The Cat Context Podcast #3 is on track for a Monday release! Topics include Diablo 3 (natch), tips on mastering the hat market in Team Fortress 2, and Liore will tell the sad story of how she lost a weekend to Tropico 4.

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Late last year I wrote a post titled “Why aren’t you playing RIFT?” in which I wondered why, despite all the things I ostensibly love about RIFT and Trion, the game just didn’t hold my interest beyond a couple of months. The comments were filled with folks who felt the same: the game was well-made and well-run but not different enough from WoW to keep the burnouts (myself included) entertained. And that was that. Until yesterday.

Yesterday Trion officially announced their first expanion for RIFT, Storm Legion, and in the space of a press release I went from not having anything to look forward to on the MMO horizon to demanding a release date and planning my alts. Trion has been infamous for turning out out well made patch-based content at a rapid pace since RIFT launched and admittedly much of my anticipation for this expansion is based on the good will their development team has built up, but get a look at some of these advertised features:

• A new soul (aka a new role/spec) for each calling (rogue, mage, warrior, cleric)
• New continents that will triple the size of the current world, including a new cross-faction capital city
• 7 dungeons, 3 raids, and a new Chronicle (solo instance)
• “New rift gameplay” — a little vague, but okay
• Capes! (This seemed like an odd selling point but the official forums are full of people thrilled about capes so good on them.)
• “Customizable spaces allow players and guilds to own a sliver of Telara”

Wait, what? Let’s look at that last one again:

• “Customizable spaces allow players and guilds to own a sliver of Telara”

rift storm legion concept art

Oh, be still my heart. Is this.. player housing? Can I decorate it? The internet is, unsurprisingly, low on details about this development but it sounds like players/guilds will be able to create their own home instance. Found a good location at a city inn? Create a copy of it in your own Dimension and “customize” it. I am going to be keeping a very close eye on this feature, but it sounds very promising. (Bookshelves, Trion. Give me bookshelves. Oh, and a giant fur “Rob Stark”-style cloak, while you’re at it.)

Also, the concept art is weird and awesome. Also also, three faction open world PvP just hit the Player Test Servers! Trion has proven themselves to be awesome at liberating all the best features of other MMOs for their own game.

So why am I not playing RIFT? I’m … not sure anymore. I’ll probably wait until a little closer to the expansion’s Fall release date to resubscribe and finish levelling up my cleric, but the initial details about Storm Legion has definitely earned the game a top spot on my anticipated games list.