October 2, 2004

'Battle for Middle-Earth' news
Bob Praz

For those interested:

I don’t think this has been posted on many fan sites yet (apart from the gaming sites), but there’s bad news for the Battle for Middle-Earth: the release date has been moved from November 14 (I think that was the original date) to December 6 (still 2004). EA Games claims this is because they want a little more time to incorporate some of the suggestions/feedback that they received from LOTR fans on the net, and hopefully this is true.

Anyhow, they’re releasing a lot of information about the game nonetheless. There are six "Inside the Battle" videos on the official website that talk about the game (latest one is about the heroes), and every two weeks or so IGN is taking a look at one of the four armies available in the game (Gondor, Rohan, Mordor, and Isengard). They’ve done Isengard and Rohan so far. The elven warriors and the ents will be part of Rohan’s army (whether this is a good idea or not is arguable, especially for the elves), while it seems most likely that the Eagles will belong to Gondor. It looks like it will be an awesome game either way, but I just hope the delay will be worth it. I saw some clips of the Moria mission (where you control the fellowship), and the environment is beautifully crafted and resembles exactly what we see in the movie (you pass over the dark chasms where the dwarves mined for mithril, you travel across the huge pillared hall of Dwarrowdelf, you fight in an exact replica of Balin’s Tomb, you go down the stairs of Khazad-dûm and kill the Balrog; everything is there in all its glory!).

Sorry if I sound a little too enthusiastic (can you really blame me?), but I’ve been waiting a long time for this game and now they’re making me wait more (aaargghh....). Now there is nothing to look forward to until December.