The Lord of the Rings: Online – new info

It’s a diamond news day for fans of fantasy online role-playing games, with some hot new information and free demo action on two of the biggest RPG properties on the market, from the MMO-meisters at Turbine Inc and Codemasters Online Gaming (COG).

Turbine has just announced this morning that fans can try out Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach for seven days free of charge, by merely signing-up for it by clicking here. The trial will allow you to to build up a character for seven days and, should you wish to pay to continue playing after your free week’s play is up, continue with that character in the full game.

Secondly, but by no means any less important, is the latest on Turbine/COG’s biggest and most ambitious title to date, the bound-to-be-huge The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar. Check out the latest screens which SPOnG picked up last Friday from the guys, as we hobbled home after an elfish debauch and a night of medieval tomfoolery courtesy of COG up at Warwick Castle.

Codemasters certainly provided us with plenty of online gaming food for thought at the event, but it was the medieval comedians with their anti-French jokes who we liked the most. If you can imagine a 15th century version of Bernard Manning, then you have a good idea of what the night’s ‘turn’ was like. The collected French journos in attendance didn’t seem to find the night half as amusing as we did.

Back to the game. Lord of the Rings: Online (LOTRO for short) is essentially like World of Warcraft, but set in Middle Earth. Dedicated MMO’ers and WoW’ers will no doubt baulk at this, but for the ‘casual’ MMO’er (is there such a thing? – Ed) this is pretty much what you need to know to drop into conversation at dinner parties. SPOnG’s definition of the ‘casual’ MMO’er is this – somebody who enjoys playing online role-playing games, but also has a life outside of them - hence is likely to hold conversations 'In Real Life' with people who don't spend most of their free time pretending to be a small wood elf called Tom Tiddlytit.

For all you fans of Tolkien’s books and the hugely successful spin-off movies and videogames, you will find below all the main details on LOTRO we managed to glean from last week's event. LOTRO, in all seriousness, could well have the potential of becoming the biggest online role-playing game to date. If anything is going to ever knock World of Warcraft from its Outside Toilet - sorry, Frozen Throne, then a polished game set in Tolkien’s beloved Middle Earth is surely going to be a contender.

Firstly, you get to create your character, which can be Hobbit, Elf, Dwarf or Man, and any of seven lore-inspired classes (Champion, Minstrel, Guardian, Loremaster, Burglar, Hunter or Captain). Plus, as is fairly standard now for any decent RPG, you get to fully create and personalise the look of your character, to truly make it yours.

After this, you get to wander around a beautifully re-created Middle Earth. Starting off in Bree’s very own boozer, The Prancing Pony, you can set out to roam, explore and meet other adventurers and foes in the pastoral Shire, the eerie Barrow Downs, elegant Rivendell or beneath the dark canopy of the Old Forest, with loads more faithfully recreated lands from this unparalleled world of imagination promised.

Plus, perhaps a major selling point, you will also get the opportunity to interact with famous Tolkien characters - including Gandalf and the Fellowship, Bilbo, Elrond, Boromir, Tom Bombadil and others. The combat system is the newest and perhaps most interesting feature in the game, with the opportunity to combine your efforts with other members of your own ‘fellowship’ into devastating compound attacks. In this way, the game rewards and encourages team play in groups and fellowships.

And all the Tolkien nasties are there to be smashed and defeated - the UrukHai, Nazgűl, Orcs, Huorns, Etten, Wargs, Trolls, Goblins, Craban, Spiders, Wights, Drakes, Wraiths, and Balrogs, to name but a few!

Even if you weren’t a huge fan of the movies, this game still has the potential to appeal. For anyone - including certain members of SPOnG's staff - who fondly remembers reading Tolkien as a child, and may also remember the guilty pleasures of playing the dice-driven Middle Earth Role Playing (MERP) in the mid-80s, the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of your favorite Tolkien heroes and experience “an evolving and persistent re-creation of Tolkien’s beloved world…[facing] the dangers Frodo and the Fellowship left behind when they began their epic journey to destroy the One Ring,” is still, we have to confess, an incredibly strong proposition for an online role-playing game.

Indeed, Turbine/CGO are going to have to go quite far out of their way to mess this game up – initially at least. Whether or not it will have the longevity of WoW only time will tell. A winning ‘license to print money’ such as Lord of the Rings is one thing, but creating a community of (potentially) millions of players who are all more than happy to continue shelling out around Ł10 a month after the initial novelty wears off is another thing entirely.

SPOnG was slightly disappointed upon arrival at last week’s event to be told that we would not get any ‘hands on’ time with the game. It’s currently at the pre-alpha stage, so we had to make do with a short presentation from the game’s producer. We’ll be bringing you more news on when the beta testing for LOTRO will be taking place as soon as we get it.

In the meantime, if you want more information check out the game’s official site right here. Let us know your Lord of the Rings likes, dislikes and embarrassing recollections of playing dice-based RPG’s in the forums below. If you do not currently play MMO's might you give LOTRO a go? Do you think it has the potential to knock WoW off the top MMO spot in 2007 and beyond? Do you care?