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Jeffrey Steefel on all things Book 11
Tentonhammer have got a great interview up on their site with the executive producer of Lord of the Rings Online, Jeffrey Steefel, discussing all things Book 11. (LotRO Books are roughly equivalent to major content patches in other MMOs)A lot of the new content in the update is discussed, ranging from the three-piece, 12-man Balrog raids, to... usable cowbell & bagpipe musical instruments. Blue Öyster Cult would be proud. It also features player characters first encounter with the wonderfully crazy Gollum, with promises that he'll play a major role in the LotRO storyline -- although what kind of role is still being kept under wraps, it's probably not a wild guess to assume he'll be causing a lot of trouble. Nassty hobbitses!Player housing (covered just a few days ago by us) is discussed too. It's a strange -- risky? -- move incorporating player housing into a patch, rather than an expansion pack or, as in certain popular other MMOs, not at all -- yet Jeff comes across as enthusiastic about the subject, and Turbine appear to have thought it through carefully. He also does everything except say "there will be an expansion!" without ... actually saying it. But we all know it's coming, amiright?Book 11 also included some love for the Loremaster & Minstrel classes, the latter of which sorely needed some outside of healing.The interview is three pages long, and definitely worth a read if you're a LotRO fan.
LotRO introduces Player and Guild Housing
The Book 11 content update for Lord of the Rings Online introduces more than Gollum's first appearance, a Balrog to slay and class revamps for Minstrels and Lore-masters. It also introduces player and guild housing in a unique way.There are four different racially-styled homesteads. The architecture, neighborhood and decorations are unique to each. But players are not restricted to only buying property sold by their own race. Elves can move into the Dwarven cave-like housing and Men can squeeze into Hobbit holes.There are many kinds of housing available, including 16 different styles of personal housing, 10 more styles for the deluxe housing and 4 different styles for guild housing. Each neighborhood has a mix of two dozen or so housing types. Every time all the houses are purchased, a new instance is created with all nebw housing for sale.
LotRO Book 11 notes and early download available
Book 11: Defenders of Eriador , the third free content update for Lord of the Rings Online, is arriving Wednesday morning. In advance of the patch going live, Turbine has released the patch notes two days early on the LotRO Lorebook, their official Wiki site.There are no surprises since we saw these patch notes on the Preview server earlier this month. Still on track are all the major changes: The introduction of player and guild housing in the Man, Elf, Hobbit and Dwarf cities Four new level 40+ outdoor zones in and around The Misty Mountains to smooth out high level questing The Rift, the game's second raid zone, a 12-man level 50 instance that pits your group against a Balrog and introduces new class armor sets Class revamps for Lore-masters (new Lynx pet, new high level skills) and Minstrels (Warspeech, a new dps stance for faster soloing, new high level skills.) Also, the introduction of Gollum to the game through a flashback instance. And the epic quest series that allows the players to help the Fellowship in its journey to Mordor has a new 13-quest arc. We're not sure yet how the new Epic Quest series plays out yet, but the title of patch could mean all the playable lands are in jeopardy.The patch is currently available by Torrent and direct download. It will also be available through the patcher on Wednesday, October 22, 2007.
Gollum's meatspace counterpart does PS3 title
After groundbreaking roles playing digital counterparts Gollum and King Kong in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings and King Kong respectively, Andy Serkis, the world's most famous motion capture-actor, is giving video games a shot.He'll be playing the role of the villainous King Botan in Ninja Theory's upcoming PS3 action title, Heavenly Sword.The BBC is running a short piece, with some gee-whiz tech jargon thrown in to wow the unwashed masses ("one of the processors inside the machine is solely devoted to recreating the movement of clothes and hair") as well as some interesting details on Serkis' specific involvement, noting that he's "taking care of all the performance capture, the casting and is heavily involved in writing."Hollywood involvement in games is nothing new (remember Bruce Willis in Apocalypse?) but Serkis is the Marlon Brando of motion capture and, as such, might be able to bring some real talent into the acting backwater that is video games. Then there's the whole question of whether or not that belongs in video games ...See also:PS3 Impressions: Heavenly SwordMajor PS3 titles missing launch date[Thanks, ben]
