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Enter at Your Own Rift: A tour guide to beta four
It was once again a busy weekend in RIFT, and I eagerly rolled up my sleeves to get to work exploring. This beta event contained a lot of great game changes and new content. First, the level cap was increased to 27, and two new hunting areas were made available: Gloamwood for the Guardians and Stonefield for the Defiants. In addition, two new dungeons were open for play: Darkening Deeps and Deepstrike Mines. But one of the most exciting additions was PvP instancing, as players finally got to try out two new Warfronts -- The Black Garden and The Codex. In this week's column, I'll give a wrap-up of my beta experience. Read on to hear more about Gloamwood, Warfronts, Darkening Deeps, and a lightbulb moment that I'll never forget.
Warfronts star in the RIFT beta 4 patch notes
As you may or may not have heard, Trion Worlds is unleashing the fourth RIFT beta event today, an event that spans the entire weekend. And as Uncle Ben used to tell us, with great beta events come great patch notes -- so what do players have to look forward to with this update? The most significant change to RIFT's beta is the increase of the level cap -- to 27 -- and the unlocking of the Stonefield and Gloamwood zones. In the prior three events, players were limited to a maximum of level 20 and confined to the two starter areas. This round, players looking for more PvE dungeon goodness should enjoy the Darkening Deeps and Deepstrike Mines, while PvPers will rejoice at the inclusion of Warfronts (Black Garden for level 10 and above, The Codex for level 20 and above). Warfronts are like World of Warcraft's battlegrounds or Warhammer Online's scenarios -- instanced PvP areas where (hopefully) evenly matched teams can go at it under special conditions. There are several quality-of-life improvements rolled into this patch as well. The skill soft queue has been upgraded to a full next ability queue, more hotbars are available, and many of the souls are getting tweaked. You can read the full patch notes here.
Massively's hands-on with Rift: Planes of Telara's dynamic content
Just a few weeks ago, I was invited to attend Trion Worlds' Gamer's Day in San Francisco to get some hands-on time with a couple of the company's upcoming titles, including Rift: Planes of Telara. If Rift seems to have come out of nowhere, that might be due both to the acquisition of EverQuest II veteran Scott Hartsman to head the project as executive producer, and to a clever name change meant to reflect the team's shift in development focus. In fact, that shift in development focus is precisely what I was at Trion's studio to test -- I got to check out the Rifts themselves in all their glory, in the context of the greater dynamic content system that the developers are so excited about. Massively's writers have been able to play and report on character creation and the starting areas of Rift several times over the last year or so, including earlier this summer at E3. But until today's embargo lift (coinciding with the reveal at Gamescom), no one had quite seen the fabled planar invasions and takeovers in action. Now we have.
Rift: Planes of Telara unveils Gloamwood
At first glance, the newest zone revealed for Rift: Planes of Telara looks to be marginally more cheerful than the last zone we heard about, but looks can be deceiving. Gloamwood is an area populated by giant spiders, undead shade, goblins, and vampire bats. There's a human village that seems to offer a refuge, but the people of Gloamwood Pines haven't had it easy. Years of grisly murders by an unknown creature have left the villagers fearful and unwelcoming to outsiders, even as they seek their help. The Mathosian Mill is another landmark in Gloamwood. What used to be a profitable mill is overrun by undead, and while some speculate on the possibility of taking it back, it's a daunting prospect at best. These are only a few of many places to explore in Gloamwood. Overall, it looks like this zone will provide both a challenge and some interesting exploration for players. Check out the gallery and trailer video below for a closer look at Gloamwood. %Gallery-99479%
