RIFT:Latest beta info

Well I got a chance to play some of the latest Rift beta and I have to admit they really worked a lot of the kinks out!  Graphics seem to be smoothed out and the game play issues mostly worked out as well.

I finally got a chance to mess around with PvP in the game and I really don't have much to complain about when it comes to game play or balance.  I did not see much "one shotting" going on and the war fronts (Battle grounds) are unique and fun.

PvE is overall pretty fun, this in itself is difficult for me to say since I typically despise grinding in a game but it moves along quick and the scenery changes enough to not bore me to tears.  The occasional Rift busts open adding some flavor to what could become a boring grind out in the various areas.

However after all this I am pretty certain I will not be purchasing this game.  Being that Rift is subscription based I am just not willing to toss money at something that is only partially what I want to play, after all I just got done doing this with WoW.  Read on if you care to know why.
Long story short Rift is a great game!  The whole thing is great but there are a few things keeping me from purchasing this and what may keep them from taking over the MMO world.

1. PvP lacks purpose.  So you kill people, gain "faction", get achievements, and later get PvP specific souls but who cares.  Basically there isn't an incentive to win and honestly there hasn't been a game since DAOC and  Warhammer that has.  I firmly believe that if there isn't a decent PvP model built into a MMO it is a deal breaker for a lot of gamers.
2. PvE is pretty good, but I really could care less about PvP
3. Seriously, the huge ad campaign they have been running on how they are the anti-wow....well WoW players are in for some serious disappointment.  WoW has been around for how many years and Rift comes along trying to up-sell that?  I am not a WoW fan boy but they have alot of crap down pretty good and them be some foot steps to follow in if you catch my drift.

In summary I just got over a long stint with WoW.  The last year or so I had no idea why I was even paying since PvE and PvP both started to blow ass.  I am no ready to pay a monthly fee to grind up to potentially be stuck in the same old routine.  I will stick to my Bad Company 2 and click to shoot peoples faces off

I can't be the only one who sees a problem here

To the left is Carol Mosley Braun she wants to be mayor of Chicago IL and has a tendency to say some really dumb crap but what politician doesn't.  I am not writing to educate the reader about how she is crooked but rather on one of many stories going on about her and how people like her use the race card to push their agenda.

In ChicagoNow there is this specific entry by Marksallan that I first heard about on the radio show "Sherman and Tingle" on Q101 that made me say WTF to the point that I just had to read it.  This entry pissed me off so much that I decided to write about it despite the fact that I know it will get the fingers pointing at me for being "racist" and the such.  So that being said here we go.

I always thought, and was taught by my parents, that when it comes people you don't judge them by their color, religion, or sex but rather their core character, values, and how they make you feel.  This same thing HAD been applied to politics for the longest time until recently!  Most people would cast a vote for the person they felt would do them and their community the best while having the same core values as the voter.  Well honestly I can't say I remember those days as I have been seeing the following things as normal since I started caring about politics myself.

1. Political Party Pissing Match(PPPM) This is were you got Democrats saying they won't do what Republican is doing and vice versa
2. Money Talks:  Lets face the facts we will never see a true "Joe the Plumber" become president, mayor, or even Governor because he and I do not have millions to dump on T-shirts and bumper stickers.
3. Smear Tactics: Seriously?!?!?! This one always gets me, lets have two grown adults spend millions of dollars to put adds out saying "so and so will rape your grandma" .  I wonder why our economy is in the shitter, you ass clowns put that money to some good use!  Guess what I smoke weed when I was young, lots of it and I did inhale pretty sure I could make better decisions in my community then some Ivy league ass clown!

The latest and greatest tactic in politics is playing the race card, ok well it may not be "new" but it is definately #1 since the election of our current President!  Pay attention to that entry note that 11 times he refers to black people and how they should vote for her not because she is better for Chicago than Rahm Emanuel but because

"this election is being during Black History Month, and Black voters have the numbers to elect the first Mayor from the Black community since Harold Washington"

Read more: http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/and-the-ordinary-people-said/2011/02/carol-moseley-braun-can-still-be-the-first-woman-chicago-mayor-since-jane-byrne.html#ixzz1D1lKK8sB

Really???!!! Seriously??!!  First off I think that both Carol and Rahm are not going to be good for Chicago at all but that is a different entry all together.  If  a white, Asian, or Hispanic person were to write a similar article but substitute Carol for a person of their race you can bet your ass you would have Jesse Jackson knocking on their door with a pile of demonstrators, or asking to have a love child with your daughter.

TL;DR 

Voting should not be a "race thing" but rather take into consideration what the elected official is going to do for you and your community!

People reading this from other states and other countries.  Yes Chicago, IL is that dumb but still best city EVAH!

Oh and what did you expect for a person from corrupt IL for President??  Ahhhhh that one is for you Mr President!

Inb4: You are racist, you are a moron, etc blah blah blah.  I happen to be a "Wexican" 1/2Mexican rest White and no I don't like taco bell

My Blizzard Pics

Some photos of the blizzard that kicked everyones ass the last couple days and stranded my wife.  This would be Western burb of chicago IL

My commute home Monday Afternoon around 2PM

Same commute

Our Patio door the Tuesday Morning

Neighbors house can you see the road?

Uggggg scene from the garage around 8AM

Drive way...cant you see it?

Drive Way again

Winter stormz OMGz

Bring it bitches!!  Living in one of the many Chicago suburbs it looks as if I will be in the line of fire as far as these storms are concerned!

It may potentially dump 20+ inches of snow and the n3ews has sent a majority of people into a panic out buying up entire grocery stores and the lot.  While I haven't seen that much snow since '99 it shouldn't be to big of problem so long as people use common sense and city services actually take care of the snow.

So this writer is preparing for the worst but just expecting an ass ton of snow an possibly a snow day :-)

Don't bothers me I R buzy

My goggie is busy playing teh WoWz.  Trying to lebel the shadowz priest

RIFT:The follow up

I mentioned yesterday that I was going to give Rift a try as soon as I returned for the day and that I did.

First off the game is still in Beta and I won't be spending time on problems that come along with that.  So yes there are login, lag, and quest issues but that is going to happen even after the initial release so lets get on to it.



Character Creation: You log in, pick your rule set server (PVP) and pick your faction.  In my case I chose Defiant Bahmi.  I rolled a mage and got to the customization, the process of making your character your own was very detailed you could change things as little as the size of the eyes to the height/build of your toon.  Long story short a lot of different ways you can make your character your own.

Class system(spec):I will try and explain this with as little confusion as possible.  Rift is a bit different when it comes to class systems, but while it may seem overly complicated once you get into it, well it isn't.  Rift Asscended class systems is compromised of "souls" which grow as you level.  So I chose a Mage and I gain a level I can then put points in the "branches" of the soul tree, conversely as you level you automatically gain abilities in the "root" of the soul tree, add to that you can have three different souls and it gets pretty daunting.

 

Above is an example of the system except not for my mage I forgot to take a screen shot.  So I borrowed this picture

A) Is the branches of the soul tree 

B)Would be the soul calling, or class 

C) Root abilities

E)The points to spend 

The trees to the left and right are the additional souls this person chose.  Why is this differnent?  Simple I will tell you how I did mine and why

Warlock: I love my WoW lock and tossing dots off so that was my decision there.

Necromancer: In this game the Necro relies on his pet to do damage and use spells to augment how effective his pet is.  Not like wow were you can do dots and pet damage.

Chloramance: Allows me to bring some utility to a group along the lines of some healing.

In my tree I am going heavy on Warlock and a sprinkling in Necromancy.  My goal is to do good DPS while having a pet by my side, not sure how it will work out but that's my plan.  As you see the choices are vast and even if you have no idea the game suggests pairings with your main selection to help you out.  If later on you find you do not like the pairings you can "respec"

This alone makes Rift stand out, this isn't a uncommon method but it is newer for those of us in the West.

Game play:  If you have played Warhammer Online, or Aion then you are probably would slide right into Rift without to much trouble if not then let me go further.  You have your standard MMO controls 'B' for bags 'c' for character pain and WASD for movement.  Targeting seems to work well it isn't an epic pain in the ass to click on your target and you can also tab target.  The controls are all fluid and functions highly customisable, the UI is also very well built but it may be HUGE depending on what resolution you play at but that is all something that can be changed.

Since I brought up the UI I want to mention that it is fully customizable you can move and size objects however you desire something that WoW doesn't really have stock.  I came across a UI like this when playing Warhammer and fell in love with it there, I hate using Addons for things that I should be able to see or move already and those aren't problems you will have in Rift.
More after the break.


Graphics: Stunning, not much else I can say.  If you have the hardware crank this bitch up and be blown away, however I did run into a couple spots when Rifts opened and it kicked my PC in the nuts, but it is to be expected with older PC's.

Sound: Well it didn't sound right, to me at least.  I only have a mid range stereo setup and it seemed to be trying to run 5 channels some on occasion things would be feint and then seconds later I was reaching for the volume nob.  This may be something on the bug list, but in my opinion sound isn't on the top of my list for importance.

Overall the game is good however I haven't been able to PvP so no clue how that rolls and it does seem kind of grindy at times.  Will I be buying Rift??  Not sure yet at the moment I am lacking funds so I will probably have to hold off but in my opinion this is definitely not a WoW killer

Rift: You son of a bitch

Alright so as I have a love hate relationship with MMORPGS and the last few new ones that rolled out sucked complete ass for one reason or another and despite the fact that I really don't enjoy WoW as much as I used to, game cards still magically appear in my posession.

Enter Rift a game that is basically advertising itself as a WoW killer.  That in itself doesn't mean crap since they aren't the first to claim this.  I read about the game and while it looks pretty, which is good, it has a few things going for it that set it aside from Warcraft and got my attention. 

Mainly the questing and grouping seems a little less of a pain in Rift which after 6 years of WoW play time behind my belt it seems that WoW has gravitated to an elitist only model.

The other thing that peeked my interests is class specialization, instead of being limited to three there are many choices through "soul attunement" 4 classes lots of choices for each class.

Long story short I will have another story here in the next couple days since I finally got into a wave of testing that just got started today.  All patched up and ready to so check back tomorrow for some more details