Put me down for one! I love me some LOTR and some battlefront. This can only be amazing... I hope.

Hmm... seems like a more-than-epic Mount&Blade to me. I'll be keeping an eye on this one.

Spawn - walk to the actual battle - get eaten...

Awesome :D

Looks interesting though a little over-the-top. Tolkien must be turning in his grave.

Why use the Battlefront engine? is crap. The maps are soo small, you can't fly.

Get the "Battlefield 2" engine, it support up to 64 players, per map, and the maps could be big enough for flyiing stuff.

Using the Battlefront engine is ridiculous to me, is a substandard engine.

Also, 8 players? WTF?!

I hope they would not use the buggy Battlefield 2 engine. Not only is it buggy but there is a ton of hacks and exploits for it.

BF2 is why I stopped supporting EA.

Speaking of terrible secrets, Pandemic might also want to announce "The Dark Knight" videogame that they also happen to be working on.

Hope the AI of these 150 soldiers is not as brain dead as the one from 99 Nights and games like it. *Crosses fingers*

*Sigh* I was really hoping for a next-gen Star Wars Battlefront game. Last gen that was definitely my most fun online experience. While the LOTR universe is undoubtedly cool, I'm afraid that the combat may not suit this type of game. On the other hand, it might be the next Diablo. Who knows, but I'm excited to hear more.

@Tei: well not only does it not say in the article that they are using it, have you ever heard of upgrading an engine? Call of duty 4 is built on quake 3 architecture, doesnt look a bit like it.

For anyone who wants a pretty nice LotR "big battle" feel in the meantime, check out Viking Battle for Asgard :)

I just hope there are rocket launchers and jetpacks.

Is this online? Seems like a dumb question but i've set to see anything about online with that many players.

@Tei: @NullsRevenge:

lol at you two contradicting each other completely.

Oh no.. Talk about scraping bottom of the barrel for a fan base.. Could Battlefront and LotR be any more different? How the do these two franchises get mentioned in the same sentence? Spiritual successor my backside, EA's hype/bs machine at work already.

Actually Im kinda curious to see how this will work out.

@Cartman86: <_< Um... I hate to call you out here, but yeah... it's a dumb question, since the info is right there in the post. No biggie, though. XD

It says that it'll support 8 players online and 4 player co-op.

Sold, where do I pre-order.

This looks cool, but I agree with above that it's going to be pretty dependent on A.I. If you have that much going on, it could just be glitch central and a bunch of dumb guys running in circles.

Hmmm 150... Nice number... bit we would need thoushands! Oh well, better not get reedy... Pandemic can sure deliver a good game, Ill put this one under my watch.

@Laughing_Gas: 8 vs 64 players don't sound like a upgrad to me. It sounds like a upgrade to you?

I am really excited about this. I really enjoy most of what comes out of Pandemic studios, and I love LOTR. This is a match made in heaven, and to think this wouldn't be possible if EA didn't gobble up Pandemic. Yikes.

Eight player online despite having 150 people on-screen? What's the point? Why not, I don't know, make it like that Joint Ops game that came out a couple years ago that had 150-player online? Eight player is just stupid, and it sounds terrible for a Battlefield-style game.

I would much rather have Star Wars Battlefront 3, with decent online for a change.

BattleFront is never going to happen, at least from Pandemic.

LucasArts was getting the majority of the royalties even though they didn't create the game, and they were treating Pandemic like crap from what I hear, so no love loss there.

As for the LOTR game..I'm looking forward to it. Some friends saw very early stages way back in the day and said even then it looked like it can turn into something pretty fun.

Considering how BattleFront 1 & 2 was my all time favorite Star Wars games for the PS2 (never had an original Xbox, therefore didn't get to play KotOR) And LotR is my all time favorite books and movies... I think I'll be picking this up. :)

@NullsRevenge: dice not EA

@Tei: It doesn't say anywhere that this game would be using the Battlefront engine, only that the game would be a spiritual successor to Battlefront. Don't jump to conclusions right after the game's been announced.

8 players?! Epic fail on PC.

Actually, just looked at the IGN article and it states 16 players not 8. Still too small but somewhat better.

Hey guys, just wanted to clarify -- the game supports up to 16 players online. There was a miscommunication during the interview translation earlier on IGN.

It's been corrected here:
[xbox360.ign.com]

Sixteen is the current online count, but it's not set in stone, and there's always a chance it could go higher. :)

Wait 16 players... I was excited for this until I read that. THis is epic melee, how epic can it be with only 8 people per side.

@Kounji:

Seems that's where the 150 characters come in. AI to increase the cannon fodder, like in Battlefront.

@Tei, IGoogledMurder ,Stryker412: The linked article says 16 players with the possibility of that number rising.
That definitely seems fine with me, especially how someone mentioned how Diablo 2 only had 8 total.

people mentioning battlefront, lord of the rings and diablo all in the same train of thought make my head want to explode thinking of the awesomeness.

@Tei: its not meant to be lord of the rings battlefront, its lord of the rings. And the reduction of players is countered by the addition of AI in multiplayer, not to mention 150 of them