Lord of the Rings Online Preview

MMORPG.com had some hands-on time with Lord of the Rings Online at a press event in San Francisco, and they've got a preview of the first ten levels up. "Harbor no illusions. Lord of the Rings Online is not an exercise in innovation. It's a game designed to be immediately familiar to those who play MMORPGs like World of Warcraft and honestly, the experience at low levels did not seem immediately dissimilar to that game. The user interface, for example, is definitely a cousin of what Blizzard did. The upside is that in Lord of the Rings Online, MMOG fans should instantly know what to do, while fans of the films or books should not have much trouble picking it up. Turbine hopes that the differentiation comes from their setting and a few choice features along the way." They're hoping to launch the game in the second quarter of 2007.