Lion’s Arch post-Scarlet

Back during the beta weekend events, I already did a screenshot gallery of Lion’s Arch. I’ve always loved the style of the city and I couldn’t believe it could be a target and be destroyed one day. I did take the cues, though, and before anything happened, I did another screenshot gallery, just so I’d have enough pictures of the city. During the attack, I took just a few screenshots, as I was usually too busy trying to fight and survive in there.

Now that the dust is settling, I felt that I had to go there again and capture the scenery after Scarlet’s attack on Lion’s Arch. Yep, it’s definitely destroyed. There are places and areas where you think: “It’s not that bad.” And other corners, where you realize just how bad the attack really was. But, as usual, I’m not here to just go on and on and rant about the look of the city. I’m here to show you the pictures I have taken. So judge for yourselves! :)

Rift: Carnival companion picture gallery

The “Carnival of the Ascended” just went into its second week. This was originally meant to be the final week, but due to popular demand by players, Trion Worlds decided to extend the carnival by a week. This means that if you haven’t gotten enough prize tickets yet to get the rewards you want, there is still plenty of time left.

One Carnival Celebration Crate costs 150 prize tickets. If you do the weekly quest, which involves doing 50 carnival quests, you will get a crate as a reward. These crates can contain a companion. If you collect one of each kind, you will get Tito, another companion, as a reward. I initially didn’t want to complete the set, but then I got an item out of one of those crates which is worth quite a lot, so I could actually buy all the other companions of the auction house.

I find some of them plain ugly, to be honest. I like that not all companions in Rift are cute and cuddly, but that still doesn’t mean I’m a fan of such atrocities. ;) Anyway, I did not easily find pictures of some of them, so I didn’t know what I was getting until I had collected them and once you do that, they are bound to your character. Which is why I decided to make a screenshot gallery, in case others have the same issue and want to see what they are getting before buying or binding a companion.

Deadwater at full height

I was most impressed with Deadwater. It does not look dead to me at all. ;) The pictures probably don’t do it enough justice. It really looks like it’s some kind of liquid form moving and morphing. Also, its height is very impressive, at least to a dwarf. However, there are also several other companions that I do not like at all. Coradus and Bubbles, for example. And some are what I would call cute, at least for Rift’s standards which does feature some very unique looking creatures. Fuzzworth most notably. And Lubbytubs looks like a big friendly puppy. It can also get on its hind legs!

The gallery is complete. All companions that you need for the achievement plus Tito which you get as a reward for having all the others are pictured below! A big thank you to bookahnerk who helped along the way.

Alfred	Anuxy	Aschbacher
Bubbles	Cliklik	Conflagurous
Coradus	Deadwater	Fuzzworth
Gusto	Kepple	Kipp
Lubbytubs	Moonshadow	Noms
Sola	The Tickle Monster	Tito

First impressions of “Escape from Lion’s Arch”

I already did this for Origins of Madness. A post about my first impressions that is lacking in words, but rich in pictures. I think it just tells a lot more than I could say or write down here.

Just a few notes: I miss the marionette fight. It wasn’t perfect, but it had some great moments. The platforms allowed for small-scale fights that required a certain and very definite strategy (kite him into his own miiiiines!).

I haven’t talked to that many NPCs yet, but I did notice poor Evon Gnashblade. I still like him, but I have a soft spot for charr. :) What I did see was quite nice and full of flavour. I have also heard lots of others talk about various NPCs and cheer whenever they found them safe in Tyria.

A last look at Lion’s Arch

I know I have already released a post with a screenshot gallery for Lion’s Arch, but for quite some time, I’ve felt it doesn’t do the city enough justice. You can see my character in quite a few of those pictures and I actually don’t like that at all (and am still waiting for the 1st person view. I know it exists already, they just need to make it available for the general player base!). Other than that, I felt that some areas were missing.

Anyway, now or never, I guess? At least, in its current version. We only know that something will happen and Lion’s Arch will not be accessible after tomorrow’s patch. The future of LA is unknown.

Some of the new screenshots still show my character, but this isn’t because I was too incompetent, but instead I felt that some parts of Lion’s Arch are just too pretty to not be featured here, just because I could not take a screenshot of it without my character in it. Did I already say I can’t wait for that 1st person view? ;) When you’re on the ground, /sleep and camera movement can get rid of your character, but that emote does not work under water. So yeah, in those screenshots you can definitely see my asura.

But now, I present to you: Lion’s Arch 1.1 (with the already rebuilt area around the lighthouse which was destroyed during the Karka attack).

A charr and her swords

I was taking screenshots for another blog post and this is just too good to have it sit in my folder until the day I may finally write said blog post.