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New mini-game teases more Mines of Moria content
Earlier this week, the second minigame went live at Turbine's official teaser site for the first Lord of the Rings Online expansion. LOTRO players are eagerly awaiting launch, but for now mini-games will be available at the "Unlock the Mines of Moria" site. This is the second game released to the site, the first being the King Under the Mountain dice combat game. Registered players not only get to keep track of their progress with the games, but have the opportunity to unlock videos, images, and even in-game items for their LOTRO avatars.Swig and Toss is the name of the new game, and combines two great tastes into one peanut butter/chocolate whole: axe-throwing and drinking. Players participate for 10 rounds, drinking and throwing axes as best they can. Each round also includes betting, with players having to decide the cost/benefit of more drinking (more risk) vs. betting. When you miss the dwarves are pretty merciless in their derision, and eventually the drinking and throwing devolves into a blurry, moneyless mess. It's still great fun. Check it out at the official Moria site.%Gallery-18340%
Turbine launches promo game, is crushed by its own success [Updated]
Turbine sent us a press release today, saying that it and Codemasters have launched a "new social gaming website" at unlocktheminesofmoria.com. Actually, that's the official website of the Mines of Moria expansion for The Lord of the Rings Online, and it's been running since the expansion was announced earlier this month, but fret not -- there is something new here!The site has been updated with the first of its social games, called King Under the Mountain. It's a "tactical strategy game," and the schtick is that it's derived from a game played by the dwarf lords of Khazad-Dûm. It involves very Dwarven things like "caverns, gems, and fighting." You can play it alone or against your friends, and it's pretty cool.Actually, we're just assuming the "pretty cool" part because unfortunately before we could check it out for ourselves, the site was shut down for maintenance. Apparently it was hosed "due to overwhelming response" from interested LotRO players. It'll be back up at some point though, if it's not already by the time you read this, so keep checking back if you're interested.[EDIT: Site's back up. Enjoy!]
