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Lord of the Rings Online: NDA Officially Lifted
GFulls
Member Posts: 478
Lord of the Rings Online officially lifts NDA on beta test.
Codemasters Online Gaming announced today that following this weekend's successful Stress Test Event, LOTRO is now on the home straight and entering into the extensive Public Beta Phase which begins today.
The NDA has also been lifted which will open the floodgates to a slew of previews, articles and previously unseen material from the various gaming portals and fansites.
Read more here.
Comments
GREAT! Now i can finally express what a CRAPPY game LOTR is!
I've read the novels countless times, the movies were a different thing but still very good - but this MMO is dissappointing to the core. Well, Turbine is literally working on a reputation for making bad mmo's out of reasonably good IP's. Really, i was shocked to see the difference between "oh gosh we are really sticking to the lore!" (official Forums) and the harsh reality of what awaits you ingame.
--- first! ---
^^)
Ok, it's still a beta, but i was NOT impressed... and i have participated in quite some betas...
flame away fanbois!
Thanks
There is a caster class (which annoys me personally after all that "oh no there are no Wizards in the game - apart from Gandalf!"-talk in the forums), the looks of the game itself may be ok but somewhat... flat... crappy - sorry i do not find the correct words for it. Yes, it is BETA, but still even if they overhaul all graphical things - the look does not appeal to me. Different Opinions may differ ^^).
Same goes for items and overall looks of some Characterclasses. The game mechanics are just standard MMO-stereotypes, and the interface as i've known it was terrible. Seemed kind of WoW for poor people - again: it's beta - but i do not think they'll really change it as drastically as you'd need to if you want a good UI. (I didn't even like WoW as a matter of fact)
Quests are just the same "go kill 12 wolfs" as usual.
...i'm running out of time here, so in short: too much fuss about nothing special. Maybe they will drastically improve the game during open beta but then again: i do not think so. They messed DDo up and i think lotr is going down the same path.
ya lotr is really a let down for me aswell.
I think the best way to describe lotr is a wow clone with even more quests crammed down our throats. They added an achievments section which is basicaly extra quests that involve you having done countless number of quests to satisfy the achievments such ass complete x amount of quests in this area or kill this many thousand of this type of creature ect.
There is but 1 faction which I also feel is a big let down leaving the pvp to be done not even on your own chars but rather some players take control of monsters in the pvp arena to fight other players and you have quests to complete in pvp for both your own (good) character and in control of the npcs (evil).
I truely didnt feel that they inovated a single aspect in this mmorpg, the only way I could see people enjoying this game is if they are super huge lotr fans, and fans of roleplaying. The lore in the game is immense, a true role playing player may be able to enjoy the game purely for the lore / graphics. The music is rather quite well done but thats about the only compliment I have for this game.
Im not a fan of forging my opinions based on what other people say, so if your a lotr fan you should still check out the game and forge your own opinion this however is mine.
I am not a fanboy of Turbine and did not stick with DDO on line becuase it was not a great game at all.
I was in Beta 1 and 2 of LOTRO though and I loved it. My brother is a hard core WOW player and like me, has played in a bunch of MMOs, loved it too. We started way back with M59, UO, and EQ. I have played in so many betas I can't count any more.
Of course, I am not discounting this posters opinion as everyone is entitled to thier view but I for one completely disagree.
As for beta, the LOTR beta has been one of the most stable I have been in. Beta 2 was more stable then most games are at launch day. Most of the quests were working and most of the classes seemed balanced. Graphics were solid with few hickups and servers were not lagged at all, even during the beta2 stress tests.
I usually play two MMOs at a time so I do not get tired of one. Right now I am playing Vanguard (my EQ3) which I am enjoying and LOTR (in beta of course). I still play a little Guild Wars but dropped my EQ2 and WOW accounts.
LOTR is lighter (in regards to how complex it is not in regards to content) but that is great. Leveling is fun and I love the bonus abilities, etc you get for completing quest chains in areas. I think that graphically it is great and not bland at all. Game play is fun and fast and even though (Like all MMOs to date and probably for the future) combat can become a button masher doing the same things over and over it is still enjoyable.
So far I have played, class wise: Guardian, Captain, LoreMaster, Hunter, and Burgler.
Each one has been fun in its own way. I tried every race and actually found I enjoyed the humans and elves the best. The beginning instanced stories are enjoyable and get you into the game nicely.
After 10th level the game really picks up and becomes even more enjoyable. Quests get more involved and some of the instanced story events are great. There are some Shire quests that are enoying go here, deliver this, and fetch that but they are still better than the kill 30 of this type of quests. LOTR has those as well but they fit the story and make sense.
I am not an avid LOTR hard core loyalist either so if they strayed from the story line some I could not tell you but I do enjoy the overarcing plot of the game and how you hover on the outside of the fellowship, helping various people like Srtider and Gandalf.
Any way, I will be playing LOTR after launch though it may be unseated by Conan or Gods and Heroes. I have yet to test these two so I will see.
Well.. now i can finally decide on what game ill be playing this year.. Vanguard, LOTRO or PotBS..
LoTRO does seem very interesting at the moment..
LoTRO is far and away the most polished complete alpha-beta I have ever been involved with. Where Turbine tried new and different with DDO they went the WoW route and didn't reinvent the wheel with standard MMORPG elements.
As far as stability and performance this game is absolutely amazing. My only gripe about the game is the combat is not quite as good as it could be. Still some tweaking left before launch so things could improve but combat is not bad compared to other MMORPG's.
I was in the WoW beta and remember thinking how polished that game was at the time. LoTRO is far beyond where WoW was at the same point in the development cycle from my perspective.
If this game would have been able to pull of real playable evil races and pvp this would be bar none the best game on the market.
All you'll be doing is running through town till you have 50 "Bring me 12 frog livers...no reason...really...just go!" quests and then grinding your way through uninteresting monsters with uninteresting combat system.
Crafting is very limited and Wow-esque ...aka find a metal node in middle of 90 epic monsters and try your luck hackin and slashing through it.
PvP lacks a meaning...after bumping at each other 50 times, both as monster and a player you'll feel too sick in your stomach to do it again.
There is no housing
No ridable mounts (well, mounts that takes you from point a to point b on predefined paths for pay)
No Rohan, Helms deep, gondor or anything like that...just less-interesting areas with hobbiton only place a novel fanatic would feel like in home.
Atleast on euro servers GM work outsourced to Alchemic dream, whoms other mmorpgs where they GM include Dark & light.
Ive played maybe 20-30 hours of the beta. Not a lot, but enough to see the human, dwarven and elven starting areas and the nearby land. There is a lot more land to explore, but nothing on the grand scale of everquest + kunark + velious. Many of the maps feel a bit crowded so you spend more time looking or interacting with interesting things rather than traveling. A major fault with WoW is the amount of running around time players will spend. This is not the case in LOTRO. If you want a huge world to explore then I suggest you get Vanguard. If you want a richly detailed and populated world with an abundance of story lore then you should spend at least a month exploring LOTRO.
LOTRO is not an RPG. IF you dont know what RPG means, then you may like this game more than those that do. Think of LOTRO as Dungeon Seige as far as learning skills, collecting items and improving your character. You really don't have any customization for character-building and there is no complexity. Every member of one class will have the same powers in the same order as every other member of that class. This is the same design as EQ1, EQ2, Lineage 2 and greatly different from EVE online, D&D Online or many single player games that give you a lot of choices.
LOTRO is a questing game. You do not grind mobs for exp in order to gain levels, at least not for the first 30 levels, as far as I know. You do have to fight animals and bandits and monsters, if you want to solve some quests and they will attack you while you travel, but you should never have that level-grinding feeling that you need another 300 kills to advance a level. LOTRO is very unlike Lineage 2 in this respect. Leveling is slower than D&D Online, and probably slower than WoW as well, but not too slow. You can expect to gain a few levels very quickly and be around 10th within your first 2-3 nights of playing. This is good because you need those levels to pick up a variety of character powers so you have a few different buttons to push in combat.
DO NOT PLAY the CHAMPION class as your introduction to LOTRO. They seem to be most boring in combat, despite them supposedly being the "damage-class". The Hunter and Guardian are a lot more fun. I do not know about the others.
I guess I will be the minority voice in this thread so far.
I have actually enjoyed LoTRO very much, mostly because I am a gamer that really likes to get involved in the world I'm playing in.
WoW never really did it for me because it's all about stats, gear, and rep. That's not for me.
While LoTRO does have those things in armor and jewels and such it's more about the story of Middle-Earth. The quest designs, atmosphere, and combat really draw me in. I feel the world story was put first in the game. I'm a gamer that loves to read the whole quest log and see what the back story is. I'm not a gamer that says "WOW that instance drops good loot let's go in there." I like to have a reason to go into an instance other than loot or rep.
Anyway, the game mechanics are very standard MMO flare, the quests though are setup very much like Oblivion I think. You can do the main story line or "Book and Chapter" quests or you can do the side quests which will take you deeper into Middle-Earth. The scenery is unmatched. The only other game that can come close is probably Vanguard, but LoTRO is far less buggy. You can stand a top Weathertop and look all around and see the vastness of Tolkien's imagination spread out before you. It is really quite impressive. I have a 2.5 AMD dual core, a GeFORCE 7600, and a gig of RAM and I can run this game on the highest settings. If you have a high-end computer I would encourage you to at least check this game out for a bit. If you don't, don't worry the game still looks good on average settings, but it's nothing like most of the screen shots you are seeing.
A big complaint is the lack of caster classes, but I think once someone rolls either a Lore-Master or a Minstrel they won't be complaining anymore. Those two classes are fun solo but they are GREAT in a Fellowship setting. Fellowships are cool, especially if you have a burglar that can start Conjunctions. Conjunction, for those of you who don't know, are party attacks on elite mobs only that can do massive amounts of damage, DOT's, heals, or power regen. It takes a bit to coordinate it well but thanks to the in-game voice chat system it's not that bad.
The trait system is also a cool idea. Think of it as equipable skills much like armor. When you go into battle you need to know what kind of armor or weapon to bring. The trait system does the same thing but with skills or passive stat bonuses. Unlike armor where you can change it out in the game world, the trait system can only be changed at a bard in a major city.
Overall I am pleased with LoTRO. I think it breaks the mold here and there, but it also falls victim to the standard go collect 10 of these and kill 15 of these. But even those quests make you feel like a part of Middle-earth and some how Turbine was able to take even the most generic of quests and make you feel like it weaves into the overall story.
Thank for reading, that's just one BETA testers opinion.
xfire
sgw-fansite
Lotro is yet another Turbine disaster.
The characters handle sluggishly, combat is repetitive and thoroughly boring, the character models all run like they have sticks shoved up very uncomfortable places.
The scenery is beautiful from far away, get close and it's ugly as sin. Reminds me of the old texturing from Quake 2.
The quests are boring and rinse/repeat plus many of the quests are just vague in all regards.
The UI is pretty much a Lotro-ized version of WoW's interface. That's not exactly bad but can we have a little innovation here? Just a little?
After playing for as long as I have one simple question is... "Would I buy this game...ever?"
The answer is just as simple..."Hell no, never ever."
I'll wait for Warhammer!
Let the flames commence.
well I for one really enjoy the game so far. though it brings nothing new to the genre, the lore and the world are two big things that gives the experience a unique feeling.
as for the system, it seems as if it is DDO done right (for me at least).
I pre-ordered, and not regretting it so far
Well all this 'it polished' 'it's stable' prase is mute TBH, all Turbine did was take DDO's engine which has been developed for 2-4 years periously and reskinned it basically, it's a cheap copout which really is annoying because to me it just shows the lack of thought put into the game and I think TBH it's just a cash cow..
It's a shame cuz it's a fun solid title however it's gonna have a short 'hype' time and just wittle down to the hard core fan base, just like DDO did..
Bring on the WARRRRGGHH!
Personally I like both DDO and LoTRO. I have to admit I'm more of a Vanguard type after all but this game should hit big. It's polished, played 20x better in beta 2 than Vanguard now, and the opening quests are Oblivion-esque. They certainly make you feel part of Middle-earth.
Yes, I will be buying it. Whether I play it as long as I plan to play Vanguard really depends on how soon they add mounts, houses and land expansions.
<aref="http://www.enjin.com/"; alt="rift guild hosting"><img src="http://sigs.enjin.com/sig-rift/14060_d62c0a5a4ba0df2e.png"></a>;
I see a lot of misinformation already in this thread, if not downright disinformation.
Cons:
World scale could have been larger (not world size, areas like Rohan and Gondor will be expansions).
Character creation is somewhat limited for my taste.
Not as much class differentiation/customization with level as I'd like. Then again, what class-base system has this?
For my taste, I'd prefer less particle effects than they have. But I'm a sim-fan so take that for what it's worth.
Pros:
Peopled cried because SWG had no content at launch. Well LOTRO delivers with tons of content, so many quests I can't even finish them all as I level. There is a huge variety of quests, and interesting storylines to go with them that are well written. There are epic quests that tie in nicely with the lore of the books.
Graphics that look decent even on a lower end system. No need to upgrade to Alienware to run this game.
Hand-crafted terrain that looks so good that it has changed my mind regarding procedurally created terrain.
Balanced gameplay. Best Archer class I've ever played (except Oblivion).
Mounts that you can purchase and ride anywhere, as well as fast travel mounts that you rent to go between cities (think DAoC).
Casual friendly.
No forced grouping. Very Solo Friendly. The ironic thing is, I see a lot of people grouping anyway because you have so much solo content that the occasional LFF (looking for fellowship) is a nice change of pace.
Great community.
Monster play is fun.
Crafting and harvesting is fun.
Fun gameplay overall. Highly polished game. The way the MMO industry SHOULD release its products.
Now I haven't mentioned Lore for a reason. Everyone will give you a different answer. Those that have no clue about Tolkien will say that the game has too much lore, while those who adore Tolkien will say that it has little adherence to lore. You'll have to be the judge of that.
_____________________________
Currently Playing: LOTRO; DDO
Played: AC2, AO, Auto Assault, CoX, DAoC, DDO, Earth&Beyond, EQ1, EQ2, EVE, Fallen Earth, Jumpgate, Roma Victor, Second Life, SWG, V:SoH, WoW, World War II Online.
Games I'm watching: Infinity: The Quest for Earth, Force of Arms.
Find the Truth: http://www.factcheck.org/
Lotor online is simply, the best PVE game period. Even at ALPHA ONE it was better then Vanguard live ... and thats the truth.
Dont Believe me, go play the beta. then come here and explain to me what game offers what you will experience in lotor... go ahead... ill be here.
Rites of the Four Horsemen
http://www.rotfh.com
Rites of the Four Horsemen
http://www.rotfh.com