Warner Brothers and Monolith Announce Guardians of Middle-Earth

for some reason when i thought monolith for a split moment they were making a new shogo. Great game for its time, want a sequel, but pretty damn strange coming to mind since its a friggin lord of the rings game instead

@Fragonard said:

Monolith is owned by WB Games. Guess what happens when you are owned by WB, you make games based on the properties they own.

Oh no. Rocksteady's new game IS just going to be a DC IP!

I'm not happy about this being what Monolith has been working on.

@Boss_Kowbel said:

I'm a big Lord of the Rings nerd, but I'm curious to see whether this will follow the 2D back-and-forth combat of Awesomenauts or 3D-laned fighting of League of Legends. The trailer still looks awesome though.

It'd probably be more like League of Legends.

I think it'd be cooler if it was kind of like Super Monday Night Combat, though.

@Ben_H said:

@AltonBrown said:

Hanna-Barbera DOTA needs to happen.

I would actually play that.

Hell yeah! I could make it in my garage and it would have the same production values as the actual cartoons did!

Gollum works for Sauron all of a sudden?

You shall not pass metacritic!

Boooooooo

Hanna-Barbera DOTA needs to happen.

@jakob187: Unfortunately Monolith are owned by WB, so it ain't up to them what they make any more.

Is that Arwen in sexy impractical armor?

What is this I don't even...

It's a pointless endeavor, and I would rather see Monolith using resources to produce something that fans ACTUALLY want, like a new Condemned or even another No One Lives Forever.

Damnit, there's nothing about this that I like. Monolith should stick to making strange and somewhat abstract first person shooters.

Damnit, there's nothing about this that I like. Monolith should stick to making strange and somewhat abstract first person shooters.
 
In this economical climate Monolith might not be able to survive after this game inevitably fails, and that's what's really scary/sad/disappointing about this announcement. WB Games, you know you already fucked up, right?
 
@AltonBrown said:

Hanna-Barbera DOTA needs to happen.

@brownsfantb: yah the community is really harsh. I think its mostly because the way to win the game is to pick on the weakest link on the other team, so its not very noob friendly. (plus in LoL higher level players actually have a lot more perks which I think makes it a bit unbalanced for a noobie). So it will be interesting to see if this LOTR game can fix some of these issue an make more accessible to new players.

My advice to anyone trying to get into Dota/LoL would be to choose a tanky melee hero with lots of regen or a range support hero and play super conservatively (don't rush enemy towers or enemy heroes if not 100% sure you get a kill or assist one). As long as you are not dying a lot your team mate should be ok with you, its when you start "feeding" that the internet rage stuff comes out.

I'll check this gameout for sure, but its not gonna be better that Dota/Dota 2 (nothing in the genre is ).

Monolith is owned by WB Games. Guess what happens when you are owned by WB, you make games based on the properties they own.

Looks awful! I'll pass.

Why can't anyone make a LOTR game true to the source. They always end up "gaming" up the franchise, a true shame.

Ah, yes... This appears to be a really bad idea.

@SamDrugbringer said:

This [is] silly.

DOTA is the new FPS.

hmmm I'm willing to wait before judgements on this one. though 360 and ps3? makes me curious on how DotA it could be.

@MindOST said:

Dota 2 - 108 playable characters.

League of Legends - 99 playable characters and climbing.

Good luck finding nearly that many LotR characters, Monolith!

If they're limited to the actual movie license, that may seem a little hinky.

If they can draw from the actual literature as well? Not. A. Problem.

This announcement makes no sense. There is nothing I can think of that this game brings to the table for innovation in the MOBA genre. Moreover, one of the reasons that MOBA games are what they are is because they exist in fantasy worlds that are not established, so you can have crazy things like a little Yordle boy scout that shoots poison darts. Tying a MOBA to a license that has this level of rigged aesthetic and predefined mindset does nothing.

It will be stale upon release and dead in the water soon after. It's a pointless endeavor, and I would rather see Monolith using resources to produce something that fans ACTUALLY want, like a new Condemned or even another No One Lives Forever.

Dota 2 - 108 playable characters.

League of Legends - 99 playable characters and climbing.

Good luck finding nearly that many LotR characters, Monolith!

@Donkeycow said:

Why can't anyone make a LOTR game true to the source. They always end up "gaming" up the franchise, a true shame.

"Why do all at these games have be so much like games?"

Why do the good guys always wins.

Cool cgi trailer, too bad I am tired of the dota games.

@R3DT1D3 said:

Because there's not enough fantasy DOTA games on the market...

Well at least we've gone from Blizzard style cartoony Lord of the Rings to actual Lord of the Rings. At least were getting somewhere even if that's at a pace that a snail can outpace.

I don't really care about Moba or LOTR and I feel like giving game like this to nay developer is very unlikely to turn out either well and/or different enigh to justify using Monolith. Maybe Monolith wanted the project, it's impossible to know, but clearly Monolith hasn't been making any games that any other dev couldnt have made. C'mon where's my Condemned 3?

There has not been a good lotr game in a while, so this is cool with me.

Hanna-Barbera DOTA needs to happen.

Poor Monolith, with so few great horror games it's a shame they are working on a game that is the same to three other titles coming out soon.

@Jimbo said:

All that's missing is a sexy nun costume for Gollum.

Man I really hope gimmick costumes are not in this game. I get that the companies have to make money but man the silly costumes really break me out of the game.

Why can't anyone make a LOTR game true to the source. They always end up "gaming" up the franchise, a true shame.

Maybe this will be a good place for DOTA noobs to start off without getting berated by the people that play these kinds of games all the time. I've always been too scared of the community to try and play LoL or one of the other ones.

@Animasta said:

one does not merely creep into mordor

good one. Yeah fiction wise I have my problems of pitting gollum against a wizard and such, but heyho

This is why CGI trailers are a god damn snoozefest. Had no idea this game was even DOTA-inspired. Trailer told me nothing about the game except "hey dudes we paid for the Lord of the Rings license"

@Wes899 said:

@ztiworoh said:

I just don't get DOTA/MOBA games - why remake the exact same game just with a different skin over and over?

HoN/DOTA2/LoL aren't even close to the same game.

Uh, DOTA2 and HON are -very- much the same game, but yes LoL is much different than those two.

@MildMolasses said:

What a great use of monolith's talents

Zing!

F.E.A.R.! Condemned! No! No! No! Goddamn it! No!

Because there's not enough fantasy DOTA games on the market...

All that's missing is a sexy nun costume for Gollum.

This is what monolith is doing?!?!? Where the fuck is my condemned 3?!

Since when does Gimli have a magical glowing hammer?

Also i'm so goddamn tired of LoTR getting prostituted to every genre possible.

To think that when I was a little kid there were times I dreamed with starry eyes that they would make LoTR games, oh sweet innocence.

I wanna main Smeagol cause I can do his voice pretty well.

Wasted talent.

LoTR GoME DOTA. Sad part: it will sell.

My first thought was: Who is that blond woman?! ----Oh thats Legolas.

And I noticed Gimli has Thor's Hammer somehow!

great so what the hell is it? other then LOTR

I sort of like the idea, but I don't want to have Russians talking shit about my Gandalf.