Ten Ton Hammer Exclusive

Developer Diary with Jeffrey Steefel

Received by Ralsu


The friendly folks on the Turbine team behind Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar (LOTRO) were kind enough to send me developer diary video featuring the many places in LOTRO.

In particular, I wish to thank Adam Merksy, Director of Communications at Turbine for helping these pictures find their way to my inbox.

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The Places of LOTRO
It's all happening so fast! First Turbine was kind enough to share some exclusive screen shots of Brockenborings Orchard with me, Then they announced Alpha. After that, some B-roll video footage landed in my lap. And just yesterday Turbine shared some of the feedback it has received from Alpha players. Without a doubt, LOTRO is well on its way! With all this building momentum, I thought nothing could be better. Then Turbine sent me this video!

In the video, LOTRO Executive Producer Jeffrey Steefel describes some of the various locations in the game. He mentions several famous locales, such as Eriador, Rivendale, Tom Bombadil's house and Buckleberry Ferry. If you think it's exciting to hear confirmation that these areas will make it into the game, just wait until you see them in this video! These shots reveal stunning landscapes with realistic lighting effects. They'll leave longing to be able to run through the countryside.

Next, Steefel describes the starting locations for the four playable races (men, hobbits, elves, dwarves). Hobbits and men start out in Breeland. This starting area is an authentic-looking castle town, complete with multistory buildings and merchant carts. Pay close attention to the archery practice in this part of the video. Notice that you can distinguish each individual arrow in the archer's quiver! Dwarves and elves start in the area of Ered Luin. The architecture here truly looks as though it belongs to another race. You'll see fortified walls and majestic audience chambers. Steefel promises that players will get plenty of background story to understand why the elves are in Ered Luin with dwarves.

Well, there you have it. This developer diary is 1 minute 39 seconds of LOTRO bliss and weighs in at 58MB. What are you waiting for? Get to watching!





Click here to view the Places of LOTRO Developer Diary