Lord of the Rings: Online free for a week

Ok, I'm a bit of a hypocrite, I know. Only yesterday was I telling you how I've never played WoW out of fear for it's addictive qualities and now here I am telling you to go try another equally good MMO.

Lord of the Rings: Online however is a game I have tried and was nicely surprised with. Not only does it manage to be an entertaining and consistent MMO, it also manages to do away with all the nonsense J.R.R Tolkien stuff and just leave the really interesting bits - no more boring Tom Bombadil sidequests.

Even better, Turbine has just announced that the game will now be open to a full, free seven day trial for gamers in Australia, New Zealand and North America. There's no word on a European trial just yet, but we'll bet that it'll be announced in the next few weeks.

The game is still pretty new and fresh, but also has a large and surprisingly supportive community within, so although it isn't as much of an addictive monster as World of Warcraft it will still give you a decent amount of replayability. It's always a good sign for an MMO when an extensive review like ours is already outdated, as is the case with LotR:O where updates have increased the size of the playable world by 20 percent already.

"We want everyone to have the opportunity to walk through the Shire, climb the Misty Mountains, fight with their own fellowship in the War of the Ring, and fully experience the greatest fantasy of all time." said Jeffrey Anderson, CEO of Turbine, in an official statement.

So, if you want to try your hand at saving Middle Earth then all you have to do is head over to the official site and start downloading the relevant files. Who knows, maybe you'll see us in there - we'll be the ones with the swords and capes.

Are MMOs the future of gaming, or is it nothing more than a trend for greedy developers? Is singleplayer gaming on the way out? Discuss in the forums!