One Shots: A heated moment

Oh, Lord of the Rings Online, how you dazzle us with your lovely screens. And when we've strayed from your arms, you tempt us back with your free-time Welcome Back promotions, like the one running right now until the 24th. But as this is a posting dedicated to all things cool and MMO to check out, we'll just say that this is one of the many types of graphical eye-candy waiting patiently for players return to in Lord of the Rings Online. It was sent in to us today by Rawdge, who writes in: I've had this screenie sitting around for awhile, but noticed there weren't any shots of it in the existing One Shots gallery. This guy has quite the reputation, between the books and the movies, and I thought he might fit in well.

Since his email also contains what might be considered an encounter spoiler for some, I'm adding the rest behind the break. Those curious should definitely read a bit more on this big bad beastie. The rest of you should email us images to oneshots AT massively.com so we can feature your favorite games from your viewpoint. Now, on with the story!

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You can actually encounter (but not fight) this big fella during one of the story quests immediately prior to entering Moria. Before entering the fabled mines, a Dwarven NPC offers to tell you the story of the fall of Durin VI, but rather than sitting there reading a bunch of text, you actually get to play through the story itself while playing as one of the characters who experienced the events as they took place. It's a pretty neat way of delivering a good story without a wall of text, while allowing players to encounter one of the more iconic creatures from Tolkien's universe.

Thanks for the note and the great One Shots, Rawdge!