Today Turbine has released their latest Dev Diary; this one covering the landscape and story of West Rohan as a whole.
In this edition the devs talk about the ‘Big T’, that is to say getting involved with major Tolkien characters, locations and events. When it comes to West Rohan they are more in sync with the books than they have ever been before, which is both a blessing and a curse, since it requires immense cross-checking to ensure they’ve got it right.
They also talk briefly on the time-line issue, one that has cropped up in Dev Diaries before. For West Rohan the time frame is so compressed in terms of events that the devs decided to leave it aside entirely.
Finally, the designers for each of the West Rohan divisons(Eastfold, Westfold, Kingstead, Stonedeans and Broadacres) are given the opportunity to speak about their work, both the story of that area and their experiences in creating it.
I for one have always loved Turbine’s attention to detail when creating the world of Middle-earth, and having roamed around West Rohan myself I can say that this is without a doubt their finest work yet.
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The landscape/art/epic story(ignoring the broken promise) is the only thing Turbine got right in HD.
Wait? “got”? The game isn’t even out yet! Judging any game before it comes out is unfair to the developer and the game. This is especially true in MMO’s as most expansions are not anywhere near finished at release, let alone weeks before.
As quick side note, in my opinion the Story is the reason to play LOTRO. Too many games focus on making great everything else, LOTRO is one of the few that actually focuses on story. For that reason alone, Turbine deserves huge credit. It is really sad that is the state of the industry. We have amazing graphics but very few developers actually know how to craft a good story.
Thanks for your feedback! Good to see you again Sig!