Oli Welsh writes: With Lord of the Rings Online, Turbine may not have delivered the World of Warcraft rival some were expecting – but it did deliver a superior MMORPG, and then serve it with so much new content that we thought it was worth 9/10 not once but twice. Now it’s winding up to the release of LOTRO’s first expansion, and after getting the lowdown on Mines of Moria, we spoke to executive producer Jeffrey Steefel about where he sees the game’s present, and future. Eurogamer Talks to Turbine’s Jeffrey Steefel
Category: Gaming
The folks from Turbine write: Turbine, Inc. announced today that The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria, the first expansion for the award-winning massively multiplayer online game, has entered the final stages of its Beta Program. Players across North America and Europe are invited to sign up for a chance to participate in the Beta Program at unlocktheminesofmoria.com. More details follow in the official press release. In addition, Turbine has released new screenshots for the upcoming expansion. Continue reading “LOTR Online: Mines of Moria News”
At the recent gaming convention GenCon, Fantasy Flight Games (publisher of the Lord of the Rings and War of the Ring boardgames) released some new details on the forthdoming ‘Middle-earth Quest’ adventure boardgame, as reported on boardgamegeek.com by one G. Purcell (bracketed
remarks are mine):
- It *is* still in development [some feared it had been abandoned]
- The time period is after Bilbo left the Shire, but before the Lord of the Rings book [sic – he presumably means ‘before the Shadow of the Past visit by Gandalf’]
- You won’t play the LotR heroes, but will encounter them (i.e. Aragorn, off looking for Gollum)
- The box size is … about the size of War of the Ring box [not ultra-huge like their StarCraft and World of Warcraft boardgames]
- It contains some exciting new mechanics that they’re not ready to announce yet
- It’s being designed by [FFG founder and sometimes game designer] Christian Petersen himself
- Current estimate of release is Spring 2009
Turbine, Inc. announced today its partnership with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment to distribute The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria, the first retail expansion for the award-winning massively multiplayer online game, in North America. In conjunction with this announcement, Turbine also unveiled its fall product lineup including two titles to be available at retail and a digital-only title for existing subscribers. More details follow in the official press release.
In addition, Turbine has released new concept art for the upcoming expansion, which depicts some of the environments, monsters and the Lothlorien region to be added in the fall.
Continue reading “Turbine Announces Fall Expansion Partnership with Warner Bros.”
Meghan Rodberg, Online Community Manager for Turbine, Inc., writes: We’re pleased to announce that the latest free content for The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar Book 14: The Ring-forges of Eregion, is now live on the Turbine servers! Book 14 brings us one step closer to The Mines of Moria with the Volume II prologue. Players can witness the Fellowship departing Rivendell for Mordor! Book 14 also offers many new features, quests, and enhancements to both the PVE game and monster play. The full release notes are available on the LOTRO Lorebook, LOTRO’s official wiki, here!.
Turbine has also released a handful of new Book 14 screenshots depicting the new Moria prelude quests.
Rohan from GameTrailers TV sends us a heads up that they will have an exclusive trailer of the upcoming ‘The Lord of the Rings: Conquest’ game:
Friday night, Saturday morning, 1AM PDT weR’re having the exclusive game debut of Lord of the Rings: Conquest. Along with the first trailer, we’ve interviewed the game developer, Pandemic Studios, about how they created the game and even constructed an alternate LOTR universe where evil conquers over good! Being a LOTR fan and a gamer – I have to say, it’s a great episode.
Tune into GameTrailers TV this Saturday at 1AM PDT on the Spike Network. [View the Teaser for the Show]