rift beta day 1. 1pm-1:20pm As expected at 1 pm EST the log in servers are not responding.

There was a small update to the patcher and a 49 M update to the game that went swimmi ngly, but everyone is probably trying to log in at the same time. 1:21pm Even the forum is whiting out. Well got in to the main pages a couple of times but would then 404. 1:24 Logging in again after letting it sit. "ARGH!" The little % circle got to 89% and then fizzled and now it's back to get ting a time out at 49%. There's a tip bubble it reads: "Tip: Instanced dungeons are designed for full gr oups and include enemies that are more difficult than normal." 1:27 I'm not sure if hitting okay and watching the circle fill to 49% is actuall y retrying to do anything but play that lil' animation over. 1:30 Okay so a cancel and restart from the .exe gets me to 89% the first time he % is starting to kill me) and I got a new tip. "Tip: Crafting trainers can found at the main town in each zone." My internet may not be helping. Other testers in my area? My average download eed changes every second from 744 to 500 to 344 to .9 bouncy bouncy. My pings DC and NY are still ~50ms but LA is 140ms at the moment. West coast!!! (t be sp to

1:33 I got in! And all the servers are full.... Let's see how this goes. Joined the Sunrest RP-PVP server and now creating a character. The BAHMI are muc h larger than I was expecting them to be. The models are gorgeous. The default E thian I have looks like Assiv Manvi. *should also note I just turned down most of the default video settings at this time a notch less than default on most of the slider options. 1:39 Well made my Bahmi how I wanted. Not a lot of hair styles, but every other slider is pretty in depth. But then when I hit create with the name "Jambi" it c rashed to desktop. 1:40 Trying this again. AND failed to connect again. Probably aim at a less full server when I log in. The original 4 showed up red and there were 4 more added. "Tip: Right-clicking an enemy will start auto-attack. This will also send your e t in to attack if you have one." 1:43 I don't mind seeing the servers so full. I just wonder how many people are trying to log in because of desktop crashes vs people in the beta? 1:45 I'm in again! Round 2. All the servers showing up this time. Briarcliff her e I come. PVP server. Switched to medium default settings. Looks darker now. 1:49 Got Assiv made, Rogue Eth. But went to finish his creation and got told the server may be busy and back to ol' 49% screen. Now dubbed the 49er. ON CHARACTER CREATION: I think eye width and height could be beneficial sliders to have on their own. Epic starter video. 1:56 Controls are MMO average and very responsive. The starting area isn't too c rowded and there's a lot of interesting textures even on medium settings. Framer ate looks smooth but I don't have actual numbers. I'm not jittering on anything. Quests start much the same as World of Warcraft or EQ2, but has a nice clean int erface.

Went Rogue > Chose Blade Dancer. Looks like combo point rogue mechanics. Animations for the character are pretty awesome. Targeted a large machine and as I ran past it he leaned to keep his eye on it. Hate to say it but I think some voice overs could go a long way. I have no perso nal desire to read any of this stuff. It's blocks of uninteresting text. 2:00 Holy crap the /dance is awesome and scary all at once. He really does look like Assiv Manvi. Finally in combat. The animation feel and feedback was excelle nt. It's familiar but looks awesome. 2:11 Playing and leveled up. I like the progression screen and how the advanceme nt looks and feels at this level. 20 to 35 fps with 117 ms latency. Not a helpfu l crew so fare in the chat. Jumping seems odd, but every other animation is awes ome. 2:20 Immature community so far. Main Hand / Off Hand clarification in the charac ter window would be a good idea. 2:37 Apparently some fps issues. Too many weirdos in the chat to get any real in formation out of anyone. Liner quests to get through the starting area. Which I could honeslty do without. Just 1 point on the odd numbered levels it seems like too, which isn't very rewarding. I'd be hard pressed to call this game a next-g eneration MMO anytime soon. Seems polished and using forumlas well established. I'm not sure if the dynamic content will make that much of a difference. Gamepla y is very similar to WoW or LotRO. 3:30 Quested for a solid hour and got a lot of stuff done. Just 1 point per leve l feels slow, but I guess it's about right. Got to my class trainer to find skil ls have ranks I have to money SINK into?! Disappointing. That's going into feedb ack for sure. 4:09 Got out of the starting zone via a Rift event. Was pretty cool and I like t hat it's communial. Enjoying my class so far too. Basically I'm a combat spec ro gue from WoW. With some magical abilities like a ranged fire attack. I see a lot of the soul working to be a way to multi class in an interesting way. It doesn' t feel too grind-heavy since all of those quests were tailored to move you throu gh a liner event. The map I came out too looks huge and my frame rate actually g ot a lot better. Must have been the lighting effects due to the 'future'. 4:18 Bug kept display names invisible and the quest line didn't go anywhere. So logged out to rest the PC for a bit and my eyes. Felt like an adventure. 10pm - 1am Got to level 10 taking breaks here and there. Having 2 skill trees is cool, but early levels it seems beneficial to just follow one. Getting some of the basic skills to fill up bar nicely. A few bugs, but nothing major. A macro s ystem is needed for sure, and the quests all seem uninsired. RIFT events are coo l, you just join everyone in beating waves of NPCs and try to score high for mer its you use to buy specialized items. Faction grinding has made it's way into th e game, I hate faction grinding. rift beta day 2