Le`Bard Connection: The Eye Candy Connection

Fantastic fun in Lotro over the weekend, and indeed last night too. Not as much time spent online as I had hoped but that was due to having fun with the family, so it’s not all bad :) Also, Emarald has reactivated her EQ2 account and as we only have one computer at the moment, and so we take it in turns. Nice and fair, but my online time has been cut in half effectively.

So, Lotro. Caedluuf is now sitting at level 12 and although I am not particularly watching the levelling, it has struck me how similar the levelling speed is to EQ2 (if you do it normally, not Blacke syrup slow stylee). Following the progression from the starter village of Archet into Combe I’m starting to get a bit more of a look at Middle earth as portrayed by this game. I have to say, I am damn impressed. Although I would say that the ability to customise your toon and the way they are represented graphically is nowhere near as good as EQ2, the scenery and the way they have planned out the world (from what I have seen so far) is quite simply amazing and offers scenery eye candy so good, to even start nipping at Lotros heels in this area, EQ2 would need to be run on absolute maximum settings. Even then I’m not sure the scenery comes close to Lotro. My brother keeps telling me that some of the later locations and scenery will blow my socks off. Well, if that’s the case and I am sure it is, I cannot wait. From what I have seen so far and the quality of design and forethought is of a very high standard indeed.

I wondered in to Bree yesterday. Not to pick any quests up or to do anything game or progression orientated. I went there because I wanted a drink in the Prancing Pony. That and I wanted to check out how they did Bree. What a great place. Little side streets, rambling what I would class ‘Tudor’ style houses, with stairs and walkways, parks to name but a few of the attractions of the large town. The way it has been put together is a real triumph and the look, feel and atmosphere of Bree is really really cool. The Prancing Pony was pretty good fun too. Not much going on in there by way of PC interaction (no roleplayers found there when I went), but it’s a nice place.

Anyhow, instead of me rambling on about how good it looks, why not take a look below at the first set of Lotro screenies I have taken. Enjoy.