Lord Of The Rings: Shadows Of Angmar Special Edition Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I was in closed beta for a short time. I have a pretty critical view on where I spend my money and I don't like paying for a game that is released unfinished. This is the first MMO I have beta'd, out of five, where I continued on into retail.

LOTRO has had one of the smoothest launches ever, has made tough calls early in maintaining player economy, is selling a well polished product day one, and has already announced the first expansion (FREE) for June.

The beginning levels are fun and different for the various races, making for good replayability/alt characters. Players are rewarded beyond simple killing for exploration of areas, use of skills, etc in a way that makes players actually PLAY their characters rather than worrying about how much exp/hour they can make. Mindless grinding will get a player levels, but only by playing, exploring, and using their character's abilities will they gain full character development. Many skills have effects that are not in the description or are synergetic with other skills that the hack-n-slash/low attention span player will miss.

MMOs have a hard time balancing familiarity with originality. Turbine has walked a tightrope between accuracy and playability and IMO has done a fine job.

Perhaps the biggest lure is that there is MUCH more of Middle Earth that will be coming over the years and getting to experience the process is something I look forward to.

Specific to the SE items, they are nice if you like "making of" info and want the soundtrack. The in-game item and map are underwhelming and should not be the reason you pay extra for the SE.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Lord Of The Rings: Shadows Of Angmar Special Edition

Product Description:
The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar is an authentic recreation of Middle-Earth. In this massive multiplayer online game, you'll explore legendary lands & interact with famous characters like Gandalf and Aragorn. Create your own heroic story as the Fellowship embarks on their quest to destroy the One Ring. Defend the Free Peoples against Sauron's evil minion, the Nazgul Witch-King. Adventure solo or forge fellowships, battle hideous monsters and rise to fame in the most epic MMO ever launched. Collector's Edition contains: FREE subscription, 128-page manual, cloth map of Middle-Earth, digital art book, exclusive figurine, exclusive in-game items: "Cloak of the Peace Keeper" +2 Peace Morale Regen. Create items both legendary and mundane -Farm in the Shire or forge weapons and armor in Thorin's Halls; craft arms for the fight against the Dark Lord Sauron, or enjoy more peaceful activities like cooking and farming Meet and socialize with thousands of other players and fans of J.R.R. Tolkien's works -- chat & interact at the Prancing Pony in Bree, the Green Dragon Inn in the Shire, or any of the many other social centers throughout the land Experience hundreds of quests while you journey through Middle-Earth -- swim the Brandywine River or make your way through the mists of the Old Forest

Want to read more honest consumer review about Lord Of The Rings: Shadows Of Angmar Special Edition now ?

Lord of the Rings: Return of the King Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)First off, this is a portable game. Portable games are not meant to live up to console games, and they don't. However, the can still be immensly enjoyable, and this game is a prime example. Why? Well, I'll tell you.
This is a sequel to last year's Two Towers game. So the gameplay is very similiar, but with some welcome tweaks and gameplay differences that add to the game. Here are some examples:
The characters attacks have more animation. (What I mean by this is that their attacks have more moves) All you do to attack is press the B button of course, but unlike in the Two Towers, your character does more than one monotonus motion. This is a very welcome tweak to gameplay.
While this is only a little thing, you can see reflections in the water of your character. This adds to the realism of the game greatly.
Do you remember in The Two Towers when you could heal at any time with your active skill of Herbal Healing? This was convenient, because in the midst of a fray, if you were getting low on health and had enough Spirit Points, you could heal with the press of a button. To do that in this game, you must have Kingsfoil herbs in your backpack. If you have no herbs, you can't heal. (In turn, healing does not deplete spirit points any more). I suppose this makes the game more realistic, but it also makes it much harder.
Okay. I've listed the three major gameplay changes. Now to tell about the game.
It follows the plot of the movie very closely. You go to Orthanc, the Paths of the Dead, Gondor, Mordor, and many more places. If you play as a different character, you get different levels. Here are the players you can play as.
Aragorn. The best hand-to-hand fighter in the game. Those who have played the Two Towers remember his two-sword capability. He still has that in this game, but it is no longer a passive skill.
Legolas. The best fighter, period.
Gandalf. While Gandalf is not the best fighter, he is the funnest character to play as because of the places he goes, namely Gondor.
Gimli. Sadly, Gimli is one of the worst fighters in the game. Howver, you will probably want to play as him, because he was not a playable character in TTT
Frodo. Frodo I think, is the second funnest character to play as. (He goes to Mordor!!)
Eowyn. Why in the world would anyone want to play as her?
While this is mainly an action game, it has some interesting role-playing elements to it that are not on the console version of the game. You can pick up and equip items that you find along the way. These items include various types of weapons, armor, shoes, gloves, helmets, and many other things. You really do have to pay attention to this. It is critical to beating the game. When you kill an orc, he might drop something. Stand on the item and press the R button to pick it up. It will be put inside your backpack, which is accsessible with a press of the Start button. If you find an item which is better than what you are using, put it on!! (Press the A button and choose Equip) You can also sell items at forges for gems.
In this game, the more orcs you kill, the more experience points you earn. When you earn enough experience points, you will be able to upgrade your strength, accuracy, defense, health, and so on. You absolutely must know how to do this, and do it throughout the game. If you don't, you will never beat it. This is how it works: To the left of the screen, there is a little bar that gets filled with green as you kill more orcs. When you kill enough, you will hear a sound and the green stuff will be gone. Here is what to do. Press the start button to go to your backpack. When you are there, press the L button. You will be taken to a screen that has all your attribute listed. (strength, accuracy, health, defense, and courage). Use your directional pad to raise there numbers. (Tip: The only attributes that you really need to raise are your Strength and Accuracy. Every once in while, put some points in you're defense and health. Never even bother with courage. In fact, sometimes just put all 5 points in strength. The more strength you have, the less hits it takes to kill enemies. This is crucial. Accuracy is also crucial. The more accurate you are, the less likely it is for your opponent to block your attack.) When your done, hit the R button again to go to the Passive and Active skill screen. Passive skills are like attributes, always in affect. Active skills are active, and you press the A button to use them. These are usually long range attacks, magic attacks, and power-ups. (Jeeze, I'd love to just give an entire walkthrough of this game, but it would take a lot more than 1,000 words!!)
However, here are the downfalls of the game.
1: I wish they had made it a bit more like the console version, where you can use both a sword and a bow. As Legolas, you can only use a bow. And it is very unrealistic the way he just goes Toing..Toing..Toing.. Time after time, and never runs out. And as for everybody else, there long range attacks are active skills, and drain spirit points.
2: It is much, much harder than the Two Towers ever was. Some parts can be downright maddening, to the point where you want to just take a sledgehammer to the whole thing. But calm down, take a break, come back later and try again. You will get past it eventually.
But now I must cut short this review. If I ever get ahold of any cheat codes, I will revise the review with them. This is an awesome game, and a must have for a portable gamer. If you are a console gamer, get the PS2, Xbox, or Gamecube versions, which are even better.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

Product Description:
Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King lets you join in the adventure of the classic fantasy trilogy. In this final chapter, you'll fight to help destroy the One Ring, before its corrupting influence becomes too powerful.

Want to read more honest consumer review about Lord of the Rings: Return of the King now ?

BATTLE FOR MIDDLE EARTH 2 - WITCH KING Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This game has a lot of traits like the Age of Empire games, you build a city and surround it with walls, attack an enemy with units base on the type you're attacking. For ex you won't attack buildings with archers, you have to hit them with siege weapons, attack cavalry with pike man and so on. Recourses are base on how much land you own, take the Elves for example, you build the life trees and they cover a small area, you stack too many in the same area they won't generate very much gold, but the more area you spread them out over the higher your income per second is. You can create your own heroes and change the way they look.
The game overall is a good game, there are a lot of things they could improve on like the fact that you have to take a whole wall section out to repair a small part of it.

Click Here to see more reviews about: BATTLE FOR MIDDLE EARTH 2 - WITCH KING

Product Description:
Platform:WINDOWS XPPublisher:ELECTRONIC ARTSPackaging:DVD STYLE BOXRating:TEENLord of the Rings The Battle for Middle-Earth II: The Rise of the Witch-King expands the universe Tolkiem created. This expansion pack to the fan favorite game series lets youmand the rise of evil in Middle-earth while experiencing the epic battles that took place before the films. Be the leader of an evil faction and lead an invasion of the peaceful kingdom of Arnor home of Aragorn's ancestors. To fully experience the evil side of Middle-earth gamers can now play as the all new Angmar faction in skirmish multiplayer and War of the Ring modes.Features:Innovative new units will help to tell the story of the evil Witch-King's rise to power domination of Angmar and invasion of the great kingdom of ArnorUpgraded Create-A-Hero features - The new roll class boasts additional weapons and armor for more customizationWar of the Ring the risk-style meta-game offers upgraded army persistence a new siege dynamic on the Living World Map and unified territories that serve as major control pointsIncludes all-new content from Tolkien's original stories delving deeper than ever into the story behind the award-winning movie trilogy System Requirements:Operating System: Windows XPOn-Line Compatible: YesRequirements : Windows XP (32-bit) with Admin rights1.6 GHz Intel Celeron D/Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon XP/Sempron or greater.256 MB RAM or more8x or faster CD/DVD drive6.0 GB free hard drive spaceDirectX 9.0cpatible; Video card must be AGP or PCIExpress have 64 MB or more memory.DirectX 9.0cpatible (Sound Blaster X-Fi series rmended).

Get 67% OFF

Want to read more honest consumer review about BATTLE FOR MIDDLE EARTH 2 - WITCH KING now ?

The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)The game has incredible graphics, I'll definitely give it that.EA had to write some new music to match the game better, but it blends seamlessly with the existing movie soundtracks.Loading times aren't too bad either, and are usually accompanied by a small introction to your upcoming mission.

Gameplay itself is very fun.At first when I heard about the minimized interface, I got a little nervous because I was worried about not having enough control over the units.To some extent this is true, but I've found it doesn't actually get in the way as much as I thought it would.For the most part it serves the purpose I believe EA intended - the player spends less time staring at the bottom of the screen and more time focusing on the battles.

The forces are fairly balanced for the most part.For example, a batallion of Rohan cavalry can be a serious force to reckon with against archers or infantry, but if they come across some Isengard pikemen they'll have met their match.Mumakil can do all kinds of damage, but aren't so strong against archers armed with the flame arrow upgrade.A lot of people say that Mordor is a little bit weaker than the other forces, and I'd have to agree to some extent.However, some good strategy can make up for it.Likewise, Gandalf can be a little too powerful once he reaches the higher levels of veterancy, but there are counters against him as well.

The one thing that really bugs me about the game is the population cap.In the movies, the armies are huge.By having a limit of 200 or 300, you can only have 20 to 30 batallions.That's really not so much, and definitely not enough to recreate to any degree the enormous battles of the movies.Fortunately, there are ways that more advanced users can raise the population cap, but it's still a very annoying thing to have to deal with.

Overall, this is a wonderful game.I would recommend it to anyone, even for the rather high price.Nevertheless, don't expect this game to completely give you large-scale feel of the battles in any of the movies.

Click Here to see more reviews about: The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth

Product Description:
The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth is an epic campaigns where the goal is to control all of Middle-Earth! Wage all-out combat against either the forces of good or the armies of evil, controlling troops and managing resources. The fate of a continent is your hands!

Want to read more honest consumer review about The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth now ?

The Lord of the Rings: Mines of Moria Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Turbine did a great job with this expansion.

They added two new classes: the warden and the rune keeper. I was happy with concept behind the classes.

The warden is a mix between the champion(melee AOE DPS), and the guardian(tank). Great solo class! They are officially a tank class, but again, they have decent DPS as well. They have a "gambit" system. What this is, is when you click skills in a certain succession, you will come up with a certain special skill to use. It's good to memorize the gambits and what skills get them to pop up. Some heal, others do extra damage, still others give better blocking, etc...

The rune keeper is a fairly advanced class. I thought it was a lot of fun, but there is a bit of a learning curve - especially if you are new to the game. That said, once they come into their own, they can be great ranged DPS(second to the hunter), and great healers(second to the minstrel). There is a range bar that goes both ways. The more it climbs one way, the more the skills get powerful. The reverse is true as well though. If you are blasting things with your DPS skills, your heals will be weaker(some will not even be available) - and vice versus.They overhauled the graphics a bit. I noticed they looked sharper right away.

I like the new legendary items. Even if you are one who likes to race to the max level, you can still continue to advance because the items also level up as well. As they level they get more powerful.

Next is the new areas themselves. I have only been playing a few months, so I am not an authority in this area. That said, many of my kinsmen(guild mates) have been there. They say the graphics are really awesome, and give you a real sense of being in an underground ancient civilization. They also commented on how enormous and how epic the place felt.

As far as PvP - or PvMP in this case, They revamped and did some balances to the Moors. The moors, for those who don't know is the Ettinmoors. There is a instanced area where players fight against monster players and also do quests/objectives in a very large valley. The valley is a lot bigger than AV (Alterac Valley from WOW).

I want to point out one thing that was true before the expansion, and continues to be now: the crafting. The crafting in this game is very well thought out. It's not perfect(besides we all have different definitions of that anyway), but it is fun and relevant. I can buy items that were crafted that are pretty much in the same ball park as PvP and raid items. This makes for a decent player economy. It's not as complicated as EQ2, but more so that WOW, IMHO. A good happy medium if you will.

Anyway, as a long time 3+ year WOW player who recently moved on, I can really appreciate this game, and the great job they did on the expansion.
If you are a fan of the Lord of the Rings, or simply love MMO's with a good but not stiflingstory, then this is a good place to invest some time into.

*edit 2/27/09*

I still love this game. In fact the soon to come book 7(free content update) will open up all of Lothlorien! They wanted to release this content with the expansion, but decided to hold off as they only wanted to release it when it was refined and done well. I can really respect their attention to detail.As for Moria, I am loving it! It really is epic and well done. There are many different "environs" in it so you don't get bored with the same ole same ole. If you haven't yet gotten it, or were thinking of getting back into the game, now is a great time to do so!

Click Here to see more reviews about: The Lord of the Rings: Mines of Moria

Product Description:
The 2007 PC MMO Game of the Year returns with an all-new breakthrough title! The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria drops you into the dark majesty of the world beneath Middle-earth. Explore a truly vast underground environment like you've never seen before. Battle the terrors of the Nameless Deep with new legendary items that evolve and grow in power as you do. Experience the dread and wonder of Moria as one of the new Rune-keeper and Warden classes. Achieve greatness as you seek to claim the knowledge and power lost for generations! This Complete Edition includes the original title Shadows of Angmar, all content updates, plus the Mines of Moria expansion.

Want to read more honest consumer review about The Lord of the Rings: Mines of Moria now ?

The Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth 2 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)(I deduct one "overall" star because the game's launch had a lot of multiplayer tournament problems.Those appear to have been resolved in the recent v1.02 patch which you will download automatically the first time you sign on.)

Gameplay:
BFME2 is what I would call a "true real-time strategy game".In most RTS games (e.g. Starcraft, Age of Empires) you are really playing a "real-time tactical game".You must focus a lot of effort on directing your troops at a micromanagement level, telling them who, exactly, they are supposed to shoot at, one guy at a time.

The BFME series has simplified this by creating "batallions".Instead of building archers 1 at a time, you'll build them 15 at a time and they come out as an organized batallion.You cannot tell your 15 archers to focus fire on 1 enemy unit, you can only tell them to fire on another batallion.The details of how they direct their fire is up to them.The time you aren't spending directing fire can now be spent on executing a bigger plan.

Consequently, BFME2 is one of the very few RTS games that rewards multi-pronged attacks and flanking.Units get a flanking bonus for attacking enemies from behind and the fact that you don't need to babysit every single fight means you can leave one battle to go start up a second front somewhere else and not worry so much about the fight you aren't watching.

BFME2 also introduces a new resource model which greatly rewards map ownership.Rather than fighting over piles of resources and ignoring the other 90% of the map like most RTS games, BFME2 has resource collection spread across the entire map.The more you control, the more money you get.Factions have been completely re-balanced to accomodate this -- in BFME1, the human teams could not match Mordor in an open land war but in BFME2, they can.They need to, if they want any money!Singleplayer:
BFME2 covers portions of the war that were not covered by the movies.The first mission of the Good Campaign has you fighting off Goblins around Rivendell, for example.

Single player has 4 options:
- Skirmish, the usual you-vs-computer battle mode.
- Good Campaign.
- Evil Campaign.
- War of the Ring.This is a new and improved version of the "living world map" they had in the first game.They fleshed it out and now it's more like a free-form game of LOTR Risk.You and the other players start off in various sections of middle earth and conquer the map any way you choose.Battles can be resolved RTS style or automatically (Civilization style) and this mode also has multiplayer support (one War of the Ring game could take a very long time if you resolve every battle in RTS mode!)Playable sides:
- Dwarves.Dwarven units tend to be slow but tough.They aren't big on cavalry but their infantry is very good.They gather resources with mines and they can also use these mines for travelling -- enter one mine and pop out at any other mine, anywhere on the map!This gives dwarves a good ability to hold ground once they've taken it.

- Goblins.Similar to dwarves in that they can build mines and use them for travel.Goblins are a "spamarific" species, though, with a lot of large batallions of inexpensive but brittle troops.They do, however, have some very, very fast units and are excellent for hit-and-runs.

- Mordor.Not entirely unlike the Mordor from BFME1, but minus the free troops.Mordor has poor defenses and plays best as a very aggressive team.As Mordor, you need to push your opponet early and keep pushing while you upgrade to better units and work on more resources.Mordor lacks the mobility of the goblins and dwarves and lacks the speed of the elves but they do have a great ability to flood the map with orcs.

- Isengard.Similar to the Isengard from the first game, you rely more on strong infantry with strong upgrades.Similar to Mordor, this is a good team for someone who likes to take a strong offensive.Warg Riders give Isengard some good cavalry but it's usually the Uruks that form the real destructive force of any army.

- Elves.Elves are fast on their feet with especially good archers.They can be played offensively or defensively with pretty good effectiveness.Try to use your fast feet to keep the enemy pinned in while you build up for the kill, or play defensive and work on leveling up some of your powerful archer heroes.

- Men of the West.This team is basically Gondor + Rohan from the original game.Human infantry is pretty strong, especially in shield-wall mode and they can do a good job of soaking up damage while your archers do the real hurting.Humans also have pretty much the best cavalry in the game, making them quite lethal at either hit-and-runs, or for backing up a strong infantry army.Other new stuff:
This game adds "stances" and some new unit powers.Stances allow all units in the game to decide if they want extra damage at the expense of lower armor, or higher armor at the expense of lower damage, or a balance.Human Swordsmen in the defensive stance with shield wall activated are extremely tough.If an enemy is banging on your buildings and ignoring your units, set your units to aggressive stance and teach them a lesson.Conclusion:
All of this adds up to become what is, I suggest, possibly the best RTS game ever made and I've played a lot of them.

Click Here to see more reviews about: The Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth 2

Product Description:
Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II gives you a chance to experience all that Middle-Earth was meant to be. Delve deeper than ever before into the fictional world of Tolkien, as you wage war in the North. Assume command of the most storied civilizations in all of Middle-earth history, the Elven and Dwarven armies -- or if you prefer, fight on the side of Evil to aid Sauron in his conquest. Fight with or against heroes and creatures that have never been seen in The Lord of the Rings films! Control battles with all-new enemy AI, melee combat, and unprecedented tactical fidelity Build anywhere brings creativity and strategy to base building and battlefield dominance Control the entire war with a high level Risk style meta-game Larger-than-life naval battles

Want to read more honest consumer review about The Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth 2 now ?