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So a Warlord, a Stormcaller and a Justicar walked into a Rift...
OK, so the title above isn't so much a setup for a hilarious joke as a ham-handed introduction to three recently revealed souls -- specialty subclasses -- from Rift: Planes of Telara. MMORPG.com unveiled these never-before-seen souls over the past week. The Warlord is a melee soul that focuses more on controlling the tide of battle by buffing allies and debuffing the enemy, but can get in over her head quickly if separated from the pack. If you've always been partial to battle clerics, then the Justicar is right up your alley -- he is a powerful front-line fighter who builds up healing power through fighting, which can then be used to restore others. Finally, the Stormcaller is a mage specialty who uses a potent mix of air and water magic to call down the thunder on her foes. Continuing with Trion Worlds' worldwide promotional tour for Rift, Eurogamer wrote up a spiffy hands-on piece while Germany's Gameswelt.TV interviewed design producer Hal Hanlin. You can watch the latter after the jump!
Rift's devs challenge fans to name an orphaned soul
When you think about it, it's pretty hard to come up with the massive list of made-up names necessary for a wholly fabricated fantasy world. Sure, it's initially easy to come up with your "Death-this" and "Swamp-of-that" and "blank-of-the-Damned," but after a while the creative well drains. Rift: Planes of Telara's developers claim this to be the case as they ask fans to help them think up a starstruck name for one of their orphaned souls. This is an excellent opportunity to become part of the game itself by injecting your brain juices directly into the code. Entering the contest is ridiculously easy: Just head over to the Rift forums (you must have a registered account) and submit your suggestion. In a few days, the devs will pick a number of intriguing monikers out of the hat and then throw them to the community and Trion Worlds team for a vote. Souls are Rift's unique version of classes, and this particular unnamed soul will be a type of mage. According to the devs, this soul will "focus these life energies into a devastating force, or recycle destructive magic to heal their allies." It boasts more survivability than mages are used to but lacks as much destructive power or strong healing as a result. What do you think it should be called? Head over to the Rift forums, and let's see a Massively reader win this thing!
PAX 2010: Hands on with Rift: Planes of Telara
The dungeon portal loomed ahead as a developer pushed a headset into my hands. "You heal," he said to me then moved on to the other four players standing next to me. "You tank. You three DPS. Don't worry too much; you're all a little over-leveled for this dungeon. Let us know when you're ready." I hardly heard him as I frantically tried to memorize the full array of skills in front of me, rearranging my hotbar to put my heals up front and center. "Ohh, you're a druid," another Trion Worlds developer said over my shoulder. "They're fun -- they get a faerie pet that heals your team as well." I followed his pointing finger and clicked on the skill to summon what appeared to be a cross-breed between Tinkerbell and a Troll doll. Fun times. The developer who pulled me into the live demonstration at PAX Prime took up his microphone and directed everyone around the booth to look up at the big screen and watch a team of total strangers jump into a mid-level dungeon. Welcome to Rift, I thought nervously. There's nothing like diving in head-first with your potential humiliation on public display.
How far did you get? [update 1]
Sure, one could plow through Twiiight Princess in perhaps a mere 35 hours or so, eschewing all side-quests, collectables, and exploration. But we here at the Fanboy believe that those facets are crucial to the overall Zelda experience, just as important as those silly temples. But how about you? How many golden bugs did you collect; how many heart pieces have you yet to find?The convenient "Complete Calculator" for Twilight Princess will track your vital stats, brave warriors, and return to you a percentage of how much of the game you've completed. Did any of you guys pick up a true 100%? Has your social life been destroyed as a consequence?[via Digg][Update 1: Old link appeared to contain an IE 8.0 page-spoof. Link altered to a happy page of naught but HTML.]
