Lorien “Ramen” Carney, Community Relations Specialist for The Lord of the Rings Online writes: We’ve just posted a new Point of Interest on the official LOTRO web site, the North Downs area known as the Fields of Fornost. Today’s selection is served with two new screenshots that depict the somber environment and crumbling monuments of this once-proud region. “Travel to the Fields of Fornost in the North Downs, home to the once-principle city of the Kingdom of Arnor.” [More]
Category: Gaming
Jeff Anderson, president and chief executive officer of Turbine Inc., told SCI FI Wire that Lord of the Rings Online: The Shadows of Angmar is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game that takes its cues directly from the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, but that also expands on them. “[We] took a lead from the master [and] focused [the game] on the first book [in the trilogy] and covered the storyline as Frodo and Sam leave the Shire and start moving towards … Rivendell,” Anderson said in an interview at the New York Comic Con over the weekend. “Post-launch we are going to tell more of the story as the fellowship leaves that area and goes forth … all the way to Mount Doom.”
The main storyline of the game covers many of the same events as the first book of Tolkien’s trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring, Anderson said. “Everything from Gandalf being captured … [to] Strider meeting up with the fellowship at The Prancing Pony [to] the fight on Weathertop,” he said. “We’ve got all those moments in the game, and we communicate that through a variety of different mechanics: through text, through voice-over, through game cinematics. Those all make sure that the player is aware of where the story is.” [More]
Dave Taylor from gamerzines.com writes: I thought you guys at The One Ring might be interested in the hands on preview we’ve got in the new issue of PCGZine. We’re a free PC games magazine written by professional games journalists in the UK. The magazine is made available in PDF format for free download. All you need is Adobe Reader (we recommend updating to version 8 to avoid issues if you have Internet Explorer 7 installed). The magazine includes video and multimedia on top of the editorial.
We were fortunate enough to be shown around Middle Earth by one of the developers so our preview is well informed and there’s lots of screens and even some amusing dancing videos in the magazine. And for those who know it all, there is even a mini interactive quiz where people can test their Tolkien knowledge. [More]
NEW YORK, Jan 25 (Reuters Life!) – From Middle-earth, the creatures of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” will rise into a new digital world in April with the launch of an online game which has raised the hackles of among some die-hard fans. Game publishers Turbine Inc. and Midway Games Inc. will on Thursday unveil details of the highly-anticipated massively multiplayer online game, “The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar” with a launch date of April 24. The game’s creators are assuring fans of Tolkien’s epic fantasy adventure that the game recreates the vast world of Middle-earth with dedication to the books and players able to create thousands of virtual characters. [More]
In 1955, shortly after “The Lord of the Rings” was published, J. R. R. Tolkien began to worry his creation had become a “vast game” for some readers. This was not good, he wrote, even “for me, who find that kind of thing only too fatally attractive.” Now, Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” and the imaginary setting he painstakingly built, Middle-earth, has become that “vast game.” Tomorrow in Las Vegas, Turbine Inc. of Westwood, Mass., is to announce an April 24 release date for The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, the year’s most anticipated massively multiplayer online game, or M.M.O. A digital Middle-earth will open its gates to thousands of virtual characters embarking on quests, plumbing subterranean realms and slaughtering plenty of goblins and trolls. [More]
Ramen, Community Relations Specialist for The Lord of the Rings Online writes: We’ve posted the first in our series of Alpha Journals today, containing the first impressions of some of our LOTRO Alpha Program participants: We simply couldn’t wait any longer to bring you Thursday’s update, so we decided to post it today. Take a look at some of the first impressions of LOTRO from members of our Alpha Program! [More]