Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar Comments by Rob Fahey

Yes any MMO that isn't WoW is pointless because everyone loves WoW so much there doesn't need to be any alternatives. The only choice should be Horde or Alliance. Choice is bad. WoW is your god.

Worthless WoW clone? That your informed opinion? I'm playing LOTRO and I disagree very much.

For those wondering about the graphics and immersion, enjoy a few postcards from Rivendell: http://ambernight.org/archives/2007/04/2...

Middle Earth is a beautiful place.

To all the 'it's a WoW clone' posters.....so what? It's a good one. To all the 'WAR will rule' posters...it's all 'potential' we see. At this moment in time, people can play and enjoy LOTRO.

WoW wasn't too different from other games either. They did what Turbine did this time around: pick up what's good, improve on what's bad, polish it up and bring out a playable, fun game.

Not bore people to tears with a 'Grand Vision(tm)' for years and then releasing a game that needs about 3 million patches to work properly. cough*Vanguard*cough*

Totally agree, calling this a WoW 'clone' is incorrect. As I said before, it evolves the genre in a similar way to WoW did when it was released.

Archaich example, but would you call OutRun a pointless Pole Position clone? But the ethos of the game is still extremely similar (race until your time runs out), the user interface is identical (steering wheel, 2 pedals, lo-hi gearstick).

The history (and future) of gaming is driven by constant refinement (with the odd moments of revolution sprinkled in, granted!) and that is no bad thing.

Weird, MMORPG haters seem to be a much nerdier group than people actually playing the games, if this thread is anything to go by.

Haha that is a joke surely, why cant something look beautiful in a game? Artists painted the textures, artists sculpted the 3d models. Saying that the art in a game is simply attributed to 'nice graphical effects' is like saying that the Mona Lisa is not a beautiful painting, but simply just paint slapped onto a canvas in a 'nice' way.

Xiphos, if you ever venture into the National Gallery be prepared to witness some very 'nice paint-based effects'.

You'll find them under the section labelled 'art'.

Personally, I have been to Canada in the Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer. also in the Caribbeans and a number of other beautiful locations (Swiss Alps, various scenic US states, ...).

Artwork is artwork and real life is real life. You can find beauty in art though. And Turbine's world is certainly very pleasing to the eye.

@swede & StarchildHypocrethes

Lol, genius! Really funny - well done guys! :)

"Weird, MMORPG haters seem to be a much nerdier group than people actually playing the games, if this thread is anything to go by."

So true Uncle Lou, so true.

To be fair, MMORPG's are geeky :)

Seriously, these types of games are right up there with the Flight Simulators for nerdiness

You're posting on a game website, thus you are presumably a gamer, thus you are a geek/nerd at some level. There is no use denying it - give in.

LOTRO is the only true MMORPG [GW doesn't count I guess] I like.

I broke down and bought LOTRO, despite the fact that I usually tire of MMO's pretty quickly. This review made a point of the use of instancing, and I thought that might have been leveraged to present more complex content that a small party or solo'er could enjoy. But in fact, LOTR is worse than WoW ever was in terms of throwing the MMO mechanics in your face. Repeatedly I find myself standing around in rooms full of players waiting for some alledgedly unique enemy to spawn - sometimes with two or three of that same enemy's corpses lying around in plain view! Umm... suspension of disbelief, anyone? This is exactly the kind of MMO silliness that could/should be worked around via instancing, but LOTR's content just isn't sufficiently refined.

What I'd like to see is a good LAN-based multiplayer game that is not MMO, but more like a cooperative play through an intelligent single-player RPG. This could be realized as a standalone game, or as an episodic online game with better instanced content. I didn't like Guild Wars right off, but maybe I need to revisit that. Or maybe D&D Online is closer to what I'm imagining.

LOTRO is very pretty, and the writing is a step up from WoW's, but it's essentially the same old treadmill all over again. I've been playing for hours and I don't think I've made a single decision to impact my success one way or the other. Like most recent MMO's, it's more a toy than a game.

Hey Rob, PVE is not 'player versus enemy', is 'player versus environment'.

Hey ! Any chance someone could e-mail me a 10 day pass/buddy key?
It's for a gaming podcast so the guys can review Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar.

Please !! :]
lootninja@hotmail.co.uk

Has to be EU version please.
Would be REALLY appreciated.
They'll give you a shout out on the show :] I'll send links !
THANK YOUUUU !!!

Near-perfect game. It's just been launched and already, it gives you such a complete experience, it can only get better.

This is just a re-badged World of Warcraft which adds nothing new to MMORPGs. Yes very tedious gameplay loads of wandering around aimlessly looking for things to find and do. Nice music though.

I was going to stick with this, having finally made up my mind on my MMO of choice. Then, as a level 10, I got killed on a level 6 quest, shattering my attempt at getting the last 2 titles for not dying. So screw you and your badly chosen quest level! It might have only happened once, but that's all it takes to put me off an MMO.

I say that, WoW did the same thing but I forgave it immediately. There's just something missing with LOTRO, but I can't put my finger on it. I could see why people prefer it, but the fact it's based on LOTR means I pretty much know how everything will look, even after an hours play. I'm returning to Azeroth.