Sticky: Middle Earth Vault's Rise of the Witch-King Index Print News | Mail News From the darkest side of Middle Earth, I am proud to present the community with the launch of Middle Earth Vault's Official Rise of the Witch-King Index and a brand-spanking new skin. The new Rise of the Witch-King Index will contain every bit of information about EA’s new expansion for BFME2, The Rise of the Witch-King. Ranging from a comprehensive FAQ, screenshots, unit info, concept art, and videos. These sections will be constantly updated once the game is out and fresh data is collected.
But to really kick things off proper, we have published an in-depth review of the Rise of the Witch King taken from EA's recent BFME2: Rise of the Witch-King Community Summit. Go give it a read:
Also, be sure to drop by the Community Databases that allows anyone to submit and manage their own content and contribute to the Middle Earth community. Including all the amazing community made custom maps and mods. Go check it out and contribute!
GameSpot - 73%
PC Zone UK - 80%
Game Informer - 80%
GameSpy - 80%
ActionTrip - 85%
PC IGN - 80%
JIVE Magazine - 80%
PC Games - 83%
GameStar - 72%
PC Powerplay - 85%
Yahoo Games - 80%
Games Radar - 90%
I will have to say so far the game is getting overall favorable reviews, as 80% isn't all that bad. I will say the reviewer at Games Radar might have fluffed his review a bit, but everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
I really feel for the Witch-king. Here's this guy, a great leader among Men and a king in his own right, who gets suckered into accepting a magic ring by Sauron. Sauron, of course, is the original clueless boss from Hell with the strategic acumen of Paris Hilton and the people management skills of the Marquis de Sade. His reward for that one moment of weakness was to spend eternity as an errand-boy running after his master's favorite trinket and ending his existence by getting a sword stuck through his face by a girl. Fortunately for fans of put-upon subordinates, the Witch-king finally gets his moment to shine in The Rise of the Witch-king, an excellent expansion pack for The Battle for Middle-earth II.
ActionTrip Reviews BFME2:ROTWK Print News | Mail News | Category: BFME2 Exp. - B4ME2 ActionTrip has posted their favorable review of EA's Battle for Middle Earth 2 Rise of the Witch-King. The review is yet again another perspective on the game and adds some concerns and overall outlooks of the game.
Whenever I sit down to play an expansion pack, I take a deep breath in the hope that I'm not going to encounter yet another measly franchise-milking title devoid of any notable improvements. We all know of EA's reputation when it comes to the whole milking business, and to top that off, expansions rarely bring anything new to the table, so you could say I was pretty worried.
Here comes the kicker though.
Much to my amazement, my doubts were all but cast away after a while of playing The Battle for Middle Earth II - The Rise of the Witch-King.
Is The ROTWK Expansion Worth It?
Yes - 796
No - 145
No Comment - 137
Total Votes: 1078
The results match what the average scores are saying from online gaming sites. With just about 80% saying it was worth it, I would agree. Still has bugs which EA has promised to patch, I guess time will tell.
Battle For Middle Earth Anniversary Print News | Mail News | Category: B4ME - MEV Just 2 short years ago on December 6th 2004, EA released The Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth, the first of the BFME series. Looking back the game was plagued with promises not kept and false info given to the community that ultimately turned into a surprisingly great RTS game. The title BFME is currently running on what is known as its final patch 1.03 that balanced the living day lights out of the game. Massive amounts of Mods and Maps have been created to follow this game and its semi legacy still lives on. So on this day lets say happy birthday/ happy anniversary to EA's Battle for Middle Earth.
BFME2 Mod - Battletest2 Director's Cut v1 Print News | Mail News | Category: B4ME2 - Community MaDDoX of GameReplays has released Battletest2 Director's Cut v1. This new mod vastly improves the gameplay of 1.06, fixing nearly all the bugs, many balance issues, balancing out Create a Heroes, and adding the two new maps that EA never gave you: Tolfalas and Dark Island. It even includes a new Conquest Mode developed by MaDDoX. To read about this new Conquest Mode click here. To download the new Mod click here.
Simply, if you own Battle for Middle Earth II, there's no reason not to go out and buy the expansion. Deciding to buy expansion packs usually comes down to whether or not the new game has enough content in it to warrant the $30 price tag, and I don't think you have to worry about that here.
BFME - BFME2 & ROTWK -Maps Mods & Art! Print News | Mail News | Category: BFME2 Exp. - B4ME2 - B4ME Our community members have overdone themselves this week by submitting tons, of maps, mods and art pieces for all of our games. The most prominent submissions are the mods, and I have to say they offer some great additions to the titles we love.
ROTWK Metacritic Scores Print News | Mail News | Category: BFME2 Exp. - Community - MEV So far only 6 sites or magazines have shown reviews for EA's BFME2 Rise of the Witch-King on Metacritic's site. The overall score thus far is at 81 out of 100 which isn't a bad score, and places the game at slot 362 out of 1501. That score so far ranks the new expansion over other RTS titles like Warhammer: Mark of Chaos "which scored a 74" and Star Wars: Empire at War "which scored a 76" and FPS games such as F.E.A.R. Extraction Point "which scored a 77" and Battlefield 2142 "which scored a 80". Now we are still waiting on about 15 other sites and magazines to report in so this score can drop or rise, but as of now the game seems to rank on par with Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs. Makew sure to review all the rankings & scores BFME2: Rise of the Witch-King gets here at MEV.
MEV Longest Title Contest Winners Print News | Mail News | Category: BFME2 Exp. - MEV - Community Over the last month we have been hosting a contest for MEV’s members within our forums. If you missed the contest, don’t worry! As we have a few more that will be rolling out sooner than later. But the idea of this contest was to come up with a variant of the new expansion title that ends with The Rise of The Witch-King. We had a ton of entries for this contest and I will have to say it was a hard task picking the 2 winners but none the less here they are.
Clogdog
"Electronic Arts Presents The Eagerly Anticipated Expansion To The Lord Of The Rings: The Battle For Middle Earth II Featuring The All-New Retroactively Interjected Evil Faction Conspiring In The Annihilation Of The Forces of Good, Heralding An Era Of Untold Chaos Preceding The 3rd Age Ominously Referred To As...The Rise of the Witch King"
Azrapse
For this one I wont be posting text, But I will post the new ROTWK Cover Art. Click here to read the full entry.
Congratulations to both winners of this contest and thank you to everyone who entered. For a list of a few other entries click here.
From a gameplay perspective, Angmar has some interesting ideas. Two of the unit types in particular can cause serious problems when used correctly. The problem is that there's a lot of micromanagement involved in using them right. The Thrall Masters are my favorite of the two. These lone units have the power to call in one of four battalions of units at any moment. Once the units are called, there's no changing the decision, but being able to lure cavalry into a group and then calling in spearmen or coming across archers and calling in some wolf riders can throw a wrench into enemy plans. The Sorcerers are even trickier. These magic casters have some useful spells, but their mana comes from the acolytes surrounding them. Once the acolytes are gone, so is the mana. The problem is these acolytes die so easily and the range on most sorcerer spells is so short that it's freaking hard to get a spell off fast and accurately enough before too many acolytes (or the sorcerer himself) have been killed. On top of that, the sorcerers can specialize in one of three areas which opens up one more very useful spell. You can tell the different specializations apart by the staff they're carrying, but try that in the thick of battle
I honestly feel the short comings that Mr. Adams has pointed out are pretty lame in general which contributed to the overall 80%. To read PC IGN's full review head on over here and to read all the reviews on ROTWK thus far click here.
Clanwars Rise of the Witch-King League Print News | Mail News | Category: BFME2 Exp. - Community Clanwars.cc is proud to present their new Rise of the Witch-King league, in partnership with Electronic Arts and Gamespy. The league functions in very much the same way as the Battle For Middle-Earth II league. If you need help getting started at Clanwars, they have a guide on their Rise of the Witch-King portal at loacated here.
If you're a fan of skirmish or online games, you'll appreciate the new custom hero system. Instead of every custom hero having a single cost regardless of what spells and skills you've given them, there's a new variable cost. Before a game starts, you can go into the Create-A-Hero section to make your own heroes. As you give them skills, you can see their cost increase. There's a lot of flexibility in this system, and the interface is much easier to use now that you can leave blank spaces in a hero's skills. You used to have to fill all ten spots, one for each of the ten levels a hero can earn. Leaving empty spots, and choosing skills based on cost, will let you create heroes who are tailor-made for early-game rushing, for combat, for spell-casting, or for late-game magical support. Custom heroes are truly custom.
So far EA looks to have a winner on its hands, let see what the other top Gaming site have to say in the coming weeks. To read Yahoo games full review click here.
Gameradar BFME2: Rise of the Witch-King Review Print News | Mail News | Category: BFME2 Exp. Games Radar has struck the web with one of the first reviews for EA's BFME2: Rise of the Witch-King. Games Radar gave the new expansion a 9 out of 10 and went on to declare the game one step ahead of Company of Heroes.
A few months ago, Company of Heroes was a lock for RTS of the year. With Rise of the Witch-king, we're on the verge of flip-flopping. Seriously.
I am not to sure i can say those same words from my point of view. But I will agree with the score given to the game. Read the full review here.
ROTWK Vs. The Consumer Poll Print News | Mail News | Category: BFME2 Exp. - Community This week’s poll is to find out if you think EA's new Expansion is going to be worth the $29.95 cost "Is The ROTWK Expansion Worth It?" Make sure to vote on the right under the tall ad. As for last week, the results are:
What Faction Will Rule Middle Earth?
Men of the West - 260
Elves - 163
Dwarves - 62
Isengard - 50
Mordor - 99
Goblins - 25
Angmar - 286
Total Votes: 945
Wow, I have to say my predictions were correct. I almost thought Men of the West were going to win. I am almost willing to be most of the Angmar votes came from players who liked Dwarves or MOTW before. Over all I am glad to see Angmar is a popular faction now.
Middle Earth Monday 11-27-2006 Print News | Mail News | Category: BFME2 Exp. - Community EA has published what we think will be the last Middle Earth Monday for the BFME series "tear", unless of course EA decides to make BFME3??? But I have to say the last M.E.M. is cram packed full of content. With 3 new Wallpapers, 1 Exclusive HIGH-RES Inside the Battle II: Create-A-Hero video, 5 New Exclusive Create-A-Hero screenshots, and 2 pieces of secret news.
Top Secret News! * Everyone who purchases The Rise of the Witch-king starting this Thursday will receive an exclusive link to a secret website containing an exclusive trailer for Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars. You cannot see this trailer anywhere else but this top secret site! Any RTS and BFME fan will not want to miss out on this.
* Tomorrow, we will unleash a brand new trailer for The Rise of the Witch-king. This heart pounding trailer will undoubtedly psyche you up for the release of the game this Thursday. If you want the highest resolution version of the trailer, then be sure to come back to our official site here tomorrow morning.
I am not too sure what is compelling about a CnC video in BFME game, but I guess something secret is better than nothing secret. To read the full Middle Earth Monday click on this link, and to get the newest Rise of the Witch-king wallpapers click below.
Battle for Middle Earth 2 Rise of the Witch-King Ships! Print News | Mail News | Category: BFME2 Exp. - MEV - Community Today is the day most of us have been waiting for. Trucks are driving and planes are flying around the world carrying EA's precious Battle for Middle Earth 2 Rise of the Witch-King. Some lucky users will be able to buy and play the expansion today while others will be waiting for their copy over the next few weeks. But to point out once again the game should be on shelves on the 30th.
