The Battle for Middle-earth

[Goodsport]

Has anyone here played the recently-released The Battle for Middle-earth from Electronic Arts?

If so, how do you like it, and how does it compare to Sierra's earlier-released War of the Ring?

-G

 

[Goodsport]

Anyone?


-G

 

[msd]

Installing it as we speak...will let you know

 

[Wonko the Sane]

I played it for a few hours tonight...it just seems like Warcraft (again) with prettier graphics.

Not different enough to warrant valuable HD space, IMHO.

3/5

 

[Bobitron]

I thought that this game was based on EA's C&C Generals engine, which is one of my favorite RTS games. I'm really looking forward to playing it.

 

[Wonko the Sane]

By "it's Warcraft, only prettier", I meant that it's more of the "gather resources so you can build buildings (complete w/ farms) that make more/better troops to kill the onrushing orcs" thing. They're still orcs, for crying out loud. Sure, later on you can play or fight against the Ringwraiths (maybe even Sauron himself...dunno yet), but is it different enough to keep installed? Not too sure about that, either.

My other gripe with the game is the loooooooong load times. I swear I had three cigarettes and fell asleep watching some stupid sitcom waiting for the first Rohan level to load. WTH is up with that? For this game's sake, I hope it's a problem with my computer.

See, I wanted to like this game. I really did. Maybe I've just become jaded with the utter lack of any real variety in video games anymore. (Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines is very cool. Tremere rox ) FPS games are all just Unreal Tournament or Battlefield 1942 in a cuter outfit, and the last computer RPG before VTM I really enjoyed was Throne of Bhaal. When I heard about this game I was hopeful that it would be different enough to grab me, but it just wasn't. Telling peasants to chop trees and mine so they could build farms and barracks so you could kill the orcs got old a few years back in Warcraft 2...and 3...and Starcraft...and so on and so forth.

Granted, someone a little younger, who is new to the whole RTS thing, might have a heck of a good time playing this. Great. Enjoy it.

But honestly...once you've played one of these formulaic games, you've played them all.

:\

 

[Thanee]

So? Starcraft is still fun after all those years.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Goodsport]

So I shouldn't get this game?


-G

 

[Kiln Publications]

I want to know also if it is worth buying (I like Star Wars Battlegrounds). If so I will be getting it this week....

 

[WingOver]

I wanted to like this game too. You can tell it has high production values and very well polished from the menus and battlemap, but the gameplay isn't really "wowing" me at the moment. The load times are long. The animations I've seen so far when zooming in on a battle don't seem as precise as other games recently (like Warhammer 40k). For example, Eomer on horseback attacks orcs around him, but it looks like he's swinging at the ground and you can't tell who he's attacking. Then his horse rotates unrealistically to the next opponent. Anyway, this isn't obvious unless you zoom in. I haven't played through a really large scale battle yet... I'm sure that will look pretty cool.

Someone else mentioned that it uses the Generals engine. This is the reason I was so excited about getting the game. To me, the fantasy units don't look as cool rendered here as the modern units in Generals.

I'll keep playing and see how it shapes up.