It may be summer, be we can pretend it's a colder season now that Festivult in July has returned to Dungeons & Dragons Online. The event lasts throughout the month, so get ready to earn some rewards and show off your skating skills.

Through July 17, players can find copper, silver, and gold Festival Coins from chests in all dungeons and adventures. The Jester will be available to redeem your coins for rewards from July 11-17. The Risia Ice Games begin July 18 and run through July 31. Visit the Harbor to test your skill on the massive ice jump near the harbormaster's house or skate on the rink near the lighthouse. For those craving more excitement, head to House Phiarlan and show your moves on the icy half-pipe.

Turbine is celebrating the start of summer in both Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons & Dragons Online with special events!

In Lord of the Rings Online, the Summer Festival is under way and will run through July 11. You can also enjoy a 50% XP boost on all monster kills from June 23-26! If you want an even bigger perk, pre-order the Rise of Isengard expansion to immediately receive a 25% XP boost that stacks with this weekend's bonus.

In Dungeons & Dragons Online, all players will earn 25% more character experience and receive a +1 bonus to all chest loot from June 23-26. It's a good time to check out Update 10, which we recently toured with members of the Turbine team.

While Chris "Pwyff" Tom usually handles our tours of the Dungeons & Dragons Online updates, this week I stepped up to the plate to take a look at Update 10's features with members of the Turbine team. Led by Design Director Ian Currie, Executive Producer Fernando Paiz and Producer Erik Boyer, I got a crash course on the latest content that is now live in the game for VIP members.

Keep reading after the jump for all the details from my personal tour of Update 10: Reign of Madness!

Dungeons & Dragons Online Update 9: Harbinger of Madness is now live! The new adventure pack introduces updates to crafting, improvements made to Bluff, Diplomacy and Intimidate, and many additional new features including new attack animations, boosted spells, and more prestige Enhancement lines. You can browse through the patch notes to see a full list of all of the changes.

For more details on Update 9, check out Senior Staff Writer Chris "Pwyff" Tom's exclusive tour with DDO's Executive Producer Fernando Paiz and Producer Eric Boyer.

More consistent than any other MMO team in the industry, the people over at Dungeons & Dragons Online have been hard at work to get Update 9 out the door and, as usual, I met up in-game with DDO's Executive Producer and Producer, Fernando Paiz and Eric Boyer, to check out what's to come on April 27.

Turbine has released a new Dungeons & Dragons Online State of the Game Producer's Letter. Executive Producer Fernando Paiz starts of by greeting the new French and German community members. French and German versions of DDO just recently released and clients and servers from now on will support multiple languages through a button in the top right section of the launcher.

Paiz covers the highly anticipated upcoming Update 9 at length, saying:

"One big change that I’m excited for is a major balance pass that was done for almost all spells in the game! We are giving casters more viable spell choices to use in combat situations and a better balance between the spell point cost and the impact of each spell."

Paiz also assures players that new adventure packs will be coming up as well as some exciting developments in the city of Stormreach. Read the full Producer's Letter now over at the DDO official site!

Turbine is gearing up for the release of Dungeons & Dragons Update 9 by releasing new information on the Harbinger of Madness Adventure Pack. Players will get the chance to gather evidence and uncover the sinister mastermind behind the disappearance of the Saltire District townspeople.

Crafting is also getting an update. A new user interface now grants you the ability to customize the effects of weapons and armor. You can deconstruct a weapon to make it craftable or just keep a powerful component. You'll also be able to use the construction machines to create gear and earn crafting experience as you collect special ingredients and master your recipes.

Still not enough? Update 9 also brings a plethora of new features including new attack animations, boosted spells, and more Prestige Enhancement lines. Head on over to the DDO official site for more details! No official release date has been announced, but DDO boasts that the update is "coming soon."

Turbine officially launched its new global service today with the introduction of German and French language versions of Dungeons & Dragons Online. “We’ve successfully migrated players from the former European service and we are very excited to begin welcoming thousands more to DDO Unlimited,” said Executive Producer Fernando Paiz.

To celebrate the occasion, Turbine has released a batch of new DDO screenshots. You can browse through them in our gallery.

Turbine announced today, April 1, that the new playable broccoli race is soon coming to Dungeons & Dragons Online! Why play as a dwarf or half-elf when you can take on the form of a vegetable? Here's what you'll get as broccoli:

• Increased hit points!
• Racial bonuses to Charisma and Constitution!
• Naturally occurring resistances against cold spells, zombies, and cold and flu!
• Special vegetable-only abilities and attacks!
• A special Looking for Group emote: /lfb!
• and more!

You'll also be able to take the battle straight to other vegetables in the upcoming "Rise of the Side Salad" adventure pack and enjoy the frozen food-themed Risia Ice Games. Watching an army of broccoli run around in-game could quite possibly be the best thing ever.

Dungeons & Dragons Online Update 9 is now available for preview on the Lamannia server. So what's coming in the update? Lamannia Coordinator Thoon shared these details:

"The Content teams has put together four new level 15+ quests, based in the Harbor. Our Systems folks have gone mad. This release they are giving us new Prestige Enhancements lines for Sorcerers and Favored Souls, along with some updates to existing lines. They have also made a balancing pass on spells, reduced monster immunities, added new combat animations for special attacks, and come up with some great new items. Not enough? Well, later in the Preview cycle you will get a chance to see Crafting. And, let's not forget the bug fixes the entire team worked on."

For more information, check out the Lamannia release notes for Update 9.