Rift

why is this game not mentioned here anywhere, the only mention of it, i found was by someone that got banned?

this game is an rpg, its a mmo, and its good.. im wondering why there is no one talking about it here.

i came here to find out what cool news, or videos you guys may be sharing from the 6 betas so far.

I keep seeing television commercials for Rift. Although I have no interest in MMOs personally, I have to admit Rift looks quite interesting, and it seems to be getting a fair amount of hype.

there is no reason one cant play a mmo with the set goals of playing it through as a single player game. you get 30 days frees game time with new sub. and once ya hit max level, you can cancel. or change characters, factions, or explore new content w/other people.. mmo's can be played as casual single player games, and reach max level witout ever having to interact with another person whatso ever. you can turn Off the chat channels, and pretend your in ther alone

No reason?

Except they utterly suck as singleplayer games, in the vast majority of cases.

But… to each his own

Rift does look like a very competent WoW clone, with a dose of Warhammer thrown in. I've played up to level 20 in beta - and I was reasonably entertained. That's quite a feat, it should be said - because I'm supremely jaded with MMOs in general.

I'm not sure it can sustain my interest for long, as the Rift mechanic seems quite limited in scope - but maybe they have things up their sleeves

However, I plan to play this with a few friends - and my GF even expressed interest as it was "pretty"

I'm doing what I can to lure her into gaming, so I better jump at this opportunity!

I've been in since beta 1. It is indeed a WoW clone, popcorn entertainment for a month or two.

Damn, I accidentally preordered it. Guess I still miss that pre-expansion WoW nostalgia.

If you're looking for that WoW-feeling, Rift certainly won't disappoint

But but, let's not be unkind.

It does have a few "innovations" that might just end up being better than one might fear. The multiple soul system probably being the most interesting.

DArtagnan said:

If you're looking for that WoW-feeling, Rift certainly won't disappoint

But but, let's not be unkind.

It does have a few "innovations" that might just end up being better than one might fear. The multiple soul system probably being the most interesting.

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To tell you the truth, that's actually something I don't like. I like MMOs where, when I think of 'Joe' I think of 'he's a fire wizard', not a 'he's a fire wizard, or a chloromancer healer, or a necromancer, or an enchanter, or an elemental master, well, depending on his mood'.

wolfing said:

To tell you the truth, that's actually something I don't like. I like MMOs where, when I think of 'Joe' I think of 'he's a fire wizard', not a 'he's a fire wizard, or a chloromancer healer, or a necromancer, or an enchanter, or an elemental master, well, depending on his mood'.

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Well, you like what you like

Personally, I find such a thing incredibly boring and predictable. I love having a flexible system to experiment with, and especially if it's a system that gives me the opportunity to be a unique character in some way. Nothing is more boring to me, than being exactly like everyone else.

But I see your point, and it should be noted that I always play these games with friends - because I don't enjoy depending on strangers. So I don't often have to deal with people not fulfilling their role.

I also really like PvP - and that's where such a soul system has tremendous potential.

However, it all depends on how they approach balance. If they make the mistake of most developers, like Blizzard, and obsessively try to adjust balance at a constant rate - they'll totally kill my enjoyment of the game. Once a game reaches a certain point of complexity - it becomes futile to balance it without a loooooong period of study. That's why I think they should leave balance be for 6 month intervals, or something like that - and focus only on correcting outright bugs with the system. Let players adjust over a long period of time, and then determine what's REALLY unbalanced - instead of scrambling with the nerf/buff bat without the necessary understanding of long-term effects.

I have very mixed feelings about RIFT.

First, the game didn't seem to be friend with my ATI (Radeon 5700 series, 1Go) card, which seemed to be the norm for other ATI uses as well. Introduction videos were very choppy at best, and the chargen screen outright refused to display my character unless AA (anti-alias) was disabled. This, with the latest WHL driver. However, the 2011 eyecandy definitely is there, and once I could settle for some mid-level but stable settings in the video options, I quite enjoyed gawking at the world.

Next, I really liked the role/souls system. I thought it was well designed and implemented in game, if rather poorly explained in or outside the game. New players might find the amount of skills/talent to choose from rather overwhelming at first. I suspect threads about FOTM ("flavor of the month") builds to monopolize the game forums for quite some time still after launch. However, if this allows for a greater versality, switching between different configurations depending on playstyle (grouping, raiding or hunting solo) or mood, it should be hailed as a welcome feature in my opinion.

Unfortunately, RIFT misses the opportunity to fully exploit this original feature in combat, as the pace during battles is awefully (snail-like) slow : hit… cast… hit… hit… yawn. Thi is aggravated by the fact that once you find a decent combo of useful skills/spells, nothing in the game really motivates you detracting from it. So, from level 4 all the way up to level 20 something, I basically used the same attack sequence (of 3 or 4 skills), for every type of enemy, because it just wasn't efficient to do otherwise. It could have varied depending on the type of encounter, or enemies, for example.

Finally, and above all, despite the quite interesting "rift invasions", getting players to band together to fight off threatening undeads/demons, I found the game extremely… the same than any other MMORGPs out there. A boring (after a while) grindfest, with its inevitable and very classical FEDEX quest system and a pretty limited inventory (which, for a 2011 game, I really hated). Quests items take some of that space too, so watch it not loosing on some nice stuff while hunting.

Anyway, if you enjoyed WoW/WAR, you might just enjoy this game too. Despite the evident graphical enhancements, the crafting (which didn't seem very elaborate to me), the pvp'ing, the dungeons, the levelling, the mounts, will soon seem like familiar acquaintances from the past.

Did a little beta-testing and 5 hours just went *poof*. I definitely think this will keep me entertained for some months. The art was impressive and the scale and openness of the world felt right. Kinda the game I wish Age of Conan was. Quests and story though is another story.

Skill progression felt a bit fast. Maybe it's was sped up because of beta. I must admit I had a bit trouble keeping pace with the soul tree and abilities. From my brief visit it seemed geared towards players with long WoW experience.

I canceled my Rift preorder, went into the classic Everquest new server and having the blast of my life. Now, THAT is how you play an MMO! After several hours the first day, I ended up at level 3, with one piece of clothing (not magical of course) and a chunk of wood as a weapon. In most MMOs since WoW, after 1 hour of playing you're probably already level 10, fully geared in magical equipment.
I've been mauled by aggressive roaming giants in starting zones, the griffins have eaten me several times already. In other games, people complain if they see a mob that is 2 levels above the average of the area lol. I love this game!

Solo challenges have always been pretty easy in WoW, but speaking for myself its not there the game happends. Time spent in towards raids and dungeons by far dwarfs that spent on any kind of leveling. Atleast in pre-expansion WoW this group effort could be extremely difficult to master.

hishadow said:

Solo challenges have always been pretty easy in WoW, but speaking for myself its not there the game happends. Time spent in towards raids and dungeons by far dwarfs that spent on any kind of leveling. Atleast in pre-expansion WoW this group effort could be extremely difficult to master.

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See that's where I disagree. The whole raid thing sucks. Everquest's gameplay is the journey, slowly going through the levels, fighting and enjoying every area. I've made more acquaintances in EQ in the 3 days I've played (as in, in the friend list, and looking to group with them as soon as I connect) than what I would in WoW (and clones) in a month.
I don't like raids. They pretty much follow a strict formula, and raid leaders act as if they're playing your character. "Stand right here and don't cast any spells until I say so" then "ok, now cast firebolt twice then stop" (ok I'm exagerating a little bit, but that's the feeling I get).
Eventually the new EQ1 server will turn into that, but at least I know it won't happen for a minimum of 5 months (minimum 3 for Kunark and 2 for Vellious), which is when EQ turns into a raid game. But hey, 5 months is longer than I've played every MMO since WoW came out and (and every MMO turned into a WoW clone)

It sound like you entered WoW alone? If so our experiences might be completely different. A lot of my playtime was done on LAN with friends. We had a large national guild which consisted of groups of friends from across the country. Raiding was fairly casual and people didn't need to commit to a full-time job like more hardcore guilds required. You had to be able to take some orders though when it involved 40 people duking it out with difficult encounters, but it usually wasn't anything beyond explaning tactics, positioning and telling when to be ready. The rest was handled by the different class leaders who's task was more like mentoring. Most grievances that was put forward wasn't about the raid leaders, but of the frequent problem of players disappearing mid-battle for various reasons like eating dinner or going out. There were lot of drama too, but that's just part of the fun. Without the people it's a pretty hollow game.

I spent all of 30 minutes playing before I got bored. Maybe the shallow story and immediate emphasis on combat put me off, maybe it was the WoWisized gameplay, or perhaps it was the fact that I've played this style of mmo too many times before. Whatever it was, I'm again on the lookout for something fresh to make use of my time.

I got that invitation for the new EQ progression server and I immediately dismissed it; having already played EQ for five years, I have absolutely no desire to return to a 12 year old game to relive the past. I'm just jaded I guess… biding my time until GW2.

…Oh, and it's not mentioned here (Rift) because, I imagine, it hasn't officially launched yet.

EverQuest seemed like a huge grind at release. I shudder to think of what it would seem like now

DArtagnan said:

EverQuest seemed like a huge grind at release. I shudder to think of what it would seem like now

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Well, depends on your definition of grind. Is having sex a grind? yes, but it's enjoyable. My definition of 'grind' is having to do something over and over that you don't enjoy so you get to something you enjoy. Since to me, the journey is everything, and I enjoy fighting in a group, with someone pulling, with aggro mobs roaming around, when someone could train a bunch of mobs on your group when they're trying to escape, to me that is highly fun, and levels just come as a consequence of the fun, not as the goal.

In all the MMOs since WoW (Rift included), to me, it is much more of a grind. You do the same 2000 quests of the 'go there, kill 6 rats' or 'go there and click on a glowie', that are not enjoyable, as almost with no exception every mob you find at every level is pretty much different graphics for a bag of stats. You don't have to use any strategy, just use the same 3 or 4 abilities regardless of the enemy, until you get to the 'fun' parts at high level (dungeons and raids).

Mersil said:

why is this game not mentioned here anywhere, the only mention of it, i found was by someone that got banned?

this game is an rpg, its a mmo, and its good.. im wondering why there is no one talking about it here.

i came here to find out what cool news, or videos you guys may be sharing from the 6 betas so far.

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its gunna be a second job you pay for, just like wow, just like all mmos.

SAGO said:

its gunna be a second job you pay for, just like wow, just like all mmos.

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just like all hobbies?