Ilaras of The Dunedain:

I hope its PJ film based like BFME2. Can't wait to here more. Thanks!

kylej13:

I also hope it's PJ film based, my entire perception of LOTR comes from the films because I saw them before reading the books. That picture might be the pits of Isengard, or somewhere in Mordor if it is from War in the North

zach:

Mordor is south. :P

However it could be Dol Guldor. :) BFME 2 isnt based of the films though. BFME 1 followed the films.

Mithrandir7:

Yeah I don't see how this could PJ based haha

That concept art looks pretty damn cool... In fact I really like it. =]

Ilaras of The Dunedain:

Um I was talking about like the art, armor and weapons, and the way cities look. BFME2 mimicked the way things looked from the movies. Like some of the heroes, armor, and architecture. Not story wise obviously....

I hope you know what I mean.

Slavic:

I prey just that this isn't yet another Diablo-impressed hack'n'slash RPG... but a real adventure.

This seems to me much more like some sort of a mine....the Grey Mountains, perhaps?

Ilaras of The Dunedain:

It reminds me of the Goblin King's lair thing in BFME2.

zach:

Dol Guldor had deep pits and dungeons so it could still be there. :)

Slavic:

I thought that was a Dwarf in there to the lower-left so that's how I guessed.

zach:

Yea It could be a dwaf. Who knows. :P Hopefully we will get an announcement soon.

Freek:

This concept art looks a lot like some of the work we've seen for tBfMe and TWC imho. That being said, concept art always makes the game look awesome, lets hope it actually is :P

d3an-extreme:

wow thats cool. The guy really looks like a dwarf, and theres a broken mine cart hanging from the roof. Makes me think its taken in the grey mountains, everything looks abandonded as the dwarves were attacked and fled, only coming back in the fourth age. Then again it could just be sarumans basement, who knows? :)

Ilaras of The Dunedain:

Ha I just noticed the cart. The cart makes me think it has to do with dwarves but there are other things that don't.

blackkfox:

If it is Lord of the Rings (which we don't know for sure, it could just be old concept art from one of their other fantasy games), I don't think it'd be a dwarven mine. It looks too menacing and evil, especially the furnace and the spiny things surrounding it. If it's a concept of War in the North, I agree with Zach that it'd probably be Dol Guldur.

Cheeky Hobbit:

That looks pretty 'LoTR-esque' to me, but we shall have to wait for confirmation. Nonetheless, the signs are promising.

Rogash:

I thinks it's Mt Gundabad,Orcs's fortress in the north.

zach:

However to be technical Mt. Gundabad was cleared of Orcs in the War of the Dwarves and Orcs. Id this is in fact the "War in the North", then this the game would take place after.

Gediminas:

Maybe it is Mines of Moria? Or something in mountains at the north?

zach:

Yea it could be some random orc camp.

Cheeky Hobbit:

Either way, all the signs are there. I'd be very surprised if this doesn't turn out to be the long-awaited LoTR game.

With the War in the North being filed under trademark and Snowblind being recently acquired by Warner, it all just seems to fit together effortlessly. Now, whether it will actually turn out to be any good is an entirely different matter. Regardless, this has as good a chance of succeeding as any other attempts before it.

zach:

Not to mention Snowblind hasn't released a game since this generation of consoles came out (other than an arcade game), so they have probably been working on making a new engine for this generation of consoles.

d3an-extreme:

which hopefully means that they are a reasonable way through and we should be getting it in 2010... id like a lotro with no subscription, oblivion style combat and the look and feel of the movies please mr warner brothers :D

Freek:

They havent released a quality game for THREE years? Uhoh...

zach:

Well the arcade game was great quality, but it was an arcade game. So they have to be working on something big like a new engine to just be setting around since 2006 as arcade games dont take much to make.

• Death Tank (2009) (Xbox 360)
• Justice League Heroes (2006) (PlayStation 2, Playstation Portable, Xbox)
• Champions: Return to Arms (2005) (PlayStation 2)
• Champions of Norrath (2004) (PlayStation 2)
• Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance (2001) (PlayStation 2, Xbox)
• Top Gear: Hyperbike (2000) (Nintendo 64)
• Top Gear: Overdrive (1998) (Nintendo 64)

Cheeky Hobbit:

That personally doesn't worry me. I fully agree with zach - it could quite easily indicate that they have been working on a new engine specifically for the current-gen consoles, which is very promising (if true). Many developers this gen have suffered from the familiar problem of rushing out games on outdated engines, just so that they don't fall behind in the market stakes. Let's hope that Snowblind really have been working on an engine for 3 years and that, if they are the ones behind a new LoTR game, they take their time and do it right.

Not to mention that they're very experienced at developing solid Action RPGs - Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance was one of my favourite games on the PS2.

zach:

Its pretty much the only logical explanation. I know they have been downsized a lot, but when WBIE purchased them, they opened up a lot of positions.

Freek:

I hope they release a polished game, but their portfolio thus far hasn't encouraged me this will be a truly top game. Regardless of how you view EA, their studios DO make very very good games every year. I can't say that about WBIE (yet?)

d3an-extreme:

Well Batman; Arkham Asylum is one of the best games ive played in ages and that is a WB game... obviously it depends more on the studio itself, but that is a promising sign that they are at least pushing out quality games.

zach:

Yes Arkham is pretty good but at the same time its not by the same studio tat is making this game, so it could just be the talent of the people working there. Not WBIE.

Rogash:

Snowblind studios isn't WBIE too then^^

zach:

Silly me and my typos. I meant Snowblind :P Both are owned by WBIE of course. The studio itself means a lot more difference than the publisher.

Cheeky Hobbit:

Arkham Asylum is undoubtedly one of the best games to be released this year, but it was developed by Rocksteady and published mainly by Eidos; as far as I'm aware, Warner had very little involvement.

Nevertheless, it reiterates their desire to become serious competitors in the video games industry, once again highlighted by the number of studios they've purchased recently. Let's hope that Arkham Asylum was the start, and War in the North - if the rumours are to be believed - is going to continue the trend.

Freek:

Their website certainly IS very encouraging...

d3an-extreme:

Thats what i mean, its obviously not snowblind that developed Arkham Asylum, but that fact that warner seem to know what they are doing, selecting quality studios to develop their games, they picked snowblind so they obviously see the potential there to create a game that is up to (hopefully) a high standard.

Freek:

Warner didn't publish Arkham, they basically gave permission to Eidos for just that

zach:

Yes I thinks its kinda like to situation with lotro. Warner has no say in its development, but they distribute the retail version on North America, Codemaster distributes it to Europe, etc. Basically Warner has no say in the development of the game in both cases, but they do have their hands in the bank. :)

d3an-extreme:

They co-published it with eidos. All im saying is i think they seem to know what theyre doing, either publishing or putting funds into good games so hopefully this follows the trend.

Cheeky Hobbit:

And it's likely that this kind of involvement - or lack of - is probably going to continue between Warner and their partners. They aren't exactly a naive company, but I think it's fair to say that they're probably not geniuses either when it comes to video games. My guess is that they'll leave their studios to do what they do best, whilst providing sufficient funding and marketing power. Without trying to villainize them entirely, Warner care first and foremost about how much money goes into the bank at the end of the day - not that there's anything wrong with that. Saying that, it'd be unfair to suggest that they don't care about the quality of the titles they're publishing/supporting; based on first impressions, they seem to have struck a good balance between financial potential - e.g. tapping into the casual market - and actual quality.

Nonetheless, I can't see them turning into EA anytime soon, who are known to get too involved in certain projects - often for the worse. So, for the moment, Warner seems to building a reputation as a company that supports quality games. Whether that's by luck or judgement, we shall have to wait and see.

zach:

Or getting as bad as Activision who all they care about IS money and not quality.

Dante:

When I first heard of Activision Blizzard, I very well thought that they were getting into the ice cream business.

$$$$$$$$

And for the concept art itself, I really have no judgment. I've never been a fan of concept art. Screenshots on the other hand.

Cheeky Hobbit:

Well I think that's a bit of a stretch. After all, they do publish the Call of Duty series.

zach:

A needle in the haystack....

Freek:

One could say the same about EA. AB has some very good games like WoW, CoD, SC2, Wolfeinstein, Guitar Hero, Blur, Quake Wars, World in Conflict...

zach:

Guitar Hero = (RockBand)(1/2)

:P

Very few DLC is actually usable in more than one game. They pump out a new version every 6 months, with very minor enhancements, and pretty much anything new ha been copied from RockBand.

Cheeky Hobbit:

Rock Band is definitely better than Guitar Hero in my opinion, although I did enjoy Guitar Heroes 3: Legends of Rock.

LOTR PO:

Any new words about this game?

zach:

Not really. Hopefully the new year will bring more news.

witchkingshour:

Well one can hope that This Lord of the ring game will be the one we all been waiting for.. I hope it's a action adventure rpg seeing how Middle -earth is such a big explorable beautiful world.. We can look at Batman and just know that it is possible to make a excellent game if given the time to actually do it... It took them years and years to finally bring fans the Batman game they been waiting for.. While In my opinion, there have been great Lord of the ring games, I still haven't felt that we gotten the game that really reflects Lord of the rings and that's the feel a great war... I am not sure if it's ever gonna be possible, but I always wanted a game where we could be in the middle of the war... Still Lord of the rings, the return of the King and the Two Towers were 2 of my favorites in the Lord of the rings series... With Battle for Middle earth 2 not too far behind... Third age was ok, but they got lazy as the story went on.


I could go on and on about Conquest as I did think they have something going for us... A few tweaks here and there could of made fans happy... I honestly wouldn't mind a Conquest 2, but only if someone else did it that cares... Make a better combat system , better feel to classes, not just made up fantasy ones like the scout and Mage... Bigger and Larger battles, Unique heroes! I can't believe that Legolas and Lurtz had the same moves.. I mean Unbelievable!


But reguardless I know Conquest 2 will never happen, so My hopes are for War In the North... So far so good with the concept art... But I honestly wouldn't mind a combat system like Return of the king, but with improved blocking of course.. And armor and weapon customization like Return of the king... My dream would be, you can be both sides evil and good... Dwarves, men, elves on one side... Urak-Hai, orcs, and evil men on the other... Make unique armor and weapons for both sides... I think if done right, game could be rememorable..


I played Champions of Norrath a while back and totally loved it... This company has potential, whether they do with this game, we will have to wait and see...