Lord of the Rings: Conquest marches on Jan. 13

EA and Pandemic's J.R.R. Tolkien-based, Peter Jackson-inspired fantasy action game hits 360, PS3, PC, DS next year.

Pandemic Studios has been in the news of late thanks to Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, a game that was long in the making and fell short of critics' expectations when it waged its private war in August. However, that's just one of the three games the EA-owned game maker plans to fire off within the coming months, with The Lord of the Rings: Conquest and Saboteur also on the verge of release.

Today, EA dated the first of those titles, saying The Lord of the Rings: Conquest will sally forth on January 13 in the US, three days after the game's international release. Conquest will be available on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, and Nintendo DS.

Like EA's Lord of the Rings games released alongside their theatrical counterparts in the early 2000s, Conquest will be set in the same universe as Peter Jackson's filmic interpretation of J.R.R. Tolkien's acclaimed novels. Expanding on these titles, Pandemic's take on the series promises to give players control of both sides of the conflict, fighting either for the alliance of men, elves, and dwarves or for Sauron's legions.

Pandemic hopes to translate the gameplay of its lauded Star Wars: Battlefront games from plasma-blaster sci-fi to hack-and-slash fantasy. The game will also emphasize large-scale, open-warfare battlefields and will incorporate a number of character archetypes that players can switch between on the fly, including scout, warrior, archer, and mage.

For more on The Lord of the Rings: Conquest, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.

50 Comments

  • manray505

    Posted Jan 10, 2009 11:13 am GMT

    2009 is a new generation for video games dont expect to be so many failures

  • manray505

    Posted Jan 10, 2009 11:10 am GMT

    you guys dont let anygames be good with your comments ok its the same people that created bf2 and 1 obvously so its going to be like bf2 just lotr version which i personoly think is awesome because it has awesome graphics and yeah its going to be fun

  • ace244

    Posted Jan 7, 2009 10:40 am GMT

    i will be playing this online for free on my ps3

  • megamaster32

    Posted Jan 6, 2009 3:15 pm GMT

    THe game is pretty cool I cant wait to taste the evil side

  • BikerPunk

    Posted Jan 5, 2009 11:25 am GMT

    potentially EPIC!! lets hope they deliver on this title!

  • Slaughtahouse

    Posted Jan 2, 2009 5:09 pm GMT

    the demo is really good , suprissingly enough lol suprissingly

  • hassy94

    Posted Dec 4, 2008 9:14 am GMT

    what so is it 1st person?

  • Blood_Diamond

    Posted Dec 1, 2008 4:37 pm GMT

    p.s i know it's "based" on the movies, just like most of the star wars games... i don't think there is enough exp with the LOTR universe

  • Blood_Diamond

    Posted Dec 1, 2008 4:33 pm GMT

    After all of the other movie to game failures this year i am not holding my breath over this one... nice idea.. just lately the good ideas aren't working right

  • _Kikode_

    Posted Nov 17, 2008 6:20 pm GMT

    When they say instantly switch class I think they mean the same as BF where you respawn as a Class or kill yourself and choose a new one would go against the lore if they made it so you can polymorph into something else on the fly.Either way I loved BF2 so I'm gonna love this it would be pretty hard for them to screw it up and I'm so glad pandemic is doing it.

  • LordReithgar

    Posted Nov 10, 2008 7:27 am GMT

    This game has nothing to do with Mercenaries and frankly, whohever though Merc 2 was going to be a good game lol, Merc 1 was a loosy game, I didn't expected anything more from the 2nd. Now Star Wars : Battlefront was a pretty good game. I'm not expecting this to be an amazing game, but one that I can have fun slashing orcs!

  • kagento

    Posted Nov 5, 2008 4:22 am GMT

    carefull now, lets see what pandemic can be up to after the disapointing Mercenaries 2. I personally think it will be no good game this one... dont ask me why...

  • jo_993

    Posted Nov 3, 2008 3:34 pm GMT

    Gosh cant wait , i need a new game!

  • BrokenPezHead

    Posted Nov 2, 2008 10:45 am GMT

    The sheer fact that you will be able to play as Sauron's leigions will make this awesome.

  • Richard7666

    Posted Nov 1, 2008 9:41 pm GMT

    Star Wars: Battlefront LOTR? Count me in.

  • Akeiro_Hisagoma

    Posted Nov 1, 2008 5:36 pm GMT

    cant wait

  • zaid55

    Posted Nov 1, 2008 3:21 pm GMT

    WooHoo lotr Battlefront style!!!

  • cryingfoot

    Posted Nov 1, 2008 8:46 am GMT

    Wow EA missing christmas, wow i m blow away !
    again wow.

  • tudyniuz

    Posted Nov 1, 2008 2:08 am GMT

    only in 2009

  • 24k_Solid_Gold

    Posted Oct 31, 2008 3:54 pm GMT

    It sounds pretty exciting, I'm glad their taking extra time to make it. I agree with what Darkness7089 said, it kinda takes away the meaning of chosing a class, and each class having special properties if anyone can switch instantly between them. But either way, the game looks, and sounds pretty cool, looking forward to hearing more about it.

  • Darkness7089

    Posted Oct 31, 2008 11:29 am GMT

    They can take as long as they want, that's usually what the good games do. Plenty of other games to jam on until then.

    One thing that concerns me is being able to switch classes quickly, making the penalties of having the worst class absence. With instant switching, everyone will get what is needed too fast and counter everything too quickly. Trolls incoming? 5+ppl instantly switched to the Rogue to gank them. You should choose, and be stuck with those advantages and disadvantages, at least until you die or suicide to switch. It'd be even better if you were locked to a class for an entire match.

  • Sablicious

    Posted Oct 30, 2008 9:43 pm GMT

    I'm glad it isn't the November release it was first slated as being - it looked a bit rough around the edges and the battles seemed less 'epic' than I'd envisaged. Hopefully the two extra months pay dividends.

  • BloodMist

    Posted Oct 30, 2008 8:16 pm GMT

    I'm not too sure about this one, it sounds good in some ways, and in others kind of...eh?I'm gonna wait and see.

  • Media_Mind

    Posted Oct 30, 2008 7:40 pm GMT

    I haven't heard enough of this yet

  • Adam_the_Nerd

    Posted Oct 30, 2008 6:00 pm GMT

    WHOA! This is like Star Wars Battlefront, but different franchises and next gen. Can you say "nerd-gasm"?

  • Unholy_Terror

    Posted Oct 30, 2008 5:34 pm GMT

    The game looks pretty cool, but I'm not sure how I feel about being able to switch characters on the fly, seems like it could get rid of any replay value...but feel free to prove me wrong Pandemic.

  • Franklinstein

    Posted Oct 30, 2008 5:33 pm GMT

    GCNfreak011 it's Battlefront* not Battlefield.

  • GCNfreak011

    Posted Oct 30, 2008 5:02 pm GMT

    col-neil, this isn't an adventure game. It's Battlefield- just set in middle earth.

  • jazilla

    Posted Oct 30, 2008 4:43 pm GMT

    on my berfday

  • xtremegamer113

    Posted Oct 30, 2008 4:28 pm GMT

    eyyy thats my birthday...pretty cool might be a nice present

  • Col-Neil

    Posted Oct 30, 2008 4:21 pm GMT

    To me this just looks like a polished version of the two towers and return of the king games they where fun but if thats all this one is whats the point again ?

  • Toro_Nev

    Posted Oct 30, 2008 3:56 pm GMT

    sounds interesting =O

  • Shadow_Fax87

    Posted Oct 30, 2008 3:52 pm GMT

    This game could be a ton of fun, or really bad if they screw it up.... so the moral of the story is, don't screw it up!!!!

  • R7_3

    Posted Oct 30, 2008 3:50 pm GMT

    i can't wait for this game, it's battlefront but with LotR characters, so it should be pretty dang good

  • Sendmn23

    Posted Oct 30, 2008 3:46 pm GMT

    omg!!! why? why would we need this? why? this is one game i'm not going to buy!!!! the movies were great by the way.

  • xIronMaydenx

    Posted Oct 30, 2008 3:35 pm GMT

    Sounds very interesting. However, games like this often fall short of expectations. If it works, it'll be amazing.

  • Expo_Smacko

    Posted Oct 30, 2008 3:19 pm GMT

    ugh

  • mclakers

    Posted Oct 30, 2008 3:09 pm GMT

    i was looking forward to this game, i guess ill just wait till next year.

  • Darth_Nater307

    Posted Oct 30, 2008 2:45 pm GMT

    I will most certainly be getting this game. HUGE Lotr fan, loved Battlefront, and from what I've seen of the new trailer, it's gonna be awesome. And oh yeah, playable Sauron & the Balrog.

  • Mush_Mouth posted Oct 30, 2008 2:40 pm GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Mush_Mouth

    Posted Oct 30, 2008 2:40 pm GMT (hide)

    This is just me, but LOTR games have bored the heck out of me. They look just like every other fantasy game out there. I know that LOTR kinda started it all (at least got it popular), but a lot of other franchises are far more interesting than this one.

  • Timstuff

    Posted Oct 30, 2008 2:27 pm GMT

    "Fell short of critis' expectations?" Jeez Gamespot, if you keep referring to yourselves in the third person like this people are going to mistake you for Jack Thompson.

  • sMeAgOl_VaDeR

    Posted Oct 30, 2008 2:15 pm GMT

    why did they postpone it? just because of mercenaries' bad reviews?

  • mertron1

    Posted Oct 30, 2008 2:02 pm GMT

    the potential to make a truly amazing game from the lotr franchise is all plain to see yet they bring out these tired no longevity titles you'll forget days after you've finished it.....such a waste.

  • enix165

    Posted Oct 30, 2008 1:24 pm GMT

    Oooh, looks awesome. Pandemic's made good games from what I've seen, I think I'm gonna be getting this one considering my birthday's right before it so I'll have the cash. =D

  • bojan_sokol

    Posted Oct 30, 2008 1:16 pm GMT

    looks interesting

  • NemesisLives

    Posted Oct 30, 2008 1:14 pm GMT

    Huge fan of the Battlefront series, but from what I've seen I don't think I will be getting this.

  • Game__Raider

    Posted Oct 30, 2008 12:55 pm GMT

    Yes top 5 comments woot! ANd I can't wait for this game. and what a game it will be.

  • 3eyedrazorback

    Posted Oct 30, 2008 12:50 pm GMT

    Can't wait for this game.

  • stealth89

    Posted Oct 30, 2008 12:45 pm GMT

    do want

  • darth_slayer33

    Posted Oct 30, 2008 12:42 pm GMT

    I for one am looking forward to this game. Loved Star Wars Battlefront. I am also a LOTR fan too so I cannot pass on this.

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