So they lifted the NDA.....

Good.... the skirmish system is horribly disappointing and just not fun, it feels grindy, it feels like a version of double dragon to be honest, where predetermined groups of mobs come at you in waves. I don't know why the hell Turbine though the LOTRO needed to be another game, they just needed to work harder to get more content out more regularly, and I feel they wasted resources re-inventing the wheel, indulging their own vanity, rather than expanding middle earth.

Mirkwood is a bit small, and basically it's Moria in the forest, a directed theme park of quests.

On initially buying the pre-order we were told that there would be new skills available to each class, there is just one new skill per class, and on the whole, horribly underwhelming..

I used to be one of LOTRO's biggest fans on these boards, but the new work feels very claustrophobic and doesn't excuse the lack of decent content for the last 9 months.

Sure there are going to be the old school LOTRO fans out there, who will defend the game, but this is the best IP for fantasy role playing out there, and it could be so much better, and it was a whole lot better 18 months ago. A few nice quests and story help (which this game does have), but when they just go ahead and try to the 'that other game', the hard work and polish applied to the SOA zones starts to wear thin.