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Turbine, Tolkien to stay in bed together until 2014 (and beyond)
You know what it's like when it's early morning and so toasty under the covers snuggled up against that someone special that you just don't see any reason to get out bed. We imagine that's a lot like the relationship between The Lord of the Rings Online developer Turbine and Tolkien Enterprises, as the pair have agreed to extend their relationship until 2014 -- with an option to work together for three more years after that -- ensuring that players will be able to continue to frolic and grind their way through Middle Earth.We're very interested to see where Turbine takes the franchise going forward, especially after comments made by executive producer Jeffrey Steefel in January regarding the developer's console-based aspirations for the license. In addition, while no new game announcements have been made, the recent confirmation of a new 2-part Hobbit film finally getting underway would seem to make excellent fodder for the MMO developer, and we expect that the pair will continue to play footsie beneath the sheets for years to come.
Breakfast Topic: Just a little fun
I love this weird experience Lucy Dark had in game-- she came across two naked gnomes, named Frodobaginss and Samwisse, who claimed they were trying to get to Mordor. She helped them for a while-- until they started calling her Gollum.It must have just been two guys having a little fun for the night. Have you ever done or seen anything weird and fun like this in the game? Once, my gnome warrior was fishing off the wharf in Menethil, and I was bored, so I started /yelling a sea shanty, in verse, that I made up on the spot. It got complicated-- my woman left me, and my boat sank, etc. etc., and while quite a few people ignored me, a couple of people sent laughs, and hopefully they had a good time. Ever done anything weird like that, just to give people a strange experience?
WoW Moviewatch: Ruler of the Bracelet Prologue
If you've never played Alliance-side, you may not get the joke, so I'll enlighten you. One of the male human /sillys goes like this:So, I have this idea for a great movie. It's about two gnomes who find a bracelet of power, and they have to take it to the Burning Steppes and cast it into the Cauldron. They form the Brotherhood of the Bracelet. Along the way they're trailed by a murloc named Gottum, who's obsessed with the bracelet, and nine bracelet bogeymen. It could be a three-parter, called 'Ruler of the Bracelet'. The first part would be called "The Brotherhood of the Bracelet," followed by "A Couple of Towers," with a climactic ending called "Hey, the King's Back!"And with that good of a lead-in, it was only a matter of time before someone tried to make their own Ruler of the Bracelet series. I look forward to seeing the rest!Previously on Moviewatch...
LotR Online dev not averse to console MMO
In an interview with CVG, Lord of the Rings Online executive producer Jeffrey Steefel does not rule out the possibility of a console MMO based on J. R. R. Tolkien's universe."I actually think Lord of the Rings is a platform we can build from. Our license is to build massively multiplayer online games based on the books on all platforms, all across the world, so we want to leverage that over time", he said. Later, in discussing the difficulties of a console MMO, Steefel said that "you've got to do everything in a thoughtful way and know why you're doing it, for who you're doing it, and then, what is an MMO on a console? What is that really? It has to be different."If it has to be different, then, don't expect cross-platform universe play. Ruminations of a developer does not a confirmation make, but we suspect Hobbits won't stray far from a future console release.
Lord of the Rings Online free until April 24
For the next 17 days feel free to go on a Lord of the Rings: Shadows of Angmar bender. Turbine is opening up the floodgates and letting anyone who wants to experience the game play for free until the official launch April 24. The MMORPG's developer knows who they are up against and told Joystiq previously that they put a lot of work into the game. They're launching the title polished like no other MMORPG has been before to contend in the market. Players will be able to advance to level 15 and transfer that character if they decide to pre-order the game. LotRO also allows those that know they are going to like the game during this free trial to spend $199 for a lifetime subscription, otherwise there is a $9.99/month charge. So, if you're into MMORPGs at all or just want to check out LotRO, go ahead -- it's free.
EA renews Rings licence, more games to come
While there were murmurs of The Lord of The Rings: The White Council being canceled that later turned out to be true, Electronic Arts renewed its licensing with Tolkien Enterprises and New Line Cinema to bring a new game for 2008. That being said, there was no word of The White Council being resurrected, which was said to have quality assurance problems. This new game could be another branch in the franchise, or something as simple as a Battle For Middle Earth III. What do you think? Do you want to play any more LoTR games?
The White Council officially on hold
Rumored to be canceled last month, Electronic Arts has confirmed that Lord of the Rings: the White Council is officially on hold. The revelation came during an EA postearnings call, when CFO Warren Jenson told an analyst that "the Lord of the Rings product is back in development in terms of being on hold." It's a strange way of putting it, but it means that the game technically isn't canceled. It's not looking good though, as Jenson confirmed that the game will not ship during EA's next financial year, which ends in March 2008. Jenson didn't elaborate on the reasoning, but it seems that the Lord of the Rings license may have run its course in popular culture, making it less attractive to EA. The White Council might be resurrected someday, but for now it's probably best to consider it dead. At least we'll have plenty of other RPGs to play this year, right?[Via Evil Avatar]
All three Lord of the Rings films airing in HD on TNT
Our friends at TV Squad let us know that TNT will be airing all three Lord of the Rings movies December 15th. This will be the network television debut of the third film in the series, The Return of the King. Unfortunately what we're not sure about is whether the HD channel will be airing original aspect ratio 1080i beauty or stretched widescreen upconverts. As the films have yet to make their debut on HD DVD or Blu-ray we're keeping our fingers crossed but given TNT's history with stretching content we can't assume anything. The films will also be available for HDTVs via VOD, but that's no assurance as when the Star Wars trilogy aired on Cinemax it was OAR, but cropped on video on-demand, so they may be different. We appeal to our readers, does anyone know if the previous Lord of the Rings films shown on TNT were native or upconverted, and if there's any way to tell which these will be? Our plans for next Friday are riding on it (like we have plans).[Via TV Squad]
Joystiq impressions: Lord of the Rings Online
Turbine's upcoming Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar will usher gamers into a massively multiplayer online version of Tolkien's fantasy universe. I got to play some of the still-beta game at a recent media event; the title's setting and story will be its main selling point, otherwise it resembles other MMOs -- not to say that's a bad thing.It takes a little work to learn an MMO, and Turbine said the company isn't trying to change Lord of the Rings just to be different. Instead, game controls and quest system felt like other titles, and I was killing defenseless forest creatures right away. Lord of the Rings also looked like other MMOs; what I saw didn't set any new standards, but it matched competitors. I was told that game art and other assets were still being updated for the Spring, 2007 launch.Lord of the Rings Online's story-driven approach and setting should be unique. The game is based on the original three books and The Hobbit, not the recent movie properties. So while the game looks similar to the movies -- hobbit houses have round doors and passages, and Gandalf looks like Ian McKellen -- Turbine says that's because the game matches the original, detailed prose.
Electronics Arts announces many upcoming/future titles
Electronic Arts has gone on record... about its upcoming titles. Most importantly are two of their more high-profile games -- Crysis and Army of Two. Let us recall briefly that the former is a pretty crazy looking shooter for the PC (although they've gained quite an ego... and change their minds a lot) and the latter is the hotly anticipated co-op game for the PS3 and 360. These games are now slated for a fiscal year 2008 release (after this coming March of '07). So... if you're really pumped for these games, we apologize, but your waiting will have to continue a bit longer. EA's CFO, Warren Jensen, confirmed also many beloved franchises do indeed have sequels in the works. First up, Sims 3. Probably for fiscal of 2009, says the big man. Also, there's a Wii-specific (Wiicific?) Sims title also in the works. In the same vein, and not overdoing real-life simulation at all, is a Sims 2 Holiday Edition due out fairly soon for the PS3 -- hopefully this holiday season. Aside from Sims? Well, there's a SimCity coming up! Oh, and also another Lord of the Rings game and the next-gen realization of the over-hyped-but-still-decent Black. Well fellows, any of these really get you curious or anxious?
Travelers ad imitating Katamari: just coincidence
We got in touch with Todd Riddle, Group Creative Director at Fallon about the current Travelers commercial that bears a striking resemblance to Katamari Damacy. The spot (high-quality version) in question shows a mass enveloping people, trees, and cars, as it bounces through San Francisco. Riddle said that there's no Katamari relation, but the spot is connected to Peter Jackson's special effects house.Riddle has been in advertising for 20 years and has won of dozens of accolades including Cannes, Clio, and One Show awards. We asked him a few questions about games and the spot, titled "Snowball," via email.
Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh to make new Halo game, original IP
Microsoft has confirmed that the Academy Award-winning duo Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh (Lord of the Rings, King Kong) are set to create two "new interactive series" for Xbox 360 and XBLA. The first is a "collaborative effort with Bungie Studios to co-create the next great chapter in the Halo universe.""It's not Halo 3," said Scott Henson, Director of the Game Development Group at Microsoft. "It's a brand new game based in the Halo IP. In a phone conversation with Joystiq, Henson disclosed that writing credits will be given to Jackson and Walsh. As for how the full-fledged game will fit within the continuity of the Halo universe among three installments, a real-time strategy game, and a film, Henson was tight-lipped. "It's going to remain a mystery," he said.The second title will be an entirely new intellectual property -- "completely from scratch," Henson clarified -- created with the intention of "bringing new audiences into the captivating world of interactive entertainment." The game will be made in conjunction with Wingnut Interactive, a new studio created via a collaboration with Jackson/Walsh and Microsoft Games Studio."Fran is a really big gamer and really excited about telling stories through games," said Henson. "We haven't talked about any details and we will when we're ready." If the focus is mass appeal, then Jackson/Walsh -- who managed to make Hobbits cool -- are the best people to have at the helm.
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?
A Bungie with business sense would make Halo 4 and 5 and...
Recently there have been some rumblings that Bungie won't make another Halo game after Halo 3 which appear to be centered around a statement that Marty O'Donnell made in an interview with the BBC. In this interview, Marty says, "We all want Halo to be the great ending to an epic trilogy. We look at what Peter Jackson did with the Lord of the Rings films - which each film bettering the previous one and that is what we are aiming for." Does that mean we won't be seeing another Halo game in the future? To people who understand that making video games is a business, the rumors (which are already half-disproved) that Bungie would end the Halo franchise anytime soon are ridiculous. The first two Halo games combined have sold 14.3 million units. That puts the Halo franchise within the top 30 best-selling game franchises of all time. Without Halo, Microsoft might as well not have bothered with the Xbox; Halo and Halo 2 sold more units than the next six best selling games on the Xbox combined (if you're wondering, these games are Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, Fable, GTA: Double Pack, Project Gotham Racing, and Need for Speed: Underground 2). With a Halo movie on the way, and the facts that Halo 2 sold more units than the first and is still the #1 game played on Xbox Live under Bungie's belt, it wouldn't be wrong to say that the Halo franchise is increasing in popularity. The bottom line is that Bungie and Microsoft would have to be stupid to end their most lucrative franchise ever after #3. We don't claim to have any insider information, we don't dispute Marty's statement and we don't deny the possibility that Bungie will create new franchises, but based on pure business logic we'd expect to see at least another two games based on the Halo universe. From a business perspective, for Bungie to dump the Halo franchise after 3 would be sheer stupidity. [Source for sales figures, Image from 1001 Fonts]
The hordes of Mordor encroach on next-gen consoles...
Over at IGN some news has surfaced about the official announcement of The Lord of the Rings: The White Council -- EA's long rumored LotR RPG. It's coming in late '07 for the PC, 360, and PS3. We've been told it follows a new storyline based on the novels, so basically a new story set in Middle-Earth? According to IGN, "players will have the freedom to explore Middle Earth as a man, elf, dwarf, or hobbit. Whichever race you choose, your path will lead you to become a hero allied with the White Council, whose members include Gandalf, Saruman, Galadriel, and Elrond."If you're a LotR fanatic, not unlike Stephen Colbert, perhaps you could enlighten the rest of us approximately when in the Lord of the Rings story this takes place -- apparently before Saruman is enticed by Sauron? Do you think that, with the choice of races, this may be an MMORPG? It is coming out on the PC and both internet-ready consoles, after all. Who wouldn't want to become one of the thousands of peons in the impending war against Sauron?
Metareview - LOTR: The Battle for Middle-earth II (Xbox 360) [update 1]
The PC game already debuted in March to decent reviews so, instead of recapping what's right and wrong with the game as a whole, let's get right down to the issue we're all wondering about: the controls.EA's Los Angeles studio contains the venerable Westwood Studios, well known as RTS pioneers for titles like Dune II and Command & Conquer. So it is, under their watchful eye, that they sought to deliver the heretofore mouse-centric experience of real-time strategy games to the console world. So, how did they do? IGN (82/100) is equivocal in their praise saying: "The controls aren't perfect and they're by no means the equivalent to the quick, precision controls of the PC's mouse and keyboard duo, but they do in fact work. I'll even go so far as to say they work better than any other console RTS -- period." GameDaily (80/100) wonders where the tutorial is (and apparently missed it): "While the control scheme is listed in the manual and through the in-game pause menu, there's no tutorial mode. The control scheme works extremely well once you've adjusted to it, but the moment you pick up the game, you won't know what you're doing. A training mode of some sort (at least as an option) would've been nice for a game of this nature, but Xbox 360 owners should be adjusted to the control scheme by the second or third mission." Yahoo! Games (90/100) seconds the manual recommendation and steep learning curve: " So yes, you need to read the manual. You're probably going to want to have it on your knees for the first few hours of play, and within arm's reach for a day or two more. The controls are well thought out and comprehensive, but the advanced functions are not intuitive. Many commands rely on double or triple combinations of face buttons and triggers or bumpers. You'll need to learn them." So, it sounds like EA Los Angeles has done the impossible; they've delivered a console RTS with controls that are almost comparable to its PC counterpart. For console gamers (many of whom were former PC gamers) this is a praiseworthy innovation. Now that the path has been revealed, will other developers target the RTS-less console gaming world?[Update 1: whoops! GameDaily missed the tutorial mode, as Major Nelson helpfully points out here. He says, "scroll left on the D-pad from Single Player->Tutorial." Sounds easy.]
Lord of the Rings Online: Future Competition for WoW?
With usage statistics showing World of Warcraft so far above any potential competition, you've got to whether any game could challenge the top spot. The last major MMO release, Dungeons & Dragons Online, saw a slight drop in my guild's raid attendance for a week or so, but then everyone lost interest, and was playing again. (More recently the single-player game Oblivion seems to have caused a heavier attendance drop across the realms - though that may eventually play itself out as well.) While a true test of Warcraft's dominance of the market is bound to come eventually, questions remain - when and from where? Well, the developers of Lord of the Rings Online are aiming high - with a target of a million subscribers. Though this is still significantly less than WoW's six million subscribers, it's a big jump over the next nearest competition (Final Fantasy XI, with an estimated 650,000 active subscribers). With continued technical problems plaguing Azeroth, how many people are simply waiting for the next big MMO to hit? And is Lord of the Rings Online going to be the one, or yet another passing fad?
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.
Lord of the Rings RTS headed to 360
Great news for real time strategy fans! EA is bringing their upcoming PC title, Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II, exclusively to the Xbox 360 console. The big question is how will a traditionally click heavy RTS control with a gamepad. EA's press materials try to assuage these fears: "The game boasts a new and intuitive console-specific control scheme that will allow novice players to enjoy the game's signature strategy gameplay while giving expert players the flexibility needed to engage in a deeply complex strategy experience. Players will directly control hundreds of units in an attempt to defeat enemy armies, conquer new lands, and seal the fate of Middle-earth."The game will also support high definition graphics, surround sounds, and Xbox Live so you "will be able to challenge friends online and engage in intense, action-packed real-time battles."[Via Joystiq]
