For those of you who enjoy knowing about the behind the scenes work of how a game is created and all the work that goes into it (and who fantasize about doing the same thing for a living in the future) here is a look into the group at Turbine that brought us LOTRO Mines of Moria from G4TV.
There are 2 videos, aptly named Part 1 & Part 2
This is the intro from the site:
Part 1: “This week, Casey and The MMO Report bring you a very special episode focusing on the new Lord of the Rings Online expansion The Mines of Moria. We visited Turbine Studios to get the inside scoop on just what it takes to bring Middle Earth to life in the metaverse. This new expansion brings 10 additional levels, the Runkeeper and Warden classes, and a new Legendary Weapons system that’s sure to add countless hours of tweaking and customization to your daily grind. But the big news is the Mines; a massive Dwarven kingdom that trumps any underground dungeon we’ve seen before. Oh yeah, and you get to chill with a Balrog.”
Part 2: “On this Thanksgiving day, we bring you part 2 of our Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria launch special, giving you even more of the finer details of the first retail expansion for the only Tolkien-based MMO. We got some one-on-one time with Turbine’s resident Lore Monkey, a personal tour through the mines themselves, and Casey even got the chance to become an orc.”
As you know, Lord of the Rings Online’s first retail expansion pack Mines of Moria was released on Nov 17 after a lot of hype and anticipation. 1st person reviews have been good and 2 are included here. LOTRO Mines of Moria is available for $36.99 at AMAZON.com (cheapest price I’ve found- Walmart is at $39.82) Amazon.com still my favorite vendor for games-usually cheapest price, they ship promptly and will make it right if any problems.
This is a good quick synopsis of what you will find from a GameSpot first impression:
Although the original Lord of the Rings Online had its fair share of caves to explore, Mines ofMoria offers a whole new area that’s completely below ground. It’s the stomping ground of the dwarves, who populate a lot of the area and congregate at the major city of Moria. Aside from this completely new area to explore, the expansion will add a new level cap and two new classes, and will let you forge legendary items. The level cap will now jump up to level 60, and the two new classes are the runekeeper and the warden. The runekeeper is particularly interesting, given that it will be the first completely magic-based character in the game.
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For a more indepth 1st person review of someone who has taken Mines of Moria through its paces here are some snips of a very good review from Matt McLean from MPOG.com with a link to the article:
…After consulting with the map, I discover there are actually a couple of ways to get into Eregion proper. I decide to head towards the Giant Halls south of Rivendell. It’s a pretty straight shot into Eregion from there, and before you know it, I’m in undiscovered country. I roam around Eregion for a while, picking up one of the travel locations early on within Eregion. As more of the map is discovered, I’m really blown away by the vista before me.
Eregion is a landscape of mountains and green grassy areas…rolling hills and crumbling ruins. It’s a beautiful place, and in the distance, you can make out the mountains which house the Mines ofMoria. I know that’s what I’m really after, so I head south and east and approach the gate to the Walls of Moria.…Legendary weapons are a great new aspect of LotRO that I’ve been looking forward to for months. This gives you the opportunity to create a weapon that’s made specifically for you and you alone. Identifying the weapon lets you see what its legacy is. The legacy of the weapon tells you what special stats that particular weapon gives you. Usually there are anywhere from 3 to 5 different stat modifiers on each weapon. These legacies can be increased as the weapon levels up..Read more HERE
GamerZines offers free magazines for XBox 360, Playstation 3, PC gaming, Sony PSP, Nintendo DS and MMORPG gamers. All professionally written, they are available for free immediate download as PDFs.
Included in the line up is MMOZINE, the free MMORPG magazine which this month offers previews of the two major MMO events for November, the expansions for Lord ofthe Rings Online and World of Warcraft. In LotRO, we explore the new Mines of Moria area and examine the new features the expansion brings, while in Warcraft we take a tour round Dalaran, the sky-bound city being brought into play in Wrath of the Lich King.
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