lord of the rings
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LOTR Conquest demo conjures 1 million downloads
Pandemic Studios just informed us that the Lord of the Rings Conquest demo that released to the Xbox Live Marketplace a few weeks back has been downloaded over 1 million times. That means the demo download has bested Call of Duty: World at War and its nine week run on top. Congrats to the crew over at Pandemic on their demo download success, but we have to ask; how well did those demo downloads translate into retail sales? One could argue that those sales figures are a tad bit more important.
Shipping this week: Lord of the Battlefront edition
Guess what, kids? There's actually a game releasing for the Xbox 360 this week. You'll notice that "game" is singular, as there is only one game out this week. It's appropriate enough though, as the game itself happens to be about the One Ring. Yes, this week marks the release of Lord of the Rings: Conquest. If you've played the demo, you've got a pretty good idea of what to expect. It's essentially Star Wars: Battlefront only with fewer Stormtroopers and a lot more hobbits. Conquest has something that Battlefront definitely doesn't though: You can be a Balrog. A Balrog.[Via Joystiq]
DS releases for the week of January 12th
Moon, elves, chaos and madness -- it's just another week of new DS games, only this time, with actual games! January's been slow so far, but this week, Moon really is coming out, along with a few other titles. Looks like things are finally getting back to normal after the holidays. Jumble Madness The Lord of the Rings: Conquest Moon Personal Trainer: Math Gallery: Moon
TurpsterVision - Weapon of Choice
TurpsterVision is back with vengeance now with four episodes every month focusing on one MMO at a time. This month, along with the rest of the Massively team, we are venturing deep into Middle Earth and exploring the depths of the Mines of Moria.Hey folks, it's good to be back; MMOs just wouldn't be the same without TurpsterVision! Today we are taking a look at Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria's new Legendary Weapons. I've often wanted to have a sword glow blue and warn me when danger is near. To be honest I'd settle for an iPhone app that would do the same thing. But fortunately for me I don't have to settle for anything less than the real deal, albeit a virtual-real deal.Moria not only granted us two new classes, which I'll be exploring one at a time over the next two weeks, but it also granted players the ability to gain Legendary weapons of old which they can level up alongside their character. But enough reading about it, this is TurpsterVision! Watch on after the break...
Top 5: Licensed Games That Don't Stink
Apparently, happy is the new angry (Uggh, I apologize; I hate the "X is the new Y" phrase as much as anyone). While the Angry Video Game Nerd series continues to grow in popularity, a legion of imitators -- err, "inspirées" -- have arisen from the depths of YouTube. While most appear to simply swap "Angry Video Game Nerd" with a few synonyms and reduce the effort, quality, and obtainable entertainment of the video, one manages to make the formula something completely his own. Alaskan native Derek, AKA lophatjello, has created the "Happy Video Game Nerd." While the self-explanatory premise may sound eye-roll-inducing, one would be hard-pressed to ignore his passion for the retro games he highlights after watching a video of his. And that is a quality which I value greatly: unbridled passion and optimism for gaming. We're too often deluged by a flood of pessimism and jaded cynicism from the gaming world. Very recently, Derek covered the NES semi-classic Ducktales. He labels it as a "kick-ass licensed game." This is a notable statement, as conventional gaming knowledge tells us that a license is often indicative of a terrible game. While there are always exceptions to rules, I feel confident that most who are reading this post can agree that licenses are too often a kiss of death. Yet the HVGN is correct; Ducktales is a pretty awesome licensed game. Here, in my humble opinion, are the Top 5 games based on popular film and television. NEXT >> #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; } The Top 5 is a weekly feature that provides us with a forum to share our opinions on various aspects of the video game culture, and provides you with a forum to tell us how wrong we are. To further voice your opinions, submit a vote in the Wii Fanboy Poll, and take part in the daily discussions of Wii Warm Up.
Nerd out over LOTR Conquest achievements
We'll be honest, just the prospect of Lord of the Rings: Conquest has us excited. Getting a chance to take part in a massive fantasy battle out of J.R.R. Tolkien's universe is a geeky dream come true. Helping to fuel our nerdy desires are the newly discovered achievements for Conquest as provided by Xbox360Achievements.org. Most of the achievements center around completing single-player campaign levels or killing X number of enemies as class X. There are a few, however, that stand out. We're particularly fond of Flame of Anor, which is given to players for killing 100 enemies with a mage's firewall on a single life. It also might be hard to top You Shall Not Pass!, which is given for defeating the Balrog -- as Gandalf -- in the Mines of Moria. Nerdgasm complete.
Video: LOTR Conquest shows its evil side
At this point, we've all taken a few steps in Frodo's shoes. We know what it's like to swing a sword as Aragorn. We've even laid waste to hordes of orcs with Gandalf's mighty magic. Now, thanks to Lord of the Rings: Conquest from Pandemic (creators of Star Wars: Battlefront), we can finally give in to our more evil inclinations. The latest trailer for conquest shows off plenty of evil creatures doing what they do best. From Orcs to Balrogs to Fell Beasts to Lord Sauron himself, it's a veritable buffet of malificence. We particularly like the scene in which an orc takes down an Ent singlehandely. Check out the video above and dream of the day you can do it yourself (which, incidentally, will be in January 2009)
Turbine marches to the beat of its own drum, continued yearly expansions
Executive producer for Lord of the Rings Online Jeffrey Steefel doesn't seem to have any interest in mimicking his companies competitors. He recently told gamesindustry.biz, "We have been driving our content strategy based on our game and our audience," adding, "What other folks do is driven by their needs." You really do have to appreciate a company that knows where its livelihood lies.So players can expect the same amount of book updates and further yearly expansions, which sounds like it can only be a good thing for a game that at launch was often tagged with the, "Not enough to do at end-game" complaint. It doesn't seem like that's ever going to become a problem again, however.Check out our latest episode of Massively Speaking, featuring a discussion with none other than Jeffrey Steefel himself!
Trophies: The Lord of the Rings: Conquest
1 Platinum2 Gold13 Silver32 Bronze Difficulty: Easy Online Trophies? Yes Time to Completion: 15 hoursDLC Trophies? No View Trophy List Read More About the Game %Gallery-22396%
The Digital Continuum: Moria or Wrath?
Standing in the tiny store, I found myself at a crossroads. I'd put a lot of thought into this, but now that the decision was starting back at me, it seemed much more daunting. The question kept repeating in my head, "Do I buy Wrath, or Moria?" The financially devoid part of my brain enthusiastically yelled, "Both!" while the logical part reminded me that my time was already stretched fairly thin and that trying to dive into two new expansions would probably not be a wise move.Decisions, decisions.
The Digital Continuum: Moria or Wrath? Pt. 2
For all my enjoyment since getting Moria, something begin to bother me while I created a trail of dead bandits, bears, spiders, bats, wolves and tree roots. My time with Warhammer Online has taught me this: The easier I can find quests and complete them, the better my overall experience. After some discussion with Shawn Schuster -- our resident LotRO player -- there were a few new bookmarks nestled in Firefox.
A look at the new classes of WoW, LotRO and WAR
The Book of Grudges, a Warhammer Online blog, is taking an interesting look at World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online and Warhammer Online -- the big three, basically -- and the fact that each of them is currently adding classes to their game worlds. What's even more interesting is that each of these three games is handling their new classes in very different fashions. Death Knights are a big epic instanced experiences; Runekeepers and Wardens are designed to be solo-able and compliment each other well and Knights of the Blazing Sun and Black Guards are being integrated into the game the game via a special in-game event.It's interesting that you could play each of the new class experiences in succession and none of them would operate in the same way. That's a surprisingly large amount of variety between three very-fantasy titles -- one of which is based in the origin of high-fantasy.
Newest Mines of Moria screens come with extra character
Mines of Moria is getting nearer and nearer to its release day, but Turbine isn't sitting on its laurels and letting fans go without new information or screenshots. Today we bring you a slew of new images that revel in the character aspect of the digitalized Middle-earth's newest locale: Moria, and its many mines. While we're quite fond of the specific shot placed above this post (watch out for the baddies!) there are still several others worth taking a gander at whether or not you plan on even playing the newest expansion content for Lord of the Rings Online. For instance, check out this tantalizing moment caught in the heat of battle. Not only do you get a great sense of Moria's scale, but the lighting is pretty nice, too.We're looking forward to finally seeing these new art and animation assets running on our monitors in just a couple of short weeks.%Gallery-18340%
Wrath or rise of the Which King?
Reader Duck Knight tipped us off to the box-art of the Battle for Middle-Earth II expansion from Electronic Arts. Also known as The Rise of the Witch-King, which sounds confusingly similar to the upcoming expansion Wrath of the Lich King, the 2006 game's cover art looks curiously reminiscent of Blizzard's latest offering. Or vice versa. The game, which was based on the the movie trilogy directed by Peter Jackson, takes its art cue from the films. On the other hand, Arthas' armor is based on the cinematic from 2003's Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. I don't suppose Tolkien ever actually drew the Nazgûl armor...Who copied whom? Probably nobody, really. It just so happens that ghastly blue seems to be the favorite color of evil leader-types and their undead minions. Witch Kings and Lich Kings also probably shop from the same armor boutiques, considering the similarity in their helmets -- eyelets, open-mouth design, and crown-like extensions. Fortunately for all of us, the Lord of the Rings video game is already a few years old, so we probably won't make the mistake of picking the wrong game up from the shelves when Wrath finally arrives this November 13.
Why they shouldn't make the Warcraft movie
Our good friend Kevin Kelly (who writes for Joystiq) has apparently turned traitor -- over at the Spout blog, he's written up four reasons why they shouldn't bother making a Warcraft movie at all. His arguments go from shaky to solid -- he first claims that movies made from videogames just don't work anyway, In response, I'd submit to you Doom, and -- oh wait. Never mind. His second reason is that they just wouldn't make enough money, even if every Warcraft player bought a ticket, but I don't know if I'd worry about that: Transformers made money, and that movie was a high-budget pile of junk.His last two points are probably more solid, though -- he says that unlike Lord of the Rings, which the Warcraft movie is often compared to, most people (even players of the games who skip cutscenes) would walk in having no idea what the story was about, which means the story would have to be dumbed down or just be a confusing mess. And finally, we can't really argue with the last point: since that first piece of concept art, we haven't heard a peep out of Legendary or Blizzard about what's happening, so maybe the flick's not getting made anyway.And by the end of the piece, we've got to agree with Kevin: even if a big-budget worldwide movie release didn't get made, we'd much rather have a high-quality DVD of Blizzard's cinematics anyway (or maybe even a feature-length put together by the same department -- they do awesome work). The odds are against a live-action Warcraft movie already, it seems -- maybe it would be a better idea for Blizzard to just release something themselves.
LOTR: Conquest attacks in January
The Shacknews folks are reporting that Pandemic Studios' Lord of the Rings: Conquest - a game dedicated to re-creating epic LOTR battles sans Elijah Wood - will be landing on retail shelves next January 13th. And from the factual deets we've already been given, LOTR: Conquest doesn't sound half bad ... possibly even good. We believe in you Pandemic, so do us proud!
Take a deep breath and dive into LotRO's Legendary Item System
Turbine has put together an immensely deep look into the Legendary Item system coming in the Mines of Moria expansion. If you ever had any questions about, well about nearly anything regarding how the whole thing works, you should find your answers now. Our impressions are that it's certainly a cool and interesting attempt at enabling players to craft the weapon of their choice over a period of time, similarly to how you would an actual character. That being said, our only beef with the system is that it doesn't seem to support any kind of visual customization options. Everyone loves to personalize their stuff, so it seems likes a no-brainer. Hopefully, in time, we may see something of this nature.For now though, we're happy that Turbine is going the distance to try something new and possibly very evolutionary within the genre. The developer diary states that they'll be making any required adjustments in the future, too. So this is something of a work in progress in that sense.
LotRO dev diary looks back at creating the Warden class
Turbine's posted a new developer diary that exposes the creative and mechanical processes of designing the Warden, one of the new classes coming in Mines of Moria. There's something for everyone in the diary from the inspiration of the Warden to its gambit combat mechanic. We don't get an in-depth look at gambits and instead get a more introductory look at how they function. Thankfully we didn't come out of the read-through confused, in fact we felt like Turbine did a good job of laying the groundwork for understanding the class even before it hits retail.Anyone who's watched movies like 300 or Troy is definitely going to fall in love with the Warden. Not that the class is exactly like the Spartan soldier led by Leonidas -- it evokes that imagery a bit, though. We can't wait to see the Warden in action on our monitors in just a months time.
WoW Moviewatch: WoW That's Irregular
Ever wonder what happens to your character when the boat or zeppelin goes out of your view as it zips across the ocean? Well, WoW That's Irregular is here to 'splain you, Lucy. The filmmaker, Wizeer, is a pal of Baron Soosdon's and a student of Machinima 101 and his third machinima makes it clear he'll be a force to be reckoned with. The movie is really two separate vignettes which both riff on the theme of unexpected outcomes. The first story shows an Undead Rogue capturing the flag in Warsong Gulch with comedic flair. There is little standing in his way except a rookie Gnome, a surprised Draenei, and a Dwarf Hunter who looks surprisingly like BRK. One of these three offers the rogue his comeuppance, which is amusing, but what actually happens is a bit difficult to follow. According to the film's notes, the rogue overused Sprint, but I'm not entirely sure what occurred. In the second half of the film, a Night Elf boards a boat and gets mobbed by a gang of Horde who apparently don't judge gender very well. The special effects on the boat ride showing us what happens when the boat hits the worm hole are splendid. The voice acting in this segment is also quite amusing. (Did you know that Orcs scream like little girls?) Give it a shot; I think you'll like this one.For those of you interested in the non-WoW music used in this film, Wizeer lists "Concerning Hobbits" (Lord of the Rings), "Lacrimosa" (Immediate Music), and "Ringtone" (Battlefield Heroes).[Via WarcraftMovies]If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.Previously on Moviewatch ...
New Mines of Moria screens depict the Redhorn Lodes
If the immensity of the new underground zones featured in the Mines of Moria expansion hasn't sunk in just yet, the newest set of screens should help clear any fog of uncertainty. While no exciting new mobs or strange-yet-endearing goat mounts seem to have popped up in these screens, there's still plenty to gawk at auspiciously.One image features a rather large set of stairs that would cause even Rocky Balboa to faint if he tried to run up them in a triumphant montage finisher. So the images may not be packed with high action like our exclusive video, but if you use your imagination they can entertain for minutes on end. You may even waste a whole quarter of an hour with them, especially if you're into Dwarven architecture. And after you're done with that, go check out our exclusive screenshot tour of the expansion! Catch the new screens >> %Gallery-18340%
