Dana Massey of MMORPG.com joined Turbine at the recent press event for a hands-on preview. He was allowed to join the Lord of the Rings Online beta to experience the game's initial ten levels. He writes:
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Turbine demonstrated complete confidence in the quality of their product when they hosted a press event in San Francisco, CA last week. Typically, companies invite the gaming press by for a speech, a disk full of assets, a round of interviews and a few brief minutes playing the game. Turbine cast off that trend when they simply opened a room full of terminals in the downtown Metreon and let us play as long as we wished. I spent seven hours in Middle-Earth with my Hobbit Burglar and began to get an idea of what the latest launch from Turbine is all about.
For all the criticisms and accolades to come, the bottom line is that when playing Lord of the Rings Online I lost all track of time, food and my notebook. The experience is immersive, polished and compelling. That is not to say everything was positive, but only that this game has the makings of a highly addictive product.
