A mediados del pasado mes de febrero os informamos que el próximo título ambientado en el universo creado por el señor J.R.Tolkien sería desarrollado por los chicos de Pandemic. Pues bien, hoy ha sido anunciado el susodicho título que llevará el título de El Señor de los Anillos: Conquista. Básicamente se tratará de un capítulo más de la saga Battlefront pero ambientado en la Tierra Media. De modo que deberemos meternos en el centro de la batalla ya sea como guerreros, arqueros en tercera persona, magos de apoyo, o exploradores en sigilo. No tendremos control alguno sobre nuestro ejército, pero podremos decidir el signo de la batalla mediante la consecución de diversos objetivos que se nos irán presentando. En cada batalla podremos seleccionar una clase diferente, e incluso se nos permitirá hacerlo en la misma batalla si morimos, de modo que renaceremos con otro rol completamente diferente. El juego también nos permitirá acceder a diversos personajes míticos de la saga de Tolkien de manera limitada, y los podremos mantener hasta que nuestra vida llegue a cero. Algunos de estos personajes son Gandalf, Frodo, Aragorn y Legolas. Podremos elegir ambos bandos de la contienda en la Guerra del Anillo, y no estaremos limitados a ser los buenos. Hay una completísima campaña "malvada" esperando una vez que completemos "la buena".

En esta campaña "malvada" comenzaremos encarnando a un espectro cuyo objetivo será alcanzar a Frodo y al Anillo Unico. Las campañas podrán jugarse tanto de manera individual como en modo cooperativo para hasta cuatro jugadores a través de la red o a pantalla partida. Desde el punto de vista competitivo tendremos los clásicos modos Conquista, donde se capturarán puntos de control, Capturar la Bandera, Deathmatch, Deathmatch Héroe y el nuevo Portador del Anillo. En este nuevo modo, un jugador encarnará a Frodo portando al Anillo, mientras que el resto serán espectros que deberán capturarle. Si Frodo se pone el Anillo desparecerá del mapa e incluso de radar, con lo que el resto de jugadores tendrán verdaderas dificultades para encontrare. Se prometen hasta 150 personajes en pantalla, espectaculares gráficos, y enormes mapas. Y como es lógico, podremos montar tanto caballos como wargos. Por último, y no menos importante, cada ejército dispondrá de catapultas, ballestas, torres de asedio y arietes. El juego saldrá este mismo otoño en PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 y PC.

Nota de prensa:

PANDEMIC STUDIOS ANNOUNCES DEVELOPMENT OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS: CONQUEST

‘Conquest’ Grants Players Freedom to Fight Epic ‘Rings’ Battles Any Way Desired

LOS ANGELES, Calif., May 8, 2008 – Pandemic™ Studios, an award-winning developer of blockbuster video games, is proud to announce the development of The Lord of the Rings: Conquest™ for the Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system, PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, PC and Nintendo DS™ platforms. Pandemic Studios is a division of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS).

In a partnership with New Line Cinema, The Lord of the Rings: Conquest is an action-packed game created by the same Pandemic Studios team behind the best-selling Star Wars Battlefront™ and Star Wars Battlefront™ II titles. Set in “The Lord of the Rings” universe of J.R.R. Tolkien as depicted by the Academy Award®-winning films, players will finally fight the entirety of these epic battles any way they want. In addition to crusading as the heroic forces of good, for the first time ever in a ‘The Lord of the Rings’ action title they’ll conquer Middle-earth while playing as the legions of Sauron’s evil army, including Cave-trolls, Oliphaunts, the Balrog and Sauron himself. The game is set for a global release in fall 2008.

“Our Pandemic Studios creative teams have years of expertise bringing giant battlefields to life,” says Andrew Goldman, Pandemic Studios co-founder and general manager. “We’ve always wanted to harness our experience in a fantasy universe with warriors, archers, mages and castle sieges. Of course, there is truly no better fantasy world to recreate than the enormity of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ realm.”

“We’ll freely admit that we’re rabid fans of The Lord of the Rings fantasy,” says Josh Resnick, co-founder and general manager at Pandemic Studios. “Our experience creating massive, rich, action-packed games means that The Lord of the Rings: Conquest will give fans exactly what they want: full control of the blade, bow and magic to fight its epic battles any way they want – even if they choose to play from the evil side.”

“We are thrilled to be working with Pandemic Studios on this game,” commented David Imhoff, Senior EVP of Worldwide Licensing & Merchandising for New Line Cinema. “They bring not only their incredible technical and creative abilities but also a great passion for The Lord of the Rings.”

The world premiere of game footage and the first trailer for The Lord of the Rings: Conquest will premiere exclusively on Spike TV’s GameTrailers TV with Geoff Keighley on Friday, June 20.

This announcement reveals the third blockbuster video game project in the works at Pandemic Studios’ Los Angeles-based headquarters alongside the upcoming Mercenaries 2: World in Flames™ and Saboteur™, both in development for the Xbox 360™, PLAYSTATION®3 and PC platforms. For more information on The Lord of the Rings: Conquest, please visit: http://www.pandemicstudios.com/conquest.

About Pandemic Studios
Pandemic Studios is one of the world’s premier developers of console and PC entertainment and a wholly owned division of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS). Over its 10-year history, Pandemic Studios has established a reputation for producing top-selling, award-winning and cutting-edge original content and enhancing the value of existing intellectual properties. Recent hits include the record-selling Star Wars Battlefront™, Star Wars Battlefront™ II, and three original Pandemic Studios-created intellectual properties: Mercenaries™, Destroy All Humans™, and Full Spectrum Warrior™. Following the 2006 release of Destroy All Humans® 2, Pandemic Studios is developing a number of new, original titles for next-generation platforms including Mercenaries 2: World in Flames™ and Saboteur™ at its Los Angeles, California, and Brisbane, Australia, studio locations. For more information on Pandemic Studios and its games, please visit: http://www.pandemicstudios.com.

About Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is the world's leading interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, cellular handsets and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTS™, EA™, EA SPORTS Freestyle™ and POGO™. In fiscal 2007, EA posted revenue of $3.09 billion and had 24 titles that sold more than one million copies. EA's homepage and online game site is www.ea.com. More information about EA's products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://info.ea.com.

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EA, EA SPORTS, EA SPORTS Freestyle, POGO, Pandemic, the Pandemic logo, Mercenaries, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, Full Spectrum Warrior and Saboteur are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. All Rights Reserved. All The Lord of the Rings related content other than content from the New Line trilogy of The Lord of the Rings films © 2004-2008 The Saul Zaentz Company d/b/a Tolkien Enterprises (“SZC”). All Rights Reserved. The Watcher logo, “The Lord of the Rings: Conquest” and the names of the characters, items, events and places therein are trademarks of SZC under license to Electronic Arts Inc. All content from The Lord of the Rings film trilogy © MMV-MMVII New Line Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Star Wars Battlefront™ and Star Wars Battlefront™ II are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Lucasfilm Entertainment Company Ltd. “PlayStation” and “PLAYSTATION” are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Microsoft, Xbox and Xbox 360 are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies. Nintendo DS is a trademark of Nintendo. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.