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RIFT beta: Massively's first impressions
When it comes to RIFT, Massively readers have been patiently watching this game for a while. You've seen the trailers of the rift invasions and in-game cinematics, checked out our hands-on coverage, and gobbled up 500 VIP keys in less than 20 minutes. But does the game live up to the hype? We know you have lots of questions, and thankfully, the NDA is officially over, so it's time to talk about our first impressions of RIFT. Read on to get a close look at the two beta events held so far -- Rise of the Defiant and Guardians of the Vigil.
RIFT unveils the starter movies for Guardians and Defiants [Updated]
RIFT has been turning a lot of heads and garnering quite a bit of attention, which is rather unique for a game that starts off by killing the player. (You get better.) But although the game's not going to be available for players over the upcoming holidays, you can at least whet your appetite with the newest releases from Trion Worlds. The development team behind the game has unveiled the two starting cinematics for players, which play immediately after character creation for each faction. Both videos emphasize the thematic split between the two factions, with the Guardians being the defenders of faith and the Defiants focusing on their ingenuity and technology. If you've been lucky enough to get in on the closed events, the videos may feel familiar, but for the many hopeful future RIFT players, you can get your first taste of the game's introduction by watching the videos just after the break. [Updated: Trion has provided an updated, higher-quality version of the Guardian cinematic, so we've updated our copy accordingly!]
RIFT's first closed beta produces "a hell of a sight"
This past weekend, RIFT played host to thousands of brand-new testers with its first closed beta event. The three-day event featured the first 20 levels of the Defiant experience and wrapped up early Monday. According to a forum post by Trion World's Executive Producer Scott Hartsman, the team couldn't be more pleased with the way things panned out. RIFT's team received over 20,000 pieces of feedback from the event and learned quite a few things, including, as Hartsman put it, "answers to some critical questions." These answers included how the servers would hold up with so many people in so few zones, if they could deliver quick patches, and how rifts would happen with the crowd density. In fact, there were so many people that the team had to double the amount of servers almost immediately, although fortunately the servers held up under the strain. Hartsman identified a number of problem areas that would be addressed, such as mob respawn rate. Because of the massive population, RIFT's titular feature had a difficult time being a challenge until the team made some adjustments: "Where we had hoped and expected to see invasions rampaging across the countryside, instead the population density had become far too high, such that invasions weren't even getting off the ground. We updated the game with even more insanely active tuning on Saturday night to give the invaders a chance to come out and play too, and the response in chat and submitted feedbacks was overwhelmingly positive once that started. By the time it worked, it was a hell of a sight -- Huge invasions finally freed up, setting up footholds, wiping out the local populace, and eventually being repelled by defenders." Trion is working on a number of improvements as it prepares for its second closed beta event, which is prepped to start December 17th. Stay tuned to Massively for a special upcoming post-beta interview!
Rift's closed beta to start December 3rd
Been holding your breath waiting for Rift: Planes of Telara -- now renamed just Rift -- to announce the much-anticipated closed beta phase? Well, pass out no longer, for Trion Worlds has announced that Rift's next phase of testing will commence on December 3rd. Rift's closed beta will take the form of limited duration events, in which select players will be allowed to get their hands on the title and hopefully report bugs as faithful playtesters. You may recall that there are a few different pools of beta applicants that Trion is choosing from, up to and including the coveted VIP key-holders who will be invited to every beta event. If selected from the pools for testing, players will be notified a few days in advance with setup instructions. The first beta event will be called "Rise of the Defiant" and will include the first 20 levels of content, the Defiant beginner zone and the land of Freemarch. Trion's Scott Hartsman is celebrating the move from alpha to beta testing: "This is a momentous event for the entire Trion team, as well as the fans that have been following Rift since we first announced the game. We've created this deep, vibrant world that's just waiting to be populated with enthusiastic players, and our hope is that gamers will enjoy playing the game as much as we've enjoyed building it." As we can attest, Rift is shaping up nicely so far. If you want to be considered for the closed beta events, head on over to Rift's website to apply.
Make your travel plans to visit Rift's majestic Meridian city!
If your tastes run more to the technological terrors of Rift: Planes of Telera's Defiant, then prepare to get to know Meridian, the faction's capital, quite well. Spitting in the eye of the old gods, Meridian is a cutting-edge metropolis full of harnessed magics, steampunk wonders and rogue water elementals. Although it is on the front lines of the great world war, Meridian still prides itself on its beauty and elegance, as evidenced by soaring towers and technomagic constructs. The city will offer players a quick travel system via portals, which allows a character to instantly zip to any portal he or she has already discovered. There are secret places to uncover, colorful characters such as Sparky the potion-mixing automaton to meet, and plenty of places to drop your coin in exchange for goods and services. You can read a guided tour of the city and watch the quick one-minute flyby of Meridian after the jump.
Exclusive Rift reveal: The Kelari race!
As Rift: Planes of Telara marches closer and closer to that glorious day when demons will invade our world, we've been eagerly soaking up Trion Worlds' gradual reveal of the races, classes and features of this promising title. Today we're pleased to announce Rift's sixth race, the Kelari! If the thought of edgy rebel elves who channel magic into machines makes your ears perk up, then you're going to love the Kelari. They're not just the stereotypical "dark elves" that many fantasy games boast, but instead they carry with them the same genre-twist that Rift is becoming known for creating. Read on for Trion Worlds' official background description of the race, as well as a few new gorgeous screenshots in our gallery.
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.
Newest Rift trailer highlights Telara's Defiant faction
Opposing factions are a familiar story in the world of MMOs, and the creators of Rift: Planes of Telara are bringing their own world conflict to the forefront with their latest trailer. The Defiant faction of Telara have grown tired of what they view as sitting around waiting on the gods and their representatives to defend them. "The gods have failed us too many times." The Defiant are taking matters into their own hands, using forbidden technology to take the fight to whatever lies beyond the rifts. Follow along after the jump for a look at the trailer, and check out the full story of the Defiant (and the opposing Guardian faction) on the official Rift: Planes of Telara page.
Star Trek Online's Vigilant class revealed
Oh, man. We can just hear the cries of Star Trek fans who know they won't get to pretend they're Worf gliding around the battlefield with this new Vigilant class vessel for Star Trek Online. You can bet that we're one of those fans, but who could blame us with this thing's sleek design? If you're a Deep Space Nine fan, then the acquisition of this bad boy is an unquestionable must.Don't let the Vigilant's size belie its deadliness. This is a warship that packs a lot more heat than you'd imagine, which is kind of the point. It's also highly maneuverable because of its overall size and engine power, giving it the very tactical option of firing off a torpedo before turning its strongest shield towards an impending attack. With these traits, it makes a wonderful convoy, protecting all kinds of larger ships against everything from raiders to the Borg. Yep, we think this may be the ship for us, especially since we're all about frontline fights.
Ships, NPCs and art direction in newest Star Trek Online Ask Cryptic
The first Star Trek Online Ask Cryptic for 2009 is out now, and with it comes information on some essential information about ships and NPC interactions. What we've now learned about ship progression is that while trekking across space, seeking out new life, players will be able to upgrade tier 1 ships to compete with tier 2 ships. However, the caveat here is that a fully upgraded tier 1 ship may not always be a match for a fully upgraded tier 2 wessel- er, vessel. As a side note, certain ship types will probably be better at things like blockade running anyhow. So a tier 1 Defiant would be better than a tier 2 Excelsior class.
Ask Cryptic explains how Star Trek Online will handle canon
The latest Ask Cryptic focusing on Star Trek Online addresses a number of questions sci-fi fans have about where the IP is heading in the MMO space. Not surprisingly, many of the questions asked of Cryptic deal with how well they'll adhere to Star Trek canon. The Cryptic Studios devs were asked about how they would handle the iconic story and characters of Star Trek, namely with voiceovers and cut scenes. The devs state that Star Trek Online avoids issues of tampering with Trekkie canon by setting the game in 2409, a good 30 years after Star Trek: Nemesis and Star Trek: Voyager. So while some of the locales familiar to Star Trek fans will be present in the game, players shouldn't expect to bump into any (or many) familiar faces.
