Rock, Paper, Shotgun

It’s really the silly season. A week after the latest expansion to Azeroth, Lord of the Rings Online’s Mines of Moria has been released (And EQ2 too). We interviewed Jeffrey Steefel about it a couple of months back when I had a play on the closed Beta code. And while I enjoyed it, the season being so packed, I haven’t had a chance to go back and play the open Beta. And now it’s too late. Man! Anyway – here’s the new launch trailer to tease what really can be described as the Ur-dungeon.
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We’ve spoke to Turbine Producer Jeffrey Steefel before, but with the forthcoming Mines of Moria expansion, we grasped the chance to do so again. Coming fresh from hands-on with the Beta code in the game, we sat down to talk about how far LOTR:Online has come, the importance of Moria to the RPG, the really novel Legendary Weapons system (which will be the feature which everyone steals, I strongly suspect) and the current state of the Fantasy MMO. The transcript hides beneath the cut. Speak Friend, and enter.
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Pipe-playing simulator Lord of the Rings Online has had its first expansion pack unveiled. Appropriately, it’s allowing those enthusiastic hobbits into the Mines of Moria. Codies are calling it “Volume II”, which implies a fairly hefty chunk of new game, but we’ll have to wait until Autumn to find out the full details. In the meantime we know that it will,

“let players explore the ancient underground cities of the dwarves, battle epic characters in the depths, face off with the Watcher, be a part of the fateful release of Durin’s Bane and more!”

The full list of features are below.

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