LOTRO and EQ2 expansions out today News
MMO PC News by Oli Welsh
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.
Are you excited about EverQuest II: The Shadow Odyssey on PC?
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Related Games
Everquest II
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EverQuest II: The Shadow Odyssey
Latest Features
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Latest Videos
EverQuest - Ninth birthday celebration [1] 19 March, 2008
Everquest II - Happy birthday [0] 15 November, 2007
Latest News
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Expansions announced for EverQuests [8]
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EQ2 gets Monument and Might update [13]
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EverQuest II update revamps world [2]
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Researchers study EQ2 server logs [16]
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SOE MMOs now on Steam for cheap [5]
Latest Screenshots
2 February, 2005 [10]
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Comments: 1-23 of 23 in total
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Darkjinxter
18/11/08 @ 10:49
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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. |
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curtlikesmeat
18/11/08 @ 10:57
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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?
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iokthemonkey
18/11/08 @ 11:22
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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... |
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spudsbuckley
18/11/08 @ 11:45
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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. |
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iokthemonkey
18/11/08 @ 11:49
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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 :) |
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iokthemonkey
18/11/08 @ 12:13
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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. |
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iokthemonkey
18/11/08 @ 12:22
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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... |
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iokthemonkey
18/11/08 @ 12:29
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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. |
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iokthemonkey
18/11/08 @ 14:03
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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. |
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Darkjinxter
18/11/08 @ 15:21
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Just don't get me started on Age of Conan.
---------------------------------------------------- Because you don't know what yer on about with AoC |
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iokthemonkey
18/11/08 @ 15:23
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Because you don't know what yer on about with AoC
---- I know enough to know it's arse-gravy. |
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iokthemonkey
19/11/08 @ 09:09
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If I wanted player housing I would still be playing ToonTown
----- And if I wanted endless treadmill grinding, I'd still be playing EQ. |
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iokthemonkey
19/11/08 @ 11:20
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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...
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iokthemonkey
19/11/08 @ 12:12
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@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...! |
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iokthemonkey
20/11/08 @ 17:31
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Cool - the Moria code includes a performance optimisation. I'm running about 10 FPS faster and the load times are cut in half.
HOORAY! |
Comments: 1-23 of 23 in total
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