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EA Trails New Lord Of The Rings Games For 2004

Posted by simoniker on from the and-2005-and-2006-and-2007 dept.

Thanks to EGM for their article discussing the latest Electronic Arts games based on the Lord Of The Rings movie franchise. In talking to executive producer Neil Young, previously creator of unconventional online title Majestic, the existing, well-received Return Of The King game is dissected, but there's also information on further LOTR games due in 2004. Young discusses the already unveiled "[PC] RTS game we're developing called The Battles of Middle-Earth, which is being developed by our Los Angeles studio by the team that did Command & Conquer Generals", but also talks about "a new game - currently entitled The Lord of the Rings Trilogy... due out by the end of next year." According to Young, this multi-platform action title strives not to be a sequel too far: "The idea isn't to just take you back through the fiction again, but to give you some other characters who you might not expect to be able to play, and really extend the multiplayer features.. [and] develop the online feature."

5 of 62 comments (clear)

  1. ROTK by captainstupid · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I really didn't like the ROTK game. I loved TTT, but ROTK fails miserably for only one reason.

    The camera.

    Most of the time while playing the game it is difficult to even see your character. Many enemies will gather around you and beat the living daylights out of you with little chance for you to retaliate because you have no idea where you are. Even if you know that you're in a general area, timing attacks is nearly impossible because your character is COMPLETELY HIDDEN. Even if you're doing relatively well, one enemy can completely obstruct your viewpoint and render your fighter invisible.

    I really wanted to like this game because TTT was so much fun, but ROTK is a perfect example of how an otherwise well produced game can completely fail (IMO) because of a single problem.

    --
    "Anyway, long story short... is a phrase whose origins are complicated and rambling...." - Abraham Simpson
  2. Here be logic! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Books, written after decades of contemplation of the history of middle earth, just don't stack up against hacking trolls and orcs in a video game churned out in a few months. Why? Because the book is linear and the games, well, pretty much are too.

  3. Can yo u say "too many games"? by JFMulder · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Am I the only way to think that EA is looking like it's going to milk the LOTR cow too much, driving the video game franchise into the ground? There's bound to be a sucky LOTR game soon. (if there wasn't one already, I haven't played any so far) They can't be all good. Already FOTR was a crappy game (not developed by EA though). TTT and ROTK are supposed to be good. I played the War of the Ring demo and wasn't impressed a lot, it look exactly like Warcraft in MiddleEarth (did they license the engine or what???).

    When MMORPG based on the LORD of the rings story will come out, that's when we'll know that the Tolkien family will have totally sold out.

    1. Re: Can yo u say "too many games"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The tolken family shouldn't have any say about it. His innovation is done, he had an extended period of time to milk a monopoly based on that creation, and now he's dead. It's time for the living to pick up the torch, and this generation shouldn't be punished for having been born 100 years too early.

  4. Re:Hmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I don't see how they can call it the 'team who worked on C&C Generals' given that 70% of that team left EA shortly after that project. (Attrition)