LOTRO - Anyone playing?

[Big Leon]

Hey all,
I've just downloaded the trial of LOTRO and am currently playing.

Just wondered whether anyone else from Hexus is playing this?

Thanks,
Leon

[Gerrard]

I was until I moved last week. Now I don't have access to the Internet (I get to pay 2 pounds an hour for access on a computer that crashes on half the webpages) I've stopped playing. Was on Eldar server, with a lvl35 Hunter and lvl 20 something Minstrel. If I ever get back on, I'll let you know.

[Zak33]

Leon...any chance of a little review and some screenies?

I am tempted to try it.

[Big Leon]

Can do, will be back at home this evening so I will sort that out.

[Big Leon]

7 Day Free Trial
For those who don't know, you can try LOTRO for free for 7 days. Just visit the following URL: http://www.lotro-europe.com/trial.php

Creating Your Character

Choose Your Race
In the LOTRO world, you have a choice of four races.

• Man
• Elf
• Dwarf
• Hobbit

Also each race has certain positives and negatives (e.g. dwarves have an agility penalty) and thus are more suited to a certain class. But don't let this prevent you from creating the character you want (e.g. a Dwarf Hunter) as these stat penalties will make a minute difference to your level 50 character.

Also you have the choice of male or female for each race apart from Dwarves.

Choosing Your Class
A table showing the different classes, races, roles etc is shown below.


A screen shot of my newly created character, Leowald, is below:


Starting the Game
When you first enter the game you get the option to run through a walkthrough. This is incredibly useful as it gives you basic details of how to pick up items, equip, attack etc.

User Interface



As is common with these types of games, top right is your character's portrait. The green bar underneath is the health bar. The blue bar underneath is the 'Power' bar; power is the equivalent of mana, energy or rage systeam in other MMORPGs i.e. you use it to cast / use abilities.

The mini map is top right of the screen and has buttons to display the time and show the world map. On the left hand side towards the button of the screen is the general, combat and chat log.

On the bottom of the screen is the all too familiar action bars. From this bar you can open your bags, add friends, access the options etc etc.

Graphics



This screenshot is an example of how good the graphics are in this game. I have the graphics set on medium so expect them to improve even further when you set it to high!

Summary
This is an excellent game but I cannot say whether I prefer it to the legendardy World of Warcraft, give me a couple more days and I should have the answer!The graphics are excellent and game play is very smooth even running on my average machine (A64 3000+, Radeon X850, 1.5GB RAM).

Overall my recommendation is to give this game a go, you don't have anything to lose!

[Zak33]

nicely worded....will come back and see in a few days how you're getting on

[Trash Man]

I played this for a while after I finally quit WoW. Played a hunter up to level 28, it was just to much the same as WoW for me. I like the way you can queue your next attack, a bit like SWG used to be. There was just not enough difference from this and WoW for me to carry on playing. If I had never played WoW before then no doubt this would have taken up a lot more of my time.

oh, and not being able to use the 2 names I have been going by for the last 10+ years of gaming never helped much either

[Jay]

I BETA tested this

it was poor.

[Lube]

I hit up on this topic awhile back when the game released. I have played every major MMO out there and I must say LOTRO was one of the most beautiful looking and it played very well with no major game breaking bugs at release. That said my main role in any MMO is healer class and I hated the Minstrel in this MMO so I decided not to play for awhile and took a break for several months. Now I’m back and enjoying this game more than ever.

Anyway here is my old post and screenies I took while playing at release. I originally posted this at another site that I hang at:

I've only played about 1 hour but so far so good. I'm really impressed with how well it runs. I'm playing it at Ultra high quality. The only two options that are not maxed out would be the resolution and AA. I'm running AA @ 2x and the res at 1280x720. FPS are super smooth!

I then logged on and cranked the AA up to it's max of 4x and I'll try the res at 1920x1080. The game runs so smooth I figured I may as well try it out at 1080P.

UPDATE:

Ok I set it up at 1920x1080 with 4x AA. Every option is set to it's highest including 16x AF.
The game is playable but there is a slight hitch to the fps every so often while running around. I blame my 7800GS for this. It wasn't designed to be put through this abuse lol. Even so it still plays so good that I'm going to leave everything maxed out.

I will say one thing; running this game at my monitors native res makes a nice difference of course and the picture just looks cleaner.
I must say that visually this game is very nice on the eyes for a MMO. I would have been a WoW fan if not for the cartoonie graphics and chars. This game is a lot like WoW in many ways but the game world and chars are way more to my taste.
I downsized these pics from 1920x1080 to 800x450 in hopes that it would be easier for some of you to view.

[Lube]

Sorry if those screenshots are too big. I thought I resized all of them. Anyway I really don't feel like resizing and uploading then linking all over again. If it's a big deal though i will.

Lube

[Jay]

if you have to, use imageshack to resize them for you.

[Mrs Hex]

I play, I love it. Am completely addicted. Hex bought me a 3-month subscription at xmas.

Have 3 characters currently: Gereth - elf hunter, level 22 - tinker - I can make teh jewellery!

Kunama - Human Guard. Level 10 - scholar.

Opalina - Hobbit minstrel - yes it's a short redheaded freckled thing waving a banjo around! She is a tailor.

It's great. I still need to make myself a weaponsmith and a woodworker really. Don't NEED the woodworker though.

Yes yes I know I know, you're meant to trade with other players but quite honestly I'd rather quest with other people and just make the items myself!

[directhex]

Lube, are those DX10 shots? DX10 significantly improves the game's water and ambient shadow effects

[danroyle]

i beta tested this it was very repetitive and boring graphics did look good though

[Destroyer^]

whats endgame like? is it like wow with raids etc or pvp?

[Bhavv]

I am playing this but my netgear adaptor mysteriously died and it keeps disconnecting on my t mobile connection. I didnt really like it much, its too repetitive and is just a complete WoW clone. I am waiting for age of conan to hopefully restore my faith in MMORPGs