Rift: Planes of Telara

[Cichy]

I agree, glad I dint pre-order.

[Lucavi]

I already said SE did it twice, for some odd reason but they did. Your excuse doesn't fly.

I can't see it happening either, but not because it is somehow impossible for them to do if they wanted to.

Feel free to inform me when any company actually does it, or is your new miracle upstart company of the future planning on being the first to assume that lofty mantle?

[Eanae]

Feel free to inform me when any company actually does it, or is your new miracle upstart company of the future planning on being the first to assume that lofty mantle?

http://www.eve-online.com

Over hauled EVERY texture, in the process of redoing models, has over hauled nearly every animation, is constantly upgrading graphics and animations.

[dorkkaos]

I've only started playing rift beta, and I gotta say, it's a lot of fun. the Rift invasions and stuff do remind me of WAR's PQ, and I like it. Being able to collect "artifacts" from each type of rift really adds some type of gotta catch 'em all feeling for me >.> But ive only played up to level 10 so far.

The animation and stuff do not bother me since I really do like the overall atmosphere. Sure it could be better, but I can easily look past those 'cause the game is a lot of fun. Though.. i do prefer shorter gcd and probably changing warrior souls from energy to something else.

[Katlan]

Graphics are not great.
Graphically more realistic than warhammer/wow, but worse than Aion, combat doesn't feel good at all , no feeling oh oh awesome this new ability is sick! feels very AOC generic smushing stuff.

UI seems decent, customisation is good, plethora of abilities/talent trees is nice ( and the fact that it doesn't lock you in to x/y/z ).

Need to play it a bit more to get to some group content/etc to see what the real deal is though.

graphically more realistic, but WAR did have rly good animations. AoC had horrible, just as bad as Rift

[Purrrfect]

Its funny how the visual side either matters 0% or 100% and there isn't much of an in-between. So many people looked past the graphics of WoW and enjoy the game, but I've tried 3 times and just cannot take the appearance. In Rift I think it looks just fine (not XIV quality of rendering, very similar to WAR look), but a few people here just can't take it. Sucks that it ends up that way. Just going to have to be a game some skip and some don't on that aspect, because there will be no changes to it.

Unrelated, I saw "* Profanity filtering is now more aggressive. Including Pet and Guild names. You do not need to stress test this." and lol'd.

[Eanae]

It's not so much about how the game looks as much as how it looks while in motion.

[Alderaan]

Game is smooth and fluid for me, but then i've not played WoW past level 6.

I can fire off skill on my marksman while running, so that's win for me.

I'd also like to strangle these people that queue up BG's and go afk though. I don't get it, it's fucking beta.

[Kupo]

I think it's a fun game for what it is- A polished WoW/WAR clone with a unique class and rift system. It's entertaining enough but I feel I've done it all before. I agree with others who said they wish Rift kept it's class and rift systems but tried to make a more original game with those concepts in mind. Even the death and crafting systems mimic WoW.

Oh well, I'll probably buy it to kill time until Tera comes out. I doubt I'll touch it after that though.

[Hyan]

Its funny how the visual side either matters 0% or 100% and there isn't much of an in-between.

Well, immersion means different things to different people. While Rift's poorly done animations can turn off many people, it's not like the game doesn't have something else to give in return. People just weigh all these aspects and make their decision based on how much it matters to them. It seems to be like this in every game really.

At least I know I won't be touching this game with a big stick in the future though. Well, at least it appeals to some people. Bipolar experiences n' all that.

[Insanecyclone]

I really don't see how animations are a big deal. I didn't care about them at all until this pointless discussion came up.

[Hyan]

Anything related to visuals can be a big deal..

[Priran]

I was too busy meanmugging the energy bar on my rogue to notice the animations.

[Cichy]

I was too busy looking at my elf be all cockeyed and retarded looking.
However, I gave it another try yesterday since I was bored and I gotta admit it was fun. Rifts are a nice touch and all the invasions provide you with sense of something happening the entire time you play. Between all the quests and all that other shit there was no point where I was just sitting there wondering what to do. Still I dont see it having a long lasting appeal to me. Dont feel like paying 60 bux for a game I would play couple of weeks and after doing few rifts I already started to get bored with the repetitive mobs and no strategy.

[Lucavi]

I was too busy meanmugging the energy bar on my rogue to notice the animations.

Teh energy~ I need more!

On topic, I'm pre-ordering after spending time with it this weekend. There's enough for me to have fun for at least 6 months, and I'll probably wind up juggling this and GW2, while keeping a watchful eye on TERA in the future. Last night's stress test was just too much fun, and there's a lot of immersion that has me smiling. This is the first MMO I've ever played where just the simple act of hearing my character's huffs and puffs while jogging to and from destinations is enough to keep me from getting annoyed at the long-winded runs between areas. I also like the subtle clinking of armor when priming for a jump, and the sounds of battle from a distance as you close in on a town or outpost engaged in battle with invaders.

There's plenty of fluff in this game, and while I'd like a little more interactivity, this level of immersion and attention to detail in a beta has colored me impressed. Now they just need to implement swimming animations for pets. I can still hear my spirit cat running while i swim, which is hilarious.

[Cichy]

I opened couple Rifts yesterday and I gotta say that was my favorite part so far, I like how you have impact on the world and how the scenery changes when you do it, not to mention groups of people who start pouring in to participate. Oh, and my character swims like a barracuda, it's pretty awsome.

[Alderaan]

Holy shit at the last boss in Deepstrike Mines.

We must have wiped on it 25 times in one run before just giving up. There's no way a lower level PUG has a shot at beating this instance. There's absolutely no way to outdamage it's healing.

We eventually came back at level 27 and took him down but you need a ridiculous amount of dps and a Warden that knows what he's doing and can manage his mana.

[Jintu]

Few screens from b4; may upload additional screens later:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...CB4/th_b-8.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...CB4/th_b-7.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...CB4/th_b-6.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...CB4/th_b-5.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...CB4/th_b-4.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...CB4/th_b-3.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...CB4/th_b-2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...CB4/th_b-1.jpg

[Man0warr]

Companies have done graphical updates, or atleast animation/model updates (EverQuest with Luclin for example). But it's not going to happen at this stage of beta, art assets take longer than any other change to make. Trust me, they have heard the complaints about the race models and animations plenty in alpha, so they might already be working on something or planning to but that's not something they can have out in a month or even 6 months.

I don't see how this game has a bigger chance of DOA than AoC. AoC had zero endgame and in general everything after level 20 was unfinished and unpolished.
Rift has some problems, but so far the dev team has responded after each beta and made changes. Scott Hartsman is one of the best in the business.

[Katlan]

It's not so much about how the game looks as much as how it looks while in motion.

It's this. A game can be ugly graphically and yet they can do a lot w/ the animation's / textures and make it look good. For example, AoC looked rly good at the time it was released... but have you gone back and looked at that game? It looks like a PoS now (and that's even w/ the dx11 upgrade). WAR still holds up to its animation to this day. WoW is another good example of a game w/ lacking graphics, but the design team makes the most of it and makes the game / animations look good for what it is. XI has held up over the years also and still looks good.

I think most people don't have issues w/ a game that isn't graphically superior or great, it's just how good the design team works w/the graphics and animations. If this game had fluid animations (I'm not talking physics, you don't need it to make stuff look good), people's impressions would be a lot better. But, as it is, the second you log into the game you notice these shortcuts and it impacts a lot of people's enjoyable because fluid animations help ppl get into the game. After all, your gonna be staring / watching these animations for ages to come, so they better look good.

A lot of the Screenshots look good because it doesn't show the game in motion lol