According to the latest news at D&D Insider, the full version of the Character Builder will be released to DDI-subscribers by the end of this month. A demo version will be available to everyone else, which seems to be a bit more feature-packed than the current beta, but not by much.

For PS3 owners, the demo will arrive on PSN February 5th.

I'm torn, to be honest. I can't wait for this game, which makes me want to play the demo ASAP. On the other hand, I don't want to spoil the experience for when the full game is out. What to do, what to do...

And thus 24 continues its ancient tradition of involving all the actors from Robocop...

Also, I really liked the first two episodes. It's still 24, but more down to earth and believable, for what it is.

There are some collapsed areas you can't get through directly. Either you've missed a different passage somewhere in the crypt, or you'll only be able to get to the other side of the wall by entering through a different entrance altogether. I don't recall what the situation is in this case though.

If you can't see an obvious way to get past the wall you're stuck at, just leave the crypt and do something else until you figure it out. These things normally resolve themelves, and even if they don't, a standard Witcher contract isn't important to the story at all.

Gawd. Today I deconstructed Level 10 and Level 7 legendary weapons I'd been leveling, and got no heritage runs at all. GAH!  I guess it says you *may* get a heritage rune but I'd always gotten at least something along those lines when I deconstructed before. I'm finally working on my captain again, but I just have struggled a bit to find a legendary weapon I want to use. I finally got a Club with some good starting legacies (all damage improvers), but having thrown away 17 levels of weapon leveling is a bit annoying. 

The way deconstructing works for legendary weapons is a bit strange, and something I hope Turbine will change at some point. You get no xp from deconstructing level 1-10 items, then once the item reaches level 11, it suddenly gives xp. Until level 21, the amount of xp doesn't increase though. The amount of xp you receive increases at levels 11, 21, 31, and 41. What this means is that for a weapon you plan to eventually deconstruct, its last 9 levels will be a waste of time unless you really need the stats. Also, since you can never regain any relics you place into the weapon at its max level, even when deconstructing, the system discourages you from adding relics to your best items. I don't think they thought this completely through.

I can't get LOTRO to work anymore getting this error, anyone got any ideas? Offical forums seem quiet.

http://community.codemasters.com/forum/showthread.php?t=326082

Looks to me like the launcher either can't find the Tahoma font in your system, or you've recently installed something that has overwritten that font with one that doesn't support regular formatting. Ring a bell?

I'm pissed that they keep with the skipping weeks at a time between new episode.  Heroes, Lost, Fringe, and now this show doing it.  Hate that.  No new show this week either.

Uh, Lost hasn't done that since the second season. That's why the show now starts in January instead of September.

If the majority of you guys are on Eledilmir I might consider re-rolling there, especially if there's an established Kinship that's open to new (and casual) members. Hopefully you guys on Landroval would be wiling to do the same (Lockdown?) if it meant getting all the GTers together. My Captain just hit 10, took maybe 4 hours, so I wouldn't mind going through it again. I still want to try some other classes anyway. Captain is certainly fun (except for all the yelling!) but I was never very good with Pet classes.

3 buddy keys still available 

The Captain doesn't have to be a pet class, and for most high-level Captains, it isn't. I probably haven't used any of my heralds in a year or so. You get access to battle standards as an alternative, and they work very well.

Europe finally got the first patch last week, and I managed to play around with it a little this weekend. The new legendary weapon special effects are cool. My weapon has a goblin-bane title (or something like that), and now it glows blue while near goblins and orcs, just like a certain famous sword owned by a hobbit nobody has heard about. 

Patch going up on Monday:
http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=236563

Mostly bug fixes, but they are making the revamped 21st Hall easier to understand in terms of the relocated vendors/merchants:

Added mail boxes to Crafting Hall, Auction Hall and Vault in the 21st Hall.
Doors will now have mouse over text in the 21st Hall
Mini map will now indicate where Auctioneer, Banker, and Crafting vendors are in the 21st Hall

More importantly for mounts:

Horses no longer appear to have dislocated their backsides. The animation is now more natural.

I'm still missing a fix for the bug where only the fellowship leader can see the fellowship members on the map. This one was introduced in MoM and is really annoying.

I think I'm going to restart - and try to better conserve ammo.  I just ran out and enemies are dropping the wrong type of ammo for me.

You don't have to restart. Sell the weapons you don't use. Keep just two weapons. The game will give you ammo mostly for the weapons you carry, so if you carry any weapons you'll never use, you're wasting a lot of ammo.

yeah, waiting a bit for 1.1 myself, but, I must admit, now that I play LOTRO as well, the graphics and the world in WAR seems a bit..drab, I'm afraid.

Also, I'm absolutely in love with the crafting system in LOTRO - I've been farming, gathering hides, making armors, swords, spears and so on for well...4 hours last night? hehe, first game I REALLY want to craft in.

Just wait until you realize you need more than 3000 Ancient Iron Ore to master the Grand Master level of Metalsmith. I dread to think of the requirements for Supreme Master. 

nevermind what the last film did the continuity.  not sure how they are going to deal with that myself.

I think they already dealt with that in the TV series.

oh, and have they upgraded the graphics of the game recently??? Everything seems crispy clear and damn fine looking - much much better than I remember - especailly the two starting ruins you enter as an elf looks damn good, the ones with goblins in them...

They did put in DirectX 10 support awhile back and were touting the graphic improvements then so that may be what you are noticing.

yeah, I know, but tried that once, and though everything just looked blurry somehow, so didnt use it this time around :-)

Direct3D 10 doesn't make LOTRO blurrier, as far as I know. I only know of two effects it introduces: Trees and bushes cast detailed dynamic shadows (and they look awesome!), and water is supposed to look better.

I suspect the difference you're seeing in graphical quality might be caused by not using the high resolution pack last time you played.

I peeked into Lothlorien once just to see what it looked like, and it was nice to see the great outdoors again. It's a nice little area. But yeah, there didn't appear to be a whole lot to do there just yet in terms of quests.

I haven't completed book 4 (I'm still sort of stuck on the 1st chapter of that book), so I don't think that's a prerequisite (maybe completing took 3 is?). It's fairly deep inside Moria so I think part of it is people just sticking with other areas.

You should know when the place is unlocked for you, as the story takes you there and lets you meet Galadriel. You can enter the zone, but most of it will be locked away from you until you finish the book quest that unlocks it.

Ok.  That's good to know.

So to all you high level people out there - Why do I hear almost nothing in any of the reviews about Lothlorien?  I was sure I read they added it to the game world.  Is it just really small or maybe there's nothing to really do there?

It's because you have to complete MoM: Book 4 (or so I've heard) to even get access to the place. I think Lorien is going to become really important in the time to come, as it will probably serve as the new hub for adventurers (like Bree has always been) once they get out of Moria. The next update to the game will probably contain Dol Guldur for example, and that heavily involves Lothlorien.

Wow you're already through Chapter 2?  That was damn fast.  Chapter 2 took me a long time. 

Chapter 2 took me about 3 hours I think. Tried to be thorough.

I refuse to believe that. There's no way anyone could get through chapter 2 in 3 hours without having played it before and powerleveling. Even the second time I played through it, it probably took me about 7-8 hours.

Where's the legendary item system from LOTRO? That's an innovative feature from 2008 that is likely to set its mark on MMORPGs for years to come.

I'm on Laurelin as well. If any of you want to join a kinship, I'm part of a friendly, casual one called Hand of Justice. They always accept more members.

Edit: Also, my character's name is Galagoras.

Not sure this a new feature.  Goblins the Midgewater Marshes have done this since launch.  They will net you then retreat to throw javelins, often retreating into more goblins if you are near the ruins.

The difference is that those goblins didn't run nearly as far away, and that their decision to net you and retreat was more tactically sound than what the Moria goblins do. It didn't cause as many problems.

I hate the new "AI" for goblins in Moria. It's just lazy, and makes grinding even more annoying. What will happen is that I start fighting one of them, then it does an attack that slows me down, and runs some distance away to throw stuff at me. It doesn't really earn him more than one or two free attacks that barely do damage, and it allows my timers to recharge, which means the goblin is actually hurting himself doing this. Also, it's very annoying that they do this when you fight in the middle of an area crawling with goblins (as you usually do). They'll inevitably run into the middle of a different group of them (by accident. The game doesn't do this on purpose), which means that if you try to continue attacking the goblin, you'll also draw their attention. I often end up having to flee behind some corner to draw it closer to myself.

This might sound fun in theory, but it's so annoying during actual gameplay that I sometimes want to throw my keyboard at the wall. This is perhaps the only new feature in MoM I don't like.

[Bounder]

Behold a Real Hero - A Bounder of the Shire!

Wearing SHOES? You've been around the big-folk for too long. 

I just got my legendary weapon to level 20, where one of its legacies was improved to its maximum tier. It's a pretty nice weapon at this point, though I'm itching for something better anyway. This is what it looks like now:



As an added bonus, here's a screenshot of some nice scenery I came across in the mines:

tem name colors indicate the quality of the item.
• Legendary - Orange
• Incomparable - Cyan
• Rare - Purple
• Uncommon - Yellow
• Common - White/Grey

The Legendary rating was renamed to Epic with Mines of Moria, for obvious reasons.

I invited a friend over to my house to partake in the first drink from my personal keg. He was about level 30 at the time, I was 50. I woke up later in the cat lady's house in Bree, dead drunk. He woke up on the top of the Giant's Needle (or whatever it's called) in the Misty Mountains, surrounded by level 45+ elite giants. Much laughter ensued.

Hopefully there's some way to Pathfind into the Mines of Moria itself, but I haven't gotten that far into Moria. I'll check the Eregion hunter trainer, but she didn't appear to be giving a Moria pathfinding quest as of yet.

I think I saw a pathfinding scroll leading to the 21st Hall (the one you see in the first movie) for sale at a reputation vendor in Moria. You need to increase your reputation with the Miners in order to use it.

There are other levels of heritage runes that can appear as well. The ones that give 1000 xp are the lowest level ones, but I think better ones will drop from loot at higher levels. When I deconstructed my halberd, I received a heritage rune worth 30000 xp.

I had some really bad luck with my initial legendary items. Almost none of their abilities suited my playstyle, which meant that I ended up pouring almost all my weapon xp into DPS. Since then I've been looking for a new halberd to replace the crap one I got from Volume 2 Book 1, but I didn't get anything until I was halfway between levels 53 and 54. A captain's 2-handed sword turned up as loot, and when I identified it, it ended up having only abilities that would be useful to my character. I decided to deconstruct my old halberd, which refunded a large portion of the xp I had poured into it and gave me back the relics I had spent on it as well. With the refund and some other items and a quest reward I had saved up, I was able to instantly bring my new weapon to level 13, where it turned out to be quite respectable.

Behold, this is my new sword: Ember, Servant of Udûn, now turned against its former masters:


I figure this will keep me going until level 57 or so, but we'll see.

I just hit level 53, and have been enjoying myself all the way. Turbine have really become good at quest design lately. Moria seems to avoid the frustrating quest types we found in southern High Pass, and avoids most of the crowding that we experienced with Forochel. I feel like I've barely even started exploring the mines themselves, spending most of my times in Eregion so far. The legendary items really add a whole new dimension to the game. You get the satisfaction of going up in level much more often than you're used to since your items become a part of you in many ways. Because legendary items drop from mobs in the landscape, the thrill of looting an enemy has suddenly been introduced to a game that lacked this before.

Kick Cooldown is not high on my list.  But maybe it's a new Captain skill and not the so-so trait skill.

Kick cooldown is a really nice power on a legendary weapon. You use the Kick skill to interrupt enemies when they are casting spells or using special abilities like summoning. In other words, it's a very useful skill. Its only weakness is its long cooldown.

I guess where I'm confused on class traits "groups" is this new "class trait book slot" on the player equipment slots screen (it's a book-size slot to the right of where your crafting tool is slotted, on the 'avatar' screen).

Not sure if you earn one from a quest later, you craft one (a kinmate offered to) etc., is it pages like the legendary traits books, or do you just get one on your class trait screen at some point that you drag over there etc. I'll figure it out at some point, I just think it could use some spelling out in-game somewhere. I dunno, maybe there's some L55 quest that spells it out later. I just don't want to miss out on something because I don't know how to do/equip/use it. 

Don't worry, you get your class item once you enter Moria, and it will be clearly spelled out.

I finally got into Moria itself about 20 minutes ago, but I have to work tomorrow and must go to bed now, so I can't explore it. Looking forward to seeing what the mines look like when I get home tomorrow evening.

It took me two evenings of gameplay to get into Moria, which is way more than I expected. I feel like I've barely even scratched the surface of the expansion so far, and leveling is ultra-slow (which is good). I've done half the quests in Eregion, finished Volume 2 Book 1, and done most of Volume 1 Book 15, and that was just barely enough to take me to level 51. My legendary halberd is level 11. I've spent most of its points on increased DPS, and it's now able to rival any pre-expansion weapon in that regard. Also got my Captain's Emblem, but I haven't been able to identify it yet, so I don't know what it does.

Damn, I don't want to go to work tomorrow, but I have to! I've been playing the game for about 3.5 hours now, and have gone through more than half of Volume 1 Book 15 and Volume 2 Book 1 during that time. It's all awesome. They succeeded in making me feel like I'm actually helping the dwarves take back Moria (in small steps. They haven't even been able to get through Hollin Gate in the part of the story where I am so far).

There's so much new content that I feel almost overwhelmed, and leveling is extremely slow, as it should be at this stage. I've probably finished about 25 quests in MoM already, and I'm still only about 1/5 through level 50.

Can't wait until I get home tomorrow so I can dive deeper into the game. I think I just need to play one more hour before I can enter Moria itself, which should be fun.

Mines of Moria is mine, MINE! Hmm, that's strangely appropriate, considering the expansion takes place in a giant mine...

If naming of legendary items works like other naming systems in the game, you probably can't add spaces to them, which means you need to keep it to one word. Try going for something in the same style as Glamdring or Sting.

I sure hope my local stores have this game today. They should have, but it's impossible to be sure. If they do, I'll be heading towards the Trollshaws to finish off Volume 1 and get my unique mount when I get back from work today.

It's nice to at least see them discussing this openly, perhaps igniting some interest in the franchises even if they don't get to mess around with them themselves. Star Control 3 would be problematic for them though. Activision currently owns the rights to the Star Control name, while Toys for Bob owns the rights to everything else in the game's universe. It would be impossible for them to create a true sequel without the blessing of both those companies, and I don't see Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford agreeing to such a thing without nearly total creative control in their hands. Considering the hostile history between those two and Activision, I also find it unlikely that getting the latter on board will be easy. Activision used Star Control 3 as a stepping stone towards getting rid of all the properties owned by Toys For Bob (by introducing new races and gradually removing those owned by TFB), and StarCon (Star Control 4, which was cancelled) was to be the final nail in the coffin for TFB's ability to involve themselves.

That Stardock is interested in Star Control isn't news, nor is it really all that realistic at the moment. Even so, it is intriguing, and I will continue to watch the progress with interest.

I'm finding it hard to motivate me to finish COD5 at the moment. It just leaves me cold. Consider me bitterly disappointed.

That's odd. I found COD5 to be much easier than COD4. Sorry you were disappointed in it, but I thought it was a very solid entry into the CoD series, and didn't see anything about it that was particularly frustrating or broken.

I don't thinking I'm dying any more often in COD5 than I did in COD4. The difference is that I'm now dying because of factors that are totally out of my control. In COD4 I always felt that if I died, it was my own fault and I'd do better the next time. In COD5 I don't even know what killed me half of the time, and I sure as hell can't stop it from happening without being plain lucky.

I can take a high level of difficulty, such as COD4 was able to present. What I can't take is randomness entering the equation. Sure, it might be realistic for someone in a war to get killed by an enemy he couldn't see nor know about in advance, but it's definitely not fun to do this in a game.

I've played a bit further into the campaign, and I find that the Russian missions are better than the American ones. What I mean by that is that there are occasional moments of fun between the massive stretches of frustration and lack of inspiration.

Hopefully they can do a better job with COD6 next year. Here's hoping. At least those of you who care about multiplayer are having fun, and that's good. It's just sad that it had to be at the expense of those of us who prefer single player gaming.

I'm really not enjoying this game. I loved COD4, which was the first game in the series I bothered playing, and I'm a big fan of FPS-games in general. I've played through COD4 twice, and despite some issues with struggling to figure out your goals at times, it's a seriously good game.

COD5 however, is a completely different beast. It feels like I'm just heading into deathtrap after deathtrap with no chance of avoiding it without knowing about it in advance. The result is that I take a few steps forward, die, reload, use my knowledge of the upcoming deathtrap to survive it, take a few more steps forward, die, repeat. It doesn't help that your vision is completely obscured by smoke about half the time, and that the rest has you trying to desperately avoid running into the annoying amounts of invisible walls. See that guy over there shooting at you from behind that sandbag? Want to throw a smoke grenade then run up to the sandbag and shoot into it? No, you can't do that, because there's a fricking invisible wall in the way that's going to kill you because it will leave you stuck in the open while you attempt to figure out what just happened.

Even things that are supposed to be awesome just by being included in a shooter are plain annoying. Take the tank mission I just played for example. It was INCREDIBLY annoying to get through. Most of my time was spent just sliding back and forth while trying to figure out where my attackers were shooting from (which was quite hard, considering the smoke all over the place).

There's also little in the way of story here, unlike the previous game. In COD4 you had your two main enemy leaders to take out, and the story was neatly structured around this goal. COD5 just feels like a series of set-pieces with little actual relation between them apart from them involving your character and Gary Oldman or Kiefer Sutherland (I wish he would shout "Dammit! We're running out of time!" at some point, but time isn't a factor here. Only the location of the next script trigger is).

I'm finding it hard to motivate me to finish COD5 at the moment. It just leaves me cold. Consider me bitterly disappointed.

Wow, some really great new features there. I hadn't heard about the Edhelharn cooldown fix, the global cosmetic system change, and the stacking of one-shot recipes, but they are all much wanted. I assume the new mount will be the one we get for finishing Volume 1 Book 15. That shouldn't take me too long.

I got the 12-month subscription today so I could give the character builder a look. My impression so far is that it's an awesome tool that is going to help tremendously for many groups. I entered all the characters from my 4E group and noticed right away that some of my players had made mistakes on their sheets that this application easily discovered. One of them even plays an Artificer, a class that has only been released through an article in Dragon. The character builder had no problems at all with that, treating it as if it was one of the base classes in the PHB.

The full version will also allow you to select which sourcebooks and magazine articles will be allowed in your campaign, which is a nice way to customize things and reduce the risk of someone picking a feat or power they shouldn't have access to.

I also liked how it produces (in addition to the regular character sheet) a much smaller sheet with the character's most important stats, including passive perception, which is clearly made for the DM. That's going to make things simpler to keep track of during play.