Carolyn Koh was in Las Vegas for CES and brings us this report on Turbine's next MMORPG, Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar.

Poised to ship in the 2nd quarter of the year, Adam Mersky, Director of Communications was justifiably excited. "We had over 300,000 beta sign-ups," he said, "and we've garnered interest from fans of Tolkien, fans who've never played an MMO before."

The lands of Eriador will be available for players to play in at launch and since they had been previously asked about the size of the actual land mass, they looked and measured. Eriador boasts 30,000 square miles of area for players to explore. To assist in that, mounts will be available to travel from point to point. Players can also pick up the skill to ride a mount and hence buy and own one at level 35 if they wish.

Read the whole article here.