Just picked this up late last night, and I' m super pumped to start playing it. Anybody here played it yet, and if so, how' s the online community?

lol im happy for you bro. i still need a few pounds to be able to get it...

as for the community, gamspy arcade has a load of ladders that you can compete in, and if u want u could start ur own there. check out their website.

Sorry...I' m in the same boat as jabronibasher. I need to earn a few more $$ (about $50, that is), before I can get my copy.

Let the rest of us know how it plays, when you get a moment.

P.S.: Don' t throw any spoilers in, as I (and others) want to experience these for ourselves.

Thanks (in advance).

wahhhhhhhhhhh i got the game today, and will be playing it later tonite. mxpx we should battle online. whaddaya say? ooh ooh il be Gondor!!

I hope to have it soon
Maybe in a week or so

I' d love to play online jabronibasher.... As soon as I get a chance to play it at all!! I thought I was going to get to play it all last night, but as soon as I got home, my wife informs me that her sisters place is flooding and I spent the whole night there moving stuff, and cleaning up. I haven' t even installed the game yet. Tonight. I promise myself tonight I will install it, and then in the near future your armies will fall to Mordor!!!

Yea i have it and its a great game.You will love this game.

Ok, I finally got to fire this thing up last night, and even better it was on my HDTV, as all the correct connection cables finally came in the mail!! Anyways, I got in a bout 45 minutes, and it was very fun. The living world is very cool, and it' s worth seeing just to better understand the exact geographical relations of all the areas in the movie to any who may have been confused at all. Past that, the tutorials kind of suck. They are only videos, so you don' t get any practical experieince. The first area is the mines of moria, however I' ll go no further as no body wanted any spoilers. The characters seem to run really slow. I don' t know how many times I wished Pippin would die so I wouldn' t have to wait for his slow ass all the time. I' ll tweak my settings a bit, perhaps that can be sped up. Sound : Great, Graphics: Great, fun: Great. Now take all this knowing that I' m a huge fantasy and LOTR fan. I didn' t want huge innovations in this game. I wanted a solid RTS set in middle earth, and so far that' s exactly what I got.

yeah, the characters were a bit slow, but its probably just ur computer. dija restart after installation? i didnt, and when i played it it was on ' very low ' graphical level, but it ran smooth, When i changed it to medium, it lagged like hell.

But when i started it the next day, i put it on ultra high, and it ran really well without any lag. The speed, though slower than on the lower levels, wasnt a problem at all, and all the tiny details and the building animations enhanced my experience.

Overall its a really cool game, and once u level up the battalions, ur practically unstoppable. Gandalf RULES

I didn' t restart my computer, so that could have been a problem. although things weren' t choppy, just seemed uncomfortably slow. What do you think of the liberties taken with the story so far? I' m only past the intro level, and already there was a major one. Also, what speed of computer are you running this on. I have 3 computers at home, mymain one runs it on ultra high, my slowest one won' t have a chance, but I' m tempted to install it on my p4 1.4 ghz with 256 mb ram, and on board 64 mg graphics, just so I could maybe play it over my LAN with my wife. It would have to be set to lowest for sure, but just curious what you' re running and if it' s comparable.

here are my specs
ill keep it simple, cause honestly i dont know much about the technical side

P4 2.5Ghz
512MB SD RAM
Nvidia Geforce FX 5200 ( i really need a new one )
ive got the latest updates and i also recently defragged my comp.


whats are the specs of your main computer? the game only requires a minimum of 64MB G card, so itll probably work ( unless they lied) on your wifes with the lowest settings.

I myself tried medium settings today, and not only did it look ' good' but retained the speed with which im used to playing.

the story kinda surprised me, and i expected it to be linear. Thankfully its not, and it manages to keep things interesting while keeping the main story intact. Some things are a bit off though. Heroes can be killed apparently, but reappear in the next mission. few.
id like to emphasize more on these, but i dont want to spoil the story for you, so read at your own risk!

For example, im playing as Mordor in the campaign mode, and in one particular lvl, im in control of saruman and his army of orcs. The main objective is to KILL TREEBEARD. This doesnt happen in the film and book, but i ended up killing him anyway. ( including his ent buddies)
Boromir also survives the fight at Amon Hen, and will probably be carried over in the next mission.
However, one aspect remains intact. For the scenarios from the films, only the characters that were there appear. In Helms deep, u control Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, Theoden, and then Gandalf and Eomer. No hobbits.

My main computer is an AMD 3000, 512 mb ram, fx5600 ultra. It runs pretty smooth on highest, except when I finish a mission. then the living world map is all choppy for a couple fo seconds.

It looks like a very good game, i wont get it as my comp is too slow it looks like a solid rts, just what the serires needs.

I was reading in a few magazines about the game, and none of them were particularly impressed with the story. They mentioned that the most redeeming aspect of the game was Final Fantasy X' s battle system in a Lord of the Ring game. I' ve thought about buying it simply for that battle syste, but then I head that the characters sometiems have too strong powers making the game seem too easy. I' ve really not got time for it anyways. I' m very close to the end of KOTOR 2...really good game, a little glitchy but good.

Sorry Yoshimitsu, wrong game. You' re talking about LOTR the third age, we' re talking about LOTR Battle for Middle earth. It' s the RTS game for PC. speaking of which I' m venturing online today to get my ass handed to me for the very first time.

seems to have had some mixed reviews from different sites and magazines but a lot of the players have praised it a lot which is nice to hear. pity i have my copy wrapped up ready for christmas youll have to give us a bit of a report of how online goes mxpx

*slaps head*

My bad...too many damn LOTR games out right now. I should have known though because you were mentioning PC specs. As for that game...I' d really like to get a chance and play the game. I' m a huge fan of the RTS genre. I' m probably not going to buy it though, as I need to save my money up to purchase Rome Total War.

Ok, ventured online last night. A lot of people have made various complaints about getting online, especially with firewalls. I simply set my windows firewall to exclude LOTR, and had no problem even though I' m behind a router firewall. The set up process is a bit of a pain, and I urge you to write things down, because no matter how unique a user name you pick (jj45HTv for example) it will tell you it' s already been taken and then assign you a ' reccomended' one that' s similar to yours. There' s also no good was to set user name for how you' ll be identifided onscreen so far that I' ve noticed. I believe it' s the area called nickname, but you aren' t alowwed spaces. As for the play, I was playing against a friend who' s only played online, and myself who' s only played campaign, not even a skirmish. I reccomend HIGHLY to play a few skirmishes before playing online or you will be humbled as quickly as I was. The game plays different from any other RTS games I played, so I basically knew nothing. I made calvary rode over some of his orcs, but then watched as he dismantled me at every turn with an army 10 times my size, and then placed bombs all around my fortress, and then set Sauruman to lighting them. Needless to say it was spectacular. Great fun, and looking forward to getting better.

lol i havnt played online yet, and ive just finished the battle at minas tirith.The battles were insane, and it took a good half hour to finish it. i said earlier that boromoir does not appear in Helms Deep but he does in fact appear, and even eowyn pops up when the rohirrim arrives. my mistake.

i also tried the world builder, but being the incapable goof that i am i was unable to figure out how to use it. I saw Saurons model in there, and am dying to pit him against the fellowship. PLEASE SOMEONE MAKE THIS MAP OR SHOW ME HOW!!!! There are also other main characters from the film that probably wont appear in the game. They wont make much of a difference compared to other heroes, but the scenarios would be interesting to watch nontheless

I made calvary rode over some of his orcs

thats the most fun ive ever had in an RTS. some other great moments in the game too.

i have enough money, and my computer will play it, so ill probably get this pretty soon. ive been looking forward to it for a while cuz i like lotr, and rts.maybe ill play u guys online sum time.