Two new previews have been slung unto the web to give us an even better insight into the new Lord of the Rings game by Pandemic Studios.

ActionTrip has a short hands-on preview from the recent Leipzig event, praising the game for retaining the “Lord of the Rings Magic”.

The LotR magic is definitely present. The developers have also shown the Mines of Moria level, as well as the famous battle scene outside the Black Gates. In the Black Gates area, the forces of good are about ready to march at Sauron’s porch. The battle kicks off as the huge gates start opening, letting swarms of enemies into the fray. Moving around won’t be a problem during battles either, since there are mounts at your disposal, such as horses (and wargs if you’ve sided with the bad guys).

Meanwhile, GameCyte has a slightly older, albeit still interesting preview from the EA Studio Showcase held prior to the LGC.

The first question that came to mind, obviously, was what made Conquest any different from Battlefront, apart from the fact that players were now slaughtering orcs and trolls instead of stormtroopers? Representatives of Pandemic were on hand to answer my queries, and as they pointed out, fighting orcs is a vastly different experience simply because they are not stormtroopers. While the change from sci-fi to fantasy may seem merely cosmetic, the key difference is that the armies in Tolkien’s world do not wield blasters. As such, the entire flow of combat shifts from gunfighting to melee; the gameplay in Conquest is instantly more intimate and head-on than in the Battlefront series. It’s no longer feasible to try and play the game like an FPS — half the classes, in fact, use little or no ranged attacks at all. Players can expect a much more intense, real-time fighting engine to be in place for Conquest, placing the feel of the game much closer to Dynasty Warriors while still retaining the basic principles of its Battlefront predecessors.

All in all it looks like the game is coming together quite well. Stay tuned for more!