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Lord of the Rings Media Movies PlayStation (Games) Entertainment Games

LOTR - The Third Age Takes Tolkien Toward RPG? 40

Posted by simoniker from the silly-marillion dept.
Thanks to 1UP for its article discussing the announcement of Electronic Arts' Lord Of The Rings: The Third Age, "a new console RPG based on Peter Jackson's movie trilogy [and J.R.R. Tolkien's books]", and due out later in 2004. A GameSpot interview with producer Steve Gray has more information, as he notes that "the combat is turn-based... if you have played Final Fantasy it will feel familiar to you", and says of the game structure: "You travel on a sort of 'S' curve that weaves in and out of the path of the Fellowship through the story of the trilogy. At times you'll be behind or 'next to' them; at other times you'll be in the same time and place as members of the Fellowship." He also teases the game's bad side: "The main focus of the game is the quest on the side of good, but you can also unlock evil encounters, and we think players will really enjoy playing on the side of Sauron in addition to playing as good guys."
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LOTR - The Third Age Takes Tolkien Toward RPG? More

LOTR - The Third Age Takes Tolkien Toward RPG?

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  • Remember the last one? [amazon.com]

    Granted, this is going to be completely different. It's made by EA! There's no chance it hell it could be a lacklust piece of crap spun out at the last minute to capitalize on the success of a franchize.

    2-7 odds that it coincides with the release of the DVD's this christmas.
  • Oh. God. Yes.

    Seriously, there are plenty of ways for these guys to screw up, but I'm hoping this game will be as (surprisingly) good as Knights of the Old Republic was. I'm seriously excited and have to figure out way to stretch my budget to include this beauty. A Final Fantasy style LOTR game with character creation...that's the sound of me wetting myself. I know I sound giddy, but this is...huge.

    Perhaps this game can reestablish my faith in American gaming?
    • We know for a fact that it won't use the D20 system, so there goes your KOTOR wet dream right now. It won't have any of the sophisticated nuances of PC roleplaying.

      Given that KOTOR is one of those PC+Console projects it had to include a more intellectual system for the RPG side for the sake of making sales on the more upmarket PC platform. This game (thankfully) isn't going to be released on PC (unless they get some work experience students to port the game like some other godawful ports I've seen), in w
      • You assume both that I want a KOTOR style game (which I don't - I just hoped Third Age would be as surprisingly good as KOTOR) and that I have some interesting in PC RPGs (again a no - I have little interest in D&D rulesets).

        I much prefer the older Final Fantasy to PC RPGs (VI all around, VII for its junction system). Even more complicated are console Tactical RPGs, which are my most preferred style of game - I promise Disgaea is every bit as complex as KOTOR. I might agree with you that if you don't

  • Did you hear they're not changing the story? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by guard952 ( 768434 ) on Wednesday April 28, 2004 @01:51AM (#8993751)
    But which story aren't they changing?

    I was very disappointed when I saw LOTR: ROTK, and there was no Battle of Hobbiton. I was really hoping to see this scene, and it just wasn't there.
    Then there is also Tom Bombadil. Where'd he go?

    If they stick to the story in the movie, then they're missing out some really cool stuff they Tolkin (and many devout fans) would (and did) sorely miss.
    And if they do follow the book, then all the wanna be fans won't have a clue where all the extra bits come from (or why they're important to the story).

    • Re:Did you hear they're not changing the story? (Score:4, Informative)

      by Vaevictis666 ( 680137 ) on Wednesday April 28, 2004 @02:41AM (#8993920)
      Something to keep in mind, with all the LOTR games coming out (or are already out) there are two franchises here - one company has rights to profit off of the movie situations and events, another one gets the materials in the books. If you want, have a look at which publisher has done what LOTR game releases in the past two years. I believe EA has had all the console action titles based off of the movies, which means they have no tom bombadil or hobbion end-game to use in the game. If I'm bass ackwards and they have the rights to the book versions, then it's all perfectly good and we can have a full game out of it.

      Not that Tom is hugely relevant to a darkside RPG with the scope of the novels, but what the hey.

    • It was known that Bombadil and the Scouring were never filmed. Sorry to see you didn't know that :(.

    • Re:Did you hear they're not changing the story? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by obeythefist ( 719316 ) on Wednesday April 28, 2004 @03:14AM (#8994031) Journal
      Amusingly enough, Tolkien was interviewed once on whether they should make movies about his books, and he thought it was a fair enough idea. But he thought they would have to cut a lot of material out. He suggesting cutting out Helms Deep, because that little side-tack had very little to do with the Ring, Sauron, or Gondor. Probably the lighting of the beacons would have been enough of an explanation for Rohan to show up in the nick of time.
      • The books are not about the Ring, they are about Hobbits.
        • Actually, no. The earlier and latter sections of the books deal with hobbits as a topical matter, and four of the 9 or 10 main characters are hobbits, however they hobbits are merely storytellers.

          The real story deals with the journey of the Ring, the return of the heir to Isildur to Gondor and his actions redeeming the sins of Isildur (this is possibly intended to allow the readers to see that Aragorn has the right to return his line to the throne), and of course the destruction of Sauron, the last of the

    • Re:Did you hear they're not changing the story? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Mechanik ( 104328 ) on Wednesday April 28, 2004 @09:41AM (#8995542) Homepage
      I was very disappointed when I saw LOTR: ROTK, and there was no Battle of Hobbiton. I was really hoping to see this scene, and it just wasn't there. [...] Then there is also Tom Bombadil. Where'd he go?

      Batte of Hobbiton I will concede, but c'mon, how many of us really wanted to see an hour of film devoted to Tom and his love of talking in rhymes and whatnot? Even as a fan I find those parts of the books annoying... how can you expect Joe Sixpack to sit through that let alone enjoy it?

      IMHO, I think including Bombadil would have done a lot to wreck the generally serious and epic feel of the films. People already had enough complaints about the comic relief of Gimli and Pippen ruining the atmosphere for them. Personally I thought those were fine, but put in Bombadil and you would have whole different movie. When I think of the LOTR movies as is, I think "epic" the way I think of say, Ben Hur, or Spartacus, not funny and silly like the animated Disney movie Hercules.


      Mechanik

      • Re:Did you hear they're not changing the story? (Score:1, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward
        The movies were great but the fact Tom Bombadil wouldn't fit in them properly is proof that something essential to the books was missing from the movies - every scene. Jackson came closest to it in that *weird* overtone when Galadriel refused the ring. That was the only time I really got the sense that, despite the seeming familiarity of the situation (heroic adventurers engaged in a just war, advanced city-states with pseudo-feudal organization, etc. etc.) this elf woman is supposed to be 4,000 years old

  • It sounds a bit like MUME (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Danny Rathjens ( 8471 ) <slashdot2NO@SPAMrathjens.org> on Wednesday April 28, 2004 @08:56AM (#8995172)
    MUME [mume.org] is a free multiplayer roleplaying game based upon J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth that has been continuously enhanced since fall '91. In MUME players can explore and live in this meticulously crafted world during its late Third Age, and possibly join the epic War between the forces of the Dark Lord and the armies of the West.

    I haven't played in many mango seasons, but according to the stats on that page it certainly is going strong after 12 years!

    The ongoing war between the players of Trolls, Orcs, and Black Numenoreans versus Elves, Dwarves, Humans, and Hobbits was one of the best aspects of the game, but it had many other cool aspects too. Such as the world being absolutely huge; wow, I see they had 19465 opened rooms in 193 zones. Also all sorts of nifty little features like the ability to learn types of herblore and collect the ingredients to make potions, and fishing, and if someone is speaking a language you don't know the text you see is mangled based on how well you know the language. Also, truly difficult computer controlled opponents that took teamwork and cleverness to defeat and plenty of fascinating quests as well.

  • Tolkien was already made into RPGs years ago.

    I remember playing the Interplay version of Lord of the Rings Volume 1 in 1990 on the Amiga. The Two Towers was released a year later on the PC but the Amiga version was cancelled.

    http://www.mobygames.com/game/sheet/p,2/gameId,387 0/
    http://www.mobygames.com/game/sheet/p,2/gameId,148 0/

    If you liked the old style Ultima games both were very similar - top down perspective and similar gameplay.
  • "I kill Gandolf"
  • Middle Earth Online [middle-earthonline.com]

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