Senior Staff Writer Chris "Pwyff" Tom got to don his adventuring shoes to explore LOTRO's upcoming Update 3 instance content!

If color-coordinated combat is something that you think LOTRO has been lacking, then The Halls of Night is certainly going to fill your needs. My tour guides and I awoke in this new instance with a unique color: red, blue and green. Killing a lost soul of your specific color yields a damage buff that can be refreshed as long as you get the killing blow on more souls of your color. According to Aaron, managing these souls and making sure that your teammates are getting their proper buffs is going to be paramount to doing the Halls of Night on more difficult settings.

As we made our way through this creepy instance, it was clear that the Halls of Night requires more a combat-savvy team to pull through on the harder difficulties, as opposed to situational awareness being key for The Inn of the Forsaken. We were also introduced to the very annoying Hungry Demons, whose sole purpose was to, literally, suck the color out of your character. As a result of losing my color, not only was I unable to get the damage buffs that I so loved, but my screen also turned grey and lifeless, which was rather depressing. Needless to say, I've never tried so hard to avoid being debuffed!

Unfortunately, due to time constraints, we weren't able to make a full run through LOTRO's two new upcoming skirmishes; Attack at Dawn, which has players leading an attack on the Orc camps in an attempt to destroy their siege engines; and The Icy Crevasse, which is all about fighting and positioning your foes over steam vents in order to make it through alive. 

In the end, Update 3: The Lost Legends of Eriador, promises to be a really meaty update for players to sink their teeth into. Turbine is wisely keeping any game-changing inventions for their upcoming expansion, which is tentatively set for fall, and the team at LOTRO is really sticking to the basic principal of pleasing your MMO customers: give them content and give them lots of it. It looks like this summer's going to be a busy one for all of us!

Christopher "Pwyff" Tom, Senior Staff Writer