The pull of the ring is strong...

Play reports:

Speaking at the Codemaster Connect 08 event in Birmingham today, Turbine's Lord of the Rings Online producer was on-hand to officially announce a new expansion pack for the popular MMO title.

Called "The Mines of Moria", the first official LoTR expansion will be released later this year, and promises wholesale improvement and expansion of the persistent world title.

The new add-on will see us entering new areas of Middle-Earth, specifically Moria and beyond this, Lorien. A third region was mooted but goes unnamed at present. 10 new levels will see the game's cap boosted to 60, with two new classes being offered: the Warden and the Runekeeper.

In the mine's we're promised epic environments and vast halls, with top-notch loot on offer. Balrog and the Watcher will count among the new bosses to counter, with world altering instances and stunningly rich dwarve cities offered by the producer.

Entering Lorien players will receive gifts from Galadriel, the pack also introducing Legendary Items (objects that will evolve as the player progresses), et al. Big raids were also mentioned.

Turbine also confirmed that they are planning annual expansions to the Lord of the Rings Online, another offering hinted for 2009.

In the short-term, MMO players will also be getting Book 13, 'Doom of the Last King', which will offer a new icy coastal region to explore, weather which impacts your character and the related gameplay... as well as, well, fishing.

War Mammoths and a new race, The Lossoth, will also be added, alongside new monsters, fellowship enhancements and more.The developers even confirmed that Book 14 will arrive later in the summer, which will carry players through to the expansion pack, and allow them to visit the Ring Forge in the process.


With Age of Conan coming out soon and now this, the temptation is growing deep inside the pit of my blackened gamer soul. Can I resist? Will I resist? Stay tuned.

Interplay is reborn!

Interplay is back! With the news of soul sucking behemoths like EA buying up everything in sight and ruining the sports game industry, little gems like this make me all giddy inside. All I have to say to Interplay is, "Baldur's Gate 3 please!"

Click here for there new website.

Where are the Western FPS games?

With the exception of Call of Juarez, the Western FPS sub genre has gone largely neglected. I think the subject matter is rife with possibilities. As my friends know, I am not that good at multi player FPS games. Part of the reason is that I am just not that into them. I don't enjoy getting sniped from 200 yards away or getting chewed up by modern firepower at close range. I was very excited about Call of Juarez when I first heard it was being produced. That excitement ended about a half hour into the game. I had expected something akin to the classic western FPS called Outlaws from Lucasarts. What I got was a poorly designed, uninspired crap fest.

It has been over ten years since Outlaws was released and there hasn't been one good western themed FPS (or other genre) game in that time. There have been a plethora of World War II games in that time. I'd like to see a AAA publisher use something like the Unreal 3 engine and give the western theme another go. I am skeptical that this will happen since you won't have huge explosions and guns that can shoot through schools, but I can dream. Hell, I'd even like to see a computer adaption of Kenzerco's Aces and Eights table top western rpg. Imagine, no flak jackets, scopes that let you shoot someone from half a mile away, frag grenades, or air strikes. It would be mano a mano with six shooters, rifles and bows.

Are there any settings that you think are being neglected?

Age of Conan Preview

PC Gamer has their preview of Age of Conan up. The only thing that I am mildly interested in is the idea of a new combat system. I have done the old standard MMO combat system to death. Funcom needs to make sure that isn't the only attraction to their game or it will go the way of recent titles like Tabula Rasa. Age of Conan is supposed to be coming out for the Xbox 360, but I have heard little about the console version. Does anyone know if it is going to be a simultaneous release or if it will come out some time later?

Gary Gygax is dead.

Rikathos reports that Gary Gygax has died. It is a sad day for gamers everywhere. Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia about him:

Ernest Gary Gygax (July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008) was an American writer and game designer, best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) with Dave Arneson, and co-founding the company Tactical Studies Rules with Don Kaye in 1974. Gygax is generally acknowledged as the father of the role-playing game.^[2]

On March 4th, the Associated Press confirmed reports of Gygax's passing that originally were made by Troll Lord Games, a small role playing game company Gygax had been working with.^[3][4] He had been in poor health, suffering multiple strokes and a near-heart attack.

Gygax was the son of Swiss immigrant Martin Gygax and an American mother. His gaming experiences began at the age of five and six with playing pinochle and chess as well as the usual pretend games of any child that could be likened to live action role-playing together with Jim Rasch as referee/game master, John Rasch and Don Kaye as fellow participants. At about the same time Gygax began educating himself in science fiction novels with Ray Bradbury's The Veldt in Bluebook and Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Conqueror.

Fifty Five dollars??

Foster City (CA) - Sony today announced a firm release date and MSRP for the "Dualshock 3" controller, the first PS3 controller to include the rumble feature.

The rumble force feedback was one of the defining traits of the Playstation brand dating back to the PS One. However, Sony faced an infamous lawsuit with Immersion over patent rights to the technology.

Sony said today the Dual Shock 3 wireless controller will be available in April for a suggested retail price of just under $55.

Also today, Sony said it will be launching a new PS3 bundle with Metal Gear Solid 4 packed in and a new PSP pack with the upcoming God of War: Chains of Olympus in-box. Both are set for Q2 2008 releases, with the PS3 bundle slated for around $500 and the PSP at around $200.


Come on Sony, don't you think that is a bit much for a controller featuring something it should have had in the first place? Are you trying to recoup some of the losses from the lawsuit with Immersion?

Lost Odyssey and Xbox 360 woes.

I like my Xbox 360. I have had some great gaming experiences with it, but I have also had a ton of frustration akin to the kind I used to endure with PC games. The consoles were supposed to be a better experience right? Well, not so much -- at least where the Xbox 360 is concerned. So far I have had two "Red Rings of Death". I dealt with that ok, by spending time on other pursuits while I waited for the unit to be "repaired" and sent back. There is one other insidious problem with the Xbox 360 that really rankles me. I will sometimes be in the middle of a game and get a message saying that my CD could not be read and that I should eject it and wipe off the dust that must be accumulated on it. There could be no other explanation like the drive actually being a piece of shit I suppose. Like I said, I can live with being without the system for a period of time. But, when I am playing a game and I get this error randomly, it kind of makes me forget I am enjoying a quiet pastime and makes me want to shove the damn thing up Bill Gate's ass.

This brings me to Lost Odyssey. It's a great game, and has a wonderful story and character development. There are fantastic cut scenes and an ongoing narrative about the main character's lost memories. It's all very good stuff. The problem lies in that there may be an hour or more of play time between saves. Guess when my Xbox 360 decides it can't possibly read my horribly disfigured CD? After a good hour of game play without any chance to save, that's when! Did I mention the CD is in pristine condition? This irritates me to no end. I now have a great game I want to play and I am afraid to because I don't want to be repeating the same shit over and over again because Microsoft can't make a stable console. I already can't do 1080p over component cables which may or may not be the fault of Sony, but never-the-less, it is another frustration with the system.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Xbox Live functionality and Xbox Live Arcade is great, but I swear in the future if a game is coming out on both Xbox and PS3 and there is no compelling multi player aspect to it, I will be buying the PS3 version. Even then, I will be royally pissed if I am in a multi player game of Civilization Revolution and I am a few hours in and the game can't read the CD. I am told I could trade my Xbox 360 in and get one with HDMI out and hope the CDRom problem is fixed, but there is no guarantee and why should I have to pay more money to get something to work the way it should?

Table cat likes tables.

We have two cats. My cat Frodo, who has made an appearance on this site and my soon-to-be step daughter's cat Kallie. They are both great cats and we love them, but we are having a problem with Kallie always wanting to be on the dining room table. Our method of discouraging her has been to squirt her with a water battle and yell. This seems to not have much of an effect on her. When she sees the water bottle she cringes and gives out a little meow as if she knows what is coming, but she waits until we actually squirt her before she gets off the table. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to break her of the habit of getting on the dining room table? We chase her off that thing a good 10 times a day.

I mentioned the other day that instead of feeding the evil machine that is Gamestop's used game rapefest, people could donate games and systems to Child's Play. Well here is another good outlet for your used stuff courtesy of Cheap Ass Gamer:


Please send your game donations to:

SK1 Shane Neuhaus
30 NCR DET 1
FPO AP 09381-1702

Current generation games are preferred. Postage should be similar to shipping to most other USA destinations.

Once your games arrive in Iraq, they will be photographed along with their recipient. We've got a Flickr gallery showcasing the current haul.

Wombat and other CAGs have already started sending some games over and I'll be shipping out my donation this week. Please join us in the official thread for more details and discussion.

Another guest post...

Hi, my name is Frodo and I have a few things to say. First of all, being a cat and therefore a higher life form than you hoomins, I don't understand your silly little rituals and your love of sporting events. I understand something you call the "Super Bowl" was going on last night while I was taking a well deserved nap on the carpet. My owner and his insipid friends scared the piss out of me when they all jumped up and screamed in unison for some reason. This left me shaken and perturbed for quite some time. I shall have my revenge, don't worry. And one last thing, hahahahahahahahaa the Patriots lost!!!!