What on Earth are WB doing with Lord of the Rings?

[endtherapture]

LoTR used to get pretty decent games. We got The Third Age, the games of the films, and of course Battle For Middle Earth.

All pretty decent games I think everyone will agree, but recently what have we got? War in the North and Aragorn's Quest? Hardly great games.

Then WB shut down the mod for Skyrim aiming to create Middle Earth in full...what a joke!

So what are WB doing with the franchise? They can do definitely make great games as the Arkham games show, so why can't they do it with LoTR?

Imagine tie in games for the Hobbit films where you play as Thorin, Gandalf and Bilbo...like the old film games but with a bigger emphasis on stealth and stuff as Bilbo...that'd be great.

Or a Skyrim style game where you can make a character and just do quests and get involved with the world as the War of the Ring rages on....or this in the world of the Hobbit maybe as DLC. Hell this would just print money for WB, but they're not doing anything with the game. It sucks. It's not like they've haven't got world/lore/art direction all made for them already.

 

[endtherapture]

Anyone actually play War In The North? It's a solid ARPG with sweet combat. Not to mention some amazing co-op.

We also got Lego LOTR and are getting Lego The Hobbit.

Lego Games are cool...but can't we get something a bit more than them? As much as they are fun to play they're hardly...what I want.

 

[Lucyfer86]

Well there is LoTR online, but if you're not into that kind of thing, options are few.

Also, yeah WitN is decent game.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

I'm wondering if the OP ever played WitN, as it is one of the better non-canon games for LotR I've played. That being said, I'd love to see a Mount and Blade style RPG/massive army (forget the genre) game based in Middle-Earth. I think it would do well especially if you could choose which side you fight for.
But I do love large scale wargames and Helm's Deep would be an awesome map for a M&B type game.

 

[Elfgore]

That being said, I'd love to see a Mount and Blade style RPG/massive army (forget the genre) game based in Middle-Earth. I think it would do well especially if you could choose which side you fight for.
But I do love large scale wargames and Helm's Deep would be an awesome map for a M&B type game.

You want the Last Days of Middle Earth mod for the original Mount and Blade. They have almost all of the factions and you can fight for anyone. They added some really cool game mechanics too.

OT: How about Shadow of Mordor coming out next year. Open-world RPG that sounds very similar to Batman Arkham series. Stealth, climbing, and good melee combat seem to be a large part of the game. Other than that, nothing else rings a bell.

I've noticed that Star Wars has had a hard time releasing good games lately. If they have one that looks awesome, Star Wars 1313, it for some reason gets shut down put on "hold". The lego games are always fun, but they can't beat Battlefront or KOTOR.

 

[piinyouri]

Anyone actually play War In The North? It's a solid ARPG with sweet combat. Not to mention some amazing co-op.

I've often wondered about it. I saw it's made by Snowblind, the same studio that made Champions of Norrath. Is it at all comparable to that or entirely different?

 

[Tom_green_day]

But the thing is most of these games use the source material but don't capture the feelings of it. The best game for me that captures the feeling of LotR- a huge open world filled in every nook and cranny with secrets and quaint villages, is (obviously) Skyrim. There is combat in the books and films but it's not only combat, there's a lot of adventure and exploration... In fact, it's mostly exploration and adventure. Games usually only go for the combat route.
The fact that they shut down the Skyrim mod tells me that they realise this too.

 

[BrotherRool]

LoTR used to get pretty decent games. We got The Third Age, the games of the films, and of course Battle For Middle Earth.All pretty decent games I think everyone will agree.

No, no, let's not agree to that. I've played most of the LOTR games and enjoyed them, and I think I've played through The Third Age three of four times, but if we're going to compare it to War in the North, WitN wins 10x over in terms of quality. And WitN isn't a fantastic game.

The Third Age had a crud plot, gameplay that auto-levelled so aggressively that grinding was an incredibly harmful activity, a combo broken it was literally impossible to die after maybe the 10th level unless you got bored or deliberately chose to die and their idea for a boss was 'add on more health'. The ending was so unfinished they actually just warp you to the eye with basically no explanation.

It had some nice atmosphere, the characters were all 'not gimli' or 'not Aragorn' but they had some redeeming qualities, and the armour/weapons looked good. But that's as far as the good qualities they went.


Still I agree with your general idea. I was just thinking the other day that someone really needs to remake the LOTR hack 'n slashes. They would benefit so much for a large update, you could have way more enemies and larger battlefields to create a really awesome experience. I imagine Warner Bro.s doesn't believe there's a market for just repeating what's already been done, but there really is.

There are some problems with creating LOTR games, mainly story. There are very few writers today who could write a Tolkien story and none of them work for the game industry. Everything we've had has always completely missed the overall style and got itself stuck in banalities and sillyness. Tolkien doesn't care about complicated plots to manipulate one man to open some gates. In LOTR everything is a great big battle of ideas and destiny. Aragorn doesn't win battles because he's a trained fighter who spends all day practising with his sword, he wins because he's of 'pure lineage' and embodies the greater qualities of the line of men.

And because no-one can write a decent LOTR story it does somewhat limit the scope of new games (although where's my Children of Hurin film/game?) and they're going to have to revisit old material an awful lot.


The Hobbit would have been a good opportunity though, and I feel like they really missed out on not capitalising on it. In some senses it's understandable, movie games don't sell anymore and it would be hard for an exec to justify why this is different. But even if it's not a direct film game this is the best time to release something related that's good (and in a more suitable genre than a MOBA)

 

[endtherapture]

snip

I was talking about The Third Age on GBA, which was actually a really fun game where you had loads of the heroes of the books and films and you levelled up and commanded your troops against your rivals. It was pretty nifty for a GBA game, turn based strategy.

Either way, WB could literally just make a Skyrim sized Middle Earth with bare minimum of story and it would sell like hotcakes.

Its just when I was watching the Hobbit and thought that "wow, some of these scenes could make really cool sequences in games", and got pissed off WB weren't doing anything with the franchise.

 

[endtherapture]

But the thing is most of these games use the source material but don't capture the feelings of it. The best game for me that captures the feeling of LotR- a huge open world filled in every nook and cranny with secrets and quaint villages, is (obviously) Skyrim. There is combat in the books and films but it's not only combat, there's a lot of adventure and exploration... In fact, it's mostly exploration and adventure. Games usually only go for the combat route.
The fact that they shut down the Skyrim mod tells me that they realise this too.

This I agree with.

Most LOTR are linear affairs which break the lore of Tolkien lore - looks like Shadow of Mordor will be going that routue too. All we need is some sort of documented main quest (like the many there are in the Lore, eg. the Fall of Arnor), some kind of levelling system, and big world to explore with lots of little side quests.

Not combat focused, linear games with sub par stories.

It'd be so easy to get right that I can't believe they keep getting it wrong.

 

[madwarper]

WB has owned Turbine since 2010. Turbine operates LotRO. The game is based on the lore of Tolkien's writings, not the imagination of an illiterate director.

 

[Tom_green_day]

Maybe they could make a racing game in the same vein as this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars:_Super_Bombad_Racing

 

[BrotherRool]

snip

I was talking about The Third Age on GBA, which was actually a really fun game where you had loads of the heroes of the books and films and you levelled up and commanded your troops against your rivals. It was pretty nifty for a GBA game, turn based strategy.

Either way, WB could literally just make a Skyrim sized Middle Earth with bare minimum of story and it would sell like hotcakes.

Its just when I was watching the Hobbit and thought that "wow, some of these scenes could make really cool sequences in games", and got pissed off WB weren't doing anything with the franchise.

Ah fair enough, I thought you were talking about this game, also called the Third Age
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/95/Thirdagebox.jpg

I think I might've played the one you're talking about, it was a lot better than the PS2 RPG

Making a Skyrim sized game is no easy thing though. It costs a whole heap of money and even the people who specialise in making those games end up with a huge buggy mess with plastic writing and responsiveness. Getting a studio to try it on their first time is probably going to lose a lot of money

 

[Marik2]

Are the Lord of the Rings movie tie in games, good? Been thinking of buying the trilogy for the ps2 and they seem to be a step above most movie tie in games.

 

[DanielBrown]

Been asking myself that for years since they keep fucking up LOTRO with every expansion(well, techincally Turbine). Last one was a fucking joke which cause many, myself included, to give up and quit the game.

I though War in the North was fine though. Not great, but it did pass the time the first time I played it. Second time... not so much.

 

[The Apple BOOM]

Are the Lord of the Rings movie tie in games, good? Been thinking of buying the trilogy for the ps2 and they seem to be a step above most movie tie in games.

The last 2 are great. The first one was awful. I'm still somewhat upset I don't have my copy of Two Towers anymore.

 

[endtherapture]

snip

I was talking about The Third Age on GBA, which was actually a really fun game where you had loads of the heroes of the books and films and you levelled up and commanded your troops against your rivals. It was pretty nifty for a GBA game, turn based strategy.

Either way, WB could literally just make a Skyrim sized Middle Earth with bare minimum of story and it would sell like hotcakes.

Its just when I was watching the Hobbit and thought that "wow, some of these scenes could make really cool sequences in games", and got pissed off WB weren't doing anything with the franchise.

Ah fair enough, I thought you were talking about this game, also called the Third Age
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/95/Thirdagebox.jpg

I think I might've played the one you're talking about, it was a lot better than the PS2 RPG

Making a Skyrim sized game is no easy thing though. It costs a whole heap of money and even the people who specialise in making those games end up with a huge buggy mess with plastic writing and responsiveness. Getting a studio to try it on their first time is probably going to lose a lot of money

Yeah fair enough that's what most people played!

The tie in movie games were generally great on all 3 platforms.

I feel like the WB Team who just made Arkham Origins could be competent enough making that kind of game, or even hire the studio who did Kingdoms of Amalur. There's tons of Open World games coming out now, maybe 5 years ago it would've been super challenging, but now I'd say it seems a lot easier.

Especially as they've got all the lore/art direction done already. Amon Hen, Amon Sul, Bree, Rivendell, The Shire, Lothlorien, Minas Tirith, Erebor, Mordor, Rohan, Isengard...all of those have had concept art done for them already so it literally requires the conversion to 3D.

 

[cerebus23]

Dark souls gameplay lotr world. make it happen .