Turbine has recently announced Volume II of Lord of the Rings Online, the first retail expansion called Mines of Moria, which is expected to be release sometime this fall. Some big changes are heading for LOTRO including a raise in the level cap to 60, two new classes, called the Warden and Rune-keeper and a new item advancement feature which will allow players to craft legendary items that will level up just like players. For instance Sting, Bilbo’s dagger that he gave to Frodo, would be a legendary item.

Aside from the two new classes, all classes will receive new traits, skills, virtues and class quests. There will also be 6 new books added to the epic storyline which will take the player through 3 new regions, Lorien, Moria and another that has not yet been named.

Lord of the Rings Online executive producer Jeffrey Steefel has stated that the Mines of Moria will be one single continuous underground world, not broken up into different regions or instances. Which is very cool, maybe you’ll be able to hear the banging on the drums as your walking through. Players will also get the chance to do battle with the Balrog that took our Gandalf in the first book of LOTR.

All of this sounds great, but nothing has been mentioned of the PvP region and if any changes are planned for it. I would hope that they continue to improve this aspect of the game as there are many PvP fans in LOTRO.

We also have some concept art provided by Turbine.

So, like I said a week or so ago, I had planned on picking up Pirates of the Burning Sea. I am a huge fan of pirates and, as such, it only made sense for me to at least give the game a shot, right? Now I am here, I have been playing the game for about 3 days (I have been super busy this week) and I am starting to get curious as to whether or not other players feel the same things as I do about the game. I guess I’ll start from the top.

First, let me start by saying: Pirates of the Burning Sea is a refreshing take on MMORPGs. The game can be a whole lot of fun at times. This is all, of course, without mentioning the jaw-droppingly beautiful graphics. Seriously, sometimes after a ship battle with some NPCs I’ll just float around some looking at the water and sunset. It is a very nice touch, and one that, I think, breathes life into the game. Suffice it to say, I think that Pirates of the Burning Sea has nailed down all of the ship combat and movement. So what would I change from here?

Well the first, and most important thing I’d change about PotBS is the avatar design. Seriously, they look lifeless and generally give me the feel that they are stringed puppets. Sometimes, if I look closely enough I can almost convince myself that I see the strings. . . This is a very serious concern for the game, not because avatar movement/combat is a huge part of the game (it’s not), but rather because the developers have seen it fit to introduce the player to the game by starting him/her out as an avatar. Not a good idea, in my opinion, with those avatars. This also goes without saying that the avatar combat needs a general reworking as well.

In addition to the avatars, and their combat, the towns are also mostly abysmal. They are quiet, empty, and very much dead. I don’t mean there aren’t a lot of players there either. The starting town I was at had a bunch of other gamers inside and yet the town still felt dead. It could have been a Hollywood set for all I could see. When I say dead, I mean the NPCs don’t have much of a presence there. Now, I really hate to compare this game to World of Warcraft, really I do, but I have to go with what I know. In WoW, you’ll often notice that a lot of the towns have a whole lot of flare and presence. You’ll see guards on patrol, NPCs randomly roaming around yelling stuff out, and sometimes even fighting amongst the NPCs. It makes the towns feel alive, and it was one of my favorite aspects of WoW. I could be in a town with no other gamers and yet still not feel alone. In PotBS, I always feel like I am by myself. Of course I haven’t been to most of the towns so this could vary from place to place.

Well, that’s about it. There are some smaller things that I’d change if I could, but they really don’t require elaborating here. Like I said before, the game nails down the ship combat/movement, and even the economy is pieced together very well, as long as you are able to understand it. However, and I stand by this, one of the main things that is going to hold PotBS back is their avatar gameplay. While it’s not the main focus of the game, itself, it is still a big enough part of the game that it will cause a negative impact amongst new players. So please, Flying Labs, let’s get cracking on some fine tuning for that aspect of the game.

What would you like to change about Pirates of the Burning Sea? Let’s here it!

I was recently asked what I was playing since I had recently posted that I was contemplating giving LOTRO another shot. I’m glad to announce that I did not give in to LOTRO. Thankfully a friendly visitor of MMOCrunch sent me an invite to the Mythos beta which I have been playing in most of my free time. Geoff did a early Mythos preview about 2 weeks ago up to level 10, so I’ll just skip over the list of features the game offers and get right to my opinion of the game.

When I say this is a Diablo 2 clone, it really is almost exactly the same game, but with a 3D engine, different storyline and obviously being a MMO. The fact that it was so similar to Diablo 2 was something that I actually didn’t like when I first started playing. I mean D2 is nearly 8 yrs old, so for this game to come out with only a few new features is a big disappointment. I know its not D3, but considering that a few ex-blizzard developers are working on this I was expecting more. We’ll I can’t be that harsh, after all it’s still in beta so who knows, maybe they are still planning on adding more features.

Aside from being almost the same game as D2, the game is fun. D2 was hugely popular because it was fun and addictive and Mythos tries to capitalize on this by turning this type of game play into a MMO. Will they succeed? Honestly I don’t think so, there just isn’t enough new things in the game to separate it from Diablo 2. However I can see this game easily becoming my backup MMO if it takes the route of becoming a F2P MMO. I also think they need to add PvP in the game, forget hardcore mode and perm death, harcore mode should be free range PvP. Seriously, I’d rather get killed 10 times in a row by some prick then watch my lev 78 mage die a permanent death because the game lagged for 3 sec.

Thankfully the game is still in beta so this is not the last you’ll hear of Mythos from us. Hopefully they’ll continue to enhance the game and improve on what it already there. Go PVP!!

Btw, my character is a lev 15 fire mage, w00t!

Its been about 2 months since I quit Lord of the Rings Online so I’ve decided to take a look at what has changed since I quit and my thoughts on the game now that I’ve had some time to reflect. While I was playing, I was probably averaging 12 hrs/week with LOTRO, so that has freed up some time for me. Since I’ve quit I’ve had more time to explore other MMOs such as Tabula Rasa, which didn’t work out, and Exteel Beta which I’m still enjoying. I’m also currently playing Crysis, I know its not a MMORPG, but to hell with it, the game if f#$&’n awesome. Aside from the ridiculously beautiful graphics the game is just a breath of fresh air for FPS.

But enough on the awesomeness that is Crysis, this post is about LOTRO. When I think of why I quit, I’m not sorry and infact I wish I had left earlier. My favorite part of the game was prelevel 30, it was just fun exploring Middle Earth, seeing characters from the books and exploring my character’s skills. I’m a huge LOTR fan, so many of the locations and lore I was already familiar with and enjoyed this the most. Seeing a Ringwraith for the first time in game definitely sent a shiver up my spine. However as the game went on and the charm of being in Middle Earth faded I became bored, this is especially true once I hit the level limit.

At the point that I quit, I had visited nearly everything in the game, even though I hadn’t beaten all the bosses there was just not enough to do when I logged on. I’d search for groups to complete the last few areas that I hadn’t beaten, but 90% of the time I wouldn’t be able to find anyone. The guild I was in was pretty small, we only had about 6-7 ppl that had maxed out characters, so to get everyone online at the same time was difficult.

I hated the crafting system, so I didn’t do any.  Sorry but watching my character carve wood for 30 mins != fun.

The PvP was useless, it was entertaining for a little while, but with really no point to it I grew tired.  Basically I found myself running the same 4-5 quests over and over again trying to get my epic items, but after doing the same quest 10+ times, I ended up hating them and felt like I was wasting my time.

As a single player game, it would have been fantastic, however as a MMO, not so much.