Oh dear, this is going to be either really, really cool or really, really bad. EA and Pandemic Studios finally unveiled their Lord of the Rings project today and it’s pretty much what everyone’s been expecting it’d be. The Lord of the Rings: Conquest, as it’s titled, is a Battlefield-style — or maybe I should say more Star Wars Battlefront-style — action game that’ll enable players to live out all the epic battles from Peter Jackson’s film trilogy based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s masterpiece of fantasy literature as either the forces of good or Sauron’s evil minions. The Lord of the Rings: Conquest is currently in development for PC, PS3, Xbox 360 and even the DS for a global release this fall. The first-ever game footage and trailer will be unveiled exclusively on Spike TV’s GameTrailers TV with Geoff Keighley on Friday, June 20th, but until then here are a few early (and I’d say not all that impressive) screenshots.
“Our Pandemic Studios creative teams have years of expertise bringing giant battlefields to life,” says Andrew Goldman, Pandemic Studios co-founder and general manager. “We’ve always wanted to harness our experience in a fantasy universe with warriors, archers, mages and castle sieges. Of course, there is truly no better fantasy world to recreate than the enormity of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ realm.”
“We’ll freely admit that we’re rabid fans of The Lord of the Rings fantasy,” says Josh Resnick, co-founder and general manager at Pandemic Studios. “Our experience creating massive, rich, action-packed games means that The Lord of the Rings: Conquest will give fans exactly what they want: full control of the blade, bow and magic to fight its epic battles any way they want – even if they choose to play from the evil side.”
“We are thrilled to be working with Pandemic Studios on this game,” commented David Imhoff, Senior EVP of Worldwide Licensing & Merchandising for New Line Cinema. “They bring not only their incredible technical and creative abilities but also a great passion for The Lord of the Rings.”