Tuesday, January 25, 2011  Rift Beta: First Impressions  I spent
some time playing the Rift Beta last week. Specifically, I had
the opportunity to participate in Rift Beta 5 from Tuesday
through Friday. I chose to play a Defiant Warrior. In those four
days I managed to reach level 19, completed a buttload of
quests, helped close many rifts and joined in on some PvP
action.  Below are my first impressions.  Probably the first
thing I noticed when first starting the game was how polished it
was, beginning with the game launcher and patcher. I had no
problems getting the patches (about one every day during this
beta) and the patcher even told me that I needed to update my
video drivers, which turned out to be true. Only a couple of
times did I have trouble connecting to the servers, but overall,
the login experience was exemplary.  Second thing you'll notice
is how similar Rift is to a World of Warcraft. Sure there are
some bloggers and plenty of players in-game who get upset
whenever the comparison is mentioned