rift posts

Rift's biggest innovation, as we pointed out in our review, is the addition of customizable classes. For each archetype, the player chooses three souls that define it however they like. This trailer shows off several different class combinations and how they function in the game proper. Our personal favorite is the Bard/Ranger/Nightblade, as we are suckers for support-focused classes. Healing and buffing call to us. Regardless of our personal preferences, however, this trailer is excellent. After all, we do love trailers that are primarily in-game footage of different game mechanics.

Download the Rift 'Rogue Class' trailer
Check out all Rift downloads

Rift may be brand new, but it's not slacking on the content front. The developers are releasing a new raid, and this trailer details the lore aspect of it. Depicting Alsabeth as she attacks Telara with her Endless Court cultists, it shows lots of the sweet visuals and not much else. We liked Rift, so more endgame content is always appreciated, especially when it furthers the lore considerably. However, you can skip this trailer safely without losing out on any information.

Download Rift 'Alsabeth Raid' Trailer
Check out all Rift downloads

Rift was launched less than a month ago but the development team at Trion Worlds is already close to releasing the fantasy MMO's first major content update. Today Trion Worlds announced that the update will launch for the game's subscribers on Wednesday March 30.

On that Wednesday, the game's villain Alsbeth the Discordant will be generating rifts all across the game's fantasy land of Telera which will spill out tons of monsters and baddies. Players will try to fight offf the beasties over the next week and will also get access to lots of new in-game items. After the rift event, players can then go on a new 20 player raid called River of Souls to fight through undead monsters in order to get to Alsbeth herself.

There is a classic reviewer adage when asked to review an MMO. Simply enough, it states "you can't review MMOs." In most cases, this is true, as MMOs are designed to be ongoing and involved experiences. Unlike single-player games, you are encouraged to play MMOs for hours upon days upon weeks upon months. It's no secret that developers even put in extra incentives for dedicated players, such as vanity titles and awesome gear. When you base an MMO off of the success of previous games in the genre, however, it makes reviewing a much easier prospect. Such is the case with Rift, and while it shamelessly cannibalizes other developers while winking at you knowingly, one can't help but be drawn into the world of Telara. Minor flaws aside, Rift is one of the strongest MMO launches we have seen, and gives us hope that other developers will attempt to match Trion for their polish.

Next week is a huge one for PC gamers as a bunch of major titles get their official release. Will your wallet survive?

• Did you know that at one time there was a Fallout movie planned by Interplay? We didn't either but there's a script treatment that's popped up online.
• A possible viral campaign for a possible Hitman 5 has apparently ended with the ending leading to a , yes, possible full reveal at E3.
• Trion Worlds is fighting off hacker attacks on its recently launched MMO Rift.
• Blizzard actually wants BioWare's upcoming MMO Star Wars The Old Republic to be a big hit.

This week PC gamers can expect to see the official launch of a long-in-development MMO along with the latest game in a long running RTS series and a game that's also supposed to be a teaching tool about global climate change.

Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II Retribution - Developer Relic Entertainment and publisher THQ brings us this latest entry in its RTS game series. This stand alone game has several playable factions including the Imperial Guard, each of which gets their own single player campaign. Expect to see new multiplayer content in this game as well along with Steamworks support.

Technically, the fantasy MMO Rift is not supposed to officially launch until Tuesday, March 1. However folks who pre-ordered the game from developer Trion Worlds can now jump into the game's online servers right now as part of the game's Head Start program. And apparently a lot more people decided to do just that. Trion had 33 servers set up for the Head Start event but that wasn't enough; some players waited a while to sign on.

Trion's official message boards have posted word that to keep up with the demand it has added many more servers for Rift since the Head Start launch began earlier today. That includes a whopping 14 extra servers just for the US players along with several more for the European countries. Trion also announced today that Rift has now recorded over 1 million players accounts that are signed on to play the game.

It's not really game related but how cool is it that "The Rock" showed up on Monday Night Raw last night? Ah, we are so old.

• Steam has a new automatic update available for the beta of Counter-Strike Source.
• Minecraft's creator Marcus "Notch" Persson is back from a two week vacation and is working on more updates.
• THQ will release a retail boxed version of Frictional Games' Amnesia The Dark Descent to US stores next week.
• As promised the open beta for the upcoming MMO Rift has started and will last until February 21.
• AMD has released the 11.2 driver updates for its Radeon graphics cards.
• There's going to be a Plants Vs Zombies board game in fall 2011.

It sound like today was not a good day to be at Activision. We offer our sincere condolences for those who are now looking for new gigs today:

• Steam has new updates for Clones and Railworks 2.
• Blizzard has donated $75,000 to the Children's Hospital of Orange County Children's Foundation via a BlizzCon 2010 VIP dinner.
• There are more hints that Raven Software is making a James Bond game.
• Trion Worlds has announced that if you buy a retail copy of its fantasy MMO Rift from Wal Mart players will get the exclusive Shambler Hatchling pet.
• Activision execs said today the First Strike DLC map pack for Call of Duty Black Ops will be released for the PC sometime before the end of March.
• Just in case you were not sure, the new Bungie game from its new publisher Activision won't be released in 2011.

The fantasy MMO game Rift has been in development for a while at developer Trion Worlds. After holding a number of weekend closed beta tests for the game Trion will soon let everyone get a chance to check out the monthly subscription-based MMO before its official launch on March 1.

Starting at 10 am Pacific time (1 pm Eastern time) on February 15, Rift will hold its open beta test, allowing anyone to play the game up to level 42. The open beta, which will end at 10 am Pacific time on February 21, will have two of the game's playable factions available along with several of the game's zones and three of its Player vs Player warzones. The beta will have an overall story arc as invaders from the game's inter-dimensional rifts invade the game's fantasy land of Telera. Players can go ahead and sign up on Rift's web site to participate in next week's open beta event.