Brilliant Game

daveffrench

OMG have any of ye seen the trailer for lord of the rings: the battle for middle earth. it looks like is going to be one of the best strategy games ever.iv been following the progress of it for the last few months and its expected out at the end of the year. look at this trailer and tell me what ye tink, its the e3 trailer http://www.eagames.com/official/lordoftherings/thebattleformiddleearth/us/videos.jsp?platformID=pc&setID=E3%20Demo%20(192MB%20-%2084MB)&resID=hi . and also rome total war is going to be out at the end of the year, that shud be gud to.

Pugsley

Its doesnt look that great really, Im looking forward to "Dawn of War" FAR more than LotR:BFME. LotR seems like just a normal, unimaginative RTS with large armies (and the armies arent even as largeas we saw in Age of Empires, about, what, 5 years ago?). Surely the graphic's are spinky, and you get a few really large units, but I cant see the game keeping me occupied for more than a few hours, I doubt I will be buying it at all really.

daveffrench

omg no way, the whole emotion ting with the units is mental. the way they back away when they are scared. and in age of empires, it was max of 200 units. in this is a few thousand. ok anybody else have any views? if you dont know about the emotion thing go back and watch inside the game: vol1. also the 3d map of middle earth is totally cool.

BlitzKrieg

i'm lookin forward to it, but thats more cause of the links with westwood and the possibility of huge sieges...but do you have any links to info and not just a (far too big) pretty movie?

i'm more looking forward to rome: total war (big fan of previous total war games)


the whole emotion thing you mentioned...they've been trying that for years, loads of strategy games promise it, very few have come to close delivering it...(examples would be previous total war games, Emporer: Batle for Dune, Generals and so on...)

i'm not all for it...but it did stop me from buying war of the ring...which is a lifesaver...

Pugsley

A few thousand? can have a few dozen thousand on the battle field in any of the 'total war' series (excellent games I might add, from what I have played, ie: medievil). The thing about the AoE2 pop cap, was when you reached your army limit of 200, you could it all on one screen, and managed it fully, what point is having 2 or 3 thousand units when only maybe a hundred fight at once, tops. 'Total war' done a great job of getting all units stuck in, whereas LotR, being based on the general's engine, will be limited in the fact only a few troops will be fighting at once, and having a 10,000 man army add's little to firepower, but only to lastability of the army (ie: they keep coming), whereas with Total War, and AoE2, when you had that larger army, the enemy were fighting all of it at once. Rush a base with 300 tanks in C&C:G, the enemy fight 30 at once, and with strong enough defence's could hold you off. I can imagine LotR being the exact same, but with swords + bow's.

As for moral, yet again, done before, Total War probably being best version of moral out there, but none have done it really well. Dawn of War are taking a diffrent approach to moral, low moral takes a lot away from the combat efficiency of the squad, but increase's their running speed to show their willingness to get out of there alive. But you never lose control of your units, so while moral can easily turn a battle your squad of 70 ork's wont leg it from maybe a bloodthirster or an avatar, but fight on with minimal efficiency. Having your troops flee is all well and good, but until a game does it right, I will remain sceptical about it working, and not having men flee when the number and firepower is in their clear advantage, but what their fighting is a wee bit better man for man and that little bit scarier, your 500 troops flee from 10 big mean looking things.

Oh and btw, there was a MOD released for AoE2, increase'd population limit to 500, you should play AoE2 on LAN with THAT going, some seriously epic battles on the go. Had a lance of Cavalry 120 paladins strong, combined with 80 hand cannoneer's, 120 champions, and 10 trebuchet's, with a fleet of other lighter siege's (onegers + cannons). And the other guys army was as big, the fight that ensue'd, jebus, epic on a scale only seen on total war, but with full unit control. Major fun (albiet i lost that battle....... damn siege oneger's, they dont get on with champions at all)

[/rant]

l3rian

i agree Pugsley aoe2 is an amazing stragety game, that pop500 mod is good, id like to see map size be increased a lot bigger too. i was very disappointed with age of myth - they decreased the pop limit bah, and rise of nations was no good either

i think total war: rise of rome will march straight through lord of the rings: the battle for middle earth

Sand

Looks visually impressive, but Rome: Total War will match it from what Ive seen, even though it wont have wyrms, treemen and ogres to play with.

Emotions are nice enough as a visual treat, but even watching them in the demo they were getting repetitive - the celebrations/taunts anyway. Same action times 25. Total War has already done a very good job on the morale front so its not utterly groundbreaking.

Im not sure If I like the sound of that morale system in Dawn of War - might work for Marines as theyre supposed to be headcases - but troops do flee/panic/become combat ineffective from bad situations. A good general shouldnt put them in those situations - sure spearmen will eventually ground down and beat a unit of knights if they hold their ground, keep ranks and dont flee - but it isnt much consolation to the guys in the first 2 or 3 rows who will almost definitly get splattered. If theyre poor quality troops, the general isnt nearby to encourage them, and there isnt any friendly units to guard their flanks, then dont be surprised if they break. It happens all the time in Total War, so, from my perspective there already is a game that gets morale right.

Pugsley

The idea behind the Dawn of War moral model was, as opposed to trying to simulate real battle (seriously, watch the demo, they arent making a war sim) moral, their making a game which allows tactics in a warhammer universe. They will never take away control of your units, because in a fast paced game of territory control, stuff like that would bugger you up no end, so by just seriously gimping their fighting ability but increasing their speed enables you to pull them out of battle when needed, if they just legged it at first sign of danger, flamers would be far too powerful really, as their mostly for moral damage, as breaking moral would virtually kill the whole squad.