Did I miss the Ships Ahoy notice on Blue’s for LOTR: Battle For Middle Earth or something? I just got a notice from EBGames that my preorder has been filled and is in the mail. I wasn’t expecting it until the 5th. Oh well, hallelujah! It’ll be nice to have something to talk about other than WoW.
EDIT: Hmm. I rarely preorder, so maybe this is old news, but after checking the EBGames site it looks like they’re shipping today so I’ll receive it on release day (the 6th). If so, that’s kinda cool. I thought they couldn’t ship until release day.
Ouch. That hurts. I was posting more because I was surprised to see the thing ship today than out of excitement to play it, but I have to admit I was excited enough that that review took all the wind out of my sails. While reading it, I kept telling myself, “You can’t trust these reviewers. They often don’t know their asses from holes in the ground,” but there were several points he made that seem unassailable. I’m still hoping against hope that he’s exaggerating (and, indeed, a 73% score seems much higher than I was expecting after reading the review), but I have this sinking feeling in my gut that tells me I’m going to be sad come Monday.
Just to offer my two cents, it seems like the guy who wrote that review just puttered around with some of the single player missions. A lot of what he said simply isn’t accurate, especially when you try the different sides, progress farther in the campaign, or play multiplayer games or skirmishes.
There are some problems with Battle for Middle Earth, and it really is aggravating that the guys at EALA insist on repeating so many of Westwood’s mistakes. But I’m guessing you’ll be pretty tickled once the game arrives, muttbunch.
However, it’s definitely not a Rome: Total War set in Middle Earth, as Vic menionted he hoped it might be. It’s very much in the same vein as Command & Conquer: Generals.
You now join the exclusive ranks of my Mom as the only two people on Earth who use the phrase “tickled” when they mean something like “delighted” or “excited.” Of course, coming from my Mom, I’m usually “tickled pink” – which strikes me as actually quite painful. I’m guessing you’re motherly prose extends to things like calling an unexpected visit from a friend a “treat” and occiasonally calling a a film a flick or the unintelligible long form: “a flick-erino.”
Oh, and I have nothing intelligent to add to the LotR: BfME discussion.
Woo woo! Thanks for that! I must say, I have much more respect for a man with the balls to use the word “tickled” in public than some poncy teasipper whose site gave Myst IV the ridiculously low score of 45. I am heartened. :D
(I must stress for my English friends that I actually have nothing against teasippers in general; just the poncy ones.)
However, it’s definitely not a Rome: Total War set in Middle Earth, as Vic menionted he hoped it might be. It’s very much in the same vein as Command & Conquer: Generals.
I should have figured this out. I was basing my expectations off of this preview from gamespot from a long time ago.
What caught my attention was this quote
Since the game is based mainly on the huge battles featured in Peter Jackson’s acclaimed film adaptations, you probably won’t see too many appearances of the legendary one ring, since it didn’t figure too prominently in the larger conflicts
Combine that with some of the earlier screenshot and I was thinking that this was going to be epic on the RTW scale. So basically this is a well produced classical RTS with tolkeinesque flavor?
I really enjoyed the game despite some of the flaws. I think this is one game where a solid RTS is enhanced by a popular license. I think Tolkien fans will enjoy the RTS much more than die-hard RTS guys.
The early reviews and Tom’s comments are a little worrying, as I was really hoping they nailed this one. Sounds like it’s still a good game, and going to get it, but not quite to the level I was hoping for.
To give a better frame of reference for this thread, could those of you who have played it but found it did not measure up please give an example of a better RTS game that was released in the last couple of years (barring RoN, which I already own, but no one plays).
I’m talking about the multiplayer part; I don’t give a rats ass about single player.
I’ve been awaiting this title pretty anxiously myself. On the heels of my absolute glee with Warhammer40K: Dawn of War, I was hoping for similar gameplay from BfME: focus on combat with minimal micromanagement and great visuals. The bit about troops rreacting to a situation with noticabnle emotion seemed cool as well.
The reviews I’ve read so far, IGN, and the linked Gameradar take a bit of wind out of my sails as well…
I’m gonna pick up the game though. It should be in stores Tuesday, and as its my birthday, hopefully it won’t be a bad present. :)
Dawn of War, Homeworld 2, Nexus, Perimeter… errr, Age of Mythology, if that’s less than two years old. Perimeter’s pretty under-rated, actually. I don’t know if it even came out in the US.
