Trion Worlds certainly knows how to play an iTZKooPA. The strong showing of Rift in beta and a discounted Founder’s Price are enticing, but the stupid companion pet once again sealed the deal, causing me to purchase the Digital Collector’s Edition. Bundled in there faux package was an extra four days of playtime – assuming I could stand in a queue for hours on end. In fact, I did, and here’s what I encountered during my early travels.

The User Interface (above) is the first feature everyone notices about a game. EverQuest gave birth to WoW’s UI and that design has pretty much become standard – action bars at the bottom and to the right, map to the upper right, character and enemy portraits on the left with combat damage and healing cascading over your head at center screen. What blew me away by Rift’s implementation is the incredible amount of customization the default UI allows. Placement, size, scale, docking, it’s all there out of the box. I was a bit overwhelmed by the scope, to be honest.

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