New RPG from EA: The Lord of the Rings, The White Council

[Darth Loki]

Am I the only one who really enjoyed LOTR: The Third Age (otherwise known as Adventures of the B-Team)?

I despise most turn based fighters but this wasn't bad. However, when fighting a couple of Mumak's, I could never get any turns in and was killed like 10 times. Sold it the next day.

 

[hairlesswookiee]

I despise most turn based fighters but this wasn't bad. However, when fighting a couple of Mumak's, I could never get any turns in and was killed like 10 times. Sold it the next day.

yeah for some reason i dont like turnbased RPGs that much. who really waits their turn in a fight??

 

[dayhiker]

I despise most turn based fighters but this wasn't bad. However, when fighting a couple of Mumak's, I could never get any turns in and was killed like 10 times. Sold it the next day.

all you needed to do was use Idrial's haste of the elves several times and berethor's war call and lots of defense.

 

[Asura]

yeah for some reason i dont like turnbased RPGs that much. who really waits their turn in a fight??

Or who waits their turn to be attacked, heh

 

[tomandshell]

That did make me laugh now and then. It was funny to see all of the orcs and trolls lined up and patiently waiting for their turn to get whacked on the head.

 

[Darth Loki]

Here's a little update with some new info on this game.



EA announced The Lord of the Rings, The White Council just prior to its summer press event, but the company gave us our first look at this role-playing game at the event itself. The White Council is set approximately 80 years before the War of the Ring seen in Peter Jackson's movies, so this frees up the narrative. The designers no longer have to worry about trying the gameplay into the familiar story, so that means that players will be able to create their own characters and tell their own stories in Middle-earth.

We didn't get to see any gameplay, but EA showed off art montages showing a huge variety of locales in Middle-earth, both good and evil. We're told that the combat is going to try and blend the third-person action of games such as The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Return of the King with the tactical combat of games like The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age.

EA also showed off a trailer (narrated by what sounded like Ian McKellen in his Gandalf role again). The trailer consisted of prerendered footage that looked impressive, but we were told that is the "target" for the visuals in the game. Scenes in the trailer showed off a dragon sleeping on a mountain of gold in a cave (allusions to Smaug, the dragon in The Hobbit, perhaps?), as well as a hobbit battling a giant wolf, giants marching through a forest, a fellbeast flying over a Mordor castle, and a dwarf battling a dragon. In addition to McKellen's Gandalf, familiar characters like Elrond, Galadriel, and Saruman were seen and/or heard--each voiced by Hugo Weaving, Cate Blanchett, and Christopher Lee, respectively, all speaking what seemed to be new dialogue.

It's still a bit early for full details on the game, but it's clear that even though the movie trilogy is two years in the past, EA is still committed to developing games based on The Lord of the Rings. We'll give you more details when we get them, but if you're a Tolkien fan or a role-playing fan, this is something to look forward to.

 

[tomandshell]

That's a relief. I had hoped that if they were going to do a game based on the White Council, they would get McKellen, Blanchett, Weaving and Lee. It's going to be weird to see Saruman as a "good guy" before his turn to the dark side went public.

 

[tomandshell]

So this game will take place around the time of "The Hobbit" and after.


TIMELINE: 80 years prior to the events in LOTR. (From the appendeces.)

2939: Saruman discovers that Sauron's servants are searching the Anduin near Gladden Fields, and that Sauron therefore has learned of Isildur's end. He is alarmed, but says nothing to the council.

2941: Thorin Oakenshield and Gandalf visit Bilbo in the Shire. Bilbo meets Smeagol-Gollum and finds the Ring. The White Council meets; Saruman agrees to an attack on Dol Guldur, since he now wishes to prevent Sauron from searching the River. Sauron having made his plans abandons Dol Guldur. The Battle of Five Armies in Dale. Death of Thorin II. Bard of Esgaroth slays Smaug. Dain of the Iron Hills becomes King under the Mountain.

2942: Bilbo returns to the Shire with the Ring. Sauron returns in secret to Mordor.

2944: Bard rebuilds Dale and becomes King. Gollum leaves the Mountains and begins his search for the "thief" of the Ring.

2948: Theoden son of Thengel, King of Rohan, born.

2949: Gandalf and Balin visit Bilbo in the Shire.

2951: Sauron declares himself openly and gathers power in Mordor. He begins the rebuilding of Barad-dur. Gollum heads towards Mordor. Sauron sends three of the Nazgul to reoccupy Dol Guldur.

Elrond reveals to "Estel" his true name and ancestry, and delivers to him the shards of Narsil. Arwen, newly returned from Lorien, meets Aragorn in the woods of Imladris. Aragorn goes out into the Wild.

2953: Last meeting of the White Council. They debate the Rings. Saruman feigns that he has discovered that the One Ring has passed down Anduin to the Sea. Saruman withdraws to Isengard, which he takes as his own, and fortifies it. Being jealous and afraid of Gandalf he sets spies to watch all his movements; and notes his interest in the Shire. He soon begins to keep agents in Bree and the Southfarthing.

2954: Mount Doom bursts into flames again. The last inhabitants of Ithilien flee over Anduin.

2956: Aragorn meets Gandalf and their friendship begins.

 

[hairlesswookiee]

crap, im gonna have to read the hobbit. im a late LOTR bloomer. i didnt read any of the books until 3 years ago. i was never into the phantasy type of books, while i was overseas i would pull 12hour guard rotations. let me tell you i went through all my books the first week and 1/2 there. so i borrowed the trilogy from a friend and burned through them in a couple days.

 

[Darth Loki]

That's a relief. I had hoped that if they were going to do a game based on the White Council, they would get McKellen, Blanchett, Weaving and Lee. It's going to be weird to see Saruman as a "good guy" before his turn to the dark side went public.

I'd be interested to know how long in the Third Age a game can go on for. Will it stop before the Hobbit takes place, because it's pretty close to that time frame? Wasn't Bilbo like 50 when he set out. This would put Bilbo at his early 30's. I also wonder how much free roam you will have. The ability to play as multiple races does give this game a lot or re-play value. I wonder what the fighting style would be? They said a mix between 3rd person and turn-based, but those are two opposite sides of the spectrum. Maybe somthing like KOTOR.

 

[Darth Loki]

crap, im gonna have to read the hobbit. im a late LOTR bloomer. i didnt read any of the books until 3 years ago. i was never into the phantasy type of books, while i was overseas i would pull 12hour guard rotations. let me tell you i went through all my books the first week and 1/2 there. so i borrowed the trilogy from a friend and burned through them in a couple days.

You won't be disapointed, it's great. I read it after I saw Fellowship but before any of the other books. I first book I ever read in a few days. I just couldn't put it down.

 

[tomandshell]

I always thought that "The Hobbit" would be more easily adapted into a movie than the LOTR trilogy. It's basically a bunch of cinematic set pieces and doesn't give the problems/challenges with exposition, background, entire chapters of nothing but talking, editing and condensing, etc. that LOTR had. PJ could have a lot of fun with it.

 

[Corwin]

So this game will take place around the time of "The Hobbit" and after.


TIMELINE: 80 years prior to the events in LOTR. (From the appendeces.)

But is it the book or Film Timeline that the game will be using?

The film skipped the 17 years between Bilbo leaving and the Ring Quest so if the Game is going by film dates then 80 years will be sometime before the Hobbit's set.

 

[tomandshell]

The film didn't condense the timline, it just skipped over those years. They just didn't shoot up a caption that said "17 years later." If you know that a lot of time passed, there's no contradiction stated in the film.

 

[Darth Loki]

Tom,

This game should take place about 20 years before the Hobbit.

 

[KitFisto]

Little help with Battle for Middle Earth 2 on the 360.

Skirmish mode......I can't win for anything! Best I have been able to do is continue fighting to a draw even when I moved it down to "easy" mode. Seems like if you build farms first to generate resources you're getting attacked before you can get troops built. If you build troops first you can;t get enough resources back fast enought to keep building more troops AND farms.

I have tried it so many ways and the enemy seems to be able to send wave after wave after wave after wave to your camp while you struggle to try to build a balance of troops, farms for resources much less an armory to do weapons upgrades and such.

Anyone have any luck on skirmish mode? Is there a trick to it?

 

[tomandshell]

I have a feeling that it will take place during the time of The Hobbit, which would place it 78 years before LOTR (3019 TA). If I remember correctly, Gandalf had to skip out on Bilbo and the dwarves as they went into Mirkwood so that he could go and participate in the events of the White Council and its attack on Dol Guldur and "The Necromancer." I bet that those events are what the game is built around. Either way, I am interested in hearing more about this game, hopefully at SDCC.

 

[The Josh]

Just got BFME2 today along with NCAA 07. Both pretty fun so far.

 

[Darth Loki]

I've been playing NCAA all night. My first X-Box football game so I gotta learn a whole new controller scheme.

 

[The Josh]

I've been playing NCAA all night. My first X-Box football game so I gotta learn a whole new controller scheme.

If you're playing on Live we need to hook up and play.