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Enter at Your Own Rift: Which Nightmare Tide edition is right for you?
I was fully expecting RIFT: Nightmare Tide to be out by the time I sat down to write this, but then the delay happened and I had a little unasked-for breathing room to figure out what I was going to discuss while we waited for the expansion to come out. The good news is that it should be releasing tomorrow, and we'll all be well on our way to enjoying both new high- and low-level content. However, there's one big question that each RIFT player needs to answer for her or himself, which is, "Which edition of the expansion is right for me?" Unlike some other MMOs, RIFT is not charging for its expansion at all. Trion Worlds did announce a trio of collector's editions as optional purchases, and since each of these editions has an impact on how we experience the new content, I thought it well worth examining the qualities of each as well as the benefit of not paying for it at all.
One Shots: Hello, autumn
House Stark once told me that "pumpkin spice is coming," and lo and behold, it is here. Autumn is in full swing, at least in the northern hemisphere, and with it come colorful leaves, scary decorations, and trips to the apple orchard. Today we have several great fall-themed pictures from players to share, starting with this seasonal shot from reader Becca. "Here my character Tendryl in RIFT gets in the spooky spirit. Falling orange leaves, a storm on the horizon, creepy mask... oh, and a FREAKING SCYTHE! I think she nailed it," she writes. Do you agree? Join us as we go crunching through the leaves in the rest of this week's player-submitted screenshots!
RIFT's newest dungeon is called the Citadel of Insanity
Citadel of Insanity has a nice ring to it, don't you think? It'd probably make a swell guild name or at the very least, a subforum title on a particularly crotchety MMORPG message board. Alas, Trion has already put it to work as the name of a new RIFT dungeon. It includes a giant armored crustacean called Glacieus, a "massive nightmare worm," and a couple of other bosses who may cause your party to break a sweat. You can read all about the new dungeon on RIFT's official website.
Archos is launching a GearVR competitor that costs just $40
We may not know how much GearVR will cost, but we're reasonably sure that Archos is already trying to undercut Samsung and Oculus head-mounted effort. The French company is busting out the wittily-named Archos VR Headset, a Rift-like device that's compatible with any smartphone that measures between 5 and 6-inches. The kicker here, of course, is that the device will retail for £25 in the UK, roughly converting to $40, which would put it well beneath the - frankly insane - $200 figure an unnamed Samsung official told VentureBeat during New York Fashion Week. If you're interested in trying one out, it'll be available at some point in November, and we hope that the GearVR isn't too far behind.
One Shots: Hitchhorsing
I'm learning new things about ArcheAge every day. For example, did you know that you can hitch a ride on a mount in that game? Jef even informs me that you can do so uninvited, although the driver may shove you off along the way. That's pretty cool, even if it lends itself to a very specific new form of griefing. Reader Sean demonstrates how one poor horse can handle two riders in our lead screenshot: "The picture is of my main, Kadrassius, and my wife's main, Keziah, as they take a ride through Marianople. I really liked this scene with the way the characters react when the horse rears up. Now I just need to get barding for my horse." Now if we can only get a college fraternity to all pile on the same beast of burden, then we'd be making progress in this industry!
Trion's games DDoSed again
E-thugs are at it again: Trion's MMO services are once again under attack. Last night, the official RIFT twitter account announced, "Ascended, our servers are experiencing a DDoS at the moment. We're working to restore network stability as quickly as possible." On the official forums, RIFT Executive Producer Bill "Daglar" Fisher confirmed that ongoing RIFT lag problems are compounded by the attacks: "Adding on top of the oddities that people are reporting, we've also been under DDOS attacks and our network team has been working to minimize the impacts of these." Overnight, even the first few pages (five, as of the time of this writing) of the RIFT general forums were flooded with spam from attackers. Several low-traffic forums on the ArcheAge boards have also been spammed early this morning. [With thanks to Omedon for the tip and apologies to Daglar for the temporary demotion!]
The Daily Grind: What's the dumbest mount you've ever seen?
There are a lot of reasons why I'm super-duper pumped about RIFT's new water-themed expansion, but shark mounts that can "walk" on land are not among those reasons. Not only are these a safety hazard for anyone who grew up with a mortal fear of sharks after his babysitter let him watch Jaws when he was six, but it looks plain silly. There's a line crossed here with trying to take an animal that isn't normally a beast of transportation and forcing it into that mold. But I cannot say whether or not this is the dumbest mount in MMOs, because that's your job. Well, your job as of today. What do you say? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
RIFT brings back a trio of fan favorite events
Trion Worlds is hosting a reprise of three popular RIFT events that are running from now through October 15th. Currently running is the Temporal Flux event through the 11th, followed by Budgie Madness from the 11th through the 13th; the events conclude with Unicornalia from the 13th through the 15th. Players can earn special rewards during these events, in particular bizarre and fun mounts. RIFT is also running a 25% bonus to XP and various goodies from now through the release of the expansion on October 22nd.
The Daily Grind: Do server merges make you more or less worried about an MMO?
Server merges, megaservers, connected realms, server consolidations -- call them whatever you want; a server merge is a merge, and it means a game's population has shrunk and servers need to be shed. Usually, MMO gamers take that as a herald of doom and race to the forums and blogs to argue over the technicalities of who's going where, what stuff will be lost in the transfer, and who predicted something patently inevitable a year ago. Onlookers pronounce the game a failure. But maybe that's the wrong atittude altogether. By the time most games merge servers, I'm usually heaving a sigh of relief. RIFT, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Star Wars Galaxies, EverQuest, even World of Warcraft -- all of these MMOs benefited enormously from their merges or faux-merges, in spite of the way merges look to people obsessed with schadenfreude. For players playing a game whose devs recognize a population problem and fix it while they still have the resources to do so, it's practically a game-saver, not a game-killer. When you're stuck on a dead server in a game that has just enough resources to keep going but not enough to merge, then the game is screwed. What do you think: Do server merges make you more or less worried about an MMO? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
RIFT previews the Glacial Maw dungeon
It's nice that RIFT's upcoming expansion is named Nightmare Tide because it really gives you a clear idea of what you're walking into. So when you read about the upcoming level 65 dungeon, Glacial Maw, it doesn't really surprise you. A dungeon that takes place burrowed inside of the carcass of the powerful Izbithu, wherein you fight off an infestation of parasites hoping to make the dread creature rise once more? Nightmarish, sure, but that's what you were promised on the tin. Of course, all of that is assuming that you make it to Izbithu's corpse first, since first you'll have to fight your way past an ice drake that tends to eat anyone investigating the decaying monstrosity and a golem fused with tentacles and sharks. And even once you fight off the insidious parasitic infection, there's something even worse in the depths of the body. Which... just the fact that you're fighting inside of a giant corpse is pretty bad, yes? Take a look at the official preview, but you know it's not going to be pretty.
Last Week on Massively: ArcheAge's two million
This post originally appeared on Massively from Editor-in-Chief Brianna Royce. At the end of every week, we round up the best and most popular news stories, exclusive features, and insightful columns published on Massively and then present them all in one convenient place. If you missed a big MMO story last week, you've come to the right post This week, ArcheAge seemed glad to see its rocky launch in the rear-view mirror, boasting of two million registrations and 21 servers. Meanwhile, Trion nerfed chat for lowbies to counter chat spam and hinted that the Auroria continent, live in Korea already, will soon be en route to western players. Read on for a look at the rest of this week's top MMO stories.
Previewing RIFT's new masteries system
Trion Worlds has today previewed the new "masteries" system coming in RIFT's Nightmare Tide expansion later this month. Masteries take the place of the soul points normally earned as players level up. Instead of spending soul points to take new powers in your soul trees (which would have created class imbalances), players will essentially buy powers from a new set of skills open to all characters within the same base class. Trion outlines the types of powers available: Most Masteries provide a general primary bonus and a secondary bonus that focuses on individual abilities and Souls. These secondary bonuses have several types of effects ranging from increasing the functionality of a given ability (or type of ability) to improving utility and hybridization options for others. Masteries from level 61 to level 64 focus on passive bonuses. The primary bonus on these Masteries will generally fit a theme for all Masteries at the same level: Level 61: Survivability Level 62: Healing Level 63: Utility Level 64: Damage When you hit level 65, you'll unlock the final tier of Masteries along with an array of active abilities. These are aimed at supplementing multiple builds, allowing you to add damage to a healing build, or even give some healing to a pure DPS build. Masteries are saved per role and can be swapped out of combat.
Now you can test drive a Lexus RC F with the Oculus Rift
Wondering what it's like to get behind the wheel of Lexus' high-performance 2015 RC F sports coupé? Now you can find out -- well, sort of. The company has built a virtual reality RC F using the car's actual steering column, foot pedals and an Oculus Rift DK2 headset. It calls the setup the Lexus RC F Rift, naturally, and it'll be at select auto shows across the nation for the next several months. The player can race the car around a virtual track, but it's not clear if the VR test drive is an accurate representation of how the real vehicle handles. At the very least, it's a novel way to get a feel for the car's interior, and a good look at how companies outside of the gaming industry may use virtual reality technology in the future.
Trion delays RIFT: Nightmare Tide's launch [Updated]
RIFT: Nightmare Tide's October 8th release date is no longer set in stone -- if it ever was. In a livestream yesterday, Trion Worlds devs said that there is a possibility of a release delay based on feedback and that the team will decide soon if that delay will happen. Whatever date Nightmare Tide ends up releasing, it will go live in both Europe and North America at the same time. Many smaller details about the expansion launch were discussed during the livestream. The devs said that players will have a way to buy Planewalker: Water Attunement using in-game experience as well as purchasing it through the expansion bundle. Nightmare Tide will release with three new armor sets, new aquatic pets, additional housing dimenasions, four new dungeons, two "return to" dungeons, and the 10-person Rhen of Fate raid. The 20-person Mount Sharax raid will launch at a later date. Trion also admitted to already discussing RIFT 4.0 and 5.0 (i.e., the next two expansions) but declined to give specifics apart from a mention of "an over-arching plan" with them. Update: Trion announced tonight that the expansion will be delayed until October 22nd.
Enter at Your Own Rift: How Nightmare Tide brought me back to RIFT
Wow -- it's been a year and a half since I last sat down to pen this column. Obviously, around that time I had left the game and focused on other writing projects here at Massively. It wasn't a bad break-up with my former stomping grounds in Telara; it was a "goodbye for now" type of situation. There were other vistas to be viewed and other worlds to conquer. Yet RIFT has this power to eventually pull me back in. I'll admit that I hadn't even thought of the game for the most part in 2014 until one fateful morning at PAX Prime in September when I sat down with Trion's devs to get an overview of the new expansion. The more I watched, listened, and asked questions, the more I groaned inwardly because I knew that my carefully tuned play schedule was about to witness another upheaval. I knew I'd have to go back to RIFT to experience Nightmare Tide. In less than a week, Nightmare Tide will roll into this game, bringing with it several new features, zones, and most likely fellow lookie-loos who will be equally curious how the game's improved with its second expansion. For this returning edition of Enter at Your Own Rift, I want to highlight four factors that were instrumental in grabbing my attention and convincing me to come back for another go in this fantasy world.
Leaderboard: Nightmare Tide vs. Warlords of Draenor
There are a couple of big fantasy MMO expansions coming out in short order. RIFT's Nightmare Tide drops on October 8th, while World of Warcraft's Warlords of Draenor releases on November 13th. Given those facts, I bet you can guess the content of today's Leaderboard, can't ya? Vote after the cut! Ever wish that you could put to rest a long-standing MMO debate once and for all? Then welcome to the battle royal of Massively's Leaderboard, where two sides enter the pit o' judgment -- and only one leaves. Vote to make your opinion known, and see whether your choice tops the Leaderboard!
RIFT explores the heights of Tarken Glacier
Beneath the waves lies the city of nightmares, but RIFT players exploring the Nightmare Tide expansion will not stop there. Far above those waters sits Tarken Glacier, a massive edifice of frost that stretches to the very boundaries of the cosmos. Players will be exploring this towering mass of ice, obviously, starting at the most basic ascent before moving up to the most distant reaches of the land. Along the way, players will be working with Skelf pilgrims, fighting off vicious frost giants, and seeking the last stronghold of the near-annihilated Pelagic Order. There are port cities nestled within the glacier, great structures devoted to researching the frostbitten land, and marauding enemies from all sides. In short, it's exactly the sort of place players will love exploring and fighting through when the expansion goes live; check out the full preview for more details on the lore of this region. The open beta for the expansion went live yesterday, with the full launch planned for October 8th.
RIFT's Nightmare Tide now in open beta
Trion wants you to know that RIFT's Nightmare Tide open beta is now live. You'll need the company's Glyph launcher, and you'll need to navigate to the server list under the RIFT heading where you can select "PTS." From there it should be pretty straightforward. If you're not inclined to play a pre-release version of the expansion, you can pick up the real thing on October 8th.
One Shots: Because who wouldn't want a 12-story-tall killing machine?
What does this sight make you think of? Voltron? Pacific Rim? A convenient excuse to wet yourself in front of your fellow soldiers? Thank goodness it's not fully online and operational, or else we'd be facing down a mechanical killing machine that would take a million-person raid to bring down. "I call this one 'You're Gonna Need a Bigger Bot'," reader Bunglerm00se submitted. "Yes, that is a several-stories-high killer robot, and no, this one doesn't have that cute boy from Sons of Anarchy calling the shots in its brainpan. I was already pre-disposed to liking WildStar, but this is one of the visuals that sealed the deal." Wait... am I the only one who piddled in my bloomers? C'mon, guys, I thought we were in this together!
RIFT will spawn endless nightmare rifts for its expansion launch
Do you ever get bothered when you go to a restaurant offering something in an endless variety? After all, a restaurant may claim to offer endless wings, but eventually there won't be any more chickens to make into wings, and what then? But the nightmare rifts that will be opening in RIFT are truly endless. Starting on October 8th, Tier 1 rifts will be opening from Freemarch to the Tarken Glacier, and they simply won't end. They'll just keep going, spewing more horrors into the world. You can't stop them; they just keep coming. Why would you want to go after these rifts, then? Why, the rewards, naturally. Loot, achievements, and access to higher-tier nightmare rifts all await as you struggle to overcome these endless fonts of horror. Dealing with the higher-tier rifts will also grant Ghar faction notoriety and endgame Essences, which seem like fair rewards for pitching yourself against a limitless fountain of dread.
