Turbine announced today its partnership with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment to distribute The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria at retail in North America.  As part of the announcement, Turbine unveiled its fall product lineup which includes two titles that will be available at retail, The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria Complete Edition and The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria Collector’s Edition, as well as a digital only title for existing subscribers, The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria Digital Expansion.

The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria expands the online world of Middle-earth to let players continue the ultimate interactive adventure in the largest and most dangerous online underground environment ever created.  Players will be able to explore the ancient underground cities of the dwarves, battle epic characters in the depths, face off with the Watcher, be a part of the fateful release of Durin’s Bane and more.  In addition to the Legendary Item system, The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria features groundbreaking dual height map technology that creates a seamless, vast, and epic environment that brings Moria to life like never before. The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria extends the challenge to new heights with two new classes, ten additional levels and hundreds of new quests.

The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria – Fall 2008 Product Lineup:

• The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria Complete Edition will include the original The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar game (Volume I), all content updates released since launch, and The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria (Volume II).  The Complete Edition will be available at retail stores nationwide and offers new players who wish to journey through the most complete and authentic recreation of Middle-earth the full, award-winning  experience.

• The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria Collector’s Edition will feature the content of the Complete Edition as well as compelling digital and physical items for collectors.  Limited quantities of the Collector’s Edition will be available at retail outlets in a unique leather-bound book packaging and will include:

• • 3 exclusive tokens that can be exchanged for the player’s choice of 8 different in-game items
  • 22” x 22” premium quality cloth map of the Mines of Moria
  • Special gold-plated ring complete with chain and pouch
  • Mines of Moria poster
  • The Lord of the Rings Online Art and Music Collection with the official Mines of Moria Soundtrack
  • A full color Collector’s Edition Starter Guide

• The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria Digital Expansion is a digital upgrade that will allow existing subscribers to The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar to continue the ultimate interactive adventure into the vast, terrifying and unparalleled world beneath Middle-earth.

This award-winning massively multiplayer online role playing game delivers an interactive experience brimming with life and filled with the familiar people, places and monsters from the most beloved fantasy of all time. From the picturesque surroundings of the Shire to Moria, the most fearsome underground realm ever imagined, players will experience the world of Middle-earth as never before.

The expansion is expected to be released in the Fall. Check back with us often for a solid release date.

For more of the new artwork sent to us by Turbine today from the Mines of Moria expansion, click here.

Via: Press Release

It’s Thursday, so PS3-owning Rainbow Six fans needn’t wait any longer: the Vegas 2 Gift Pack DLC has finally arrived. PC and Xbox 360 owners have had it for almost a week, but when you’re talking about playing the same exact maps you’re already used to — only at night — there’s really no wait that’s too long. That might not be entirely true, but as I said before, at least it’s free.

Rock Band’s weekly track release includes four songs from Rush and Red Hot Chili Peppers, which is also the number of new demos that have been released: Siren: Blood Curse, Monster Madness: Grave Danger, WALL-E and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian are all available in demo form on the PlayStation Store.

And there’s all sorts of trailers for you to check out, including one for the Super Stardust HD add-on which I’ve been raving about ever since it was released. Now you can see what I’ve been talking about.

Hit the break to check out the full list of content.

Read the full article

Yes, it’s Bungie Day! Time to get the kids to decorate the Master Chief statue with “plasma lights,” sing a few Spartan carols, and start mixing up the Covenant Nog. Or if you’re a traditionalist, you can download all the free stuff Bungie has put up on Xbox Live today. For starters, the new Cold Storage map can now be downloaded for Halo 3, which is a remake of the original game’s “Chill Out” map. If you want the rest of the maps in the Legendary Map Pack though, the price has now been dropped from 800 MS points to 600 MS points. Aside from that, there’s a free Bungie Day ‘08 theme and several gamerpics available for your downloading pleasure. Make sure you get ‘em soon though, because they’re gone forever after today.

Via Major Nelson

Monday is July 7 or 7/7, which has long been Bungie Day. This year you can expect a new, free map — Cold Storage, a revamp of the original Halo’s “Chill Out” level — and free gamerpics and a theme that will only be available on Monday. Bungie’s also trying to get the total number of kills in campaign mode up to seven million, so if you want to contribute, hop on Halo 3 and blast away some Covenant and Flood. But that’s not all:

Beginning on July 7, there will be a 48-hour long seven-player FFA playlist in Halo 3’s Matchmaking where you can turn the calendar back to 2001 and control Rockets, Invis and Snipe.

For now, Cold Storage will be implemented in regular rotation in playlists that require the Legendary Maps. To avoid confusion, playlists that previously required the Legendary Maps will now remind players that they need “all Maps” to participate, and since Cold Storage is free, it shouldn’t be a big deal for you to grab the map on July 7 and then return to your regularly scheduled business in SWAT.

Additionally, on 7/7, Microsoft is dropping the price of the Legendary Map Pack from 800 spacebucks to 600 spacebucks. That price drop does mean that purchases after 7/7 will no longer include the Bungie Pro bonus.

Note: the conversion rate of spacebucks to Microsoft points is 1:1.

All sorts of downloadable goodness has been added to the PlayStation Store today of both the free and premium variety. Syphon Filter 3 for PSone is now available for $6. It’s not a terrible game, but it’s not nearly as good as the earlier Syphon Filter games. Also in the land of playable games is free demo of Quake Wars — from having tried the demo out on 360, I can pretty safely say that the game did not translate all that well to consoles. It’s still worth checking out if you never got to try the PC version, but chances are you’ll find it to be an overwhelming experience.

In the land of rhythm games, Guitar Hero III and Rock Band each have a handful of tracks now available. Guitar Hero got the Isle of Wight Festival track pack and Rock Band got the MTV2 Pack 01, plus an additional track.

There’s plenty more, including an MGS4 theme and all sorts of trailers. Hit the break for a list of all of the new content.

Read the full article

STOP! Have you already paid for the Halo 3 Legendary Map Pack? If not, you might be interested to know that Circuit City is currently running a promotion that could net you the pack for free. Right now, if you pre-order Ninja Gaiden II through them, they’ll e-mail you a code to download the map pack at no charge. Granted, it’ll take up to a week for them to get the code to you, but, hey, free is free. So you pretty much guarantee yourself a copy of a game that already looks great, and you get some new maps for Halo 3. Or I guess you could just wait three months for the maps to become free. You can click the link below if you want to put in your pre-order.

Via Circuit City

Good news for all Halo 3 fans, the Halo 3 Legendary Map Pack is now available for your downloading pleasure via XBL. Want all the gory details? The read on my fellow Spartans! Thanks to MajorNelson for the reminder.

Content: Halo 3 Legendary Map Pack
Price: 800 Microsoft Points
Availability: All Xbox LIVE Regions
Size: 411.34 MB
Dash Text:[ESRB: M (Mature) BLOOD AND GORE,MILD LANGUAGE,VIOLENCE] The Legendary Map Pack blends old and new. Ghost Town’s asymmetrical mix of confined spaces and long lines of fire makes for frenetic games. Avalanche re-imagines the original Halo classic, Sidewinder, with new features, tweaked vehicles and massive outdoor spaces. Significant changes bring big improvements to the map, yet its contours and cliffs should provide a welcome sense of familiarity. Blackout, on the other hand, is the purest remake to date – all time favorite Lockout gets a graphical overhaul, but retains its challenging mix of ramps, platforms, tunnels and hallways.

Plus:
Content: Halo 3 Legendary Map Pack Dash Theme
Price: Free
Availability: All Xbox LIVE regions
Dash Text: Time to spruce up your Xbox Live Dashboard theme with this brand new, Legendary Map Pack-inspired theme, featuring images, moments and atmosphere from the latest batch of Halo 3 DLC. The Human industrial grit of Blackout, the wintry vastness of Avalanche and the gloomy ruin of Ghost Town will be a welcome aesthetic boost for fans of Dashboard themes.

And if you’re in Canada or the U.S.:

Content: Halo 3 Legendary Registration Gamer Picture
Price: Free
Availability: Canada and United States
Dash Text: Downloading this gamer picture enters US and Canadian residents in the Halo 3 Legendary Map Pack promotion. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Open only to legal residents of the 50 United States and Canada 18+. Game closes April 27, 2008. Skill testing question required for Canadian winners. By downloading this item you are allowing Microsoft to contact you from time to time about this promotion. For full contest rules and details click here.

We’ll all be getting our hands on Halo 3’s new map pack in a few days (assuming you fork over the 800 Microsoft Points, or $10, for them), but Dan Hsu got an early look at all three maps and walked away very impressed. Just from the trailers and screens we’ve seen, I thought this would be the case, but it’s nice to know that these maps are actually as good as they look.

Shoe offers up his thoughts and suggestions for game types on each map, in addition to notable weapons, things to pay attention to, and what Bungie has to say. According to him, the $10 doesn’t seem like too much anymore. “[I]t could just be because we’re having so much fun with the latest three maps: a perfect port of a fan-fave Halo 2 stage, a ‘Yay, this is much better’ re-imagining of a Halo: Combat Evolved classic, and a wholly new original. While playing the Legendary Map Pack, its price tag never even entered our minds.”

Read the full story over at 1UP.

This week’s 1UP Show features David Ellis sounding off on two of his favorite franchises, Mario Kart for the Wii and the Legendary map pack for Halo 3.

You can also look forward to checking out Square’s newest RPG, The World Ends With You alongside Jeremy Parish and Michael Donahoe.

The 1UP Show got to spend some quality time with Bungie this week, as mentioned above. How good was it? I think Matt Chandronait said it best in his blog this week:

A very big thanks to Bungie this week! Both to Writing Lead Frank O’Connor for his brilliant performance and to Multiplayer Design Lead Lars Bakken for both the candid interview and for being understanding (I hope) about me forgetting to put him in the “special thanks” section of the credits! Hey, it was my first solo gig! One should just be glad the 1UP offices are still standing and there were only scattered reports of mutiny :p

As always, FileFront is hosting the 1UP Show for your downloading pleasure. You can grab your weekly fix at any of the links below.

• QT M4V (Podcast)
• WMV 640×360
• QT 640×360

Since the release of the new Legendary Map Pack for Halo 3 is less than a week away, Bungie is pretty much giving away all the details about the three new maps now. But probably the best way to find out what you can expect from the new locales is from this video from the maps’ designers. Here, three of the “mapmakers” get together inside the new maps to almost give you a guided tour of the places — and occasionally try to kill each other. They also spend some time just generally messing around with some of the different aspects of the map, highlighting some key strategy points, and showing off some new surprises, like enhanced Forge options. Think of this as the review before the big test on April 15th.