With the release of the Mines of Moria expansion for Lord of the Rings: Online just around the corner, Gamespot has posted a hands-on teaser-review of the expansion to whet our appetites.

First they mention the new Legendary Item system:

This new feature will let you customise up to six items in the game and have them level up, much like individual characters in the game, so that they become more and more powerful as you progress.

They mention the environment and a certain firey enemy:

Although the mines are obviously underground, Turbine has strived to make them as expansive as possible. We got to see the endless stair–the pillar of stairs that Gandalf climbs after battling the balrog in the books–and though it didn’t quite stretch the distance that we saw him fall in the films, it took many seconds to fall to the bottom. Speaking of balrogs, we also got to see one in the game, in an encounter that will happen fairly early on, according to Turbine.

Turbine says they’ll nail down a final release date for Mines of Moria "by the end of September".  That leaves them just two days from now… let’s hope it’s soon!  Go read the full review for a bit more detail and a pair of screenshots.