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

According to the official sites (both UK and US) the monthy fee hasn't been set. Which is a bit bloody stupid considering the game is out now. Probably waiting to see the initial uptake before deciding how much to fleece their player base by. :)

Monthly fee for pre-order players is 9 euro (6 quid) in 6 month subscriptions or a lifetime 150 euro (100 quid) subscription.

"According to the official sites (both UK and US) the monthy fee hasn't been set."

That's untrue. The monthly fees on the US servers at least were published back in February. I'm pretty sure the Codemasters comparison between Founder and regular account also mentioned them. Too lazy to search since I'm going for lifetime anyway. :P

As for stuttering, my wife's machine used to do it quite a bit. Some clean up (uninstalls, taking a look at msconfig, ...) and an update of the drivers for her onboard realtek audio chipset cured them.

Wendelius

duh duh dudu duh

roflmao

duh duh dudu duh

roflmao

I'm not interested in the Founders program, that's a limited offer anyway. And I'm not interested in a six month subscription: it might be shit, or run like shit. :)

The FAQ for both US and European LOTRO web sites, as of half an hour ago, had no details on the monthly fee. If they'd announced it, one would think it might be found there.

Either way, not making it easy for potential customers to see the monthly fees is a stupid way to do business.

I had zero interest in this game and not followed it's development or the progress thereof.

I now want to go out and buy it.

Damn you!

Goddamit. I'm actually curious to try this out.

Ordered.

I'm so weak. Swayed from complete disinterest into buying it by one review.

/shakes head despairingly

I just don't get MMO RPG's. I tried it again with this game...

Scenario:

I'm of to do a quest to find some artefacts in a mysterious dungeons. But then I find the dungeon is fucking filled with Elves, Hobbits and Humans running and jumping about shouting LOLcopters etc. How can you get any believable atmosphere in a game this way?

I much prefer a single player experience like Oblivion

Why are you guys so interested in a game that has virtually no PvP? I can't understand why MMORPGs without PvP get hype. I mean common, where is the fun? I want to build my character over time and then WtfPwn people in PvP, not repeatedl ponce around in instanced dungeons. Argh i don't undertand ><

You might as well play NWN over a LAN and you'd get the same result.

"Why are you guys so interested in a game that has virtually no PvP?"

You like PvP. I have ZERO interest in it. I'd actually avoid a PvP centered game (like Shadowbane, IIRC). Different strokes for different people.

You'd apparently be surprised at how many people don't have PvP on their shopping list. Besides, if PvP is introduced in the regular game itself rather than in its own separate environments, you face the challenge of having to balance classes and skills both for PvE and PvP, often resulting in suckage and much complaining on both fronts.

There is PvP though, its just concencual.

Additionaly, Monster play seems to be getting some pretty good feedback so far on the forums, i wouldnt be surprised if this eventually becomes a larger part of the game.

Played this a bit in beta and now in early access. So far it has been ace! Mind you , I only got to level 15 with a couple of chars so I haven't seen any mid-end-game material. One of the best aspects so far is that they have instances/raids that doesn't take 5 hours at least to complete. I've done some instances so far and none have taken more than 30 mins which is a good thing for a casual gamer like myself. In WoW I always felt left out since I couldn't dedicate at least 5 hours straight for even a newbie instance.

The only thing I don't like is the rather few alternatives in characters. But they are a bit restricted by Tolkiens background material so I don't mind that much.

Hardware reqs are not very steep. I run it nicely with medium settings at 1680*1050 with 3.4ghz, 2gb ram, X850XT.

I promised myself never again an mmorpg but I am hooked once again!

"There is PvP though, its just concencual.

Additionaly, Monster play seems to be getting some pretty good feedback so far on the forums, i wouldnt be surprised if this eventually becomes a larger part of the game."

Exactly. And it also means that Turbine can leave PvE pretty much untouched and tune monster Play against it. It's actually a very nice way of integrating it without forcing it down anyone's throat and allows to avoid most of the player class balancing nightmares.

Wendelius

Nice sub-headings. Not enough to not wait for the inevitable free trial though. Perhaps if they had been in the Black Speech.

Can you get a product key online?
I can't be bothered to wait for the full retail box when I can just download the client.

Sb likes it forced down the throat.

ddAAAAMMMNnnn

Guys if my computer can run it fine yours can too!!!!

I have 1.8gh processor (athlon)

1g memory

and a 6600 geforce card....

and it works fine on 1214-768 resoultion with 80 percent of options on high or very high....only a bit laggy sometimes in towns.....

the water reflections in this game are the most amazing i have seen in anygame too!!

Also they have just announced the first free expansion in june!

soooo what are the servers like? EU and US like WoW? Or can we choose where we want to 'live'?

"Also they have just announced the first free expansion in june! "

That's what I like a lot about Turbine. A lot of people will only remember for DDO. But back in the last century (how time flies :) ), they were already doing an outstanding job of providing regular content updates for Asheron's Call. It was one of the strongest points of the game.

Also I actually enjoyed DDO - so will i like this?

this is a brilliant game ive been hoooked since pre release, its a 10/10, much much better then Vanguard

>Also I actually enjoyed DDO - so will i like this?

Yeah I think so.. similar feel.

Actually it contains elements of AC, WoW and DDO..; good stuff!

Havent read the review or comments yet, but totally agree with score. Hurrah for a great game. A perfect example of a developer taking what is right about a genre and evolving it to the next level. In fact, just like Blizzard did with WoW.

I just hope to god it isnt overlooked...

/goes off to read the review

Maybe I should try this.. Would be the first MMORPG for me since City Of Heroes.

9/10? Did you actually played it? It's like a WoW with LotR skins... It even has the same interface. EXACTLY the same. And I dont even like wow.

@Potajito: did you even read the review? They like WoW, they gave TBC 10/10, so why are you surprised LotR got 9/10.

I like WoW and I like this too. The combat has a different feel to it, the graphics are a lot better and run fine on most people's machines, even relatively low end PCs, providing people don't expect Oblivion like graphics on their 386-like machines.

Can someone please explain to me how this is any different to WoW other than the trait system? Everything is exactly the sodding same from what I can see! Even the interface is pretty much identical! I know it's an MMO so will have inherant similarities, but it feels like the eaxct same game with 'better' graphics...

Has become quite disillusioned with WoW, particularly with how my tier 1/ rep grinds became meaningless. Had got to 70 and had started Kara but my heart was not in it. This on the other hand blew me away. Anyone who wants a breath of fresh air from wow should give it a go.

trying to create a subscription now, not going very well, i guess when i do get in there will be loads of folks playing the same start area as well, time will tell

Rob, you and I were clearly playing different games!

/back to WoW

I am so glad that a) my uni blocks all non-http ports so you can't play online games, and b) I can't afford a new PC to run this. Otherwise I'd buy it and kiss goodbye to my life.

Wyrm, well in my limited experience, it's EXACTLY like WoW except the graphics/artwork is frankly not as good. They've gone for hyper realism and this of course means that the world actually looks worse that WoW's slightly cartoony universe (marmite thing, personally I love WoW's look). My other gripes with LOTRO are: very poor performance, stutters like hell; the UI is far too cluttered and not nearly as well thought through as WoW; loading screens every time you enter a building??? Yuck!! And all those instances in the early stages of the game really destroy the feeling of being in a massive seamless world, it feels like going back to the days of Baldur's Gate (to match the palette). Finally, for me, the killer is seeing what they've done with the wonderful Middle Earth of my imagination. It's not how it's supposed to look, and I very quickly got tired of seeing "Borimor of Gondor" and "Legalos of Mirkwood" running around cookie-cutter mediaeval villages with Clannad-esque bagpipe music wailing in the background. No no no no. It's just not right.

I've only played the beta - but i'd rather feel a apart of the story via instances than 'just another hero clone' ala wow.

While i love wow, i play it because its easy to play and access, not for it's 'indepth' storylines. If I want to feel immersed and feel a part of the story, then i'll play something like Guild Wars. Or this.

Oh man, I really need to not drop a grand on a multi core, multi GB PC upgrade to sniff this ...

Save me?

"Razz, did you just diss my godly rig?

*&*& you mother*&^&*%!

Kiss my mother***££*£ ass! "

LOL

I've said in other comments threads here that LOTRO feels a lot like a persistent world version of Guild Wars.

The one thing I loved about GW was the narrative all through leveling up and LOTRO's epic quest line is almost indentical. Great stuff. Plus there are some absolutely "dude, that's awesome!" moments in the instances.

"I just don't get MMO RPG's. I tried it again with this game...

Scenario:

I'm of to do a quest to find some artefacts in a mysterious dungeons. But then I find the dungeon is fucking filled with Elves, Hobbits and Humans running and jumping about shouting LOLcopters etc. How can you get any believable atmosphere in a game this way? "


Saved.

Thank you!

This review is probably fair comment for the early levels, but it as you get higher the content just isn't there (like when you hit lvl 18 or so, there's only one zone you can get quests). Might be worth checking out in 6 months or so.

0/10 for trying to sign up on launch date, got as far as creating an account after 3 hours waiting but times out when trying to put in credit card details so I can actually play, to be expected i suppose on the first day but not good

YAWN another geeky MMORPG. Get a fucking life people seriously.

You don't need to enter credit card details if you entered the key...it'll work for a month from now without CC details.

First MMO I've ever played (got invite to beta) and I'm hooked!
Runs very well at 16x10 on my 4400+, 2Gb and 7800GTX.

Krusty

@MrBiggles.

You are posting on a games forum...

@Kostabi

No, no, no! That's not what i wanted to hear! Curse you! :)

Will. To. Resist. Weakening...

4800x2 and 1950 is now mid range?

wipes brow

To be fair, MMORPG's are geeky :)

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

I cancelled my preorder a day before this review came out......

DAMN!!! :D

9/10 for a pointless WoW clone? It's symptomatic of the death of innovation in gaming.

Ah well, roll on WAR and WoW expansion 2.

...

sigh