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Even after the launch of Lord of the Rings Online's Mines of Moria expansion this last Tuesday, Turbine is still pumping out the video previews for each of their new areas of the mines themselves.

A few days ago, they released a video for the Redhorn Lodes in the central Moria region, and The Great Delving, which is the first section you encounter when entering the mines. Then today, they've released yet another video depicting Zelm-melek, which is smack dab in the middle of the mines, above Redhorn Lodes. If you've reached any of these areas in game yet, you know that these videos don't quite do them justice, yet they're still worth a look. Check them out embedded just after the cut.

GameTrailers put together a three-part series of Warcraft retrospective videos in the days leading up to the launch of World of Warcraft's Wrath of the Lich King expansion, and WoW was the focus of the third and final episode. In over 20 minutes, the video looks at the early MMOs and influences that led to the creation of WoW, the project's beginnings in discussions between Blizzard guys while they were playing EverQuest, and of course, the game itself.

In addition to listing the distinct features that made WoW successful, the restrospective provides an overview of its post-launch history, up through The Burning Crusade's launch. Everything from Onyxia raids to the ever-changing PvP Honor system is covered. If you're a hardcore WoW addict, little of it will be new information, but if you're just getting started or a casual user, you'll probably learn a thing or two. See the vid embedded after the break.

[Via WoW Insider]

Most EVE Online players didn't have the opportunity to attend EVE Fanfest 2008 in Reykjavik earlier this month, but that doesn't necessarily mean they have to miss out on what was revealed. CCP Games and EVE TV have made good on their promise to release video footage of Fanfest presentations and panel discussions. While they did make live audio of some of this available in-game over EVE Voice, it was difficult to follow without the visuals to tie it all together.

Now, they've put up a new video page dedicated to EVE Fanfest 2008, with both low res and high res downloads. They culled roughly 30 hours of raw footage down into 12 videos. We've listed them below, accompanied by the CCP descriptions and video links, for both YouTube (when available) and high resolution versions:

The EverQuest II team hopes to continue its string of upward-momentum expansions with today's launch of The Shadow Odyssey. After the landmark success of Echoes of Faydwer and the mixed reaction to Rise of Kunark, this new dungeon-heavy expansion hopes to recapture player excitement for the original EQ while polishing the design advances already in the game. We've already talked quite a bit about the game's big picture, so let's bring it down to some specifics.

Kendricke has posted up the full patch notes for the expansion, with everything from class balancing to new content laid out in the timeless bullet-pointy format. MMORPG Info has a handy quick-start guide, pointing out where you need to go to jump on the low level quests and the brand-new dungeons. EQ2 Wire, meanwhile, has difficulty ratings for the new dungeons, while the official site runs down the heritage quests added in the expansion. A ton of stuff to go through, and very texty. For a quick respite, head below the cut for a fantastic launch trailer! Happy dungeon-crawling!

When you think about Lord of the Rings it's easy to think of it as somewhat out of touch with modern fantasy. Tired, language-obsessed, cliche'd even. Today's launch of the Mines of Moria expansion for Lord of the Rings Online is accompanied by a trailer that should blow those preconceptions out of the water.

Showing the vivid visual imagery associated with the game, it's an all-new look for a place most of us think we already know. The things the dwarves woke when they delved too deeply are many, varied, angry, and awe-inspiring. Combine that with a look at what high-level players can do in combat, and you've got the makings of a two-minute long high fantasy adventure! Check it out below the cut, and explore all the rest of the Moria content we have on offer today.

When you watch a cut scene (assuming you didn't skip it, when possible), do you ever think about what goes into making that cinematic? Why did they choose this angle, and this part of the storyline? In games like Guild Wars, the cut scenes are game-engine-based, so your characters are standing there engaged in deep, dramatic story-driven dialogue with an important NPC, all the while a Jagged Horror decides he wants to stand directly on top of the camera.

Ravious over at Kill Ten Rats discusses the issue we sometimes can have with the different types of cut scenes out there. For example, in Lord of the Rings Online, there are the ones where you can't do anything, and you're forced to sit and listen to the big bad boss talk about how he could have gotten away with it, if it weren't for you meddling kids. Then there's the type where you can, as Ravious puts it, "hop over Samwell(wise) Gamgee's hobbit head to your heart's content while Elrond bids the Fellowship farewell."

So what's your favorite kind of cut scene? Do you feel they need to be giant cinematic productions, or do the brief game-engine scenes do well enough?

We get a double whammy today from Turbine, as they've just released five new screenshots and a new developer diary video for Lord of the Rings Online's Mines of Moria. The screenshots are all from Silvertine Lodes, one of the new areas releasing with the Mines of Moria expansion on Tuesday.

In the video diary, Art Director Harry Teasley and Lead World Designer Matt Elliott talk about how they built the Mines of Moria and how important it was to get everything just right, according to the lore. As they point out in the video, "Moria is really the inspiration for every dungeon adventure, in every game, since the advent of RPGs." Check out the new screenshots in the gallery below, and the video just after the cut.

X-Play took a look at the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King expansion for World of Warcraft and while no new ground was covered on the information front, they did get a look at one of the final battles in the Death Knight starting quest line. Of course, if you're trying to avoid any sort of spoilers concerning the Death Knight or generally anything WotLK-related, you may not want to risk taking a look at the segment.

Worry not though, because as we said there ain't much meat on them bones. One thing the segment does point out is that this expansion is yet again aimed solely on high-level content. The subject isn't new by any means, but it did serve to remind us that old-world content could really use some love from Blizzard once in a while. You can find the video after the break.

The EVE Online game servers and forums are presently down in an extended downtime, during which time the Quantum Rise expansion is being rolled out. While EVE players cope with the withdrawal shakes, CCP Games has released a behind-the-scenes video to check out, in addition to the Quantum Rise trailer.

EVE Online: Behind the Scenes is in some ways an introduction for new players to the setting of New Eden and the company that creates EVE. For gamers who are already EVE players, the video is a look inside the CCP Games office in Reykjavik, and features interviews with several developers in addition to some nice visuals of the new sub-capital industrial ship arriving with this expansion, the Orca. This video should really be seen in high resolution to appreciate the details, and can be downloaded from the temporary 'downtime news' EVE site which is up during the expansion deployment. In terms of when Quantum Rise is expected to be ready and the servers open up for players, the latest update from CCP is that they're currently on schedule, with the servers to open on November 12th at 02:00 GMT. In the meantime, we've got the 'EVE Online: Behind the Scenes' video embedded for you below the cut.

With all of the announcements and events that have taken place this week at EVE Fanfest 2008, it's a safe bet that the forthcoming video footage related to the title should be interesting. CCP Games is kicking off the November 11th release of the Quantum Rise expansion with a video, depicting how the game's storyline is moving forward. As they did previously with the Empyrean Age release, rather than simply making a video that shows off a new game mechanic or ship, CCP's Quantum Rise trailer is presented as 'in-world' breaking news footage from "The Scope" -- New Eden's galactic news network.

Where the Empyrean Age trailer showed viewers a suicide attack on a peace summit that triggered war between the Caldari and Gallente races, the newest Quantum Rise video depicts an escalation of hostilities in New Eden. The Gallente Federation now finds itself mired in a two-front war, fending off the nationalistic Caldari while having to face the golden Amarr fleets as well, as seen in the footage. The Quantum Rise trailer is just the newest one shown on the CCP Games YouTube page. For those looking for higher res downloads, the Quantum Rise trailer should be up on the official site's video section soon. But for now, you can see video footage from 'The Scope' as the conflict unfolds below the cut.

We think it's probably common knowledge by now that City of Heroes and City of Villains both have arguably the best character creation process of any MMO out there. This is interesting if you consider the fact that the game has been out for four years now.

Over at the Limited Edition blog, John Nicholson has taken an in-depth look at CoH character creation in a video he just posted today. This 17-minute visual aid walks us through the process from start to finish, yet explains that it could literally take hours to refine your character exactly to your likings. If 17 minutes seems long, you haven't experienced this character creator first hand! Take a look at the full video linked below the cut, or fly on over to the LE blog for more information.

It seems like it wasn't so long ago when Massively reviewed the EVE Online machinima "Clear Skies", an imaginative blend of EVE's backstory with Half-Life 2 character models and sets. We recently mentioned that Clear Skies had been nominated for consideration at the Machinima Filmfest 2008, but have gotten word that it won a Mackie award for Best Long Format film this past weekend.

Massively got a hold of Clear Skies creator Ian Chisholm today, who shared with us his reaction to having won the Mackie award. He quipped, "I was sort of wondering if they had made a mistake -- it's really nice to get that sort of recognition when all I set out to do was have some fun with my friends and have a creative outlet." But more than anything, Chisholm is pleased with the overwhelmingly positive response he's gotten from the EVE community itself. "I never set out to do any of this, so it's completely organic... it's just a fantastic thing to be able to do, to reach out and make all these thousands of people's day go with a bit of a smile when they watch the film" he said.

At PAX earlier this year, we were treated to some of the first real shaky-cam footage of NetDevil's Jumpgate Evolution in action. Now, we get a bit more gameplay footage from an attendee of this year's Eurogamer Expo earlier last week.

This video comes to us courtesy of the Limited Edition blog, and shows over eight minutes of the game being played off and on. We can see some great footage of combat, exploration and achievements in this video. Considering this video contains more than just Jumpgate, you can jump in around the 2:17 mark and watch until 10:26 for the Jumpgate-only content. Of course you could always watch the entire 15:44 video for more on non-MMO-related Eurogamer Expo goodness.

Last week, we gave you our initial impressions of the upcoming sci-fi MMO Global Agenda. Yet, even in a 1200-word article, it's difficult to express fast-paced action and innovative gameplay successfully. Luckily, Hi-Rez Studios has just released their newest promotional video for the game, and it speaks volumes.

In this video, we get a glimpse into what the game is all about from the developers' perspective. Executive Producer Todd Harris, Senior Game Designer Scott Zier and Art Director Chuk Vinson take us through some of the game's basic mechanics, accompanied by some spectacular in-game footage of combat, character advancement and more! This is one of those videos so packed full of info and visuals that you'll need to watch it a few times to take it all in. Check it out embedded just after the jump below, and be sure to check out our Global Agenda gallery, which includes some new screenshots just released today!

NCsoft has just announced that the highly-anticipated Aion: The Tower of Eternity MMO will be entering open beta in Korea on November 11th of this year. Not only is this exciting news for Koreans, but also for the rest of the world, as it means our betas are drawing near. NCsoft addresses this in a recent press release: "We are currently in the process of localizing and culturalizing the game for the western market in order to reach the same level of quality that the game provides for the western world, and are in heavy planning for our testing phases in North America and Europe. We are taking the utmost care in the localization process and we're dedicated to releasing the very best product in NCsoft West territories. With the ball now rolling, expect to hear much more, and see much more out of Aion in the coming months."

To help us get even more excited about this game, they've sent along 2 new videos and a ton of new wallpapers in our gallery below. The first video is a CG cinematic (second video down), and the next video is an amazing 4-minute walk through some breathtaking in-game footage. This game is obviously much more than just winged combat, as these videos will prove.