6.3.2006

Let me first of all by saying that I will be partially comparing Battle for Middle Earth (BFME) 2, to its predecessor, which is regarded as one of the most successful real time strategy games of recent years.BFME 2 is set in the northern realms of middle earth; something neglected by the recent film trilogy and the first game. There are 4 game modes for the single player. War of the Ring is essentially the first games map concept, made into a turn based strategy campaign. Each team fights over key territories and when armies clash, resolve their disputes in real-time. War of the Ring is really great for a player new to the game, or in multiplayer, but for veterans they will find it all too easy to overcome the AI (more on this later).You have the classic skirmish mode and a good and evil campaign. The story in both of these campaigns is really strong and I haven’t enjoyed a single player experience in Real Time Strategy this much in a long time. The missions are well thought out and give a sense of scope to the mythical world. However, veteran players will zoom through the missions; I played without using major powers and still found the missions relatively easy.The game now has both land and navel combat, though navel combat feels more of a token gift than a strategic element. You can now build anywhere on the map, which is actually a lot of fun and adds a further strategic element to the game. Fortresses now form the key element of your base and can be upgraded to massive monoliths of power.Many of the powers of the original are present, a few with upgrades. Many new powers are really cool to use, i.e.-earthquake and summon the watcher.The AI is still lacking in intelligence despite claims made about its improvements, but it does challenge you on harder settings. There are now six sides to choose from in the game, these are the goblins, isengard, mordor, dwarfs, elves and men. Heroes for each side are numerous and now cost a lot of command points. I like this approach, as it means you can use a massive force, or a select elite number of units.I.e.-3 nazgul and some mumakil, or 500 orcs!The sides feel really well researched and the differences are noticeable. I.e.- 2 units of upgraded dwarfs against 6 packs of goblins is great fun and the game play has a real kick to it (much like Dawn of War) thanks to detail to attention. The skirmish maps are numerous and Helms Deep, Minis Tirith etc. are now official maps, and great fun online, alas the skirmish AI is awful at assaulting or defending sieges. The Online play is full of problems and veteran BFME players may feel frustrated with a lot of existing problems. I do have the utmost faith in Electronic Arts and believe BFME 2 will present a great online experience within a few patches / months.In conclusion, I feel as though the developers have really tried hard to make the game fun and give it a sense of epic, which has being achieved, but the game has its flaws and feels unpolished. If you enjoyed the Lord of the Rings films and haven’t played the first BFME buy that and then this later. I would recommend this game but with reservations; veteran players may feel like this is an add-on and those that are buying it for online play should maybe wait for EA to fix critical problems before becoming dismayed

11.3.2006

After playing Batlle for middle earth one I was in 2 minds wether to buy this game or for the simple reason that BFME 1 was soo easy I beat both campaigns on hard in no time and even though I plaed it on the internet like most people.. I did wish the game it self was harder:)But once I hread about the the war of the ring mode as well as the campaigns why not go and but it after all my family does not really need food and Im defending Helms deep again has its appeal :)Ok frist for the bad news the campiagn is easy I have not finshed it yet as I wanted to try some other things on it but being on the side of the good I just went though the frist 5 in a day with worrying about it on hard settingto be fair though I have not finshed it yet so maybve there is some killer missions out there:)But playing war of the ring mood is just great in my mind been able to play on the map of middle earth and fight in places like Helms deep and all the other places is great the computer on hard does try to beat you but it still lacking(Going to try on brutal soon) And I do wish when fighting in places like Helms deep the AI would either defend with out rushing out stright away or attack in more numbers to really try and take it(Again maybe this will happen on brutal) but on normal maps the computer on hard does try really hard to kick you all over the map and have had some tough battles... With some new races For me I will playing this game for a while and no dout will go back to the campaign to finsh it:)I have not played it on line even though I will probley have a go at some point just to see what it is like as im not a great player for playing games on line..As for the sea battles well I have not yet really used boats and on the ring of the war mode only one map seems to use them and you dont need to ..As for graphics they are good I dont have a the most uptodate computer as it is two years old(But if a computer is 2 years old its almost out of date already lol) but to be fair I can play this game on middle or high seetings on most of them with water and shadows on low but in saying that the graphics look good and it works fine.Music well what do you expect lolAlso in this game you can create your own hero thats ok a bit basic but it fun to see your hero running round but I do wish they made it more than just basic after all all you can really do is choose your powers weapons colour of what you are wearing you cant change face features hight and you only have limited choice on what your hero can wear so thats a shame :)In short im happy with this game the battles are bigger than the frist one but no quite rome total war big but big enough to get the feel of the game my only real complaints so far would be campgain to easy(but no finshed it yet as I wanted to try out the war of the ring mood)A.I wish it would defend the forts or attack them better (But this is on hard maybe brutal??)And I wish your creat a hero was more in depth..Quite a few good points from graphics war of the ring mood and the AI is quite good on hard on normal maps.(EG rohan etc) still only played being the men of the west so far ...If you like LOTR or do like real time war games then I would say buy this it is a good game :)

9.3.2006

After ages of waiting and checking the official website before the realease, BFME2 has finally come out and was worth the weight.playing a lot of the first game i can see many changes. u can now build anywhere, which is sort of a double edged sword. u can build ur own cusomisable fortress and as many things as u can afford, although u now dont hav the super fast fortress build that was on the original game. u can also have a larger amount of command points (1000 for good) so u can have evan bigger battles, and they have smartly made the units larger and for almost the same price (although i miss free orcs:( )Create-a-hero option is a great addition to the game, as now u can fill out the missing characters from the book,

11.9.2006

So, i loaded this game up - started it, thought aha! plenty of graphics options, so i customised it, tweaked it some more ( i like the get the balance just right, acceptable FPS v Graphics, yes, slightly nerdy but hey, i play computer games .. . ) and played a skirmish, then another, and another, marvelled at how the witch king gracefully tore through battalions at a time, how my Half Trolls tore through cavalry of the rohirrim, how drogoth effortlessly torched entire bases, and most of all, how Souron effortlessly destroyed an entire army. All this power, so little time. And here comes my one main complaint really, the AI is really very pants. Pants. Paaaaaants. Just to emphasise it some more - PAAAAANTS!

9.1.2006

At its core, The Battle for Middle-Earth II will remain the same, but the unified license has allowed the focus to shift to the war in the north and Sauron's battle with the Dwarves and the Elves. Only hardcore Tolkien fans know that Sauron sent an army to the north that … er, dwarfed … the massive epic battle at Minas Tirith. This new game hopes to recreate that battleground.The single-player campaign will revolve around these battles that ran roughly parallel to the battles depicted in the Peter Jackson film trilogy. In the "good" campaign, an alliance is formed between the Elves and Dwarves to keep Sauron from destroying their homeland. In the "evil" campaign, the forces of Mordor set out from Dol Gurdur,

17.3.2006

Lets start with what this isn't: This isn't anything we haven't seen before. It is the original BFME with some add-ons.As such, if you don't get to indulge in on-line gaming, don't touch with a bargepole - you won't get the same joy out of it - the campaign length is woefully short, and with the exception of the last level, woefully easy.But what do you get: Firstly, they've sorted out the unit access thing - you now have access to all 4 unit types off the bat. You no longer need to build units to upgrade your buildings, you pay for the upgrade which normally gives a faster build speed and upgrades. So - hurrah for sorting that out - previously Gondor infantry died before Warg riders...

19.9.2010

I used to have the collectors edition of this game, but i lost it. My friends wanted to play online on this with me, so i ordered this version. I was delighted to find that using this version it automatically started up the collector's edition software and the cool stuff i get with that.The online talking lobby is complex and gives you the majority of options you'd want, except after a while the messages will start to lag by several minutes. it got to the point where i was replying to something the other person had said 6 messages ago.One of the fauls with the online is that you need all the patches to be able to play, and if you press update patches it won't let you saying you need admin rights,

10.3.2007

Unlike all the other lord of the rings games-whatever console they're for-I've noticed they all follow the same events-the journey of Frodo and aragorn down south or around that area. I love this game because it gets away from this and (in the campaign-either baddies or goodies) concentrates on the fights between dwarves and elves with sauron in the north, (In skirmishes though you can still play with whoever you want anywhere so don't let this put you back).You start off fighting in rivendell and slowly travel around fighting in different places against different heroes and races.All heroes in campaign or skirmishes devastate with great attacks and dominate the battlefield.

15.11.2010

This game is very enjoyable, works well and keeps your interest, when I purchased it I also purchased the expansion pack at the same time "Witcher-king". I had some trouble initially with the install; I have a 3.2ghz duel core processor with 4 gig of RAM running on XP (so really only 3.2gig) plus a 1gig Nvidia graphics card. This allows me to max out everything and size up to max resolution and it works floorless.Now about the problem; the process of installation:1: Installed original game and ran patch, received the error GAME.DAT and would not run.Rebooted the computer and it worked? Ran the game and tested it all good.2: Installed Expansion plus patch,

22.3.2006

almost exactly the same to the original same buildings same battlefields, with a few new ons however. the naval battles are very good but i have had a few issues of friendly fire. the true greatness of the game however lies in heroes and there powers!! almost all of the heroes featured in the original are the same with only a few exceptions. I was very disapointed with the ring heroes (sauron and Galadriel) and they feature VERY boring powers gandalf is far more interesting.This is a great game for people who are fanatical about lord f the rings because of the depth included in the game featuring heroes like glorfindel!!!!!! wow he is awsome nd does some serious damage!

1.8.2015

If you have upgraded to windows 10 from say windows 7 you need to run the compatability routine and then after about 5 minutes, you are defeated. No warnings, nothing, all units and buildings, gone.What EA are doing is deterring copying and piracy, which is fair enough.This is what you need to do: Re-enter your game code in the appropriate folder. It's in Electronic Arts/Battle for middle earth/support. Right next to the bottom. Make sure that you have a Battle For Middle Earth file in your user/app. data/roamin. I didn't have, so I just copied the options file from the first game into this newly created one. Lastly(for crying out loud, EA), set the compatability to run in windows 7.Took me half an hour to find this on the internet,

14.7.2006

If you enjoyed BfME 1 then you will enjoy 2. There are some differences, the most disapointing was the length of the single player game. It is beautifully constructed but seems half the length of the first game (and left me wanting more).And more you get, with War of the Ring which is very much constructed like the Total war games; a risk type strategy map followed by the RTS game when an encounter takes place. However, the War of the Ring does not have the storyline that the campaign has, so didn't draw me in as much.I also used to like the merging of the units (Archers behind Melee) in 1, 2 keeps these apart, although when moving a group a handy auto set up of Archers behind melee(but not merged)takes place.

14.3.2006

Though BfME2 is consistently entertaining and significantly better than its predecessor, there's a whiff of staleness about it and a lack of flavour that puts me in mind of month-old Tesco lemba bread (find it in the bakery aisle next to the meatloaf). Underneath this game's gorgeous mithril shirt, its finely embroidered elven skirts, is the kind of dogmatically conservative build-and-battle RTS that has benn gracing the PC for over a decade. There is a standard campaign mode, a build up then crush skirmish mode, and of course the map editor tool chucked in for good measure. Hello! All us gamers want something new!, Okay, so there is a hero/villain creator tool and a territory capturing mode (War of the Ring mode),

30.4.2010

I never owned the first game so i can't comment on whether gameplay / AI etc has improved with this sequel. I was pleasantly surprised by the game which offers a range of races to manage - each with their own strengths and weaknesses. It gives some good varied gameplay, especially in the skirmish mode. The chance to play as good and bad in the story game is often standard in these RTS's but this package has more depth in alternate game modes (War of the ring) that offer a RISK style strategy game as a bonus. Coupled with the opportunity to make and individualise your own characters this is a great buy. The online gaming is good as well - though pretty hardcore!

21.5.2006

I have to say this is a good game. There's no doubt about it. The graphics are superb and there is so much to do it will take a while to get tired of it. However to get those superb graphics you do need some kind of super computer. I thought I had a good computer, and I can only run it on Very low perfectly or low with some choppiness. However you can't ignore the fact that many improvements have been made since the last installment and it is a great game. However if you wish to buy it please read the system requirements before you do, otherwise it could be 30 quid down the drain. I know a lot of people have experienced some difficulties with it especially if you have a Geforce 4 MX graphics card.

The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth II (PC) - Reviews

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