The newest Lord of the Rings video game was just announced, developed by Monolith and being published by Warner Bros--"Guardians of Middle-earth." The game is a multiplayer-only player-vs-player arena-combat type game where each player will take on the role of a major hero or villain from both the LotR and Hobbit films in battles with up to five members on each team. Right now, it sounds a lot like Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes, for a comparison. I haven't read an exact release date, but it should be soon, as there was already a mention of a DLC pack for the Hobbit characters in December. The game will be available only on XBLA and PSN, for 1200msp or $15.

Not to be a Negative Nancy, but this really doesn't sound all that exciting, especially for $15. On top of that, I've been playing much more on my PC as of late than my 360, and I don't think I'll be bringing my 360 back to school either (ie, I can't get it, even if I wanted to). I don't really think EA did such a hot job with the LotR license overall, but Warner Bros really isn't doing any better so far--maybe a little worse!

Ugh. Sounds like that one... what was it now? The one that took Starwars Battlefront and LotR and merged them- Hmm... I can't seem to remember. Doesn't sound too impressive.

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"...in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”

Lord of the Rings Conquest? No, it won't be like that. I didn't much like Conquest either--it could have been so much better. But in Conquest, you played as a regular soldier--sometimes a major character--fighting on a battlefield as part of the War of the Ring. In Guardians, you will play as a major character in an arena death match with nine other players; no story, just multiplayer. So a typical game might be something like, for example, Frodo, Aragorn, Gandalf, Bilbo, and Thain on one side, vs Saruman, Lurtz, Gollum, the Great Goblin, and the Mouth of Sauron on the other side, fighting to the death. I dunno, bad guys and good guys might even be able to mix and match, so the speak. The game sounds a lot like Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes.

Yup. Conquest, that was it. Hmm. Not having played Warhammer Online, I have little to say on the subject. However, to slightly change the topic I did think that EA Games did a very good job with Battle for Middle Earth II.

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"...in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”

I didn't much care for Battle for Middle-earth II; visually and thematically, I didn't feel like I was playing a game set in Middle-earth! BFME 1 was much more limited, but I found it more enjoyable. And just to be sure, there are two different Warhammer Online games: Age of Reckoning, set in the standard MMORPG open-world type environment, and Wrath of Heroes, an arena combat game like League of Legends.

To be fair, my opinion of EA as a whole is very negative. They do a lot of things that tend to peeve gamers off, like require extra online passes to pay multiplayer, cash in on brand names, abuse franchise loyalty, ruin or disappoint fans with poorly executed storylines, mop up smaller developer studios and close them down, release games with untested bugs, shut down online servers, and display a negative, repulsively competitive attitude towards other developers, among other things. I think TTT and RotK were fine as movie-tie-ins, and I had fun with the simple hack-n-slash combat, but I think I may have had more fun with Sierra's FotR and The Hobbit. BFME was, again, a fine movie-tie-in, and an enjoyable RTS if only for its theme. I felt like EA was abusing the LotR license when they released BFMEII, The Third Age, and Conquest; none of these games were particularly good, especially compared to other RTS, RPG, and hack-n-slash games, respectively. The only thing they had going for them was a loose coating of "Middle-earth flavor," and it was so light, I knew EA was just cashing on in the brand-name of LotR. I'm still waiting for a good LotR game; Warner Bros has failed to impress, and is doing the exact same thing EA was doing. It really, really shouldn't be that hard to make a good LotR game, tbh. Same thing with Warhammer Fantasy, since I've mentioned it; I'm also still waiting for a good video game set in the Warhammer World. Ironically, the license is currently owned by EA, and they've shown no signs of putting any effort into making a good Warhammer game. Wrath of Heroes doesn't even really resemble the Warhammer World, imo.

More details for Guardians of Middle-earth will be revealed at E3 on Monday...

Just an update, a trailer was released:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oghai6RO1J8

In the trailer we have what appears to be Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli and Arwen meeting in an arena to fight Gollum, the Witch-King, a couple generic bad guys, and finally, Sauron. What's interesting to note is that despite WB owning rights to the film license, none of these characters particularly resemble their film counterparts. Imo, the game doesn't look any good, and WB is very obviously just cashing in on the latest MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) fad with their LotR license.

Edit: another new LotR video game was just announced, with a full trailer, LEGO LotR:

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/news ... Troll.html

Thread title was also edited. This game looks like it could be some great fun, even though I usually pass on Lego games. Any thoughts on Guardians of Middle-earth and LEGO Lord of the Rings?

The Lego game looks awesome!

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Dan
Current WIP: Denathor, Gandalf The White Mounted, Guard of the Fountain Court.

Hehe.

The Lego game should be very good- having played a number of other Lego games, I have been duly impressed by them. But where it gets particularly fun is in multiplayer- you can, without sacrificing the mission or campaign (usually) have just as much fun hacking at your fellow player as the enemy- 'tis a most enjoyable feature, particularly if the characters interact instead of combatting. It should be fun.

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"...in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”

The Guardians of Middle-Earth just looks like another crappy fantasy game. Just by giving them LOTR names dosn't make it a LOTR game. The Lego one looks awesome.

Yay LEGO won't let us down! It looks so much better than Guardians.

You guys must be high, I thought bfme2, third age, conquest, and war in the north were all dope! I don't care if "their doing a bad job with the license", I'm gonna buy any game with lotr in the name because why not? Warhammer lotr costs like a bajillion quid to collect and by comparison the games seem like good deals no matter the quality. I always found the games were fun and DID make the rest of the lotr universe more accessible to me and my friends. I'm definatley getting guardians.

I guess we're both kinda saying that just because it has "Lord of the Rings" in the title, doesn't make it a good game, or a particularly thematic game. I'm not a big enough of a fan to buy an LotR game if its mediocre and non-thematic, and I really haven't found many of them to be particularly fun (I did enjoy FotR, RotK, and BFME). None of the LotR games have been particularly good, and maybe with the exception of LotRO, none of the more recent LotR games have been very thematic. EA, and now Warner Bros, know that people will buy their games simply because its LotR--in this way, they can continue to release mediocre games, and still make money, cashing in on the license. But there's nothing you can get from the LotR games that you can't get better from another game, except the fact that its "Lord of the Rings."

I do agree with you about video games, though. I no longer play SBG or collect LotR miniatures. And if a battle can be better simulated through a video game, I'm not as keen to try it in miniature. Like,"Why should I spend hundreds of dollars and hours on the Strategy Battle Game, when I could play Battle For Middle Earth instead?" For example, I've decided to pass on Flames of War, or any other WWII miniatures game, because I can't justify playing them over Company of Heroes, which I got from Steam for $10.

Gotta say i do prefer playing tabletop games, but i guess that's cos i rarely get to play them. A video game is nice and all but i dunno :/

Xbox 360 Achievements reported on a first-look preview they saw at this year's E3 for Guardians of Middle-earth: http://www.xbox360achievements.org/news ... Mania.html

can you paint a video game? =D

IMO guardians of middile earth looks kinda rubbish
The only things that represented LoTR in that trailer was Gandalfs hat and the word 'Legolas'
I'm looking forward to the LEGO one though, they're ussually very fun and lighthearted

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'Though my memory's fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior'
-John Newton

@Sid, I'm not arguing against the painting and modeling side of the LotR hobby, I love that part, and purchasing and painting a few models here and there is a relatively cheap, extremely enjoyable activity. But the actual gaming--purchasing, building, and painting an entire army and terrain, purchasing and learning the rules, etc--has gotten to be so expensive that I can't justify playing War of the Ring or Strategy Battle Game over a game like Battle for Middle-earth. Of course, I understand the appeal of miniatures, as well as wargames, but specifically in the case of The Lord of the Rings as a theme, played with these two Games Workshop games and GW miniatures, the cost of playing in Middle-earth in miniature for me is too high to justify playing it over Middle-earth in video games.

Love your signature btw

Hmm...
surpose so
GW's prices are insane at the moment

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'Though my memory's fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior'
-John Newton

New trailer for Guardians of Middle-earth:

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/news ... o-War.html

Omg, Lord of the Rings is ruined by many people, but this is the worst I've ever seen! If Tolkien would still be alive, he'd just die of shame

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Ours is the fury!