The Video Games

[MatthewM]

I am not a huge gamer- I own PS2, and the only video games I play are from The Lord of the Rings and the Ninja Turtles.

Out of all the titles in The Lord of the Rings video games, which do you like best? I own The Fellowship, and the movie related Two Towers and Return of the King. The two movie related games are awesome, but my favorite is definitely The Fellowship. I'm glad The Fellowship isn't based on the movies. It's freedom to roam around in the almost boundless areas is great. The scenery we get in this game is closest to Tolkien than the other two (blatantly) and you actually fight alongside all the Fellowship. Although you only get to be a few characters (Frodo, Gandalf, and Aragorn) you still get to see, fight, and even talk with the other members of the Company. There are endless little things you can find in the game while wandering that will make you smile, and I for one feel a close affinity with the books while playing this game. Further, a lot of the events PJ excluded from the trilogy are in this game...Leaving Crickhollow, Farmer Maggot, The Old Forest, Tom Bombadil, the Barrow-Downs, fighting Wolves, etc.

A lot of people have negative feelings towards the game, perhaps because it isn't mainly a hack 'em up action based game like the two movie related games. People also complain about getting lost, and so on and so forth. If you play it enough, you will not get lost!

The Two Towers and The Return of the King are great games as well. The graphics and the fighting are well worth the play time. TTT gets some negative feedback in you can only be Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and eventually Isildur (why?!) so in that aspect I agree. RotK is better in my opinion, with the full range of characters available to play with. These games take a drastic turn from the books though and even from the movies, which is obviously deserving of negative feedback.

Incase you haven't noticed, I'm really only talking about PS2 games. There are heaps of other LotR games for the PC, etc. I stopped collecting them after playing a couple of hours worth of some bogus game entitled something like "Quest for Middle-earth" which took completely made up mock Fellowship characters, and pretended that their Quest went hand in hand with The Fellowship's. Never get that game, let me tell you.

So, what is your favorite Middle-earth game? Do you play them often? Which did you like least?

[Oddwen]

I play a teeny bit with my brother's X-Box - I also love Vivendi's Fellowship. But I really love Sierra's "The Hobbit" - it's rather fantastic while (I think) keeping the spirit of the book, *and* it's at my playing level. (whee, novice!). My brother and I have rented TTT & RotK and struggled through them, but without cheats I find I usually don't have the patience to get through games. The only problem I have with Fellowship is that the characters are so weak, and the graphics so dark...through Moria, I had to turn the brightness control all the way up...but the weakness is probably due to my playing style (mash all the buttons! mash all the buttons!)

But yeah...Fellowship is I think geared more towards fans, and less towards gamers. It goes a bit weird at the end, and is a bit weird with the Aragorn bits, but the Barrow-downs is worth it. So creepy.

[Knight of Gondor]

I am a gamer of a lesser sort; I only play PC games. Which makes me quite unhappy that The Two Towers (and Fellowship combo) was never released for PC.

However, I love Return of the King. Next to the Spider-Man video game, it's one of the first epic video games I played, and it was fantastic.

I don't believe I recognize the serious deviations from the books/movies, necessarily. Gandalf going to Isengard was more of a flashback than a deviation. Obviously, Aragorn didn't really have to fight the King of the Dead, and obviously Sam didn't have to kill a hundred orcs to get to Frodo, but these are all within the range of expected changes for a fighting video game.

I was driven quite mad from trying to finish certain levels. It took me a long time to defeat the King of the Dead, and I died dozens of times during the escape sequence. I did not figure out until after beating the game that you had to do a "swift attack" to make Gollum unsteady. I had a very hard time defeating that level. The computer-guided Sam did just enough auto-attacks to get me through the first time.

Fortunately, now it's all a breeze for me.

The most valid criticisms I heard on RotK were the lack of exploration and the fact that some of the voices weren't real. For my part, I just can't get over how all those orcs pour RIGHT THROUGH the Black Gate. Why all the trouble to lay siege to Gondor if they can walk through walls?

One of the things I like about the video game is how it shows a snapshot of movie production. For instance, the Witchking's helmet. The film makers realized it looked too much like Sauron's, and might confuse audiences, so they changed to the more open design of the movie. Having to escape the collapse of the Paths of the Dead came more from the extended scene of wading through skulls. And the Watchers from Cirith Ungol, that drives me crazy. They begin to animate the whole sequence (you can actually see the eyes of the statues light up as they turn!) and then they just skip past the whole thing. I don't understand why they did that in the movie either.

My younger brother is just now getting a chance at the video game, so I'm rediscovering certain things about the game. Like, how you can kill one of the Ringwraiths on Top of the Wall and then build up wads of experience points on top of one of the towers.

My favorite levels are The Courtyard (it's basically a big cage match with no other traveling or interference!), The Pelennor Fields (easy if you have Legolas's arrows) The Southern Gate and the Black Gate.

[Elladan and Elrohir]

I enjoy the Vivendi FOTR game, and have in fact been playing through it again just for fun recently. It features some pretty rich landscapes, solid character models, and a faithfulness to the book that's downright juicy. I love getting to go through Hobbiton and Bywater and talk to folks who are only even mentioned in the genealogies of the book, such as Milo Burrows and his son Minto.

The game, of course, also leaves in Tom Bombadil, and while he comes across as fairly ridiculous in song (imagine that), he's reasonably well-voiced and looks just like I pictured him.

The gameplay leaves something to be desired, though. It's action-adventure, which means you'll run around a lot, do some little quests, stealth your way around the Black Riders, and fight quite a bit. The characters each have only one button for attack, which means you'll go through the exact same combo over and over again in battle, no variety.

To me it's a must-have game for fans of the book, even if it's subpar, simply because of the amazing attention to detail and juicy bits for fans. But I think the gamers went to such lengths to make it fan-friendly that they didn't work very hard to give it a broad appeal.

So I like it, but it's not the best.

A better game is The Hobbit, also produced by Vivendi. It definitely remains faithful to the tone of the book, producing a nearly cartoony rendition of Middle-earth that works beautifully for its subject. You get to go all over the places from the book, and there is again a tremendous attention to detail. You'll hear the names Angmar, Arnor, Bree, Erebor, and Thranduil, even though none are mentioned in the book, and that means a lot to me. Plus the gameplay is better, even if it resembles Zelda. I heartily recommend both games to any fan of the books; neither approaches top quality, but I really enjoy them.

EA's Two Towers and Return of the King games feature more polish and just better gameplay, even if they are based on the films instead of the books. Hack-n-slash is the name of the game; if you don't like it, you probably won't like these games. If you do like it, it will be a joy to slash your way through Pelennor Fields as Aragorn, take down numerous Orcs at Cirith Ungol as Sam, and clear trolls from the courtyard of Minas Tirith as Gandalf.

The graphics and sound are absolutely amazing, and even though both games are fairly short, they provide a lot of fun and definitely some difficulty.

Another LOTR game I've acquired more recently is The Third Age, an RPG based on the films. I was a total rookie in RPG, but it wasn't hard for me to pick up. The game is pretty fun for a fan but gets kinda tedious eventually, but features great graphics and the opportunity at a couple of points to play as actual film characters such as Gandalf (the Grey and the White), Aragorn, Legolas, and Eowyn. I recommend at least a rent, if not a buy.

But what can I say? I'm a sucker for LOTR video games. Would Tolkien have liked them? *shudder* Well, no, I'm sure he wouldn't have, but I do. So it's OK to like them, right?

I was an Alpha and Beta tester for Lord of the Rings Online and it was a nice change of pace. If MMO's are your thing you may want to try it out.

[MatthewM]

Originally Posted by Elladan and Elrohir

Another LOTR game I've acquired more recently is The Third Age, an RPG based on the films. I was a total rookie in RPG, but it wasn't hard for me to pick up. The game is pretty fun for a fan but gets kinda tedious eventually, but features great graphics and the opportunity at a couple of points to play as actual film characters such as Gandalf (the Grey and the White), Aragorn, Legolas, and Eowyn. I recommend at least a rent, if not a buy.

Ah, when I said "Quest for Middle-earth" in my first post I meant "The Third Age". I hated this game! No offense.

[Nazgûl-king]

I have Vivendi's Fellowship of the Ring, and sierra's War of the Ring for the computer, and for the Playstation 2 I have Sierra's The Hobbit, and EA games Two Towers and Return of the King. My favorite is probably a tie between Return of the King and War of the Ring. I've tried the Third Age once, It was alright. I would like to try Battle for Middle-Earth (1 and 2) and its expansions, but I don’t think it’ll work on my computer, however I have asked for a new computer for Christmas (as my old one keeps turning off, without warning) and if I get a new one, the game might work on it.

[McCaber]

I'm an RTS man, so I enjoy War of the Ring.

[The Sixth Wizard]

I don't think anyone has mentioned a yet-to-be-finished mod for Rome Total War called "Lord of the Rings: Total War". It's done by some graphics designer with a bit of time on his hands (where would we be without people like that? ) who wanted to make a game more realistic and with more troops than the Battle for Middle Earth series.

For those of you who don't know about the Total War series, you basically control armies on a turn-based map (meaning each "faction" has its turn one by one, like Risk). However, when armies attack each other, you play the battle on a battle map, with a LOT of units. I haven't played it yet, but it looks pretty awesome, and a lot of work has obviously been put into it. The only downside is that there is no custom settlement work done yet, meaning when you attack Minas Tirith you basically attack a regular city on the battle map.

Still, check out http://www.lotrtw.com/ as it looks awesome.

[McCaber]

Yeah, I've heard of it. It does sound good.

[Kuruharan]

There is also this mod of Rome: Total War, The Fourth Age.

I personally think it is one of the greatest mods of any game ever made. I'm hopeful that some day dwarves and elves will be playable factions on the campaign map...which will make it just about perfect.

I especially appreciate how they craft their models to be in line with what Tolkien described and the obvious care they put into crafting their mod.

Anybody who has Rome: Total War should check it out.

[Maedhros_the_Tall]

Originally Posted by Kuruharan

There is also this mod of Rome: Total War, The Fourth Age.

I personally think it is one of the greatest mods of any game ever made. I'm hopeful that some day dwarves and elves will be playable factions on the campaign map...which will make it just about perfect.

I especially appreciate how they craft their models to be in line with what Tolkien described and the obvious care they put into crafting their mod.

Anybody who has Rome: Total War should check it out.

Seconded. FA:TW is fantastic. Any fans of Tolkien and fans of R:TW (or even just R:TW) fans, should definitely look into getting it.

[The Sixth Wizard]

There's planning and skinning being done for a Third Age mod for Medieval 2 Total War, but its still in very early beta stages and I won't promise anything. There have been released pictures of elves but they look sadly movie-like. It does promise to stay close to the book anyway.

However the M2TW engine and graphics are way better than Rome Total War so if this is ever completed it will be sweet.

[Kuruharan]

Originally Posted by The Sixth Wizard

There's planning and skinning being done for a Third Age mod for Medieval 2 Total War, but its still in very early beta stages and I won't promise anything. There have been released pictures of elves but they look sadly movie-like. It does promise to stay close to the book anyway.

However the M2TW engine and graphics are way better than Rome Total War so if this is ever completed it will be sweet.

Yes, I saw that. I agree that it is sad that they are taking so much of it from the movie. :-\

I don't know if anybody here knows about the game Mount & Blade but there is a mod for that called The Last Days that is very good as well. Here is the link to the mod. If anybody is interested in such things, please do browse through the concept art thread. There is a lot of very good art...and of especial interest to me () there is lengthy discussions of dwarven culture in regard to the decorations they would use on their armor.

[Groin Redbeard]

I was listening to some of my friends talk about the storyline for Battle for Middle Earth 2. He told me it was about the rise of the Witch King in Angmar, and seeing how I lack knowledge on the subject I was wondering if anyone has played the game and know if the storyline is credible or not?

Originally Posted by Groin Redbeard

I was listening to some of my friends talk about the storyline for Battle for Middle Earth 2. He told me it was about the rise of the Witch King in Angmar, and seeing how I lack knowledge on the subject I was wondering if anyone has played the game and know if the storyline is credible or not?

The Rise of the Witch King is worth playing, with a realistic storyline, and it is hard to complete the latter stages even on easy level. But it has little replay value. I personally think Battle for Middle Earth was the best game by far, with plenty of replay value, and much likeness with the films. The Mines of Moria graphics are fabulous in this game.

[Babidi Buu]

I have the Following games:
For PS2: The Hobbit, Fellowship of the Ring, Two Towers, Return of the King and the Third Age.
I kinda like The Third age, Even though the "Evil Mode" Kinda sucks.

For PC: Battle for Middle-Earth 1, 2 and Rise of the Witch-King
My favorite is RotWK. I thought the Witch-King was cool enough in the movie, He's cooler in the game! And it's a pretty fun game. Cant wait to see what LOTR Conquest will be like

[Kuruharan]

The Third Age mod for Medieval Total War II was released today.

Interested parties can get it here.

It is a rough first copy of this mod and there is still much work that needs to be done bug squashing and refining but it is an impressive first release in my estimation.

It is true that visually it follows the movies...but if you play as the dwarves you won't have that problem because they were not in the movies.

(Thank goodness this was finished before much artwork from The Hobbit has gotten out.)

[Nazgûl-king]

I finally got the Battle For Middle-earth series! I like it, I think it's really good. I love the create a hero feature!

[Lindale]

I was wondering if you guys know of the Rohan game. (I think it's a sorta-MMO, but I'm not sure. I found out from my brother, who frequents online game cafes.) Does it have anything to do with Tolkien?

[Kuruharan]

Alas, I fear it has nothing whatsoever to do with Tolkien.

[Nazgûl-king]

I just recently got started playing The Lord of the Rings Online. It is quite fun, and the only other online game I have played so far (besides World of Warcraft).

Have any of you guys seen the trailer for the Aragorn's Quest video game?

[Joneswilliamsc]

Well Lord of the Rings is a co-operative game. In it each player can plays one of the Hobbits in the fellowship. Each of them has unique power in it. The game is played on a number of boards. The graphics in it look more realistic .