DC Universe Online F2P - 1 November

Yep, DC Universe Online is hitting F2P streets in 1 of November. So if your dream is to be Batman, Superman or Joker (or other DC Universe heroes) sidekick, here is your chance.

Small info can be found here.

You can also find the F2P gameplan grid right here.

I always wanted to be Batman sidekick. :p

Rift got soul!

On my last post about Rift, i end up forgetting one important aspect of the game, the classes. Rift classes take an extra to most classes in other mmo games.

Like in most mmo's, Rift boost the usual tank, healer dps class, with an added support class - support classe usually is the class that can bring extra healing, or extra dps goodies for the group. Besides that, and much like in EQ2, we have 4 archtype classes, Warrior, Cleric, Mage and Scout. And here is where the big difference comes. Let's take EQ2 example. If you pick a fighter class, you have to pick either an Shadowknight or Paladin or Guardian or Beserker or Monk or Bruiser (lots of or), and from 1 to 90 you only will be the one you pick - sure you can betray between either Shadowknight or Paladin for instance, but it requires a bit of work. In Rift, you create a warrior, and while you progress the game, you get souls for warrior, which each soul represents a type of warrior - paladin for instance. But each possible build allows you to have up to 3 souls, so for instance your initial warrior could be, Paladin, Warlord and Void Knight, all in a single build. The way it ends up on this build, depends on how you invest your points on each soul (it's the same as talent tree in WoW). Fed up of that build? No problem, go to your trainer and reset it and put new souls in. Each archtype has 8 souls, so you can fiddle up with builds quite alot. Got a build you like? Well save it, and create a new soul. Each character can have up to 5 different soul builds, so you have a lot of playground. What it's said here applies for each archtype, so you can imagine how builds one can get in 4 different archtypes. Also each archtype features a pvp soul (that's a 9th soul).

So this is yet another interesting aspect of the game, that makes it stand a bit different of most mmo's out there. Allowing a big feedling around on classes, should be fun for those who like to experiment on different types of play style.

I will try to go further in on each class in a later post.

Look, i'm playing Rift!

I've been playing Rift the past 3 months. Before that, i would always said to anyone i wouldn't try. I guess just because i was being stuborn. But a friend of mine manage to convince me to play it...

So what can i say of Rift? Well i have to be frank, it feels much like World of Warcraft sometimes. You have the typical quests, you have the same type of crafting, same type of dungeons, gameplay feels the same, you need reputation to get things of vendors, pvp is based on battlegrounds (although there are also pvp servers - i'm in a pve one), same type of mounts (not flying yet), well anything you can remember from WoW it's there. 

Except, there is more then in WoW. First off and the most notorious, is the rifts. These rifts consist of some sort of public quest, where everyone can gather for the same purpose, basically closing it. Each rift offers a set of objectives, divided in several phases. Complete one and the next one starts, until eventually it's closed. Rifts can be found anywhere in world. They will sometimes send off some sort of invasions, that will attack cities and npcs on their way to their objective. Either closing rifts or killing invasions will net you rewards, that you can use  to get better gear. That's more or less the mechanic around rifts.

Besides rifts, there is also zone events. Basically, zone events are a larger scale rift event, that pops in one zone, and brings like a lot of more action. These zone events have specific objectives, like close a certain amount of rifts, stop a number of invasions, avoid wardstones of being destroyed, etc. Managed to get all the objectives complete, and the final boss will pop up. Usually to defeat it, requires some raid effort. 

In this is what i liked in Rift. Besides all the regular WoW gameplay, these zone events, gives a nice distraction of the usual quest go here kill 10 rats. Sometimes, i would just forget all my quest, and would just go rift hunt. It's a refreshing change of pace from the constant quest grind.

When you finally reach maximum level, the mechanic of game works like WoW with the added zone events that you will want to do. Besides that, Trion implemented on last game update, a new Planar Attunement thing, that works much like an AA system of EQ2 or Age of Conan (i dont know the Age of Conan one). So even that you reached the final level 50, you will continue getting experience for this Planar Attunement. So far tier 1 of the Planar Attunement, hasnt proved much interesting but i'm hoping tier 2 and 3 will be better. There is also the so called Chronicles, which are 2 person dungeons, that are design for fresh level 50's.

Dungeons at 50, are all the dungeons you can come accross while levelling, but scaled to level 50 difficulty. There is also the expert and raid rifts, which are rifts of increased difficulty, being the expert rift made for a group of 5, much like a dungeon group, and rift raid set for a group of 20. Haven't raided the regular raid dungeons yet.

Pvp is rank based, get enough prestige, and you rank up, till i think rank 8 (maximum). Prestige can only be gain at level 50, while favour can be gain since you first do pvp.

Other thing that made me stay in game, is the fact that i happened to join a nice casual and friendly guild, and that is making my staying on Rift a bit more pleasant. I guess having a good guild makes a difference in any game.

Overall the game is not that innovative. But i'm having fun playing it. My brother sometimes says to me, "oh fun, you are playing WoW 2.0" - it's true what he says, but i'm enjoying it.

Fallen Earth is now F2P!

It's now up the F2P version of Fallen Earth.

Been one of the games i enjoyed but that only played like for 3 or 4 months overall, this change to f2p will be a nice change of pace for me, from the regulars Everquest 2 and Rift. (yeah i'm playing it!)

The great thing about Fallen Earth 2, is that everything you can wear is craftable and for me, which i like crafting, is a great thing. Another thing, is that the game is sort of a sandbox game, where you can do whatever you want, while leveling, makes the game really interesting. Also the game works, besides of the usual level up, a skill system, which is another big plus for me. So sandbox, crafting, skill system, thumbs up.

Don't have a Fallen Earth account? Just get one here!

And let me get back to my toon. :)