I was able to hop in for a little bit today to check things out and my initial thoughts are that I’m having a lot of fun in this festival.  The only downside is that it does take 2 race tokens and 40 anniversary tokens for the new horse, but considering how many ways you can get the tokens and that last year’s do carry over, I don’t think its really that bad.

I was also rather pleased with how they did the Anniversary gifts, as each year is its own gift box that you open.  That way when you log on your inventory isn’t overwhelmed with stuff, its basically the same as what they did for the Isengard pre-order items.

I’m really curious to go check out all the little side quests as the one in Bree was quite enjoyable to go back and explore Bree like I hadn’t done in I don’t know how long.  I also can’t wait to check out the Bree fireworks show as I was only on during the day-time.  The Shire fireworks show’s only requirement is that you have at least 3 people present.

The changes to the bar fight are quite nice too as there are 3 ways to run it:

  • Original way – labeled advanced
  • Intermediate way – no need to get the beer, but you can be knocked out of the zone
  • Easy way – just whack people without being penalized for straying outside the zone

Needless to say, this festival will keep me busy and probably side-track me from the things I should be doing, like dailies and the like…

As I wrap up, just a couple of quick screenshots of the Shire Fireworks show and some nice horses.  Rose’s is new coming from a lockbox today Smile

Shire Fireworks ShowProving loxboxes were fixed