Rock, Paper, Shotgun

What do you give the man who owns everything but is missing the first 20 levels of Rift? Trion Worlds the makers of the rather good MMO Rift, have the answer for you: Rift Lite gives you unrestricted access to the game’s first 20 levels for free. I actually do own everything, so I’m now furious that they’ve undermined my achievement.
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Here’s a 2011 trend I’d hoped had wound down by now: the hacking of games, game services and game websites. Seems Trion Worlds, makers of Rift, suffered an incursion lately, with hackers finding their way into a database containing “user names, encrypted passwords, dates of birth, email addresses, billing addresses, and the first and last four digits and expiration dates of customer credit cards.” Aieee!

However, Trion have declared that “There is no evidence, and we have no reason to believe, that full credit card information was accessed or compromised in any way.” Phew?
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“NEW: INSTANT ADVENTURE! Just add a handful of players and taste piping hot fantasy action, just like momma used to make.” Something like that. Well, actually Trion Worlds don’t really explain it like that, as you can see in their dev diary, below. They do, however, explain that the new Action On Demand stuff will allow you to drop in and drop out seamlessly, without causing your group any issues in their progress: “The new “Instant Adventure” button teleports players to Stillmoor or Shimmersand where challenges scaled to party size await. One minute you could be purging a nest of cultists with a small group … the next you’re fighting alongside dozens of players in a massive raid against the Blood Storm’s mightiest forces.” Sounds like there’s some clever maths involved! (Don’t forget to read Dan’s huge interview with the Rift team.)

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When did we last write about Trion’s MMO Rift? Oh, May. Just two months after it launched, then. Whoopsie. Well, fortunately Trion have put out a video showing how the game’s grown over the last seven months. It’s jolly dramatic, and conveys both that Rift is holding its own against the big-boy competition, and that for all the talk of freeform progression in other respects it’s holding fast to genre convention. I.e. “bored of WoW? Come hither, come hither” is the presumed message.
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For a week, anyway. There’s a 7-day trial up on the main Rift site, which allows you to play the dimension-bleeding fantasy MMO for no pennies. I’ve still not got around to dabbling, but I understand from Dan’s review, and also from a few of you lot who are playing, that it’s one of the more interesting takes on the MMO business of late (despite some issues with the big public events…)

Anyway, go take a look!

By the sounds of things, fantasy MMORPG Rift is the most competent game to try and encroach on World of Warcraft’s turf in quite some time. Our man Dan Gril was certainly impressed, and the view from the top of Mount Metacritic is impressive enough. The latest trailer, showcasing the Rogue class and the game’s create-your-own-class mechanics in general can be seen after the jump. You know, in case you were thinking about going rogue. Ha! Ah. Ahh.
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Rift’s updates have begun, and with 1.1 comes the “dynamic event” River Of Souls, which is some kind of invasion by “the plane of death”, aka the undead faction. There’s a video to illustate the goings on (below) it’s all a bit dramatic, with giants, and an skeletal dragon, and some woman talking about weak flesh. Exciting stuff.

Not sure about that voice acting, though. Hmm. Anyone playing Rift? Come on, hands up.
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Trion Worlds’ MMO Rift is alive and online, so we sent intrepid, moustachioed reporter Dan Gril into its midsts to tell us all. How does the self-confessed combination of their favourite elements of MMOs come together? Is it fun? Such answers are yours to be had, as Mr Griliopoulos tells us Wot He Thinks.

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Rift is out today, and to mark the occasion we dispatched mad-bearded reporter Dan Griliopoulos to speak to Rift’s Dynamic Content Lead (best job title, ever), Will Cook, to find out what we’re calling “information”. Find out why they’re not opting for free-to-play, how Rift will compete in Blizzard’s playground, and how the game may help John not be a rubbish healer.

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That is the most short words we have ever had in the headline bar. Thanks, Rift! Also: yes, there’s a 6-day open beta, which you can secure a place for by signing up in advance at this internet web address link. Trion Worlds say of the event: “A tireless and unending horde, invaders from the planes continue their assault on Telara. The final (beta) battle is at hand and the fate of the planet depends on the courage and strength of Telara’s champions. Become one of the Ascended and fight for a world that’s on the brink of losing all hope.” There are also NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 video cards to be won by defeating dungeon bosses. Details here.