If my readers can tolerate yet another post about Battle for Middle Earth II (since I’ve been pegged a fanboy and all…), Andrew Park has written a good preview of the upcoming expansion for Gamespot.
My knowledge of Tolkien lore is fairly thin. I couldn’t get past the opening chapters in Silmarillon and, beyond the sacred trilogy and The Hobbit, the only Tolkien works that have held much fascination for me are the Letters from Father Christmas. But it looks like Rise of the Witch King will fill in some of the pre-Lord of the Rings goings on for me. No need to do any of that fussy reading stuff.
The strengthening of walls in the expansion could change the game in dramatic ways. Counter-building spells could become more important, and siege units may not be a luxury any more. Given the game’s existing bias towards aggressive movement from the very beginning, some people will find their play style shift quite a bit. Enabling armies of mixed units to stick together better is a nice interface change, but hardly necessary on maps as constricted as most of the BfME2 maps. The new faction means that there will likely be some balancing all around.
No release date yet, but I’m getting it when it comes out. All fanboys should.
The strengthening of walls isn’t something added in the expansion. It’s part of the v1.05 patch, which us BFME2 fans are not-so-patiently awaiting. The expansion will include the balance changes that are going into v1.05. Assuming, of course, that EA isn’t scrapping 1.05 until the expansion comes out. Ugh.
However, some features — like moving in formation — won’t be in v1.05. :(
Thanks for the correction, Tom.
Any chance we’ll get the patch before the expansion?
Hmm.. look forward to trying BFME2 when I buy a new machine. Which will have to wait until after I’m done with Imperium. Hmm… may I’ll just start looking forward to BFME3, then…
Btw – the new WordPress format is nice, but I miss one feature from your old blog; the sidebar where you could go to all the latest comments. Would be nice to reintroduce that. :-)
I would also suggest adding a mod adding image authentication to the blog. Without it, WordPress blogs are sadly way too vulnerable to bots.
Glad you like the new format, Michael. I’m still working on a lot of the fancy additions. If I can get a third column added to the left side, the recent comments would go there.
So far so good with WP and spambots. I have a pretty strong moderation setting – two or three legit comments were held up and had to meet my approval – but as traffic picks up I will need some sort of verification. For now I want to keep it free and easy.
I highly recommend BfME2. I just bought a new machine and I’m sure it will look even better.
I also highly recommend finishing Imperium.