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Four hours over Telara: RIFT beta three event extended
Four hours may not seem like a huge deal in the grand scheme of things, but for RIFT beta testers enjoying the third event this holiday weekend, it's a welcome boon. After all, how much extra carnage can one squeeze into that time frame? If you're a smart player, the answer is "a lot!" Community Manager Abigale came on the forums yesterday to announce that this week's beta event would be extending a little longer than planned: "Thank you for your feedback and for your patience as our team keeps working to prepare Rift for future betas and release. We'd like to show our appreciation by extending the beta for another 4 hours! Servers will be open until Friday, 2 p.m. (PST) ." RIFT's third beta event is featuring the 1-20 zones for both Guardian and Defiant factions. Players testing the game have access to two dungeons and the mass rift invasions that are becoming the keystone of the PvE experience.
RIFT beta 3 patch notes show major soul changes and more
RIFT's third beta event kicks off today, and Trion Worlds has the novel-sized patch notes to prove that the team's been busy. Many fan sites rushed to repost the beta forum notes, which is allowed now that the NDA has dropped. The biggest change that previous players will see concerns the much-ballyhooed soul system, RIFT's flexible character builder. Previously, players would get only one of three souls at the start, with another at level five, and gain soul points at the rate of one per level. With Beta 3, this has been changed so that you can pick from all of your archetype's souls at the start and will leave the beginner area with three souls instead of two. In addition, Trion is handing out an extra soul point every third level, bringing the total number of soul points for a level 50 character up to 66. Of course, souls aren't the only focus of this patch. Among the many changes are the inclusion of the rest system, the ability to rename your pets, a preview of the soul trees before you purchase them, and a number of new invader boss encounters for both sides. Read up on the patch notes here, and we'll see you on the battlefield!
RIFT beta powow with Scott Hartsman
This is, by any measure, a busy week for RIFT. Fresh off the second beta event, Trion Worlds has dropped the NDA for the game and announced a third beta to take place over the holidays. As the process speeds exponentially faster toward launch, Scott Hartsman and his team have a white-knuckled grip on RIFT for all the bumps, shimmies, dips and hills that such a high-profile title offers. Even with a heaping amount of work on its plate, the team has been willing to share its passion for RIFT with the press and community. During this slight lull between betas two and three, Hartsman sat down with us over the phone to jaw about lessons learned from the beta, why Trion has dropped the NDA, how RIFT's already made history, and when we might be seeing this game on the shelves. Hit the jump and let's do this thing. As Hartsman is fond of saying about the game, "S**t just got real."
