[Read More]

Description

The battle for Middle-earth has just begun! PLAY FOR FREE and join thousands worldwide to drive the Goblin hordes from the lands beyond the Misty Mountains in The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-earth!

Gandalf, Bilbo, Thorin and thousands of players require your help to pacify the Goblin threat in the new combat strategy game from Kabam. Play as an Elf or a Dwarf, build up your city, and destroy the Goblins. But remember – the rift between Elves and Dwarves runs deep!

Massively Multiplayer Strategy Action

✔ Join thousands of other players worldwide
✔ Forge diplomatic alliances with other leaders
✔ Train vast armies to rid the land of Goblins
✔ Conquer enemies across Middle-earth
✔ Upgrade buildings and weapons to strengthen your city
✔ Plan strategy in real time live chat
✔ Participate in tournaments for valuable rewards

Elf and Dwarf Player Factions

✔ Play as Elf or Dwarf, with unique buildings, troops, and quests
✔ Meet Bilbo, Gandalf, and other characters from the movie
✔ Appoint heroes like Legolas and Thorin Oakenshield to lead your troops
✔ Conquer the terrors of Mirkwood and bring peace to Rhovanion
✔ and much, much more!

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Turbine announced today the launch of The Lord of the Rings Online™: Riders of Rohan™, the next expansion to the award-winning free-to-play massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG). Players across North America and Europe can purchase and play Riders of Rohan for PC today by visiting http://rohan.lotro.com/.

“We are really excited to launch Riders of Rohan, our fourth major expansion to the game,” said Kate Paiz, Executive Producer of The Lord of the Rings Online. “This is our biggest expansion yet and we’re very excited about the introduction of the industry’s best mounted combat system, which brings a whole new form of gameplay to MMO players.”

THE LORD OF THE RINGS ONLINE: RIDERS OF ROHAN FEATURES:

· Explore Largest Landscape Yet — Join with the Rohirrim and ride across the sprawling plains of Eastern Rohan. Raise high your sword to fight for honor and glory in the name of Théoden King! Experience hundreds of new quests, earn new favor, get new gear, achieve new deeds and more!

· Experience Mounted Combat — Ride into combat atop your loyal War-steed as you defend the people of Rohan from the forces of Isengard and Mordor. Charge into battle using strategic maneuvers to outflank and defeat your opponents. Team up with a fellowship to challenge groups of enemies and use the combination of varied skills to triumph. Stomp, trample, kick, and charge your enemies in all new mounted combat throughout the plains of Rohan.

· Master New War-steeds — Enter the lands of the Rohirrim upon a new War-steed to aid you in mounted defence of King Théoden’s land! Hailing from a long line of majestic, highly intelligent, and kingly creatures known as the Mearas, War-steeds are faster, stronger, and more trained for battle than normal mounts. Advance your War-steed’s skills over time and customize your mount with unique appearances.

· Continue The Epic Story — The Fellowship is on the move once again and must achieve their task at all costs. It falls to you to clear the path and turn the Eye of the Enemy away from their progress as you aid the Rohirrim in their own struggle close by. Witness the breaking of the Fellowship at Amon Hen; forge alliances with the Ents of Fangorn; and aid Éomer, adopted son of Théoden, as he seeks to protect his homeland from the growing Shadow.

· Advance to Level 85 — Learn what it means to be Rohirrim as you face new challenges throughout the Riddermark on your journey to level 85. Continue your legend as you grow in power with new skills and deeds and get new armor and gear to aid you in the battles to come.

The Lord of the Rings Online™ is the ultimate adventure! This award-winning free-to-play massively multiplayer online role-playing game delivers an interactive experience brimming with life and filled with the familiar people, places, and monsters from the most famous fantasy of all time. For more information, visit www.lotro.com.

The game takes place during the events of The War of the Ring, but you’re not playing as the Fellowship, you play as one of three characters: Eradan the ranger, Farin the Dwarf or Andriel the Elf, as you aide the Fellowship in stopping Sauron’s plans to take the North, making things much harder for Frodo to complete his quest. During your trek through the North, and the beauty in that area of Middle-Earth, you battle numerous Orcs, crazed Men, and of course Trolls. One of the variations of Trolls you will come across as you play the game is this Snow Troll. Sideshow Collectibles in conjunction with this game was asked to create one of these Trolls for collectors to add to their Middle-Earth collections.

PACKAGING

Graphically the box for the Snow Troll differs just a little bit from the previous releases in this series. Instead of using dark colors on the box this one with plays off the snow aspect going with a mostly white design. Unlike previous releases, with this statue you get one simple image of the troll on the front of the box, and the text on the box follows the design that was used for the game. The stays with the matte look that we’ve seen recently and, of course, great protective foam which helps this troll stay away from issues that plagued the original Cave Troll statue.

SCULPTING

Andy Bergholtz was tasked with taking what fans saw when playing the game and turning it into an awesome 3D version. Saying he was successful in his task would be a major understatement. The complexity of this piece, I believe, was a big challenge with this statue making sure to nail every detail as it would stand out more. When you look at this statue you’re going to see the little pieces of “fur” in his clothing and the bones on this statue do truly look like bones. The Troll itself is amazing with so many fine skin details captured and his facial features are superbly translated from what we’ve seen of Trolls in Tolkien’s world.

The other awesome part of this statue is the Dwarf character that the Troll can hold. Being smaller than say Gimli, which we saw earlier in this line, one would think it would be more difficult making the Dwarf look good. Not a problem for Mr. Bergholtz! This Dwarf is packed with details for this scale and his armor looks like something you could toss together while playing the game. A side note about the Dwarf is that he is not a permanent part of the Trolls hand so if you wanted to display without him you are able to do so. The base on this statue is also very well done with the base being some of the snowy areas you venture into while fighting in the North.

PAINT

Paint detail is always a big deal with statues but maybe even more so when you’re dealing with a statue of this size. The fur, because of the sculpt and paint as I said earlier, looks like a leather/fur combo that will help the Troll do its killing. The skin tone of the Troll is great! You get nice blends of the various greyish tones throughout the Trolls body where its whiter and his scaly back being darker grey. His face is also really well done with a great greyish hue being different than almost fire red eyes. The Dwarf is also painted equally as well as the Troll. As good the sculpting is on the Dwarf, the painting has to be there for it to come off and it’s done really well. There is no strange bleeding and the colors seem Dwarfish as to what we would expect to see of this race. One thing to remember with the Dwarf looking different from the game advertisement, is that you can tweak your Dwarf’s look as you play so this could be just one of several variations.

Overall

The Snow Troll is a superb statue and a truly welcomed addition to this line being the first HUGE  and heavy (easily 25lbs) beast statue in this line. This guy can be had for $325 from Sideshow Collectibles and has an addition size of 500 pieces world wide for only this one version. He is currently in-stock from Sideshow Collectibles so do not miss your chance to add this amazing collectible to your collection!

SPECIFICATIONS

The Snow Troll has an edition size of 500 pieces World Wide. The dimensions for the Snow Troll are as followed: 18″ x 18″ x 18″ (H x W x D)

PHOTOS

The all-volunteer, unpaid team of game enthusiasts behind the mod say they repeatedly attempted to negotiate a compromise that would allow them to proceed in some form, but Warner Bros. rebuffed all of their proposals. Warner Bros. first requested that the 40-person-strong development team cease all work on the project, called MERP (Middle-earth Roleplaying Project), in July.

“Modding” is a term used to describe when users unofficially adapt or alter a game beyond its original specifications. Modders will often create new characters, character skins, plotlines and dialogue, music or even entirely new worlds for their favourite games.

Mod developer Alasdair Hurst believes MERP’s main problem could be that people need to buy Skyrim first.

“But the mod itself will be available to all the fans for free.”

In a brief statement to PC Gamer, Warner Bros. VP of Public Relations Remi Sklar said: “While we appreciate our fans’ enthusiasm, we also need to protect our IP rights.”

Despite requests from TheOneRing.net, Warner Bros. declined to to answer any questions for this article regarding the C&D against MERP, or about Lord of the Rings game-modding.

Created solely out of love for Tolkien

“Everyone on the team is doing this because they love it,” Mr Hurst told TheOneRing.net. “A lot of the team have kids of their own and businesses of their own, and some are still in school, college and university. Everyone works on this in their spare time.”

MERP’s developers are currently consulting their own lawyer from the Organisation for Transformative Works (OTW). They hope to argue that MERP is “fair use” because it is what is called a “transformative work”.

They are also gathering signatures from fans petitioning Warner Bros. to reconsider its position. The petition has already gained more than 16,000 signatures.

“…will detract from the value proposition bargained and paid for by legitimate licensees”

Warner Bros. lawyers first contacted MERP developers in July. In the initial letter, Warner Bros claimed:

“The release of MERP into the marketplace will likely result in customer confusion and cannibalization with respect to such legitimately licensed LOTR/Hobbit games and will detract from the value proposition bargained and paid for by legitimate licensees of the LOTR/Hobbit properties.

Furthermore, projects and games like MERP will diminish and erode Warner Bros.’ ability to manage and protect the brand, reputation and quality of the LOTR/Hobbit properties that it has invested significant resources to cultivate over the years.”

Initially, Warner Bros. lawyers also requested an outline of the MERP mod developers’ plans, indicating they wished to “explore … ways to modify MERP to address our concerns from the intellectual property rights-holder’s perspective while, to the extent possible, allowing you to achieve at least some of what you wanted to accomplish with MERP.”

Mr Hurst says that MERP replied, asking what was infringing, and what could be changed.

“They dismissed our attempts at negotiation,” he said. “We sent them another letter asking if we could continue privately without any release, and they also denied that.”

MERP would base Skyrim players in the world of Middle-earth near the end of the Third Age, not long before the War of the Ring. Players would be able to become involved in a number of adventures related to the Ringquest, or just indulge in free-roam play.

An ambitious, world-spanning project aiming to be faithful to Tolkien

Mr Hurst said that the group was inspired to develop the Skyrim MERP mod because the current holders of Middle-earth IP — including Warner Bros — had failed to develop “any decent games which allow the player to traverse the whole of Middle-earth. We thought that we should make it ourself![sic].”

He said the team had generated 90 per cent of the Rohan landscape, and were working on detailing it and creating each of the villages and cities.

He said that existing games often departed extensively from book lore, pointing to examples such as “elves at Helm’s Deep and orcs casting magic fireballs.”

On the other hand, MERP aimed to be as close to Tolkien legendarium as possible with the design of buildings, locations and characters.

“It is a large project, but the final outcome is something which everyone wants to see,” Mr Hurst said.

Existing versions of MERP — initially developed and released for Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and then Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion — have been freely available since 2008.

One of the most popular game mods

Mr Hurst said MERP was a very popular game mod.

“There is a mod site for lots of mods for multiple games ([hosting] around 17,000 mods), [on] which we consistently place between first and tenth place,” he said.

“If you take a look at Skyrim Nexus, you can see the vast amounts of mods that are available for the game. The same goes to its predecessor; Oblivion.”

Mr Hurst said intellectual property is a significant problem and ongoing for not-for-profit fan-modders.

“Mods such as large total conversions to Lord of the Rings, Pokemon and other previously made games seem to face these problems a lot of the time,” he said.

“The intellectual property holders always seem to send the cease and desist notices far into the development so that the fans waste as much time as possible on something they love.”

Links:

• Save MERP on Facebook
• MERP on MODDB
• Save MERP petition

Under the deal, Kabam will develop and operate two multiplayer strategy games, The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-earth for mobile devices and The Hobbit: Armies of the Third Age for web browsers, both launching in fall 2012. Starting Sept. 25, players can sign up to take part in the upcoming beta for The Hobbit: Armies of the Third Age at https://www.kabam.com/the-hobbit-armies.

“The Hobbit films are among the most anticipated entertainment launches of all time,” said Kevin Chou, CEO, Kabam. “Kabam’s unique ability to blend the art of game design and the science of free-to-play distribution makes us a natural fit to partner with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment to deliver thrilling games via the Web and mobile devices for The Hobbit film fans around the world.”

“We are very pleased to work with Kabam in creating immersive free-to-play online games on massive scales across multiple platforms,” said Greg Ballard, Senior Vice President, Digital Games, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. “Kabam’s Armies of the Third Age and Kingdoms of Middle-earth will be an excellent way for The Hobbit film fans around the world to delve more into the iconic story and interact with the characters in the universe.”

The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-earth is a game for mobile devices that challenges players to build and manage their own kingdom in Middle-earth, joining with other players to explore and engage in epic war. The Hobbit: Armies of the Third Age is a browser-based game that puts gamers at the helm of an army of Elves, Dwarves or Orcs, controlling heroes including Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf the Grey, in fast-paced strategic combat, with the fate of Middle-earth hanging in the balance. Both games are free to play and will feature iconic locations and characters from The Hobbit Trilogy.

About Kabam
Kabam, a leader in massively multiplayer games for connected devices, is transforming the traditional gaming industry. The company’s studios focus on combining the best elements of traditional and social gaming to appeal to a growing audience of gamers looking for highly immersive social games on PC, mobile, and tablet platforms. Recent Kabam titles include The Godfather™: Five Families™, Dragons of Atlantis™, Edgeworld™, the award-winning Kingdoms of Camelot® and the company’s first mobile game Kingdoms of Camelot: Battle for the North™. Kabam games are currently available for play on Google+, Facebook, iOS and an ever growing number of global social networks and online channels, as well as mobile and tablet. Founded in 2006 with headquarters in San Francisco, CA, Kabam has built a team of game industry professionals committed to creating deeply engaging games that delight our players. More information about Kabam can be found at www.kabam.com.

About Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, a division of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group, is a premier worldwide publisher, developer, licensor and distributor of entertainment content for the interactive space across all current and future platforms, including console, handheld and PC-based gaming for both internal and third party game titles.

About The Hobbit Trilogy
A production of New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures (MGM), “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” is the first of three films from filmmaker Peter Jackson, the Academy Award-winning director of “The Lord of the Rings” Trilogy. The screenplay for “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” is by Fran Walsh & Philippa Boyens & Peter Jackson & Guillermo del Toro. Jackson is also producing the film, together with Carolynne Cunningham, Zane Weiner and Fran Walsh. The executive producers are Alan Horn, Toby Emmerich, Ken Kamins and Carolyn Blackwood, with Boyens and Eileen Moran serving as co-producers.

“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” and the second and third films of the trilogy are productions of New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, with New Line managing production. Warner Bros. Pictures is handling worldwide theatrical distribution, with select international territories as well as all international television distribution being handled by MGM.

“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” will be released on December 14, 2012, with the second film, “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” releasing December 13, 2013, and the third film, “The Hobbit: There and Back Again,” slated for July 18, 2014.

THE HOBBIT: KINGDOMS OF MIDDLE-EARTH, THE HOBBIT: ARMIES OF THE THIRD AGE software © 2012 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. and Kabam, Inc. Developed by Kabam, Inc. © 2012 New Line Productions, Inc. © The Saul Zaentz Company. MIDDLE-EARTH, THE HOBBIT and the names of the characters, items, events and places therein are trademarks of The Saul Zaentz Company d/b/a Middle-earth Enterprises under license to Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. All rights reserved.
WB GAMES LOGO, WB SHIELD: ™ & © Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

We may have missed a couple of cool reveals about the game that emerged at E3 around the beginning of last month.

So here’s a re-cap, including an 18-minute on-stage demo that Nick Ricks gave at E3. It reveals a long in-game sequence from the Mines of Moria, including Balin’s tomb. You can also pre-order the game here.

Props to Ringer Lars for the links.

The E3 game demonstration and interview

The Lego Lord of the Rings trailer

Lego Lord of the Rings image gallery

Thomas’ work should be familiar to anyone who’s already played the Lord of the Rings Online Games: Shadows of Angmar and Mines of Moria. Writer Layton Shumway recently visited a recording studio near Thomas’ Utah home and learned just how much effort the maestro behind the music of Turbine Entertainment’s Lord of the Rings Online puts into his craft.

Inside the music of LOTRO: The Riders of Rohan

by Layton Shumway

If you doubt composer Chance Thomas’ credibility as a Tolkien fan, put those fears to rest.

“I get a little nerdy about it,” Thomas admitted to me.

Thomas told me that he’s got heavily annotated maps of Middle-earth, reams of unpublished background info, and most importantly, dog-eared and battered copies of Tolkien’s original works — all in an attempt to capture the soul of Middle-earth in an interactive form.

(You can see Thomas talk a bit more in-depth about his research and musical philosophy in this YouTube video, posted on TORn a few days ago.)

For the upcoming LotRO expansion Riders of Rohan, Thomas described to me the challenges of capturing the melodic feel of the rolling grasslands of Theoden, while avoiding the well-known strains of Howard Shore’s film soundtrack.

“We’ve all seen the movie. What’s the most iconic theme in all of Howard Shore’s writing?” Thomas said, humming the easily recognizable eight-note motif. “I’m thinking, I can’t compete with that. What am I going to do?”

It’s a difficulty Thomas has faced before in his work on licensed products: trying to stay true to what the literature teaches while dealing with a different product that’s very prominent in the public consciousness.

The answer Thomas found lay in the history of Middle-earth. “You enter the Wold of Rohan in the game,” Thomas said. “What has happened? What’s happening now? Rohan is a rugged, hardy country. These are hardy people, sort of based loosely on Anglo-Saxon people. They’ve had some glory in the past, but right now is not so good. So I’ve got to convey an idea of faded glory, an idea of breadth, expanse, strength, and power.

“The expansion takes place at a time when the War is encroaching, but it hasn’t really reached a full boil — more of a simmer. Trying to fold all that into music is an interesting challenge.”

Thomas described the three general types of gameplay that Riders of Rohan will feature: expansion, travel, and combat. This includes mounted battles, a first for the LotRO series.

“We talked a lot about that with the development team,” Thomas said. “The basic idea was, I want to feel like I’m galloping along. And when you hear the percussion, you’ll swear you can hear things like horse harnesses. There’s a real leathery quality, because we’re using a lot of hand drums with leather skins.”

I listened to a section of these tunes while I visited Thomas in the studio, and the music contains a tremendous energy and feeling of forward motion. There’s a lilting, rhythmic quality to it that definitely evokes images of the horse-lords of the Rohirrim.

Thomas went on to describe other specific areas in Riders of Rohan: “You go to the Sutcrofts, and the War hasn’t really come there yet. They’re sort of in a bubble. So their music is still peaceful — a little naïve, maybe. But in the Norcrofts, the Lord of Norcrofts is secretly in league with Saruman. So you’ve got this feeling that something’s wrong, this undercurrent of dissonance and anxiety. It makes you look over your shoulder. Then you’ve got the Entwash Vale, as you approach Fangorn. So that starts to feel a little more mysterious while still keeping some of the core Rohan feeling.”

When you combine Thomas’ enthusiasm for and knowledge of the source material with his skill as a composer, you know that wherever players travel in LotRO, they’ll have the right tune to fit the mood. That’s a job Thomas takes very seriously.

“I like to say, when the player is playing the game, a good game score plays the player, moving their emotions,” Thomas said.

The Riders of Rohan expansion for Lord of the Rings Online hits stores on September 5, 2012.

Written by Layton Shumway.

Additionally, the second in the series of behind the scenes videos: “Immersion through the look and sound of Rohan”, posted July 5th, has interviews with Thomas as well as Director Mitch Cohen, Director of Photography Scott Kevan and Senior World Designer Chris Pierson. The composer speaks to how he relied on painstaking research of the literature to create what he feels is “authentic” and true to Tolkien’s vision of the role of music in his stories. This video along with the first behind the scenes and various teasers and trailers for the game are available at LOTRO’s YouTube page. More musical tracks will be posted as the launch date approaches. In the meantime check out Chance Thomas’s official site to hear examples from some of the composer’s other works.

“There’s so much fantastically framed cinematography and brilliant camerawork. We can’t improve on that, so we just need to take it and put it into the game,” Ricks explained.

The usual LEGO voices for characters have also been replaced with theatrical ones such as Orlando Bloom for Legolas, and to streamline the journey, the game world has been created around Tolkien’s original maps where characters can move from Hobbiton to Mordor without jumping in and out of chapters.