We’ve got some new Book 1: Oath of the Rangers screenshots in our gallery. You can check them out here!

“So I used to joke around with Sapience, saying “We should totally do a QA Dev Diary!” He would laugh, and I would laugh, and that was the end of it. Then, months later, he took me up on it…” Read more from Amanda "Brynhildr" Cosmos’s first Dev Diary !

Codemasters Online invites you to join us for an amazing Welcome Back Week from the 8th until 15th March, 2010. The doors of Middle-earth will be open for former players to enter for a week of FREE game play. If you’ve got a friend who used to play LOTRO and hasn’t logged in for a while then why not let them know about this great week too? Then everyone can take part! All you have to do is download or patch up to the most recent version of the game client and log in starting 8th March. Your account will already have been re-activated for you and your previous characters will be there waiting to resume their adventure! Out now - Volume III: Allies of the King, Book 1: Oath of the Rangers NEW FEATURES: New Skirmishes - Expanded 12-Man Skirmishes in the Shadow of the Necromancer’s Tower Take the war to the shadows with four expanded Skirmishes! At the Necromancer’s Gate, a powerful Olog-Hai thinks he’s king of the hill, and your force must prove him wrong. Before the Gate of the Ringwraith’s Lair, creatures of nightmare seek to lay a deadly trap. Man the catapults! A powerful force seeks to capture the outpost at Thangúlhad, and you must drive them back into the darkness. In the dungeons of Dannenglor, captured elves face torment and destruction, unless you can rescue them from the Enemy! New Crafting Levels - New Level 65 Recipes and Crafting Skills! Make your own power with new Level 65 recipes and major updates to crafting abilities. New icons and updated stats for all Jeweller recipes New recipes and more powerful products for Cooks New class items for Weaponsmiths and Woodworkers New crop recipes for Artisan, Master, and Superior Farmers To see more of what has been added since release view our Book overview page. For more details on the Welcome Back Week or to download the most recent game client please visit: www.lotro-europe.com/welcomeback

Codemasters Online is happy to announce that the latest free update to The Lord of the Rings Online™ is now live and ready to play! Free to subscribers, Volume III: Allies of the King, Book 1: Oath of the Rangers adds a whole host of new features. These include the continuation of the Epic storyline, new crafting recipes and new expanded Skirmishes. NEW FEATURES: New Skirmishes - Expanded 12-Man Skirmishes in the Shadow of the Necromancer’s Tower Take the war to the shadows with four expanded Skirmishes! At the Necromancer’s Gate, a powerful Olog-Hai thinks he’s king of the hill, and your force must prove him wrong. Before the Gate of the Ringwraith’s Lair, creatures of nightmare seek to lay a deadly trap. Man the catapults! A powerful force seeks to capture the outpost at Thangúlhad, and you must drive them back into the darkness. In the dungeons of Dannenglor, captured elves face torment and destruction, unless you can rescue them from the Enemy! New Crafting Levels - New Level 65 Recipes and Crafting Skills! Make your own power with new Level 65 recipes and major updates to crafting abilities. New icons and updated stats for all Jeweller recipes New recipes and more powerful products for Cooks New class items for Weaponsmiths and Woodworkers New crop recipes for Artisan, Master, and Superior Farmers For more detailed information about what new content is included in Book 1, view the official patch notes or check out our Book 1 overview page . If you’d like to try out LOTRO for yourself, why not get the 14-day free trial? Visit the free trial page to start playing today

We’ve got some new Book 1: Oath of the Rangers screenshots in our gallery. You can check them out here!

Release notes here. I'm at work, so you'll have to wait until I get home to get the highlights. (Or you could read the notes yourself, you...

“…Volume I: The Shadows of Angmar™ was born with a story that takes players on an incredible journey from their humble beginnings all the way to the apex of black iron castle of Carn Dûm, where they fight against a most unlikely character. This is the player’s story: the story of how a small group, or even one person, can make a difference in times that grow dimmer, darker, and bereft of Hope. Until now, the Epic storyline has been just outside the reach of some players, but that will change with the launch of Volume III, Book 1: Oath of the Rangers.” Read more about the Revised Edition of Volume I in the latest Developer Diary from Allan "Orion" Maki!

The release of Volume III, Book 1 brings a bunch of updates for many crafting professions of Middle-earth. Improvements for both Jewellers and Cooks bring more choices and enhanced functionality to these professions. New fruit and vegetable recipes for Farmers, as well as new class item recipes for Woodworkers and Weaponsmiths round out this substantial update for the crafting system. Read more in the latest Developer Diary: Volume III: Book 1 Crafting

We’ve got some new Book 1: Oath of the Rangers screenshots in our gallery. You can check them out here!

I've been MIA since Saturday.So far this week, we've got the followingDev Diary, skill upgradesMy thoughts on that? I'm not very happy...

Calling all players with an eye for landscapes! We want to see your best landscape pictures from The Lord of the Rings Online for a chance to win a beautiful hardback book, "Lost Worlds" by artist John Howe, renowned Tolkien illustrator, kindly donated by Macmillan . One first place winner will receive a Lost Worlds book and a Codemasters Goodie bag. Nine runners up will receive a Lost Worlds Book and a Lord of the Rings Online poster. Lost Worlds draws together John Howe’s incredible artwork with a wealth of historical facts and mythological texts to create a visually stunning, classic title. John Howe is best known for his work based on JRR Tolkien’s worlds. He was one of two lead artists working on The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. He also re-illustrated the maps of The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and The Silmarillion from 1996 to 2003. For the past 20 years, John has enjoyed success with personal exhibitions throughout the world. Send your entries into lotrocompetition@codemasters.com with the subject line "Lost Worlds and Landscapes Contest". Contest rules One image per entry, multiple entries are allowed. Photo-shopping is not permitted other than to resize to a smaller resolution. Final date for entering is 2nd March, 2010. Full contest rules and terms and conditions can be found here .

[Update: You can now start nominating in this thread .] The LOTRO community is a thriving bunch of active players who enjoy a good discussion. Over the last few years amongst the many players who have debated, criticised, informed and helped there are some names which have certainly stood out. We want to recognise and reward those players who have helped form our community and shape it into the wonderful social hub it is today. Whether they have helped newbies in need, or exchanged fruitful discussions with other experienced players, they are the reason for the unique character of our community! During the next seven days we will give all community members the chance to nominate their favourite community personalities for a number of different categories. Once the nominees have been selected, voting will begin. At the end of the voting period winners will be awarded their accolade in a special ceremony on March 5th, 2010 which will take place in the LOTRO forums . The winners will receive special forum titles and forum avatars and one of them will also win a unique in-game title! We are looking forward to the nominations and another memorable activity within this community.

With the launch of Siege of Mirkwood™ behind us, the systems team’s bandwidth has increased. When we looked at our list of “things we want to do,” sitting right on top was “add level 64 skill upgrades.” So here we are! Read more in the latest Developer Diary from Brian “Zombie Columbus” Aloisio!

You hear me out there in LOTRO Land? We need more entries. We still don't even have enough to give away all of our prizes. (

(Click to enlarge)Now, I need to have a word with you folks. See, a couple of days ago we posted a contest. It's a good contest. It's got...

Starting today we are happy to announce The Lord of the Rings Online Hints and Tips! We will be posting a new hint or tip on our LOTRO_Europe Twitter channel every week day to help you get the most out of your game. We'll also be archive all the Hints and Tips we Tweet to a very handy sticky thread in the forums. Got a great hint or tip you'd like to share? Then post your best Hints and Tips in our specially created hints submissions thread and if we like it, we'll add it!

For today's update we've got a selection of brand new Book 1: Oath of the Rangers screenshots for your enjoyment. Click here to see them in our gallery.

In today's news, jwbarry has posted a new dev diary about skirmishes in book 1. Find out all about the new skirmish, learn about updates to old...

“Book 1 will see you gathering up the Grey Company and the various Rangers scattered about Eriador. One of the Rangers you are tasked with gathering is Corunir, in Angmar. Throughout the course of events with Corunir, you find yourself on a rescue mission in a place many a LOTRO player has fond memories of: The Rift of Nûrz Ghâshu.” Read more from Joe ‘jwbarry’ Barry’s latest Developer Diary !

Over the winter holiday, we gave you a chance to win some great prizes in our Log in to Win – Festive Giveaway. We hope you all enjoyed the festive celebrations and the welcome back week. Without further ado, please join us in congratulating our final winners! Eddie Halls – United Kingdom – Alienware Laptop Jan Hölzel – Germany – Mirkwood Hoodie Richard Dunn – United Kingdom – Mirkwood Hoodie Martin Walter – Germany – Mirkwood Hoodie Ahmed Razzak – France – Codemasters Online goodie bag Nuno Cordeiro – Portugal – Codemasters Online goodie bag Benjamin Noll – Germany – LOTRO T-Shirt Ingo Stoll – Germany – LOTRO T-Shirt Norman Reichert – Germany – The Lord of the Rings Online poster Mirar Hagland – Sweden – The Lord of the Rings Online poster Christian Thiel – Germany – The Lord of the Rings Online poster Steve Conlan – United Kingdom – The Lord of the Rings Online poster Mark Rigby-Jones – United Kingdom – The Lord of the Rings Online poster Stefan Hauser – Germany – The Lord of the Rings Online poster Markus Kaufmann – Germany - The Lord of the Rings Online: Siege of Mirkwood™ digital expansion pack key Richard Ellis – United Kingdom – The Lord of the Rings Online: Siege of Mirkwood™ digital expansion pack key Jimmy Eckersall – United Kingdom – The Lord of the Rings Online: Siege of Mirkwood™ digital expansion pack key Congratulations again to all our winners and we hope you enjoy your prizes!

I know you've all been waiting for another totally awesome contest from the LOTRO Vault, right? Yeah? Cool. 'cause we've got one for...

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Bullroarer is open. See here for download information.While it's downloading, check out the release notes. Highlights are at the top, but...