I’ve been through a mild World of Warcraft phase. I know what that’s like. I snapped out of it easily enough with only a few mid-level characters to show for it. But I think this might be something else entirely.
‘Are ye lads trainspotting, eh? Trainspotting at Central Leith Station? Thur hasnae bin a train thur in fockin yeers!’
Or something like that.
Nice work.
I laughed at the reference, in the e-mail exchange with Trevor in “Hobbitspotting”, to the “including the history of C&C at the beginning of the review”. Is that little comment/slap at the amateur reviewer (I forget who it was) who posted his attempt at a game review in Everything Else the other week?
Nice.
I’m pretty sure the email exchange isn’t with Trevor, but with the editor of Tom’s gay magazine. And it’s mostly a slap at bad editors. But Tom takes some digs at himself with the inclusion of film nerd/lit crit stuff.
Troy
Your enthusiasm for this game is weakening my resolve, Tom. Is there a free trial or something?
Once players reach the mid-levels, it becomes nearly impossible to play without a group
The kiss of death…
Shouldn’t the resident Qt3 hobbit be reviewing this game? Or at least playing it? I know you prefer strategy games Troy, but you can play a Captain and then stand in the back and yell commands at your group (er, fellowship) to get a similar feeling.
I’ve been having trouble thinking up a last name for my Hobbit, but Goodfellow might just do the trick.
Actually there is. Every box comes with a “buddy key.” Don’t have mine handy, but I’d be happy to send it to you via PM when I get home!
Come join us!
My impression was that the buddy key required that your buddy have the DVD to install off of, but I could be mistaken.
Dunno if they’re giving 'em out on the main LOTRO site or not, but I have a 10-day trial key that came with my “special edition”. You’ll have to find somewhere to download the game, though (I’d imagine the beta client would happily update itself up to current, if you managed to find it somewhere).
PM me if you want the key :)
(Edit: anyone else can PM me for the key if Hawkeye doesn’t need it)
West Bree to South Bree, you mean. (Jesus, I’ve been playing WAY too much)
Thanks guys. I’ll see if I can find the beta client for download somewhere when I get home tonight.
First, don’t create an account. Wait till you’re ready to play!
Fast link to the core beta client (no hires textures!):
http://ftp.snt.utwente.nl/pub/games/lotro/beta/v1.12/
OK, you’re not done yet! Ignore the urge to register still!
Install from the files above, and let it patch. This will take time.
Done? Does it get as far as patching properly? If not, you need to ask someone
here for the right TurbineLauncher.exe.config (I can supply only the European
file, unfortunately).
With that file in place, you should be able to download patches. Let it patch.
Still avoiding that registration, of course.
After the long wait is over, you should be asked to log in. NOW register your
trial key to your account.
It’ll look pretty, but you can improve it with this file (1.66GB):
http://home.halifax.rwth-aachen.de/~andazeus/client_highres.dat
Set textures to maximum to enjoy this file, if you have a beefy system.
Awesome. I want to have your manbabies, EvilIdler.
So, Gladguy or Andrew, can one of you PM me a trial key, then?
Done.
I played some in the free period and am on the edge of dipping in.
Troy
You have to group after the early levels? That pretty much kills any interest I had in this.
You don’t have to group. You can easily solo all the way to 30-35, maybe even further.
The grouping in LOTRO isn’t near as bad as WoW. The Holy trinity (Tank, Healer, DPS) is rarely needed on most group quests and most people seem somewhat competent and decent so far. Most group quests are that long and you can probably just pick it up right where you have to do it. Longer group quest, like instances aren’t fantastically difficult. (Great Barrows notwithstanding) Grouping has thus far been a relatively pleasant experience all around.
Yeah. Forced grouping == no sale. :(