Lord of the Rings
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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]
Steve Gray discusses LOTR: The White Council
Last week, Electronic Arts announced the re-named Lord of the Rings: The White Council, an open-ended RPG that is drawing comparisons to Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Following the press event, CVG spoke with producer Steve Gray on a wide range of topics including the central story arc, playable races, and the inclusion of Maxis' Sims technology for The White Council's NPCs. Regarding the plot, Gray had this to say: "We have the rights to create derivative fiction from both the books and the films, and that's given us a lot of freedom to create new characters and stories. However, it always has to make sense within the confines of Tolkien's world." EA expects The White Council to ship in Fall 2007 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. A PC version has not been confirmed, but Gray hinted at its likelihood.
Gray is White - the new LOTR RPG
Just before its summer press event, Electronic Arts officially unveiled Lord of the Rings: The White Council, the next gen RPG formerly known as Project Gray Company. Scheduled to ship at the end of 2007, White Council features an original storyline based on J.R.R. Tolkien's literary works, and will include an open-ended world with gameplay elements from previous LOTR console titles.At the beginning of the year, EA developer Jim Norwood confirmed the existence of a new LOTR RPG -- and even dropped the name, "The White Council". After the game's web site launched in April, keen observers may have also noticed that many members of The Return of the King and The Third Age design teams were on board with Gray Company. It was just a matter of putting two and two together, although many of us still missed the connection (like an M. Night Shyamalan flick). A new introduction on White Council's web site explains: "We really wanted to get the web site up and running so we could start talking with everyone about what makes a cool RPG." Hopefully, you've all given EA some good feedback on constructing the ultimate RPG before they apply the Tolkien license.
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.]
LOTR Online creature feature
If you've read Tolkien's novels, then you're probably already familiar with Eriador, just west of the Misty Mountains. This will be one of the playable regions when Turbine launches The Lord of the Rings: The Shadows of Angmar later this year. It's filled with nasty goblins, orc-kind, and a few new beasts exclusive to the game, such as the gruesome Dark-water and the Watching Stones.See also: Lord of the Rings Online official trailer LOTR Online playable classes updated
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.
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]
