OMG I cannot get Battle for Middle Earth 2 Out of My Head

[aries]

this game takes me back to when warcraft 3 came out and i was so mad addicted to it i played for 9 months and barely thought about another game. I HIGHLY recommend this game to anyone who ever liked command and conquer or warcraft. the most unique experience on a console and im up for playing with any of u guys in ffa or 2v2. what do u guys think about it? ohh and send me a friend request for some online action, it just came out so its not terrible busy right now.

[Nino]

What are the controls like?

[The M.A.R.T.]

this game takes me back to when warcraft 3 came out and i was so mad addicted to it i played for 9 months and barely thought about another game. I HIGHLY recommend this game to anyone who ever liked command and conquer or warcraft. the most unique experience on a console and im up for playing with any of u guys in ffa or 2v2. what do u guys think about it? ohh and send me a friend request for some online action, it just came out so its not terrible busy right now.

If you'd make your personal top 5 games for 360 now, where would this one be?

[Curry]

I haven't played it, because like Nino I'm quite fearful of the control scheme. Is it really "fluent" and good working or is it just "acceptable yet inferior substitute" for m/k setup?

[Cage]

I haven't played it, because like Nino I'm quite fearful of the control scheme. Is it really "fluent" and good working or is it just "acceptable yet inferior substitute" for m/k setup?
I've had an offtopic discussion with Kicks in the chromehounds thread about it. Check here http://forum.xboxic.com/showpost.php?p=9345&postcount=14 ;)

[aries]

while this is personal taste, i think the control scheme is brilliant. everything is there from hotkeys (called bookmarks), to waypoints, to even a quick key for getting back to ur fortress/castle. the only thing the game lacks is a quick way to grab a no name single character and micro him out. if u want to select ur whole army, just hold left trigger and the A button. u want to select a specific unit type, just hold the right bumper button and the A button. u want to add a newly trained battalion (yes the game uses battalions instead of single units) to ur army use the left bumper and A. the right trigger allows quick access to spells, tech trees, and idividual heros/battalions.

basically in 30 minutes time u can learn the controls, hope online, and with any rts know how u can win a match easy. the only bad side is like all rts high unit battles make the framerate chug, and micromanaging a near dead half troll off the front line is not very possible. u can easy micro his battalion though. the cursor stays in the center of the screen, and there is no imitation mouse like im previous console rts games. and the a button basically replaces the left mouse button. almost everything in the game is down with A and triggers and shoulder buttons. so yeah its very fluid, some people online actually prefer this version to the pc version because it has great online modes.


if i could make a top five 360 list, it would go something like this

cod2
graw
bfme2
the outfit
pdz

yes, no oblivion. the game is just toooooo much lol.

[Zerodisorder]

I've been real weary about getting this but from what i hear it sounds good...looks like ill be broke for a little after getting this and prey :P

[The M.A.R.T.]

I've been real weary about getting this but from what i hear it sounds good...looks like ill be broke for a little after getting this and prey :P

I would skip Prey and only get this. Prey is only 5 to 6 hours gameplay and there will be more FPS out that will be waaaayyyy better!

Get a top FPS furtherdown this year. Or just Gears of War that will have one satisfied in every gaming way

[DM2]

I have read that a demo both single and multiplayer of BFMEII is out later today on live.

[The M.A.R.T.]

I have read that a demo both single and multiplayer of BFMEII is out later today on live.

That would be logical I already thought that, they won't bring a video walk through mentioning the demo and then don't release it for a month or so. So I expect it today or at least this week. And what about Mass Effect, it looks the same...

I would like a MP demo from Gears of War though. But I think they won't give it because everybody wants the game already no use to bring a demo I guess...

[Curry]

I would like a MP demo from Gears of War though. But I think they won't give it because everybody wants the game already no use to bring a demo I guess...I expect a demo 2 weeks before release trying to sell the game even to the last 10% of the people that never heard of it or weren't going to get it.

[lowfi]

so... no demo yet?

[TRIGGER M4N]

Nope.

[Rival24]

I want it, NOW!

[TRIGGER M4N]

I want it, NOW!

YEAH! SAME HERE! AND WHERE THE FUNK IS TEH FUNKING HALO3 DEMO!

[Curry]

so... no demo yet?
Just checked, no luck yet Batman.

[DM2]

The demo is out now. 850Mb

[Rival24]

Indeed. (http://www.xboxic.com/news/1271)

[The M.A.R.T.]

I expect a demo 2 weeks before release trying to sell the game even to the last 10% of the people that never heard of it or weren't going to get it.

I think everyone with a 360 and Live knows about GoW. It's impossible to have missed it. It shows up also with the GoW picture in the Live menu of the 360. Really I don't believe that there are 10% of all people on Live not knowing about GoW. Weren't going to get. Well those could be a couple indeed. But I guess there are also people that will get GoW just because of all the fuzz that there is about and releasing a demo before the release would only get a bit of that fuzz away in the way (not that it would dissapoint for sure!) that a bit of the game has been given away then.

[YLA G]

i think that the 40% without xbox live gone pass that game because there gone think "oh my god again a movie game that sucks like those other 2 on the 360.. and its even a older movie now."

[TRIGGER M4N]

Worst. Demo. Ever. Horrible graphics and horrible game play. Immensly boring, god awful animation.

[The M.A.R.T.]

Worst. Demo. Ever. Horrible graphics and horrible game play. Immensly boring, god awful animation.

Strange, you're about one of the few that views it like that. The first reviews spoke of the best game in this genre up to date.

So I can't imagine how you came to this conclusion. Do you see something different then the rest of us? No HDTV or need glasses? ;)

[TRIGGER M4N]

Strange, you're about one of the few that views it like that. The first reviews spoke of the best game in this genre up to date.

So I can't imagine how you came to this conclusion. Do you see something different then the rest of us? No HDTV or need glasses? ;)

Doesn't take a blind person to see those horrible shadows from the tree's and all you do is zoom in, and just look at the people/trolls, whatever they are, and see crappy, repeated animation. Infact, it's what I expected from EA.

Another factor could be I hate RTS games...

[YLA G]

indeed.. you better not zoom in.. but i am happy with that.. the framedrops is a lot more horrible. specialy when you are in a 800vs800 battle.

[The M.A.R.T.]

Doesn't take a blind person to see those horrible shadows from the tree's and all you do is zoom in, and just look at the people/trolls, whatever they are, and see crappy, repeated animation. Infact, it's what I expected from EA.

Another factor could be I hate RTS games...

Well not everyone can like the same games/genres so that's cool. But as far as I've read on multiple reviews, have seen in the demo and hear from my friend playing the original copy it's a must have IF you like this genre ofcourse.

Ah well, I am off for a week holiday, but my 360 goes with me, I will go and play the demo a little bit more then :)

[Zerodisorder]

I thought it was a pretty good demo...and of course the animations for them units are going to look similiar..cause i'd hate to see the framerate with over 800 people doing different animations... :S ...but it does look a little bit better on the pc if you don't have an HDTV , but also the pc version gets choppy in the same areas..so it's a well done port..and the controls work fine.

[The M.A.R.T.]

I would like it though that in the future we get less and less ports and more 360 engine build games. It would be best for any game for sure!

[Studley]

The demo seems OK... but it's not convinced me to buy it. Mind you I didn't get far, there seems to be a bug in the tutorial because I was building walls where it told me to and then it stopped telling me what to do. Then I got bored.

Graphics are certainly far from amazing.

On the plus side I think we can all agree that the control system works, which might be the first step to seeing a C&C game on the 360 some day soon...

[Curry]

I was rather severely not impressed by the demo. Control scheme: nice, and I'm actually impressed at the apparent ease of operation, but.... I couldn't help thinking "sweet jesus this would've been so much easier with a mouse". To me personally it's official now: this is a well designed fine working control scheme, and it still screams "go use a mouse for RTS you dork" at me all the time.

And the framedrops at the end of the tutorial were ridiculous. Come'on, my 360 should be able to handle 2 *SMALL* armies duking it out alright?

[Number 13]

I was rather severely not impressed by the demo. Control scheme: nice, and I'm actually impressed at the apparent ease of operation, but.... I couldn't help thinking "sweet jesus this would've been so much easier with a mouse". To me personally it's official now: this is a well designed fine working control scheme, and it still screams "go use a mouse for RTS you dork" at me all the time.

And the framedrops at the end of the tutorial were ridiculous. Come'on, my 360 should be able to handle 2 *SMALL* armies duking it out alright?
I bought it today, and I've really enjoyed playing it so far.

The control system is surprisingly intuitive once you get into it. It'll *never* beat a mouse, but it does a good job with the tools available. A few teething troubles had me accidentally building things all over the place, but once I got used to it, I love it. They've done a VERY good job on the control system. Colour me surprised.

The only slowdown I've experienced was on the Tutorials, oddly enough. Bizzarely, I've had gigantic armies duking it out in the campaign mode and I've barely had even a hint of slowdown (except at one point where the cutscene after winning a level was leaping all over the place, but I restarted the 360 and it was fine again - probably just on too long).

So maybe it's something to do with the tutorial itself being badly programmed or something. I dunno.

Can't wait for my friends to get this though - it's the sort of Live-enabled game I've been crying out for!

[jayc]

I just picked this game up and while the control scheme is quite well thought out there are still times that I wish I had a mouse. I haven't experienced any slowdown yet but I wish that the camera would pan out further as everything is a bit too close for my liking.

[lowfi]

Controls are pretty good... BUT... the shadows o man the shadows. I play on a projector screen and can count every single shadow pixel even when im zoomed out to the max. They are about 1 square inch so it isnt that hard..wtf

Absolutly ruins it for me and im no next gen graphics whore normally. There is absolutly no way i can look around them.

[Zerodisorder]

I picked it up maybe 2 days ago, and im impressed by some aspects of the game, the controls are nice for a console so i wont complain on that, the game online is fun...but i will agree with you the shadows are amazingly bad lol..were i am on a 38" tv, maybe a tad bigger, and i can count the pixels lol...and also the worst problem is that at times you move the camera and you get insanely lost of where you placed things...but besides all that i would say its a game worth playing, especially the online.

[aries]

the game looks mostly like the pc version, all rts games have less than stellar shadows, character graphics, and most have below average framerates. its not that the 360 cant handle more, it most likely could handle alot more, but the code is pc based. they ported the code and basically the only thing they changed is the controls. so if u play alot of rts games, ur used to these kind of graphics, this game actually looks great for a rts. but if u play alot of shooters and mostly console games, i can get where u would think this game has bad graphics. plus the demo was cut a long time ago before any final optimizations were added. just like prey, i find the full version is much smoother than the demo. they look the same standing still, but u can tell the demos for both games where not optimized. but its a rts, so its not for everyone :)