EVE Online has received its ninth major expansion - Quantum Rise.

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Listings have turned up on both GameStop and Amazon's store pages for a Spore expansion. Sorry, "expansion". Called Spore Cute & Creepy Parts Pack, it's got a shipping date of November 18, and is currently listed at $20. Going by the name - and really, that's all we've got to go off at the moment - we're subtly led to believe it's a new box of spare parts than anything that'll add any new meat to the mechanics of the game. And for $20, there'd want to be a hell of a lot of spare parts in there.

Spore Cute & Creepy Parts Pack [GameStop, via Hooked On Spore]

Rock, Paper, Shotgun has a nice interview up with Turbine producer Jeffrey Steefel, mostly centered on the Lord of the Rings Online forthcoming Mines of Moria expansion — also discussed are things like how Steefel perceives LOTRO's performance, expansion features, and issues of designing for a licence. While WoW is wide open, not being tied to anything but itself, LOTRO has slightly more constraints in what can — or should — be done. Steefel doesn't see this as a problem, however:

It's actually more of an opportunity than a problem. It's rarely a problem. I've been a sort of creative person for a long time - in this business and then before that as a performer. And you always need some kind of boundary. Start with a blank canvas and say that you're going to make stuff up in this big empty vac cum... it's actually really hard to do. It's good to have boundaries. The beauty of Tolkein is that he's created these exquisitely detailed boundaries that have so much depth and richness inside them, and yet still have all kinds of things which are open for interpretation. I mean, we built Angmar basically from scratch, to our liking, based on very few clues... and yet it still feels as if it belongs in Middle Earth. There's certain things - I can't have flying cars or motorcycles or things like that. But I can have other things which are very exciting and it means, by definition, the world has a consistency, where it feels right. It all fits together. There's not things which just don't make sense.

Interesting interview with some great little tidbits, especially if you're interested in LOTRO specifically.

Jeffrey Steefel on LOTRO: Mines of Moria [Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

Stardock has released twenty gleaming new screens from Galactic Civilizations II: Endless Universe.

GCII:EU is a stand-alone expansion pack (meaning, we think, that it can be played without the original game) that adds news race-specific weaponry, skills and resources to the science fiction strategy game.

Still no multiplayer - and this is presumably the scrag-end of the GCII expansions - but still some fun to be had if you like old-school 4X.

Galactic Civilizations II Gallery

Now, see, I think Turbine have missed a trick here. Surely the best — nay, the only — way to enter the beta program for LOTR Online expansion pack Mines Of Moria is by speaking 'Friend' and then entering?

Sadly, they have plumped for the more prosaic (and, lets be realistic, more practical) option of a website where you can sign up in the hope your name gets plucked from the wizard's hat.

The Mines final-stage beta is invite only, but you can apply for consideration at the official site. As well as the titular underground complex, the expansion will contain a couple of new character classes, hundreds of quests and Balrogs.

Invites Open for Mines of Moria Beta [Wired Game|Life]