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April Fools' Alert #14: How the MMOs get their prank on
With only so much time left in the day, we thought we'd fit in a handful of the gros amount of April Fools' pranks found in the various MMOs today. Age of Conan announces the Elf class (If you think this is real, check out the creation video) Guild War turns everyone into stick figures, making us pine for a Xiao Xiao MMO Dungeons & Dragons Online introduces Pimp My Warforged The Battle for Middle Earth gets their chicken on World of Warcraft developer Blizzard does their usual thing Speaking of WoW, our Azeroth-obsessed sister site converted to Hello Kitty Insider for a day of mass coverage (30+ posts!). Here's what their front page looked like today.
Rise of the Witch-King box art revealed
Electronic Arts has released the box art for The Battle for Middle-earth 2: The Rise of the Witch-King, and it looks like the top game publisher hasn't yet bought into the whole Games for Windows promotional strategy. EA continues to use the standard bland, redundant bar label that has adorned their PC packaging since earlier this year -- which most likely means their games don't meet all the branding guidelines set forth by Microsoft (widescreen, parental controls, 360 controller support, etc.). Competing standards basically defeats the purpose of easier product recognition for consumers, and you have to wonder if Microsoft should have just called their marketing initiative what it really is, "Games for Vista".Witch-King is scheduled for a Nov. 28 release, but an Xbox 360 version hasn't been confirmed. Read GameSpot's recent interview with EA producer Amir Rahimi for more details.See also: Middle-earth expands to the Middle Kingdom Steve Gray discusses LOTR: The White Council
BFME2 expansion bewitches
So far EA has only announced the Battle for Middle Earth II: The Rise of the Witch King expansion pack for PC, but that doesn't mean we can't read the details and look to the future. Besides Lord of the Rings stuff, what other RTS experiences belong on the 360?
BFME2 high-def trailer for Xbox 360
TeamXbox has the high definition trailer of EA's The Battle for Middle-earth II for Xbox 360. The footage includes demonstrations of the new control pad scheme, as well as an Xbox Live menu walkthrough. BFME2 will be available July 5.See also: Metareview - Battle for Middle-earth II (PC) EA readies BFME2 for Xbox 360
New Battle for Middle Earth II trailer available
This is for all those LOTR fans out there. Check out the Battle for Middle Earth II trailer (in HD) and see what will be hitting the Xbox 360 in the coming weeks. Gamers will be able to throw down over Xbox Live and challenge each other to battles. Hope you have that Orc-killing attitude ready.
EA readies BFME2 for Xbox 360
EA is hoping to solve the interface and control scheme problems for console-based strategy titles -- and milk the Lord of the Rings franchise a little longer. The Battle for Middle-earth 2 is due out on the Xbox 360 later this year, but this won't be a direct port of its PC counterpart. The publishing giant has enlisted the talents of Louis Castle, a former co-founder of Westwood Studios and veteran of the Command and Conquer series. Castle has always wanted to implement a usable control interface for a console strategy game, and TeamXbox is pleased with what he and his team have come up with so far. Both analog sticks on the 360 controller will be used for panning and zooming across maps, but the key is a context sensitive reticule in the middle of the screen that brings up specific commands for whatever is currently highlighted. BFME2 will also feature many of the same gameplay modes as the PC version, as well as 4-player Xbox Live support.If the game is well received, it might not be long before we see Civilization or Age of Empires on next gen consoles, or maybe even a true Starcraft sequel.
EA developer talks RTS
One of our concerns about the upcoming RTS for Xbox 360, Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-Earth II, was the integration of the Xbox 360 controller with traditional RTS controls. Fortunately, we haven't had to worry for long. Gamasutra have interviewed EA's Louis Castle, a RTS veteran whose credentials date from Dune II and Command and Conquer, and it's reassuring:"I said, 'Let's go back to the beginning.' Let's look at these strategy games, as if they were new. How would we approach it now? Let's pretend that there never was a mouse, and all we had were consoles. How would we bring this about?"It looks like EA have really focused on the 360's strengths, including voice communication and high-definition graphics as well as a control system designed around the gamepad rather than ported. Hopefully Castle's hype will live up to the implementation.
