Battle for Middle-earth II demo to premiere on GameSpot

  • By Staff, GameSpot
  • Posted Feb 7, 2006 3:26 pm PT

Single-player demo of real-time strategy games based on Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films and J.R.R. Tolkien's novels arrives Thursday.

With Electronic Arts' The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth II PC game set to hit shelves at the end of the month, GameSpot is getting ready to offer gamers an early peek at the game in the form of a single-player demo. Would-be ringwraiths can head over to the premiere page and watch a timer count down to the demo's release, or just make a note to come back when it goes live at 9 a.m. PST on Thursday.

The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth II is the sequel to the 2004 real-time strategy game that used assets from Peter Jackson's award-winning motion pictures based on the fiction of novelist J.R.R. Tolkien. The sequel will leverage Tolkien's expanded written lore along with the movie rights to include new battles and characters not featured in the films.

The 1.3GB demo allows gamers to choose from two of the three new factions in Battle for Middle-earth II (goblins and dwarves), and get used to them on a pair of maps covering a tutorial and single-player skirmish mode. For more on the game, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.

40 Comments

  • step2ice

    Posted Feb 17, 2007 6:46 pm PT

    The pixelated shadow problem is because the dynamic shadows are broken.
    When you switch to medium shadows you only have real looking shadows on buildings all other shadows (units, surroundings like trees) are just blobs.

  • ssj4_son-goku

    Posted Feb 12, 2006 5:58 am PT

    If anyone has problems with pixelated shadows (while having the gfx at high *no ultra high on this one*) get the shadow detail at medium and this fixes the crappy supper pixelated shadows. Maybe the bug is that they put the wrong settings for medium as it should be high and vise versa.

  • ssj4_son-goku

    Posted Feb 11, 2006 9:05 am PT

    The game shadows are kinda pixelated. Bug maybe? SAURON ROCKS! The Balrog still rules the game though and that new petty dragon they added as a power next to the Balrog isnt that good. No special attacks and the Dwarves even killed it before the timer expired.

  • Swethrandir

    Posted Feb 9, 2006 7:43 am PT

    Wheres the counter!?!

  • minu_lord

    Posted Feb 9, 2006 5:11 am PT

    We've come to it at last, the great battle of our time. The Battle for Middle-earth is over, the Battle for Middle-earth II is about to begin. THE ONE GAME TO RULE THEM ALL. The battle begins in 3h 49m .

  • SWEToryu

    Posted Feb 9, 2006 3:58 am PT

    Only 5 hours left... Then yeaahhhaaa... A big demo i must say! :-)
    Can't wait any longer, i have to have it right now!.... :-)

  • AskNoone

    Posted Feb 8, 2006 1:49 pm PT

    The engine is huge, but they'll lock up most of the content. The 1.2GB EAW demo could be hacked to unleash OVER 50 UNITS! They've got a lot of content, but don't expect to be able to use it. But don't worry about the servers being slow... I'm sure it'll be out on bittorrent within a coupla hours.

  • jonnyjd

    Posted Feb 8, 2006 10:30 am PT

    Big demo but looking good.

  • ufopuller

    Posted Feb 8, 2006 7:58 am PT

    That be one BIG demo -yikees

  • grasmussen

    Posted Feb 8, 2006 7:04 am PT

    If it doesn't have a high-res model of Liv Tyler in it, I'm not downloading 1.3 gigs.

  • chrisdojo

    Posted Feb 8, 2006 5:37 am PT

    1.3 gig? for an rts demo?

  • minu_lord

    Posted Feb 8, 2006 5:05 am PT

    1.3GB of demo, probably they put half the game in there. It's better this way because we'll get a good idea about the game. I hope it will be better than the first one.

  • jakeboudville

    Posted Feb 8, 2006 4:59 am PT

    Yay!

  • ewjim

    Posted Feb 8, 2006 4:05 am PT

    The 1.3GB demo...??! What are they put in there? Back in time was games much less then 1.3GB... That was good time... *sight*

  • DelphiDevil

    Posted Feb 8, 2006 2:24 am PT

    WTF 1.3 Gb !!!!!

    what kinda connection do you guys think i have

  • hittin

    Posted Feb 7, 2006 11:24 pm PT

    Cool!

  • s0l0123

    Posted Feb 7, 2006 10:39 pm PT

    That's not big for a demo really, because Dungeon Siege 2 demo was about 1.5 gig.

  • NERDSFOREVER

    Posted Feb 7, 2006 7:29 pm PT

    Great now if only the servers werent that slow

  • Jedi_Osborn

    Posted Feb 7, 2006 7:06 pm PT

    cripes that's huge! Hope it'll run on my machine.

  • pie4u

    Posted Feb 7, 2006 6:05 pm PT

    thats a big demo

  • vaejas

    Posted Feb 7, 2006 6:03 pm PT

    The torrent should launch today so that it can be finished by Thursday. TT_TT Oh, and what copy protection du jour does this FREE demo have?

  • j14rk1n

    Posted Feb 7, 2006 6:00 pm PT

    I won't expect much from this- judging by the first game. And 1.3 gigs? That's just rediculous.

  • Orasion_Seiz

    Posted Feb 7, 2006 5:56 pm PT

    man 1.3GB is big

  • i_love_my_ds

    Posted Feb 7, 2006 5:37 pm PT

    woohooo! this game's gonna rock! if the demo's that huge then how big will the full game be?

  • DrCFLY

    Posted Feb 7, 2006 5:03 pm PT

    nope unlived no complete for me

  • PSdual_wielder

    Posted Feb 7, 2006 4:59 pm PT

    this is a demo worth checking out, finally, the timeshift demo was a piece of crap

  • ffe_neo

    Posted Feb 7, 2006 4:45 pm PT

    Hopefully this demo doesn't suffer from the same problems the fileplanet beta had with the stupid online authentications system (see: Safecast) Otherwise I can gurantee the messageboard is going to be flooded with "I can't play because of safecast" threads.

  • UnlivedPhalanx

    Posted Feb 7, 2006 4:39 pm PT

    DrCFLY,

    Apparently you haven't experienced the 500-3000 KB/sec glory of Blazin Fast for GSC members.

  • Spartan4001

    Posted Feb 7, 2006 4:36 pm PT

    Hopefully this will be better than EAW

  • dave1590

    Posted Feb 7, 2006 4:25 pm PT

    The bigger the better if you ask me. Means theres more content, and probally not a poor demo with only one mission, where you dont get a real good idea of the game. ill be waiting for this one on thursday

  • Khimarhi

    Posted Feb 7, 2006 4:13 pm PT

    nice can't wait to try it

  • Aushan

    Posted Feb 7, 2006 4:06 pm PT

    holy, that's huge!

  • NeoJedi

    Posted Feb 7, 2006 4:01 pm PT

    That is one big demo... 1.3Gb!!

  • 777rak

    Posted Feb 7, 2006 3:54 pm PT

    Now that war will between BFME II VS EAW

  • DrCFLY

    Posted Feb 7, 2006 3:43 pm PT

    if only gamespot servers werent so slow

  • sgtsaville

    Posted Feb 7, 2006 3:38 pm PT

    Hope this one is a little better than the last.

  • MaChaorules

    Posted Feb 7, 2006 3:33 pm PT

    woah 1.3 gigs? thats alot for a demo

  • Donkeljohn Site moderator

    Posted Feb 7, 2006 3:32 pm PT

    Sounds exciting. For the latest downloads, Gamespot.com is your source!

  • Wolfcp11

    Posted Feb 7, 2006 3:31 pm PT

    [This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]

  • Wolfcp11

    Posted Feb 7, 2006 3:28 pm PT

    Yay, Dwarves

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