Well bless my beard. It's Thorin! You probably remember him from J.R.R. Tolkien's prequel to the LOTR trilogy. Thorin II Oakenshield was part of the Company of Dwarves (plus hobbit ring-bearer Bilbo Baggins) that went to take arms against Smaug and reclaim the Lonely Mountain. Too bad he fell in the epic Battle of the Five Armies. And to think, he was heir to the Dwarven throne.

Although he might be resting now, Thorin is not forgotten quite easily. There are lots of stories and legends about how he fought heroic battles alongside his father, Thrain II, as well as other histories that date his years in exile after Smaug's arrival.

Here's the interesting part though. You might be wondering, if the old fart is already dead, then how will he appear in LOTRO: Shadows of Angmar? The MMO game is set during the War of the Ring, after all - that's around seventy years after Thorin's death.

Well, it's been revealed that players who'll start the game as either a dwarf or an elf will actually begin their journey in the Blue Mountains before the events of the LOTR trilogy. You'd be able to interact with none other than Thorin himself and other members of the little Dwarven Company from "The Hobbit". The pre-game would see you doing preparations for their quest to reclaim the Lonely Mountain.

  

For every LOTR fan out there, you're probably expecting quite a lot from LOTRO: Shadows of Angmar. If you're going to be given the chance to immerse yourself into Middle-earth in an MMO game, you might as well want to make sure that it's going to be a good experience and perfect down to the very last detail.

That's what the direction the developers are taking. What more could they want but perfection and accuracy? So, based on the actual artworks of J.R.R. Tolkien himself, Codemasters built Rivendell for the online game with great detail.

One of the central hubs you'd probably returning to frequently in the game would be the Last Homely House. If you're not familiar with the term, maybe "House of Elrond" would ring more bells. A major section of this structure is the Hall of Fire. Although for the most part, you are encouraged to stay within the valley to rest and have some "quiet time" in the game, it'll also do you good to talk to the locals in the area. They will provide you with much-needed wisdom for your travels - heck, you might even bump into Bilbo Baggins himself!

By talking to the locals, you might end up with your feet swept away in some high adventure. This is the same place, after all, where the Fellowship began with their quest to destroy the One Ring.

Gamespot was able to score an interview just recently with Turbine CEO and president, Jeff Anderson, to talk about their upcoming MMORPG, The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar. The interview tackles the much-anticipated monster play and how they'll combine the PvP and PvE elements in the game -- something that they say will set apart LOTR from all the other RPGs in the market.

According to Anderson, the concept of Monster Play can be understood basically as an "opportunity for you as a player to build your own army as part of the dark army of the Lord Sauron." With that in mind, the dev team decided that they will launch the game with having four playable main monster races; spider, the warg, the orc, and the Uruk-hai. Why is this such a big deal to a huge portion of MMORPG-ers?

See, it's rare that you get to take off the halo in a game and cross over to the other side to watch the events unfold in a totally different perspective. So by giving players the refreshing option of being the monstrous creatures in the game, they'll be able to explore another side of gaming that they rarely get to do with most other MMORPGs. Anderson was quick to note though that at the game's launch, Monster play will be restricted to the Entmoors area.

The interview tackles a whole lot more, including the requirements you're gonna have to fulfill for you to be able to play as a monster, as well as a detailed description and explanation of just how this system will work. If you wanna find out more, just hit the read link below and that should lead you to Gamespot's two-page interview with Anderson. We'll keep you posted for more.

After the numerous screens, videos, and beta journals, could it be that Turbine's The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar finally has a definite release date? Destructoid reports that according to a tip they received from an industry ninja named Robert Summa, the release date for the MMO is April 24 while preorders will begin on January 25 (that's today). Juicy tidbit they got there, but is it real?

Since we haven't received any official word from Turbine, we'll treat this piece of info as a rumor...for now, until we get more info about it. Rest assured that we'll keep you updated about the game's future developments and other what-nots. For now, we guess you'd have to stick to reading those beta journals and watching those vids.

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UPDATE: As promised, we're giving you update on this LotRO: Shadows of Angmar release date rumor - and this time we're giving you the official word from Turbine.

It's true: for those who want to be the first to wander the Middle-Earth, April 24 is the date to mark on your calendars. And yep, you can now place your preorders via the LotRO site. But if retail stores are more your cup of tea, then preorders start February 1, 2007.

Now if you really want to maximize your Middle-Earth experience, you might want to join what Turbine is calling their "Founder's Program". Aimed to reward fans for their loyalty, the program offers Founders special pricing options: monthly subscription of only US$ 9.99 or lifetime membership for only US$ 199. Other things in store for fans under the Founder's Program are:

• Open Beta: Guaranteed access provides Founders the first opportunity to create a character and enter Middle-earth currently planned for March 30, 2007

• Character Roll-Over: Moves the character that you created during the Open Beta into the live service —along with the stats, levels, items, and experience that character earned prior to launch!

• Bonus Items: Two special in-game items that are only available to those who pre-order:
• Enchanted Cloak of Regeneration
• Ring of Agility

Now if those special offers got you excited, we're pretty sure you wanna know how to be a founder. Easy: just pre-order Shadows of Angmar via the LotRO site or via retail stores nationwwide. Now for an LOTR fan, that shouldn't be much of a trouble, eh?

What happens when MMORPG and Turbine's Adam Mersky meet in CES 2007? Lotsa new info on how The Lord of the Rings Online will work. Starting with the fact that it will run on DX9, thank Eru. After costing out the needs of a massive Last Alliance of Men and Elves (again), including all the lembas bread being made in Gino D.'s Cooking Mama (we're making them right now in time for Helm's Deep), there is no room left in the budget for a Vista-D3D10 upgrade.

It will still look beautiful, though - next! What is Hope and Dread? It's a LOTRO-unique gameplay concept that works like this: the closer you get to the blasted lands of Mordor where shadows lie, the greater the chance your character will pee his pants. Literally. He accumulates Dread the longer he stays in the blighted lands. The only ways to combat this is (a) get the heck out of Mordor, or (b) start beating up on some Mordor denizens to gain Hope and combat Dread. Talk about the Light of the Evenstar encouraging violence...

You already know "Monsters" as Monster Play, from a dev journal a while back. Here are the more specific deets: the only way you can have a PvP in the Lord of the Rings IP is if one of you guys plays the bad guys. Which is what Monster Play is all about: take over the avatar of a bad guy, beat the crap out of the player good guy, earn experience that is used on your own original good-guy character.

And then Adam brings up a unique (potential) social event in LOTRO. "Player jam sessions!" Create-your-own-soundtrack? Spend your hard-earned gold on instruments, gather all your friends and acquaintances one night under the Party Tree in the Shire and... Are you ready to rock tonight, Bag End?! Guitar solo, Frodo! Good night everybody!!! (Smashes instruments on stage... methinks they are possessed by the One Ring). You get the idea, right?

One word to all those planning to hold their own LOTR jam sessions, though: you guys better have the talent these guys have. Oh, and this brings up an old joke from an old teen flick: "And this one time, at band camp..."

If you've read J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, you'd be well acquainted with the dragon, Smaug the Golden. Bilbo Baggins, Frodo's uncle, encountered him  twice during his treasure hunting adventures, also known as There and Back Again, the prequel to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Although he was said to be the strongest dragon in Middle-earth, he has an Achilles' heel in the form of a bare patch on his left chest. Smaug ended up being slain by Bard the Bowman, who later became the King of Dale.

As with the other denizens of Middle-earth, the Dragon-kind have a history. Morgoth of the dark realm Angband bred them and gave them massive destructive capabilities. If you could breathe fire and effortlessly crush stone and metal, I guess that would give you great potentials for destruction too.

There are two kinds of dragons: the drakes and the worms. The drakes are the winged type; they reside on the stony hills and mountains of Middle-earth, preying on aurochs, bears and other large animals to feed their drakelings. They aren't so choosy about their diets, though, as they'd chow on a solitary Hillman or Earth-kin when given a chance.

The worms are the weaker type, wingless and left to roam the barren hills. They aren't fickle about their diets either; they'd prey on animals and men, too. Both the drakes and worms lack the strength of their predecessors but they are dangerous nonetheless.

So players of LOTRO: Shadows of Angmar must be ready to fight or flee these creatures, as they abound around the crags and downs of Angmar, the North Downs and the Misty Mountains.

You know you're a LotR-geek if you know people, places, and creatures that were never once mentioned in Peter Jackson's movie trilogy. Although none of us here in QJ think that "geek" is a derogatory term (mostly because all of us here call ourselves geek of a certain fandom), geekiness is what saves the day more often than not.

In LOTRO: Shadows of Angmar, the whole of Middle-earth is open for you to explore, including all those areas which didn't even play a crucial role in the tales of Frodo's quest to destroy the One Ring. Take Stock for example. It's located in the Eastfarthing area of the Shire, near the point where the Stockbrook and Brandywine rivers merge.

For a Hobbit village, it's a rather large in area and has a quirky feature in its dwellings. Hobbits in this village tend to live above ground rather than the traditional Hobbit-holes (just like Bilbo's house). Despite this, there will still be the occasional Hobbit-hole dwellings found in this village. Of the two main roads the go through Stock, the westward path leads to Tuckborough while the vertical path will bring you northward to the Brandywine Bridge or southward through Marish country.

Better start packing those Lembas bread! You're in for one (again, non-derogatory) geekful adventure!

In the words of Bilbo, you've got to let the road sweep your feet away. All you need to do is step out of the door and have the journey of a life time. That's what LOTRO: Shadows of Angmar is all about. Despite having other games based on the same universe, LOTRO is bound to take you for one heck of a spin and fully immerse you into a massively multiplayer Middle-Earth.

The game will be based on the LOTR canon and will treat fans, both old and new, with all of the flora and fauna in Tolkien's creation. The three stone trolls which tried to stew the dwarves in "The Hobbit" can be found in the game. The ford of Bruinen which Frodo had to cross to get to Rivendell is also on the map. These and much more elements will make the fans giddy like Pippin on some cigar leaves from Bree.

Want to  get ahead on your journey? Click the "Full Article" link for more screens!

For today's Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar update, we explore the stumps and corners of Brandy Hall, home of the many generations of Brandybucks.

Brandy Hall serves as the ancestral home of the Brandybuck family and consists of tunnels and rooms which occupy the whole Buck Hill which is found on the east of Brandywine. This hall is one of the biggest mansions in the Shire, with three entrance doors and over a hundred windows. Brandy Hall also served as the home of Frodo Baggins, way before the fellowship was formed and before he went to live with Bilbo at Bag End.

Aside from being a home to the countless generations of Brandybucks, Brandy Hall can also be considered as a librry of sorts, because in it is a huge collection of books that trace and record the history of the Shire. And although the majority of Brandy Hall was built underground, a significant portion of the structure remains visible in and around Buck Hill when viewed from a distance.

We will be keeping you guys updated on Shadows of Angmar before it even gets an American release so keep checking back with us more LOTR updates and info.

Developer Matt Elliott gives us a lecture on World Content Systems 101 in his latest dev diary entry, where he talks about how their goal with The Lord of the Rings Online is not only to give players a kickass epic story, but also to support that through visuals.

So, what they've done is they worked on, and enhanced, the world systems to give good visual support for the game plot and make your experience more immersive and alive. According to Elliott, "World Content Systems encompass all the little bits and pieces of gameplay and non-quest content available in the game." For Shadows of Angmar, these systems are Ambient Creatures, Treasure Chests, Rare Monsters, and Crafting Resource Nodes. Each system is designed and crafted with the sole intention of bringing Eriador as alive as they can.

Elliott gives a lengthy discussion of each system but for this post, we're just gonna pick one that we find most interesting, and that is the Rare Monsters system. Under this system, the monsters are classified into three tiers according to difficulty. Tier 1 rare monsters have more health and armor, but those can be countered with a higher damage output. Tier 2 rare monsters on the other hand have higher health, armor, and damage output and have skills that your ordinary monsters don't.

Tier 3 monsters are on the same level as the bosses and require a full and organized fellowship in order to be defeated. And to give you a glimpse of LOTR Online's Rare Monster system, here's one screenshot of a green monster whose tier we have yet to find out. If you're interested in knowing a detailed description of the World Content Systems to be featured on the game, simply click on the read link below and you're all set.