Category Archives: closed beta

Over million people expected in middle earth world tour!

Over million people expected in middle earth world tour!
Some pictures I took from the last day of the closed beta.
Click on pictures to view them full size.

The end of the closed beta for LOTRO eventThe end of Lord of the Rings Online closed betaEnd of closed beta with magical level raising and weapons

The closed beta for LOTRO (Lord of the Rings Online) ended on Monday with a big event. It was a fun and chaotic experience. They had high level monsters invading major cities. Hundreds of people started to fight them but the lag was terrible for people with slower computers like me. I could hardly move or fight for the first couple of hours. The servers did well but some of them crashed due to all the fighting in one area. The developers started raising the levels of the majority of players. This was a bit confusing because we had to wait in lines. After a whole lot of waiting and complaining they started to raise characters faster.

So I finally became a level 50 minstrel and was able to protect rivendell and bree from big drakes. I still had lag so it was very hard to fight at this time but after most of the people left I was able to attack with all my abilities. There was around 60 people beating up this high level drake and I had no lag at all. We all were defeated many many times but were able to get back into the fight easily. This had to be the best time I had in any multi-player game. The first couple of hours was terrible but the last hours were terrific.

Over million people expected in middle earth world tour!

The open beta starts for people who pre-ordered on friday March 30th. On April 6th the world is open to everyone for free who sign up to the World Tour! They are expecting 1 million people playing in the game. This might be a high expectation but I know there are a lot of people excited about this game. They will be starting with 7 servers and prepared to turn on more if they need them. All characters will be deleted before April 24th unless you have pre-ordered the game. Also you can only go up to level 15 so have fun making more characters.

My plan is to get all my characters out of the introduction areas and as high as I can get them. I haven’t decided which server to have my main character yet but probably will have at least one character in each server. I believe they should allow people to transfer their characters to another server but haven’t seen anything about this. I would hate to have the server I play on get full and can’t play on it anymore.

 
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Posted by on March 28, 2007 in closed beta, open beta

 

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LOTRO – The end of closed beta

LOTRO – The end of closed beta

Today is the last day of the LOTRO (Lord of the Rings Online) closed beta and it will be a deadly day for all the characters. All current characters will be deleted tomorrow. At 7PM Eastern time today the developers will drop high level monsters in towns all over the place. My level 28 minstrel will die a glorious death while healing as many people as I can. It’s been fun and I haven’t even touched half of this game.

Drinking at the pub I got very drunk and my vision was blurry

Seeing blurry view due to being drunk

Lord of the Rings Online has frodo in Rivendell

I saw frodo at rivendell protecting the ring

I participated in a pub run from one side of the world to rivendell which is a deadly place for low levels like me. I made it through because I was in a group of 10 people all running with some high level hunters for protection. We stopped at the pubs throughout the world to drink beer. Yes when a character drinks beer they get drunk and the world gets very blurry. Put your graphic setings to medium or higher to see these effects. At lower levels you will see little difference.

LOTRO has a beautiful display of Rivendell

I ran from Thorin's Hall to Rivendell

Checking out a waterfall in LOTRO while walking around

A beautiful waterfall at rivendell

I also joined up with fellowships to finish some hard quests with success and some failures. Some of these quests which are labeled for low levels are very hard. Any quest in the Great Barrows should not be done at levels under 20. Also the quest to retake weathertop needs a high level group to finish it.

The open beta starts on the 30th for all people who have pre-ordered the game. A week later the open beta will be opened for everyone else who can get the game cd. I think they will have them in a certain magazine. I’ll find out more before it all begins and post about it. Only pre-ordered people will have their characters moved to the live game.

 
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Posted by on March 26, 2007 in closed beta, review

 

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LOTRO, Stop for the beauty and fight in a rain storm

LOTRO, Stop for the beauty and fight in a rain storm

There’s only 4 more days for the closed beta for LOTRO to end which will wipe all the current characters. On March 30th the open beta for Lord Of The Rings Online will begin for the people who have preordered the product. Everyone will start from level 1 on the first day. I’ll be one of those and all ready to make my permanent characters. I don’t know how much time I will have to play but at least I know the way to get over level 20 and where the dangerous places are.

Click pictures to make larger.
Johnnyo burglar level 11 in Lords of the Rings Online

Johnnyo is my hobbit burglar

Johnimli is my guardian and I have him at level 13

Johnimli is my dwarf guardian

Johnsono is my main minstrel character which is now at level 22

johnsono is my hobbit minstrel

It took me 3 weeks for my minstrel to get to level 22 but I’m going to probably go slower this time so I won’t fail in a fight. In this game you don’t die but you actually flee from battle after your morale goes down to 0. You will reappear at the nearest respawn location with something called dread. This causes your morale, which is your life status, to be lowered for 10 minutes. It also causes lot of damage to your armour and weapons which you have to repair and can be costly. The benefit of not fleeing from battle is you gain titles like “The Undefeated” which is more of a pride thing to show other players. I was able to get to level 8 before I was defeated in a fight.

Low quality screenshot of the game Lord of the Rings Online

Lowest graphical settings

Medium quality screenshot of the game Lord of the Rings Online

Medium graphical settings

High quality screenshot of the game Lord of the Rings Online

Highest graphical settings

These pictures don’t show how amazing this game looks on a really good computer system. I played it on my slower system, which is an amd athlon xp 2500 with 1 gig ram, and kept it on the lowest settings with little lag but can’t play any higher. My brother’s new computer, which is an intel core 2 duo with 2 gigs ram, can be put on the highest settings with almost no lag. More memory seems to make a big difference in this game and obviously a better graphic card.

The most impressive thing about this game is the graphics and the weather system. I haven’t played a intensive graphical MMO before so this gets my notice. Probably in a few months I’ll take it for granted. You will also have day and night changes. The stars are fantastic at night and some of them twinkle if you look closely. Someone mentioned that all the constellations are there but I haven’t checked that for myself.

Check out the Moon and Stars at night in LOTRO

Moon and stars at night

Checking out a rainbow after a rain storm in LOTRO

Rainbow after the storm

Rain storm in Lord of the Rings Online

Raining storm while I travel

One day it can be a beautiful day fighting orcs and then the next day you can find yourself in a lightning storm with pouring rain. In some places the fog rolls in and is hard to see what’s coming at you. This can get scary in the old forest where trees and roots move around you. After the rain you might get the chance to see a rainbow.

They recently had to stop the rain because of a bug in the sound system. Hope they get it fixed before open beta because it adds a lot to the realism of the game. My biggest warning for people who don’t want to fail in a fight is not to run through an area with high level mobs. They will chase you and some will hold you with nets or webs. This is how I failed for each of my characters. It would be better to fight 1 or 2 enemies at a time when going into dangerous areas. You can also start a fellowship with other players or a bigger raid party. Lots of fun to have in this game and it’s nice to check out the scenery too.

 
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Posted by on March 21, 2007 in closed beta, review

 

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Last closed beta chance to rule them all in LOTRO

Last closed beta chance to rule them all in LOTRO

Lotro is an online game from Lord of the Rings

For anyone who was excited about Lord of the Rings Online having a stress test weekend then I have some more good news. TD Goodliffe played in the stress test and I tried it out as well. I thought it was a really fun game and loved the story line of the quests. I wanted more but would have to wait for the open beta at the end of this month. But there is now a chance for anyone to get into the closed beta until March 25th. All you have to do is buy the April issue of Computer Game Magazine in a local store or the digital version online.

I couldn’t find it any of my local book stores so I bought the digital version. If you do buy it online you need to forward your receipt to the email provided on the above link to get the beta key! I placed my order on Monday evening and got the key in the morning in my email. It would be faster if you order it during their business hours. This is for the closed beta and all characters will be deleted before the open beta on March 25th. I also wasn’t able to use my character I had in the stress test. I just made a lot of characters in every skill so I can test them all out. Good luck to all who tries this!

 
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Posted by on March 6, 2007 in closed beta

 

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