LOTRO and EQ2 expansions out today

By Oli Welsh Published 18 November, 2008

Mines of Moria and Shadow Odyssey.

It's a festival of MMO expansions today: fantasy role-playing stalwarts Lord of the Rings Online and EverQuest II have both released their latest instalments.

LOTRO's Mines of Moria opens a huge new underground world for players, raises the level cap from 50 to 60, adds two new character classes, and highly customisable Legendary weapons that level alongside your character.

Not bad for the first expansion to a game that's not much more than 18 months old. Check out the Mines of Moria gamepage for exhaustive hands-on, interviews, video, news and more, and expect to read our full review soon.

The Shadow Odyssey, meanwhile, is the fifth expansion in four years for Sony Online Entertainment's MMO sequel. It adds 20 new zones - including some classic EverQuest nostalgia - new achievement points for all classes, a new mission system making dungeons more varied and replayable, and more.

The Shadow Odyssey comes as an all-in-one compilation featuring all previous expansions, so it won't cost you extra if you haven't been keeping up. Watch a trailer and read our virtual tour of it at the Shadow Odyssey gamepage, and look out for a review in the coming weeks.

Both have the unenviable task of competing for attention with Wrath of the Lich King - Blizzard's phenomenally good second expansion to World of Warcraft, which launched last week.

We wish them luck. You may as well give one of the trials a go. It'll be something to do during those server queues.

Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (23) Latest comment 3 years ago

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  • iokthemonkey #1 3 years ago

    This makes me even happier. :)

  • Darkjinxter #2 3 years ago

    My EQii expansion is in the post, hopefully I'll get it today.
    Seriously thinking about picking up the LotRO exp and resurrecting my lvl 50 dwarf (warrior?) and setting out into the mines of Moria. Turbine have done a good job with LotRO thus far and perhaps I should chuck some of my hard-earned at them again.

  • Tyranix #3 3 years ago

    I'm enjoying Wrath of the Lich King at the moment, but I'm really excited about getting my Special Edition of MoM in the post. LOTRO may not be as polished or as widely-appealing as WoW is, but it is an extremely fun and special game that I can't wait to continue on with.

  • curtlikesmeat #4 3 years ago

    Played both of these and they just weren't as polished as wow, it felt like playing a game rather than being in a world (and I really wanted to like EQ2 as my first MMO experience was in the original). Still, the complete npc voice track to EQ2 was impressive, are they still doing that or is it only certain npcs now?

  • iokthemonkey #5 3 years ago

    it felt like playing a game rather than being in a world

    ----

    Now that's really weird: I've always felt WoW's world was very "game level" but LOTRO feels very "real" to me, and I don't just mean visually.

    Funny how different people have different perceptions of stuff...

  • spudsbuckley #6 3 years ago

    I'm sure the five people who still play LOTRO will be overjoyed.

    I gave it a chance on two seperate occasions and it's just not very good at all. It feels horribly desolate, almost like a single player game, it's that empty.

  • Krusty #7 3 years ago

    Yeah, MoM's out and looking great, although the BPE and crit changes are no doubt gonna take a while to get used to.
    Should introduce a lot more challenge though, which is no bad thing...

    Shame fecking work has got in the way :(
    Still, have tomorrow and Thursday off \O/

  • Krusty #8 3 years ago

    Good trolling spuds... damn kids

  • iokthemonkey #9 3 years ago

    I'm sure the five people who still play LOTRO will be overjoyed.

    I gave it a chance on two seperate occasions and it's just not very good at all. It feels horribly desolate, almost like a single player game, it's that empty.

    ----

    Nah, it's just everybody avoiding you because you're a git :)

  • iokthemonkey #10 3 years ago

    lacks that addictive "just another hour' mechanic that WOW has

    ----

    See, I got burned out by WoW's treadmill of level, loot, gear, level, loot, gear approach and I like the more diverse range of options LOTRO offers. Don't get me wrong, WoW IS good, but it's also pretty shallow.

  • iokthemonkey #11 3 years ago

    What I mean by the "shallow" comment is that outside of the gear/level treadmill, WoW doesn't offer you that much.

    Where's the player housing, for example? Or the character customisation to allow you not to look like every single other player in the game?

    To me it's too goal-driven and all about getting to the endgame until the new expansion comes out, at which point the goalpost is moved and the treadmill begins anew.

    As I say, I really enjoyed WoW until I hit 70 and then I found myself bored with the game...

  • iokthemonkey #12 3 years ago

    Valid point, and a big difference to LOTRO..where setting up your house and a more indepth trade-skill system are part of the journey.

    ----

    Exactly. And neither is wrong or right. As I say, I loved playing WoW until I hit "the end" and then I couldn't see where I wanted to go from there, as nothing held any interest for me. But I'm loving LOTRO and having a blast doing the side-y stuff and generally just being very groovy. It's one of the few games I've played since SWG that actually makes me want to just" visit" in the world.

  • Tyranix #13 3 years ago

    It's nice to see reasonable people like MrZ and iokthemonkey discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the two games. I love them both, but in very different ways. This makes a nice difference from the 'omglolzanytingthatizntWoWsuckzorz1' arguements in many other places. ^^

  • iokthemonkey #14 3 years ago

    It's nice to see reasonable people like MrZ and iokthemonkey discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the two games. I love them both, but in very different ways. This makes a nice difference from the 'omglolzanytingthatizntWoWsuckzorz1' arguements in many other places. ^^

    ----

    Well, I'm a pretty easy-going chap and when a game is good, I'll give it all the credit it deserves. WoW IS a good game. LOTRO is just, in my opinion, better as for me it offers me more depth and is more enjoyable.

    Just don't get me started on Age of Conan.

  • dadrester #15 3 years ago

    got a lifetime subscription to LOTRO to sell if anyone fancies making me an offer (comes with a big box of super collectible goodies)... just message me if you fancy it... or it's going on ebay.

  • Darkjinxter #16 3 years ago

    Just don't get me started on Age of Conan.
    ----------------------------------------------------
    Because you don't know what yer on about with AoC

  • iokthemonkey #17 3 years ago

    Because you don't know what yer on about with AoC

    ----

    I know enough to know it's arse-gravy.

  • AOFanboi #18 3 years ago

    If I wanted player housing I would still be playing ToonTown.

  • iokthemonkey #19 3 years ago

    If I wanted player housing I would still be playing ToonTown

    -----

    And if I wanted endless treadmill grinding, I'd still be playing EQ.

  • iokthemonkey #20 3 years ago

    Just a quick note for anybody using Hotmail - check your Junk Email Folder. I found Hotmail had put my pre-order Moria code email in there thinking it was spam...

  • Fleisch #21 3 years ago

    @iokthemonkey thanks would've missed that otherwise!

    Just got back into LOTRO, was playing WAR as my second MMO but just find it lacks the exploration/curiosity oo whats over there factor of WoW and LOTRO. All good MMOs though,

  • iokthemonkey #22 3 years ago

    @iokthemonkey thanks would've missed that otherwise!

    ----

    No problems. I have a few newsletter subs/updates and Hotmail sometimes junks them, so I do tend to check the Junk box whenever I see it getting fuller...!

  • iokthemonkey #23 3 years ago

    Cool - the Moria code includes a performance optimisation. I'm running about 10 FPS faster and the load times are cut in half.

    HOORAY!