Electronic Art’s latest LOTR title – a third-person thing of swords and armies – stumbles rapidly towards us, with a January 19th release date. Some videos and such have turned up for our inspection, and so without further ado I must point you to the click, beyond which I ruminate on said assets and post a video of Tolkien talking about naughty elves. Go read/watch.
Pandemic Studios seem to be borrowing some ideas from the Dynasty Warriors games with Lord Of The Rings: Conquest, at least for single player. The multiplayer, from these trailers, reminds me a little more of slightly-underwhelming fantasy melee-with-some-guns-and-RTS-elements, Savage 2. Savage 2 went free to play just before Christmas some time, if you haven’t tasted it then it’s worth a look, if just to see what the S2 guys were doing over there.
Anyway, Lord Of The Rings: Conquest looks like a potentially fun time, and yet at the same time seems to reach out and tug hard on the over-milked udder of Lord Of The Rings franchise. A game too far? Perhaps, and there seems little reason for this particular fantasy battle-romp to be set in Tolkien’s world. Still, if they do get the battles right, and capture of the scale of Tolkien’s battle vision, it could be truly spectacular. The Battle of the Pelennor Fields, a playable Balrog – it all adds up to something that a certain type of fan won’t be able to resist. Clickwards for the those trailers, and a reminder of where all this stuff comes from.
The single player trailer:
See what I mean about that? The change-class-at-flag thing has always struck me as a bit weird too, but then I suppose this is the kind of game that has a single player campaign in spite of the intentions of its multiplayer designs.
The multiplayer trailer:
That’s a little more like what I’d been expect, although the generally wishy-washiness of it does not inspire great confidence.
Now, for oddly uncomfortable viewing, compare and contrast what you’ve just seen with Tolkien talking about the mythology of Middle Earth:
Hmm.
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Dynasty Warriors was never EVER faithful to the original source but it still did well.
Koei’s artistic freedom is okay but EA’s isnt’?
What really breaks my heart is that this tripe will sell more than any wonderful indie game. There truly is no justice in this world.
I’ll just pop out for a quick vomit.
Well Zaph on the plus side it’s avoided the Christmas rush. It would be interesting (and potentially despressing) to compare sales figures with World of Goo though.
>> the over-milked udder of Lord Of The Rings franchise. A game too far?
Oh, not until they release LotR : Magical Drop, LotR : Towers Tycoon, not to mention LotR : Hobbitz.
The title pun might be evil dead hilarious in that your hand tries to choke you for grinning inanely – but most laughs came from Jim’s Killer Put Down (TM)
Woah. This looks amazing…
Nah, I’m just kidding. I am loving the nerd rage though…
As someone that liked Battlefront (I couldn’t defend why) I am afraid I might enjoy this. But the licence abuse may just be enough to put me off, thankfully. And if if they put MERP in, they should put 5 minute gap after every attack to work through the tables.
The best bit about Star Wars Battlefront was the space battles, really. The hero fighting had nothing to it and the class based MP gaming has been done far better elsewhere.
So unless there’s a mode where the Nazgul on their flying mounts take on Gandalf and his technicolour wizard friends (themselves flying on Eagles or something), then I’ll stick with LOTRO.
Incidentally, everyone should read jPod for effective satirising of EA, and the games industry in general. And then enjoy a toblerone.
Btw, about SW : Battlefront… I’m afraid I totally missed those games when they were released, but they look potentially fun.
One thing I’m wondering, though : how’s the multiplayer part if there are only 2 or 3 players ? Does it play like co-op, with and versus (hopefully reasonably clever) bots ?
I played and enjoyed the console/PC LotR beat-em-up Return of the King on the PC, and what with the voice talent from the movies and the Howard Shore music it kicked ass–well, aside from some of the gameplay annoyances like save checkpoints, a wonky camera and accidentally walking into some “insta-death” zones in the Paths of the Dead level.
I quite liked the console games based on the movie. They were fun, in a Golden Axe kinda way. Had solid combat too them, and felt very much like the movie, in parts.
Still pondering what the New Years will hold?
I predict that there will be a surge of game studios, having exhausted usual IP sources (movies/comics), turning to literature.
Expect many more classics to be raped soon :)
Star Wars Battlefront II is a pathetic PC game. I tossed my copy in the trash because the game ran so poorly on my system. It had lots of problems with dual core machines from what I read.
qrter – almost as bad as our office computer that kept disappearing every time the network sync’ed. Obvious, really, once we realized it was a Tolkien Ring Network.
The only video i played was the one with tolkien talking. I guess that says everything about my interest in this game.