Quick Look: Guardians of Middle-earth

always be quick looking!

And my axe!

The GB crew talking about/comparing Dota to other games while playing said MOBA's is slightly uncomfortable. No, neutrals don't drop items, you can't reinforce your barracks. Though to be fair, Brad doesn't seem to be doing too bad in this.

This is such a disgrace...

One does not simply guard into Mordor.

Man, why'd Monolith have to get stuck with thus? Regardless of its quality, still seems like a waste.

That opening cinematic would be a lot cooler if it didn't have the whole 300 thing every other second.

I always wanted to be Gollum!

Fighters not good for commentary? OH BRAD!

Whoa, was interesting to hear Brad pronounce "Kalevala". Not the easiest finnish word to pronounce.

Stopped watching this because of Brads attitude... "you pooped on the legacy of" or whatever.. that was enough. I am a huge fan of all of Tolkiens works, I love the books and the universe. I think that he movies give GREAT justice to the books! Could not have been made better. So if Brad is going to have that of an attitude towards us who like the movies. I'm out. (Also I am not much younger than these dudes, so I watched the movies as a grown up)

However, this game might be a bit much. I don't know, not going to watch the QL :P.

A bad console DotA-clone: just what I was looking for!

i have to review this game, and shiiiiit it fucking sucks. Can hardly get into games with actual people and when i do, the game is so bland and unbalanced. Also the characters are just plain stupid. Monolith how you have fallen!

@Majkiboy said:

Stopped watching this because of Brads attitude... "you pooped on the legacy of" or whatever.. that was enough. I am a huge fan of all of Tolkiens works, I love the books and the universe. I think that he movies give GREAT justice to the books! Could not have been made better. So if Brad is going to have that of an attitude towards us who like the movies. I'm out. (Also I am not much younger than these dudes, so I watched the movies as a grown up)

However, this game might be a bit much. I don't know, not going to watch the QL :P.

Well if you watched about 5 minutes in, he actually says that he likes the movies.

I think he was more directly referring to the intro scene in this particular game. Treating the major characters in the Trilogy like characters in a fighting game, with glowy special effects and Matrix-style slow-mo just feels... wrong.

@Icemo: "Kalevala" is the easiest to pronounce Finnish word I've ever seen.

Fuck Warner Bros.

Wow this looks appalling.

Man, I get stressed when they play multiplayer games and goof around trying to show things. Show us winning!

LotR is such a snore.

This game looks pretty cool, but without text chat, and with nobody on voice chat, the lack of communication kinda ruins it for me.

Brad needs to get deep into Dota 2.

@Bistromath said:

Brad needs to get deep into Dota 2.

Brad is too weak to endure both the game and the community.

The intro would be dope if this wasn't lord of the rings!

Also, Brad, you need to listen to UltraDavid and James Chen commentate...well, any fighter really!! Fighting games are more intricate than they seem at first blush.

This does not look very good. Seems to just be a case of "my first MOBA" for Brad.

This seems like an okay one of those games, considering the compromises that need to be made for the consoles. Still a shame Monolith aren't working on NOLF 3.

I think Monolith should stick to FPSs, Blood was awesome, NOLF 1 and 2 were awesome, FEAR 1 and 2 were awesome, Condemned was awesome. Man, I'd kill for a new NOLF game or a HD remake or something.

@phrosnite said:

@Bistromath said:

Brad needs to get deep into Dota 2.

Brad is too weak to endure both the game and the community.

Time to let the Shoemaker beard grow all the way out and toughen the fuck up.

Watching Brad playing a moba game. You can just taste the ELOhell^^

Movie Sauron aint silly. If you where surrounded by 3 million soldiers would you got out on the porch and say? "Hai you guys, stop" then sneak out? No you would get the biggest armor and mace you had and fucking wail on everyone! Yup.

I wonder if the community for this game is/will be as antagonistic as every other MOBA community...

Getting real tired of Brad saying Sauron is an idea not a man and that he shouldn't have had a physical body. Sauron was Morgoth's heir and had very similar armor. At the time in Fellowship when he was shown to be wearing that armor he WOULD HAVE BEEN WEARING IT.

Maybe it's too much to expect everyone to have read Silmarillion, Book of Lost Tales, Lays of Beleriand, etc but I just feel like someone had to say something.

And now I feel bad because I'm THAT guy in the room and I never like being that guy.

Sorry.

Edit: Just flipped through the books a bit. Whoops. Sauron was only in Human form in the First Age. If anything in Lord of the Rings he would have been in Necromancer form. He was also able to change into wolf, serpent, or vampire. But yeah, that armor was way back first age stuff.

Additional Edit: From Encylopedia of Arda:

"The War of the Ring started in the year 3018 of the Third Age - it's hard to imagine that after more than two thousand years,Sauron still hadn't formed a new shape for himself. There's another reference among Tolkien's letters that goes even further, to the extent that it effectively settles the discussion:

'Sauron should be thought of as very terrible. The form that he took was that of a man of more than human stature, but not gigantic.' (10)

This is from a letter specifically discussing the events at the end of The Lord of the Rings, so there's really no question that it describes Sauron as Tolkien saw him then. In fact, it seems that the huge armoured Sauron that appears at the beginning of the movie The Fellowship of the Ring probably fits Tolkien's vision rather better than the image of a glowing eye."

http://www.glyphweb.com/arda/faq/sauronshape.html

So, forget the previous whoops. I should have stuck with my guns.

Brought to you by the campaign for Big Armored Sauron 2016.

They should make a Pokemon MOBA. Think about it.

@alibson: Aava? I imagine that's pretty easy? Btw it's the word for "open sea" or "wide" in sense of a view of an empty and large landscape.

@Sword5 said:

They should make a Pokemon MOBA. Think about it.

Or an MMO. Nintendo doesn't want money I guess.

@Sword5 said:

They should make a Pokemon MOBA. Think about it.

Oh man, that would be great!

I wish I can get another Lord of the ring RTS.

or a remake/upgrade of the 1st Battle for Middle Earth. But that will never happen because of stupid licence stuff

MMMMMOBA

@Brad the movies are better than the books, deal with it. :)

This looks surprisingly fun, but the lack of communication could make this game go poorly quick. This is coming from someone who has literally never played a MOBA though. This is the first time I've actually found myself kind of interested in playing though. Having a relatively simple game to introduce people to the basics of the genre seems really cool.

I would of like to see a pc version of this cause fuck why not?

For someone who knows next to nothing about DOTA, MOBAs etc that was a very interesting and informative QL. Thanks.

@HedinnWeis: I know, whenever he says Sauron shouldn't be in an intimidating set of armor I want to yell that the Silmarillion says that he can't take 'a fair form' any longer.

Also, saying he shouldn't be a big guy in heavy armor doesn't jive well with him slaying Elendil and Gil-galad in combat, or it being such a triumph for Isildur to have defeated him with a broken sword.

Dude led an army of bloodthirsty orcs, how do you not expect him to be the most intimidating presence on the battlefield?

For someone who knows next to nothing about DOTA, MOBAs etc that was a very interesting and informative QL. Thanks.

It was funny when brad was stopping to level up. He would do it just as he's team would start something. But oh well looks alright for what it was. Does it have a ping system?

@WiqidBritt: Also considering that Sauron is a Maia, and Balrogs are basically lesser Maiar, Why shouldn't Sauron be able to take a intimidating form!?

Game itself doesn't visually look bad though have to say that the developer should be going back to fps over this (really not showing off their strengths in making good fps games like No One Lives Forever, Condemned or Gotham City Imposters) & with Dota being so big that this feels like it will not get enough of a foothold to keep enough people playing it.

This was very informative. I feel like I understand MOBAs now. I still won't touch one with a ten-foot pole due to the heinously awful communities, but yeah. I see the appeal.

Nah Brad, this game is dumbed down to hell, it's not just simplified. It's not a bad thing of course, but it's like saying Halo wars is simplified version of Starcraft. Everything that makes Dota great is not here, at least i don't see it.

@redelectric: @HedinnWeis: from the LOTR wiki page:

"A few clues are given as to Sauron's appearance as the Dark Lord: Tolkien described Sauron in one of his letters as having the form of a man of more than human stature, but not gigantic, and as an image of malice and hatred made visible. He apparently gave off great heat, so much so that Gil-Galad was burned to death by his mere touch, and Isildur described Sauron's hand as black, yet burning like fire, suggesting that his entire body was blackened from fire and heat."

The Peter Jackson movies have him at about 8 feet tall, more than a human but less than trolls. Sounds about right.

I guess I'm old fashioned but for me if a multiplayer game boils down to a single map I'm out. That just means the mechanics have to compensate with complexity and life is too damn short. I'll admit to being somewhat fascinated with DOTA2 but mostly because of how weird it seems to me. It's one of those things where people will tell you it's awesome but you can't quiiiite see why, so you squint real hard for a long ass time. It's like the gameplay equivalent of a 3D stereogram.

Watch either IFC Yipes and Chris Matrix or Aquasilk and Chris Hu commentate fighting games and all other game commentating becomes redundant.