By Jim Rossignol on November 19th, 2010 at 9:37 am.
I guess we start a new tag, then. Rift no longer has its generic fantasy subtitle, and has been pruned down to just the one word. Which is interesting, since I was poking fun at that last time we mentioned the game. What is perhaps a little more significant in the life of this dimension-shifting MMO is that the beta sign ups are now open, for a closed beta dated 3rd December. Rift got plenty of good feedback at GamesCom recently, and I suspect it’s one to watch even if you are only vaguely interested in the online world business.
I’ve posted the most recent trailer below. It’s rather pretty, even if the combat seems a little… flat. Go take a look.
19/11/2010 at 10:07 Giant, fussy whingebag says:
That’s good. Games have gotten into a habit of calling themselves things like “Game: Plot point” or “Title: meaningless nonsense”. I’ll be pleased when it has gone out of fashion. Like zombies.
19/11/2010 at 10:35 Kaira- says:
Mind you, zombies never go out of fashion, and never should. Such fine creatures they a-
20/11/2010 at 01:25 Jake says:
Surprisingly, the subtitle that was used here actually fit the game and helped better describe it (rather than the overly simple ‘Rift’)
19/11/2010 at 10:28 Polysynchronicity says:
I’m glad to see that the warriors and beasts of Tolara are adhering to the time-honored combat doctrine of “stand at a 4-foot distance and wave your weapons around in the air”
19/11/2010 at 10:38 Winged Nazgul says:
When you need to start referring to games as COD BLOPS and it makes perfect sense, you know things have gone too far.
19/11/2010 at 12:52 AndrewC says:
Say ‘Rift’ enough times and you can’t help but think it would make the perfect comic-book fart sound.
19/11/2010 at 11:56 The Snee says:
Rifts: Generic uninspiring combat: The Numbering
Seriously, there’s no actual combat, they’re just waving thier weapons and falling over like a badly coreographed youtube fight scene. It’s MMAwful.
19/11/2010 at 14:52 BAReFOOt says:
I thought that was called “default RPG fight mechanics” ^^
Another reason I never liked RPGs.
19/11/2010 at 15:58 K says:
They have become the default since WoW (which took them from EQ). Older games (such as Ultima Online, to quote the “other” MMORPG founder) were different more often than not.
19/11/2010 at 14:55 DarkFenix says:
Another entirely generic fantasy MMO, in fact I’m thinking the lack of subtitle is probably the most original thing in the game.
The graphics aren’t particularly good, the animation looks dire and the gameplay is the same game we’ve seen over and over again for the past 5 years. Yeah I think I’ll pass.
19/11/2010 at 15:56 K says:
A great demonstration why art direction is more important than technology. The animations are senseless (doing dance-moves with limbs that do not adhere to inertia and gravity three meters away from the enemies is not “fighting”), special effects where random glitter is displayed on arbitrary places, and everything looks so generic, it might as well be Poser. Honestly? WoW looks *better*, and that is six years old.
Rifts: The Average MMO In Some Fantasy Setting Which Will Die Or Go Free To Play In Less Than Six Months.
19/11/2010 at 17:34 DrazharLn says:
WoW has also had millions of dollars more currency shovelled into it.
19/11/2010 at 16:28 Medina says:
I wish someone would make an game set in the Rifts pen and paper RPG universe.
19/11/2010 at 17:41 bob_d says:
There was some discussion of a Rifts MMO, but it hasn’t gone anywhere.
19/11/2010 at 22:14 wcanyon says:
Yeah I hear that. It seems like a ripe MMO universe there. You could jump into all sorts of dimensions.
19/11/2010 at 17:03 rayraytime says:
It looks like World of Warcraft.
20/11/2010 at 00:12 Arglebargle says:
Reading the background info on the world, races, classes, etc, from the website, it had the feel of poorly done fan pastiches of Salvatore, Brooks, Jordan, etc. Sadly, everyone thinks they are a good writer….
Hell, after seeing what all gets sold, I don’t know if I can blame them.
20/11/2010 at 00:36 thesundaybest says:
Not light AND sanity, surely! What would be left?