LoTR:BFME2 review
I haven't updated this blog in a while, so I thought I would write up a mini-review of the Lord of the Ring: Battle for Middle Earth 2.
I managed to finish both good and evil single player gampaigns a few weeks ago. Overall I really enjoyed them and I think they showcased the game fairly well. To be honest I found the evil campaign slightly easier, at least the final missions anyway.
The game's sound and cutscenes really add to the game, the voice acting (Ian McKellen and Christopher Lee) adds to the game and helps relive the movies while presenting the story to people who may not have read the books (since BFME2 covers content not shown in the movies).
The game itself does show some graphic lag when there are a lot of units on the screen. Most of the lag I saw was in the good campaign though and it was also evident in the tutorial so I have a feeling that it may be related to the map the game is using. I don't recall seeing any graphical lag when playing a multiplayer match so again I think it may be related to parts of the single player story.
The control scheme works well, I used to play a lot of RTS games on the PC so initially I was skeptical at how everything would be pulled off using a console controller but in the end I was impressed. In some ways I would say I liked the controller version better because it added another layer of complexity. (though I'm sure some people will argue that the complexity in this situation is not a good thing because it needlessly makes the game complicated). I didn't find too many instances where I was left wishing I had a mouse and keyboard so I guess that's the biggest test for a RTS PC gamer playing on a console.
The biggest benefit of playing this game on the 360 is the ability to play multiplayer matches.. One of my biggest complaints of RTS games (and probably the reason why I stopped playing them on the PC) was that it was exceedingly difficult to find people to play against in an online match. Once you did find someone to play against there was the issue of who had the faster hardware, how the game handled lag and how well you could trust the other player to not be cheating/hacking to win. BFME2 doesn't have these problems due to Live. There is a possibility that network lag could clobber your game (though I didn't see any of that in all the matches I played) but everyone is on an even playing field regarding hardware and cheating. My only complaint is that some poor players may decide to "pull the plug" to make sure you don't win if it looks like they will lose. Pulling the plug cancels the game and thus robs you the win. I don't really care about my ranking so I mostly played on the friendly match/unranked games and ended up having some really great matches and meeting some new people who played (and won/lost valiantly)
Overal BFME2 is a great game and a nice change of pace from the endless FPS games on the 360. It is fast enough to get into and enjoy a quick match and some quick action but still requires some though and planning if you really want to play the game well. BFME2 is a must have if you really want to have a comprehensive collection of 360 games.
I managed to finish both good and evil single player gampaigns a few weeks ago. Overall I really enjoyed them and I think they showcased the game fairly well. To be honest I found the evil campaign slightly easier, at least the final missions anyway.
The game's sound and cutscenes really add to the game, the voice acting (Ian McKellen and Christopher Lee) adds to the game and helps relive the movies while presenting the story to people who may not have read the books (since BFME2 covers content not shown in the movies).
The game itself does show some graphic lag when there are a lot of units on the screen. Most of the lag I saw was in the good campaign though and it was also evident in the tutorial so I have a feeling that it may be related to the map the game is using. I don't recall seeing any graphical lag when playing a multiplayer match so again I think it may be related to parts of the single player story.
The control scheme works well, I used to play a lot of RTS games on the PC so initially I was skeptical at how everything would be pulled off using a console controller but in the end I was impressed. In some ways I would say I liked the controller version better because it added another layer of complexity. (though I'm sure some people will argue that the complexity in this situation is not a good thing because it needlessly makes the game complicated). I didn't find too many instances where I was left wishing I had a mouse and keyboard so I guess that's the biggest test for a RTS PC gamer playing on a console.
The biggest benefit of playing this game on the 360 is the ability to play multiplayer matches.. One of my biggest complaints of RTS games (and probably the reason why I stopped playing them on the PC) was that it was exceedingly difficult to find people to play against in an online match. Once you did find someone to play against there was the issue of who had the faster hardware, how the game handled lag and how well you could trust the other player to not be cheating/hacking to win. BFME2 doesn't have these problems due to Live. There is a possibility that network lag could clobber your game (though I didn't see any of that in all the matches I played) but everyone is on an even playing field regarding hardware and cheating. My only complaint is that some poor players may decide to "pull the plug" to make sure you don't win if it looks like they will lose. Pulling the plug cancels the game and thus robs you the win. I don't really care about my ranking so I mostly played on the friendly match/unranked games and ended up having some really great matches and meeting some new people who played (and won/lost valiantly)
Overal BFME2 is a great game and a nice change of pace from the endless FPS games on the 360. It is fast enough to get into and enjoy a quick match and some quick action but still requires some though and planning if you really want to play the game well. BFME2 is a must have if you really want to have a comprehensive collection of 360 games.
posted by pr0cs at
1:56 PM
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