Lord of the rings Conquest preview

(This is 2 forum posts i made that im pasting here)
I heard about the game, read about it and was pretty excited, then i saw that the demo became available for ps3 users. but i hadnt managed to get on the internet with my ps3, so i went ahead and bought a 100 ft long cat5 wire and downloaded the demo of LOTR:conquest

Then i played through the tutorial the ndid some online games and Wow, i had a blast.

But let me tell you guys about the game and what it is, its vastly similar to Battlefield but with a LOTR sauce.

You choose one of the 4 class warrior, ranger, scout or mage. Each class has its own unique feel and range of abilities.

Warrior fight with a 2hand sword, they have 3 kind of move light medium and heavy. then a modifier they can add to their wepaon by holding a key and performing one of the 3 attacks, then theres combos. they also have active blocking and lastly the yhave a throwing axe they can use to finnish off someone running away from them or whatever. the axe cannot be throw that often. Warrior have an energy bar, they get energy when they hit enemies so that they can use that modifier that makes their sword fiery their special aiblities also recquire energy. They have one that goes through blocking (its a heavy hit tho so long precast/aftercast)

Rangers fire arrows, when they hit with arrow they get energy that charges one of the 3 abilities, Multi arrow (3 arrows at once) and/or the 2 preparations poison (snare) or fire (KD). basically you fire hit one of your preparation and you bow becomes green or orange, then you fire an arrow and it does the desired effect. ranger dont have much defense except an ability to kick enemy from melee range which moves them away and gives you some breathing room.

Scout are like assassins, they have a cloak that makes them as invis as the ut2k3/2k4 invis adren combo did. and when they manage to sneak up behind someone they can 1 hit kill them(dont worry its gay but its not That easy to pull off) then they ahve 3 attacks like the warriors, but they arent as effective for aoe and then they have a satchel bag they can throw. as for the other class they need to fight to get their energy for the stealthing, satchel and whatever else they got (i havent played that class much)

lastly Mage, Mage fire lightning at enemies, they can charge it to more dmg or simply fire single bolts. thats what gives the mtheir energy to use their aoe heal (Similar to the aoc big heals from priests) their energy is also useful for their fireball attack which fires a fireball that explode and does aoe dmg or their Repulse like thing thats a aoe KD (awesome againsts scouts) they also get a blocking shield when they hold the active blcoking key, basically they are in a bubble that protects everyone in it from all ranged dmg, the bad thing about that is that you cannot run, only walk, and youre not invulnerable to KD.

Thats it for the classes, now what you do with them is exactly like weve seen in battlefield, theres capture points on the map and you stand near them to capture them, and it gives your team point, once you get max point you win, the simple but so effective recipe for good times. i also saw that there was other things in maps but i havent really got a chance to experience with them, but it seems like you can control trolls and or the tree guys or ride mounts and fight from them. i was playing a orc mage once and was assiting a troll on my team from a distance and i saw a good guy warrior climb the bakc of the troll and starting hitting it hard but i managed to kill him fast enough

The game is just awesome, its the kind of feel Aoc shouldve given me but failed miserably. theres alot of action, alot of teamwork, its accessible but has the ability to be more complex. and its seems decently balanced as far as classes go cause each one has a little something to give to their team.

I also like how it fixes problems with for example, battlefield games. for example you cant fire from a really far range wit hyour arrows or your lightning bolts. so the gay sniper hiding in a mountain and thats impossible to find from bf vietnam doesnt exist. then theres not that many headshots, except the scout thing. but like i said the scout will have trouble to do it to any moderately aware person. theres also teh trolls and trees that hit pretty hard but mage arent meant to tank giant trees. on theo ther hand warrior can stand closer and survive if they are not alone. all it takes really is a bit of focus fire. lastly what i noticed is that since its all close ot medium range combat, sure you need t oaim and target your stuff, but not That much and it doesnt take much practice to be able to be accurate with a ranger or a mage.

I dont know how the gameplay will translate on a mouse and keyboard but its definitely great for consoles (its also playable in 4way splitscreen i believe, if not only 2). i hope they release a demo for pc so i can test it. but so far im certain to buy it for ps3

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i just spent some time reading on the lotrc forums to hear the feedback other players gave to the game.

there was alot of negative stuff that people found about the game and so i decided to refutate some of it here because i thought the game was awesome

first people are saying the mp maps are too small and too cramped. well you can only play it 8v8 so it makes alot of sense that you dont have HUUUUUUUUUGE maps. the maps are 8v8 size and they have certain areas you can walk on and certain paths you can take instead of being a really open world. thats good cause it creates choke points and area you want to control to win. it creates large struggles to control a zone instead of having bunch of people chase each other in circles to cap points.

theres also complaints about the classes imbalance, well i heard people complaining about each class so i guess they all have their things and are balanced in that way. but more seriously, i liked how everyclass had their thing and had to work with other classes to win games while not being helpless in certain situations. For example the warrior class isnt that good against a bunch of ranged classes, so sometimes youll see a mage with his bubble walk with a warrior until he gets a better position to start attacking enemies. but thats a rather sucky tactic if you ask me cause you dont have that kind of time and warriors have better options like their throwing axe they can throw an axe at the enemy and if it hits, the enemy is knocked down, not only is that good defensively to help a teammate but its pretty darn good to get in striking position with the enemy. and then wit htheir energy move, warriors have that Falcon kick type thing which is just like Falcon kick, while it doesnt charge you forward that far, its can be enough.

Rangers with their snare and KD are good at keeping their enemies at a distance, but when they are within melee range its hard to fight, thankfully they have their kick to KD enemies away.

Mages, people are complaining about magic in the game and all. but the game is not really a lotr simulation, its a fun mp game. and mage fits really well in there. their lightning bolts needs to be charged to be really strong, their fireball have to be aimed in an arch so its hard to aim (but it creates an aoe fire circle for a few seconds that can shut down a path a little) their melee attack is good because its done with a pole and the pole has a wide hit radius similar to guardians in AoC. but the pole does very little damage. the shockwave isnt too OP either to get rid of meleers because theres a like a 1/2 second precast on it so you have to use like a protective prayer in GW and not just a Panic button.

Scout can cloak but you can always see their silouhette, i find em kinda weak compared to the others but since they can one shot well whoever wants to play em may go ahead, it just doesnt seem particularly useful to me. oh and they have their satchel bomb as some kind of ranged attack as well as left or right roll to evade stuff.

oh and i forgot warriors active blocking is kinda hard to use online but it might just be me who is bad. ive used it effectively offline tho to tank big mobs. once you go in active blocking mode you can move the directions to dodge forward backward left or right. so all defensive moves are combined unlike AoC.

people are also complaining about how you get knocked off mounts too easely. it takes only 1 hit or 1 arrow to be knocked off your mount. i find that great because it doenst give a ridiculously big advantage to the people on mounts. besides when youre on a mount you can kd with your sword almost anyone that comes inyour range. its really effective to disperse a big mob just like what they intended to do with mounted combat in aoc but we all know that mounted combat in aoc sucked ass.it sucks tho that theres no mounted archery, it woudlve been cool but it doesnt really matter because aiming while riding a horse is almost impossible.

Hero playable characters can be obtained in mp games to give your team some kind of boosts. top scorer on the team gets asked if he wants to control a hero and he then has the control of a hero character that has alot more health than normal and hits really hard and based on the nature of how you get that character, its being played by the toughest guy on the other team. i found that a little op but pretty cool nonetheless. the heros are still killable.

i found troll and ents you can control pretty gay too because they 1 hit kill pretty much everything they manage to hit (Except warriors, they take 2 hit) they are not all that easy to control but they still take quite a bit of effort from the other team to take them down. the biggest problem i have with them is that they have a heal over time abilit yto heal themselves while the ystand still and use that. sure its a slow heal, but i dont think they should get it. Another thing worth noting is that the ents get on fire if you use the fireball or the fire arrows against them so they die faster than the trolls. but oyu know, trolls and ents arent all that OP if you have good scouts cause they can 1 hit kill them if they managed to sneak up and climb behind them and chop their head or whatever. (looks pretty cool too)

another thing that was kinda stupid but is really minor is that you die if you go in water. as if you fell off a ledge. and theres a river on a map with a small bridge. like i said tho when speaking about map size thats fine that you cant go in water but id opt for the invisble wall instead of you die when you touch water. thats a minor thing tho and i have yet to get knocked down or anything in water.

i dont think i saw any other reasonable complaint about the gameplay while reading through the feedback thread. then some people are sayign the graphics sucks and all, and for that game i really could care less mostly because id rather have those huge battles with 150ish npc on the map in sp mode instead of a really lagged battle. also not opting for for the best graphics psosible allows for split screen coop play, and if you have a look at the graphics really it looks mighty fine.

The only thing im hoping is that theres more skins per class in the retail game. i know it wil lchange depending on the maps. but id like to be able to have a choice of appearance for my class. as it is right now your class gets assigned a skin depending on the map so tehres like 3 good ranger skin, but you can only be the hobbit ones when youre on the Shire map. but then again this is only visual and doesnt impair gameplay.

to conclude, im really excited about the game because of that feeling it gives me when i play it. a feeling that ive been looking for for a loooong time.

torture in WoW

I just read about many WoW players being outraged by a torture quest in WoW on this site: http://www.jeuxvideo.com/news/2008/00030670-des-scenes-de-torture-dans-world-of-warcraft.htm (sorry for you non french speakers, the link is in french)



Basically the quest consist of using an item on a defenseless prisoner to get him to speak, the prisoner then spam the chat with complaints and eventually gives you the information you needed to get from him.



So now many many people are deeply shocked by this and probably want something done? remove or modify the quest? change the rating on WoW? I dont know, but i do think that being upset by that quest is just counterproductive.

ultimate low for selfishness

I heard in the news several months ago that there was a bomb alert in India during a big religious gathering. The panicked crowd of several thousands pious indians rushed the exits in an attempt to save their lives. In the end there was no bomb, but several people died after being trampled by the mass of people trying to get out of the area.

Now while that event is really sad because several people died while there was no real bomb threat, we can still understand the panic wave that struck the crowd as they thought their lives were in danger. It became a huge free-for-all and everybody tried their best to save their own lives.

last week during the "Black friday" in the united states, a wal-mart employee died after being trampled on by the crowd of people waiting in line to take advantages of the great savings. As the guy opened the doors at 5 am, everybody rushed in and he was caught under the steps of all the shoppers, several other employees tried to rescue him but they were trampled too, other people were taken to the hospital for minor injuries. When they announced they were gonna close to the store because someone died, people complained that they had been waiting in line sine thursday and kept shopping.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081129/ap_on_re_us/wal_mart_death_13

That is just retarded how crazy people to get to save money and buy many things that they dont really need to survive. Someone died and nobody cared about it and just kept on shopping and were mad that they would close down the stores. how can they be so careless? I'd like to think that a human life is worth more than a 798$ plasma TV.

This is not w/o mentionning other similar events that happened in the united states over the last year. like that old lady that passed out on the floor in a hospital waiting room and nobody went to check to see if she was and she was pronounced dead like 6 hours after she had been "sleeping" there.

Or what about the guy that got hit by a car and the car just left w/o stopping, then the bloodied bod yremained on the street for 30 minutes while cars were dodging it and pedestrians looked at the guy w/o stopping. It went on until a police car happened to be driving in the area and came upon the body and stopped. becuase they didnt get called there, they just happened to drive on that boulevard.

I dont know how many other events like this there are, but this is too much