama?) you will be most likely be drawn away from your questing due a rift or invasion going on. While invasion occur with random elite mobs gathering up and raiding an outpost(I believe the amount of invasions increase with the number of rifts) A rift will randomly appear somewhere in the map, displayed at your map, and either will a player open it up or it will rip the planes of reality to give the wanderer adventurer a swift death.

Fighting them will grant you some items and stone, which can be traded to get some nice piece of armor, and the sheer awesomeness of gathering a party out of nowhere to atack that rift in the middle of your questing area keeps you coming back for more.

All in all is an really good game, and I happen to have 24 extra VIP keys that will get you into the next closed beta (january 25th I think). So the next 24 people to contact me in Steam will get them.

Yes, that was a shameless attempt to get you all to join DLP group. Can't hurt to have extra people playing Tf2

 

The game is well designed.

They shamelessly ripped a lot from other successful mmos. Public quests, quest tracker with clickable icons for objective actions etc. Heavy influences from world of warcraft. Which is a good thing because let's face it, say what you want about wow but it's a polished game.

The random rift spawns and full out invasions along with the patrols roaming the land means you have plenty to distract yourself from quest grinding or battleground grinding. It also gives the world a lot more replayability instead of as in other mmos where you pass through a zone once quickly and never look back.

I have only good things to say about the game design to be honest from what I've played so far.

That said, the graphics while good are extremely demanding of your pc. From experience it can be tweaked to a certain extent but if it's unoptimized it will stay so until next expansion if ever. There is a noticeable mouse lag on top of target's click boxes being tiny. Trying to target one out of many in combat is close to impossible. Relying on tab targetting isn't optimal either.

However what breaks the game for me is it's choppiness. It's not any one thing like animation, movement, combat or camera turning. None is completely broken, but they're all neither top notch. Comparing it to wow makes Rift look clunky and un fun to play. Just unpolished.

Wow animations are smooth, camera turning is smooth, attack animation and movement flows seamlessly between each other. Jumping, diving, swimming, running it's all polished. Rift however is not.

 

For those of you who got a key: Next beta starts at Feb. 4, 2011 at 10:00 AM PST (18:00 GMT) through 10:00 AM PST (18:00 GMT) on Monday, Feb. 7, 2011

 

Do you still have any keys?

Also, how do I find the DLP steam group? lol, I haven't used Steam much.

 

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/DLPG


I got my Beta key from Nvidia awhile back, got the email about being let in, havent gotten around to downloading it yet.

 

They are all the same key actually and will work for 25 people, which is why I was trying to keep an eye on how many people had it already. Not that it matter, since I forgot how many I gave away.

Should have some 15 times left, so go wild with it if you want

 

You guys should get onto IRC more often. We could have coordinated with each other and shit. D:

In any case, Jangel, Havoc, ChaosGuy and myself are all Defiant on Belmont, although I do have a Guardian as well. We've got a guild set up and everything if you want to play with us in the next beta, whenever that is.

Channel is #rift, doubt it will get used often til the next beta though.

 

Next beta is Friday, Paimon.

 

Heathens! I curse your lifes for using the sourcestones in your wicked machines!

Seriously though, I have no idea which server I'm playing at, but I might make a new char in belmont once I reach the lvl cap with my main. Getting tired of using bard buffs (though my healing is awesome in the warfronts.)

 

You can respec by talking to your trainer or just buy a new role from them.

 

I know, I got 3 of them(4th was too expensive). Is just that bard is too useful to ignore in any pve build for rogues, even more if you are soloing.

 

That's why I went Mage, then no class is required, although you'll end up using either Necro or Elemental for the much needed pet. As for Rogue, I thought Saboteur was the big thing currently? My Rogue toon is Hunter/Bard/Marksman however.

 

Right guys, Beta tonight starts in 3 hours. Let's get some peeps together and do a PvE server and rock house. I plan on playing a mage of some sort.

 

PvE, really?(Just saw that Belmont is a pve server as well, I'm sticking with Briarcliff)

 

What server do we play on? :-O

 

Well, I don't like PVP because I don't like getting grief'd. So. Join #rift on IRC

 

As soon as I remember how. It's been a while since I used IRC.

Edit: I feel so stupid.

 

Anyone else interested in a PvP server? >_>

'cuz I'm making one on Belmont, since everyone seems to have started playing there, but I was curious if anyone was going to make a PvP alt.