IGN has a review but, of course, its insider only. Anyone have a link handy? Thanks in advance.

BTW- Has anyone else become suddenly interested after seeing those nifty EA ads running non-stop on television? I had no interest in this title but I find myself slowly succumbing to the incessant barrage of advertising................................................

I've noticed that when IGN posts a new review of a hot title, not only do they make the review insider only, you can't see the rating on the reviews screen either.

gamespot gave it good numbers. I just ordered it with the toysrus deal and I figure at worst I can let my 6 year old play it. I didn't like the first movie but the second one looks pretty good.

I played it a little yesterday. The graphics are really good and look a lot better than on the DVD preview. I would compare it maybe so far to a 3D version of golden axe with lots of enemies your character has to mow down in each level. But maybe i'm just projecting because you get to be a dwarf with an axe if you want.

Blasphemy!

....uh, sorry, the dork in me refuses to reason with others.

http://www.classicgaming.com/goldena...racters/g3.gif[/IMG]

He was the best character in Golden Axe. Him and that little thief guy with the bag.

http://www.classicgaming.com/goldena...ters/elves.jpg

This game is great, a 2 players co-op would have made it "the" greatest...

Closing Comments
The Two Towers is good, twitchy action-fun. Based on the movie, this fast-action style beat-'em-up is well adorned with great supporting elements from quality sound, graphics and other movie-related resources. There is no doubt that EA has beat the bad movie-to-game formula, integrating a wealth of movie assets into a game that neither looks nor feels like it's been hampered by movie license red tape. In fact, it looks like the opposite. EA has stuffed this game with an enormous level of excellent stuff from both movies, resulting in a real treat of a game, especially for Tolkien fans. That in itself is a great thing.
As a game on its own merits, The Two Towers is a solid beat-em-up that's definitely worth owning. It's not the longest game, it begs to be a multiplayer game (particularly a two-player co-op game), and it could use more moves, more adventure aspects (though, I guess it's not really an adventure game, so that's not entirely fair), and more levels. But, it's still a thrill to play as Gimli, Aragorn and Legolas.

It's different enough from Universal's title, which is an action-adventure title based on Tolkien's literary works, for gamers to warrant a look at both. But if this game's score indicates anything to you, you'll know which one to pick.

-- Douglass C. Perry


Presentation
A picture-perfect sychronization of movie and game qualities. Tons of assets, great cutscenes and menus, too. 9.0
Graphics
Good texture work is trumped by excellent animation and even better character models. 8.5
Sound
Music from the movie couldn't be more spot-on. Voice acting from the movie's actors, ditto. 8.5
Gameplay
Straight-up Golden Axe style fighting, modernized for the year 2002. A progressive combat point system deepens the groove. 8.0
Lasting Appeal
Four playable characters (once secret) and lots of extras don't quite make up for the rather quick 13 levels. This might take you seven to 10 hours max the first time, but there's lots of replay. 8.0
OVERALL SCORE (not an average) 8.3

Gamespot liked it with an 8.1 "great" rating...

From Justin (just your avg. gamer like you and me ) over at www.dslreports.com:

"wow! ok I've been playing it for 3 hours straight and its very good ..
like baldurs gate dark alliance its very "moorish" .. each level is a different battle scene from the two movies, so completely different in look and monsters..

action is kind of dynasty warriors 3 style but the environments are oh so much nicer .. devil may cry kinda fully 3d areas, not just flat fighting areas, (for instance, remember the scene in the first LOTR where they are trapped in the caves, moria, and the orcs rush in then some big ogre enters? well that is all reproduced in game) or it has "camera on rails" type pathways .. where crossing invisible lines triggers waves of new enemies to attack..

similar to dark alliance you either can choose ranged arrows, or hand to hand, or spells, but unlike dark alliance the camera is down and dirty with the action not always 3/4 view.

one very impressive thing they have done is knitted the movie into the game engine (or vice versa). The game starts with the movie, new line cinema credits and all .. no menu or anything .. just movie .. transition to 3d .. action ..

So the first six levels contain maybe 10 minutes of the first LOTR - actual dvd quality clips - which suddenly turn 3d, characters and all, without skipping a beat. Of course the transition is obvious: hair loses detail and lighting gets flatter, etc, but the characters look about as much like the film counterparts as you could expect .. and at the transition point, suddenly the area itself is fully 3d and you can start to move explore and fight.

Camera is auto, but things that block the view go transparent like devil may cry. Movement is DMC like as well.. so camera angle changes have the same control re-orientation problem, and the same thing happens sometimes when you are visible but the camera faces you and the boss is off screen .. solution? just move..

so basically you play through a bunch of levels from each of the two movies, and as you do so you upgrade your character. If you can dispatch an enemy without taking damage, that is recorded as an "excellent" .. some damage, good etc etc all the way down to poor. If you can do enough damage in row you go into this overdrive mode with glowing weapon that does extra damage and kills are recorded as "perfect" .. and gives you extra experience.. quite onimusha like..

then at the end of the level, the numbers of enemies at each rating are displayed and an overall rating is displayed. You then can use these experience points to add new moves or power ups.. your character grows from level 1 with only about 3 moves to level 8 with a couple of dozen powerups..

The troops (orcs and the like) are mostly easy to beat and drop a fair amount of health. Some require shield breaking before you can kill them. But the bosses are tough .. some have tricks to them, its like 'how the hell do I kill this motha!' .. luckily prior to each big boss there is an auto-checkpoint so you can keep retrying. On normal mode you will die at the hands of many bosses several times until you work out what to do..

graphics are pretty damn amazing, the roving camera pathways are better than FFX for sure, and the textures are richer than devil may cry.. everything has proper shadows and there are nice water and fire effects .. a little dark - at the beginning it takes a few minutes to figure out which fighter is you as everyone is dark (well, it is LOTR) but some levels are lighter. Rich textures and detail, and it looks like locked 60fps frame rate with your party (five people) and 10+ enemies all fighting together.

Music has surround option and lots of movie music is used, all the voices during battle and cut scenes are the actors as well..

the levels are not "based on" the movie or "inspired by", they are basically the movie itself - just take all the battle scenes, including the massive ones, and string them together as 12+ levels...

ok I really like it.. i can probably finish it in another 3 hours as the main guy (whatever his name is - the human) then I'll definitely replay the whole thing as gandalf, and try not to die so often at the bosses.. then see what unlocks..

in comparison, BGA I only bothered to play through once because I pretty much saw the spells being used by the creatures at various points so there wasnt going to be a lot of reason to do it again.. whereas I'm curious here if I play as hobbit, whether you can go invisible or how they will change the story when hobbit didnt do as much fighting.."

and add, "I played two towers through until the third last mission which defeated me. the action becomes insane towards the end and sorry to say I have not figured out how to think fast enough to do more than just mash fierce attack even though there are many combos available..

If you are interested in a graphically rich beatemup with high production values and loads of tidbits for rings geeks then rent or buy this title asap.."

I'll probably rent this one first as I love the movies/books. It sounds like it might get old fast, as I'm not a big fan of "beat'em up" games. They tend to get repetitive very quickly and not hold my interest very long.

Is this one coming out on the GC or XBOX?

It's coming to all three systems. It was just announced recently. Not sure when the GC or or X-box versions come out.

Hopefully the ports will be decent, and EA won't had them off to another developer who half-asses them as was the case with Need for Speed 2.

In that review posted above, the guy mentions playing as Gandalf, and as a Hobbit. The 3 characters in the game are Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli, with some rumour of a 4th, secret character. Either way, I could see Gandalf being unlockable, but I really doubt that a hobbitt is available for playing.

Anybody know for sure if there is a 4th character, and who it is?

AFAIK, the fellowship of the ring out now for the xbox and pc is the one you play Frodo, Aragorn and then Gandalf with.... Not sure though about TTT...

I don't like that bit about the changing camera angles, like in DMC. I seem to be in a very small minority on this, but those changing cameras completely ruin a game for me - I traded DMC in after only a couple hours of gameplay. It was just too irritating for me.

Can anyone else comment on this aspect of the game? When I was first reading this, I was imagining (and hoping for) a more Baldur's Gate/Diablo-type camera treatment. Am I SOL?

Concerning the camera angles:
I've only played through the first 4 levels (up to the Mines of Moria) but so far the camera angles are *not* like Devil May Cry. DMC used Resident Evil-style fixed angles which would often cause your character to be running the wrong way when the game switches cameras on you. Two Towers uses one camera which follows the action. You can't alter it or move it around, but it focuses on the character. It can be a bit awkward at times since usually you're in the midst of a huge battle (the first level in particular) and the camera stays zoomed in on you at all times making it hard to tell what exactly is going on around you. But for the most part it works really well. When you're actually moving through a level (3 of the 4 levels so far concentrate on one area to fight in rather then running around a huge level) there's only one path to take and the camera remains focused on you, even when you're running *towards* the camera.

In other words....No, nothing like Devil May Cry.

Great game though. One of the best uses of movie footage in a game I've seen, and having the actors record new dialogue for the game is a nice touch.

Larry
www.AssortedRamblings.com

Don't get your hopes up. It is EA you know.... Bad ports is like a given to them, not to mention the mantra "If it is in the game, it is not in our game"

Sounds like this game is incredibly short. It looks like a lot of fun, but purely as a rental for me.

If it had multiplayer, I'd consider it.

I'm with you - the update on the cameras is a good thing (I HATED the DMC cameras), but multiplayer would just add so much. How can any action game these days not offer at least two-player mode? Co-op, versus ... hell, both! These days, 2-player mode seems like the bare miniumum to include. How cool would ganging up with three buddies be?

I don't know ... I'm still undecided on this one.

I saw this game on a demo machine at a local Software Etc. yesterday. I'm convinced that I want this game (it looked great), it's just a question of "do I just buy it or do the Toys R Us deal?".

I picked up this one yesterday. After putting some time into the game, I would have to say for any fan of the series this game would be worth purchasing. As far as the camera thing goes, I have had problems with camera once. The camera genrally follows you, and I have never had it get stuck or anything like that. Overall the game is pretty cool, great sound, good gameplay, and all the bonuses (Interviews, Storyboards, Production stuff) makes the game even more worthwhile to a fan. Even nothing else, this is a definite rent for anyone, just to see how cool it looks when the games switches back and forth between movie footage and the game itself.

I've only played it for an hour so far, and it's really cool. Anyone who loved the movie and likes arcade-style action ala GOLDEN AXE will love this. Even though it may be short (don't know, haven't gotten to the end obviously) I can see it having major replayablity because of the 3 characters and mastering all the moves. I still have to get used to the controls and creating moves, right now I'm just mashing buttons. Those finishing moves rule!

Oh, I don't care personally. I have a PS2 and GC some I'm all set. I just hope the GC and X-box ports are ok for those that want the game but don't have a PS2.

That FOTR game is out for the PS2 now. That might be what the confusion is. Target, Best Buy, EB and Gamestop all had both TTT by EA and the other book-based FOTR for the PS2.