By John Walker on July 20th, 2011 at 2:42 pm.
A new trailer descends from the skies for Lord Of The Rings: War In The North, the action RPG expected at some point next month. A game we do rather make a habit of forgetting about. But that’s a silly thing to do, since first of all, it’s a large scale RPG and there are still too few of those, and secondly, it’s from Snowblind who once created the fun-if-somewhat-peculiar Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance. They’ve since been doing some rather odd bits and bobs on console, but they’re back, and this time it’s a cross-platform jobbie. You can see the CGI trailer below.
We’re in the process of sorting out a version without the big, ugly Gamespot logo taking up half the screen.
Phew, that’s better. If not in HD.
Also, for context, I’ve dug out some in-game footage of the game’s combat, with a somewhat less obtrusive IGN logo:
We will certainly be bringing you more info about this one soon.
20/07/2011 at 14:45 Felixader says:
“Who do not see glory.” -shows dwarf-
-_-
BTW THIS is how you represent female characters in games, surrounded by snowy areas and otherwise!
20/07/2011 at 15:18 yurusei says:
For glory, YOU HAVE MY AXE
20/07/2011 at 15:31 Serenegoose says:
It is some pretty sweet looking character design. I’d not heard of this game before but if the combat is solid this will probably be right up my street, even if the LoTR universe isn’t exactly my first choice of destination if I can help it.
20/07/2011 at 17:50 wiper says:
True: having the female character be the mage, and the male characters take the front-line combat roles, that’s pushing some boundaries there ;)
20/07/2011 at 19:19 Berzee says:
Wiper, what, women are unintelligent and would make poor mages? Huh? HUH!?
20/07/2011 at 23:01 ArcaneSaint says:
No, they’re clearly suggesting men are not capable of the controlling the awesome power that is magic, that they are nothing but dumb brutes whose only purpose is as a meatshield while the mage charges her uberspell. I feel offended really.
20/07/2011 at 14:54 Jamison Dance says:
This is the first time I have seen news about this game and known it was not about the Lord of the Rings MMO. Hrrm.
20/07/2011 at 20:53 Ephaelon says:
I know what you mean. I’d skipped reading news/watching videos about it until catching some E3 footage as I thought it was an expansion to the MMO.
20/07/2011 at 14:55 Sidorovich says:
I don’t need to time my attacks right to enter ‘heroic mode’ – that’s my natural state of being!
20/07/2011 at 15:17 Turkey says:
Living life in slow motion is no joke.
20/07/2011 at 15:21 Njordsk says:
Time until BF3 must be long in slowmo
20/07/2011 at 14:56 Wizardry says:
An action RPG you say?
20/07/2011 at 14:59 skyturnedred says:
Shooting an arrow between a skeleton’s ribs should not cause it to cry out in pain.
20/07/2011 at 15:13 AmateurScience says:
Perhaps it’s more ‘dead again, how frustrating raaaaaaaarg!’ than ‘ow’…
20/07/2011 at 15:26 Turkey says:
Ghost pains
20/07/2011 at 16:23 MonkeyMonster says:
It’s where he’d stored his lunch…
20/07/2011 at 15:03 Sinnorfin says:
a mage heroine in middle earth is all it takes to make it no middle earth anymore..
20/07/2011 at 15:14 Okami says:
At least they’re all white. Middle Earth with not aryan good guys would be really pushing it…
20/07/2011 at 17:28 Merlkir says:
@Okami: oh, you witty person, you. How funny to point out the horrible racism of Tolkien’s work. It’s ok to be so completely wrong as long as you douche hard enough.
20/07/2011 at 18:17 Dave Mongoose says:
Yea. A staff shooting magic missiles and it’s not Gandalf or Saruman holding it… I’d even allow that hippie Radagast, but some elf woman?
Fail @ Middle Earth.
20/07/2011 at 21:23 Sinnorfin says:
Compare the conflicts of good and evil in LOTR’s worlds to a bunch of people playing and building in Minecraft, where one comes and finds his only fun in griefing..
You got be real liberal to say that the server is for everyone and therefore if someone can only have fun by griefing than he has the right to do it..
In case of Tolkien’s world ERU the admin, who is real liberal says ‘ hm its not good to grief, but i see there are some good things turning out from the ashes..better than if you only built..’
So the ever clashing of good and evil is the sculptor of his world. Its very polar, and therefore leads to some think this is racism, but its really about people having a fight about how Fun to be had! :D
21/07/2011 at 00:11 kickme22 says:
@Okami. Tolkien wasn’t being racist. The setting for Lotr was in europe with a medeivel setting. At that time no one had traveled to Africa thus no slaves thus no black people up north.
21/07/2011 at 00:19 Malawi Frontier Guard says:
@Sinnorfin
Did you really just compare Sauron’s exploits to griefing in Mincecraft?
21/07/2011 at 14:41 Nalano says:
@ kickme22
Tolkien didn’t live in Medieval Europe. Tolkien wrote those books in 1940s England, having been born in South Africa, and the setting of the books was a fantasy universe. Tolkien has no excuse.
22/07/2011 at 09:07 ceb says:
@ Nalano
From what i recall Tolkien never specified the skin color of the characters, there is a refrence to the merc’s Sauron uses as “of dark skin” or the like. So you can choose to draw a number of conclutions, presented in order of probability for your convenience:
a) Tolkien was geographically consistent as opposed to racist.
b) Gandalf, Aragorn etc are actually a very healty azn brown and the merc’s even more sun blessed (Yes its cold and bleak which normally would have an impact on skin color in an evolutionary timeframe, but hey – its a fantasy world and tan is nice.)
Either way, you are in error Sir.
20/07/2011 at 15:07 Anthile says:
Is this based on the movie or book license?
20/07/2011 at 16:06 evilbobthebob says:
It has WB games and New Line Cinema in the logo bit at the end, so I’m guessing movie
20/07/2011 at 15:15 DainIronfoot says:
From what I’ve seen, the hack and slash gameplay looks like a better version of the Return of the King game.. that looks fun at least.
The female mage looks horrible lore-wise and gameplay-wise. Over the shoulder machine gun staffing? Ugh. Could at least have done some fun telekinesis like in the films.
20/07/2011 at 15:18 franches says:
at 1:44 in the gameplay trailer there is a creature with his foot in the air. I won’t play it.
20/07/2011 at 15:22 AndrewC says:
I demand a moratorium on CGI-only trailers! Demand it! They shall not pass! Etc!
20/07/2011 at 15:23 Grinnbarr says:
They really like their beheading mechanic
20/07/2011 at 20:19 Nalano says:
For serious.
They also seem to like the “everybody wait patiently until the hero’s killed the last guy” mook chivalry.
20/07/2011 at 15:24 yurusei says:
I’m sure no Ents will be killed in the game. That’ll only make WWF furious.
20/07/2011 at 15:58 dog says:
why would the world wrestling federation care what happens to walking trees?
20/07/2011 at 15:31 Serekh says:
Is this not the game that the John Walker called generic on the latest RPS podcast? Perhaps that explains why it slipped the RPS collective consciousness.
20/07/2011 at 22:46 Dozer says:
I’m up to RPS-EWS number 39 – going through them consecutively – but wouldn’t be surprised. Am not amused by these clips.
I’ve just finished reading the LotR books for the second time. Pretty sure dwarves and elves cooperating in the Third Age is almost completely impossible, which was why everyone was shocked at Gimli and Legolas’s friendship.
20/07/2011 at 15:39 fallingmagpie says:
For anyone thinking ‘but she’s a woman, and she’s a mage, that’s not right, they were only men and there weren’t many of them’ – she’s bound to be an elf. Loads of elves can do magic (see: Glorfindel), so no lore rules broken.
20/07/2011 at 15:53 TsunamiWombat says:
Correct, the mage is an elf. Haters can hate slightly less now.
20/07/2011 at 17:30 Merlkir says:
I think it’s more the machine gun staff the haterz hate.
20/07/2011 at 18:50 Dave Mongoose says:
But this kind of active magic, particularly it’s use in combat, is very rare in Tolkien. The elven magic is usually very subtle, particularly in the Third Age when their power is fading. Any major magic typically uses the power of one of the elven rings (such as when Galadriel tears down the walls of Dol Guldur).
Glorfindel is a First Age elf who died (after fighting and defeating a Balrog single-handed) and returned to Middle Earth from Valinor so he’s not your average elf, and I’m not sure what use of magic you’re referring to with him.
21/07/2011 at 02:16 kickme22 says:
@Dave Mongoose. This game COULD be in the 1st age. None of the trailers I have seen specifically say it is in the 3rd age
20/07/2011 at 16:06 Orvidos says:
An updated Return of the King, with three player not-hotseat co-op.
After the. . .thing that was Daggerdale, this could be just the treat.
Or it could be terrible. Either way, have my money.
20/07/2011 at 16:13 Khann says:
Looks like The Witcher 2. Hope the writing is at least half as good.
20/07/2011 at 17:31 Velvetmeds says:
That’s an insult to this game, please take that back
20/07/2011 at 17:31 Merlkir says:
You fail at life.
20/07/2011 at 16:13 Skusey says:
I’m interested. Nothing more, but I hope it’s good, and if it is, I’ll buy it. I’ve a soft spot for LOTR.
20/07/2011 at 16:15 Elmar Bijlsma says:
What?! No 10 feet tall swords? No over the top armour that would dwarf the wearer even if he were already a dwarf? And no chain mail bikini in sight either!
20/07/2011 at 16:31 Rahabib says:
yea I know. Its probably not made in Korea/Japan.
20/07/2011 at 20:12 OJ287 says:
At least it has the polite enemies who wait their turn to attack you.
“Excuse me would you like to join me in burying my halberd in the humans back?”
“That doesn’t sound very sporting.”
“Yes, you’re quite right its a ra– oh look he’s beheaded K’orfaraz. After you old chap.”
21/07/2011 at 00:50 Tatourmi says:
The armours and weapons are as ridiculous as it gets, IMO. There be no coherence already.
20/07/2011 at 16:22 lhzr says:
so it’s definitely a large scale RPG and not another one of those 3rd person action-”adventure” hack-and-slash thingies that most of the console games consist of, right ? right ??
20/07/2011 at 16:27 wodin says:
I hope they have more dismemberment options than just the flying head….
I like the look of the Orcs…Elves have cheekbones… I demand cheekbones….In Witcher 2 the elves looked better than any other game…LotR films the elves looked terrible…except Galadrail (bet I spelt her name wrong), but her nose was to wide….the others looked nothing like elves, major gripe for me…
Give me Elves looking like Elves and I’m happy…
CHEEKBONES…
20/07/2011 at 16:59 Khann says:
The man wants CHEEKBONES, dammit!
20/07/2011 at 17:18 kickme22 says:
I might have to pick this up after skyrim, battlefield 3, dota 2 etc. I am going to be broke
20/07/2011 at 19:18 Berzee says:
reply fail, yay!
20/07/2011 at 21:27 Sinnorfin says:
Elves do magic.. But that magic rarely ever means a shockwave stricking from a staff..Its a lot more mystical than that. Its almost never obvious that it is magic..that is why it is magic
20/07/2011 at 21:31 Sinnorfin says:
to say something good that electrified structured has some cool cyberpunkish theme :)
20/07/2011 at 22:39 Althilor says:
Personally what most impressed me was the option for actual English English on the website, not just that other English those other people use.
20/07/2011 at 22:48 Dozer says:
Colour me disinterested unless the Wot I Think is amazing.
20/07/2011 at 23:26 ArcaneSaint says:
This trailer reminded me of the Dragon Age:Origins intro, (or was it a trailer?) where those few Grey Wardens are killing Darkspawn all over the place. Then again, that’s not really surprising. Now I’m not saying someone ripped someone off or something, just that there are quite a lot of similarities, as could be expected seeing as the story seems to be “A big evil has come, now a ragtag band of heroes must kill hordes of [insert generic fantasy monster here] to destroy the big evil!”.
21/07/2011 at 09:11 MadMatty says:
Whoooa an actual cinematic trailer without the manga style Matrix slow-motion ninja scenes.
Unheard of since around 2000!
crikey.
21/07/2011 at 14:16 razgon says:
If you guys are mad over the lore now, just wait till you see the ninja hobbits…