More stuff from my labor day roundup, this time featuring Rift and other stuff that I'm not playing now. EQ2 should have happened before this, but I was working on the bonus exp weekend over there and I finished writing the below material first.
Rift
Much as I like my level 50 Cleric on paper, I'm thinking I may have chosen horribly in terms of class. Cleric melee is slow and plodding. Cleric casting is powerful, but includes so much passive healing that the content feels trivial. I actually enjoyed Purifier healing, but it seems you don't actually need that level of healing power, and could have gone for something paired with Justicar that does more damage instead. Ironically, the game's relatively open soul system just leaves me wishing I could pick from ALL the souls, instead of merely a quarter of them.
If there is indeed a new parallel leveling path in the expansion, the best bet to hold my interest would be to re-roll with a different calling. The downside would be fifty levels just to get back into the the new expansion endgame content, and there's limited evidence that I actually enjoy soloing in Rift that much.
Others
Ironically, my next major new release may be Borderlands 2. I don't ordinarily play first person shooters, but I got a free copy for purchasing a new nVidia 660 Ti graphics card. I may or may not like the game, but at no cost to me I think I'd at least give it a try to see how it looks with the new hardware.
Guild Wars 2 is a question mark - I like some of the things I've been hearing, but I wouldn't mind seeing how the game holds up as people get out of the newbie areas. Access to the game's beta was unusually structured in terms of how much of the content players could see and how often they'd be allowed online, so I don't think we have any information to judge the game's longevity yet. If I had time, this would be a tougher call, but I don't have time. Ironically, being an MMO tourist makes it EASIER to sit out a major launch, because it isn't GW2 versus "same old" in one game, it's GW2 versus "same old" in eight different games, at least one of which I'm not going to be done with at any given time.
Amongst other MMO's, in principle I can sign back onto Vanguard, but I don't know that the monthly fee was what was keeping me away from that game after trying it out last year anyway. Allods remains vaguely on the list of major non-subscription MMO's I have yet to try.
Finally, the console roundup - I'm currently working on Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. Other games on my radar if/when I replace the console due to broken disc drive include Infamous 2, Uncharted 3, FF XIII-2, and possibly the two remaining Assassin's Creed games that will be out by then.