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Video Games: The 12 Best Holiday Bets

In this list of the 12 video games of Christmas, we show you the good, the rad, and the (slightly) ugly.

Matt Peckham, PC World

Lord of the Rings: Mines of Moria

The Scoop: Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria. Genre: Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing; by: Turbine; from: Turbine, Inc.; for: Windows; rating: Teen.

Info: The genre's second most popular MMO gets two new character classes, a bump in levels from 50 to 60, and six new books, bringing the story up to the caboose-end of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring.

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World of Warcraft may have the clicks, but Lord of the Rings Online can claim one of the most popular pieces of fantasy fiction in history. That, and it has something the other guys don't: a progressive story. Quests like "you must kill eight buzzing flies of fetidness to honor your tribe" have you snoozing through character levels? Consider LotRO and its expansion, Mines of Moria, which extends the game's story and packs in what Turbine calls "the greatest dungeon adventure you have ever seen and played."

You know Moria, the abandoned city of the dwarves, from the LOTR films, right? Home to the demon-on-fire-thing (or as Ian McKellan, the actor who plays Gandalf in the movies pronounces it, "ballllllll-rog")? The "memorable scenes" moment where McKellan stamps his staff on the bridge of Khazad-dum and howls "You shall not pass!"? That Moria, bracketed by Eregion and Lothlorien, augmented by two new classes, a creature AI that thinks about environments tactically, and, as noted, a level cap lift from 50 to 60.

LotRO's dirty little secret? It's a sterling fantasy MMO that remains remarkably faithful to its source material, which is apparently what you get when you keep said material's official licensor close to hand.

Next: World of Goo

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