Louis Castle Talks Lord of the Rings: Battle For Middle Earth II

by Coola
7/25/2006

Xbox365 members once again voice their concerns and opinions in our interview with Louis Castle, Vice President of Creative Development for EA of Los Angeles for Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth 2 on the Xbox 360.

Hey there Louis, thanks for taking the time to answer some of Xbox365’s questions. Seeing as you’re a busy guy we’ll try to keep this one quick and short. First, could you introduce yourself and tell us a bit of what you do at Electronic Arts of Los Angeles (EALA)?

Louis Castle: Sure. My name is Louis Castle and I'm the vice president of creative development for EALA but I'm better known as the cofounder of Westwood Studios. I was the Executive Producer for The Battle for Middle earth II for the Xbox 360 which means I was in charge of the overall goal of bringing this great product to the Xbox 360. I personally focused a great deal on the interface along with a great team dedicated to this project. As VP of creative development I help with direction on all projects at EALA and even other EA studios on occasion.

Coola: And a very long winded title you have might I add. Alright so lets just right into this one, here are some of the questions our members had concerning Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle earth 2.

Baron Münchausen: Is customization to the hero's image and abilities going to be used more often? On the PC you edit and custom make your hero for your army.

Louis Castle: Hey Baron! Excellent tag! We intentionally decided to use achievements to unlock heroes for the Xbox version. The PC system is very cool but we wanted to emphasize getting into the hero games quickly and offer game play benefits for Live Achievements. Having a specific, if large, list of heroes also helped with getting the new game mode of hero versus hero just right.

Dragos: With the hopes from Microsoft to one day make Xbox Live Marketplace an environment where players can upload and download custom made items along with the already present developer created/released content. Would it be a credible feature in having a map designer for console RTS fans in future titles, but on top of that allowing them to share their creations over online services? Beyond the limitations in controls, another common attack on RTS titles for consoles, like most PC to console arguments have been the lack in user customization and mod communities. I was wondering on your thoughts if whether such plans are in the near future over at EALA?

Louis Castle: Wow! We certainly have discussed more ways of getting user created content into our products but we don't currently have plans to release a map editor for the Xbox 360. Those are great ideas though and I hope we can get to some of them in the near future.

thamagikal1: My question is short... why only 4 players? I understand EALA doesn’t want to allow large numbers in favor of allowing a smooth transition to console, but I think you could accomplish that while allowing at least 6-8 players.

Louis Castle: We specifically decided to limit the game to 4 players as a design choice. The design of the Xbox 360, the variety of 1-4 player maps, the clarity of VOIP for up to 4 players, play on NTSC systems, command point issues and the physical design of the Xbox 360 all contributed to the decision.

SpaceMarineBFG: What is the population limit you can have during a game and can you build your cities anywhere?

Louis Castle: We limit the command points of players on 4 player games to keep the unit count from getting unmanageable but there are no real limits on buildings other than the map space which is quite large.

JayQuik03: Is the offline mode as compelling to play as the online mode, as in story, character improvements and so on?

Louis Castle: Oh yes! The two campaigns and multiple ways to play skirmish games makes this a very rich and deep experience. The story expands upon the vast work shown in the films by leaning into the literary works for the war in the North. The single player experience will encapsulate all of this as well.

MC Smoke: My question is, how does the game translate on the console? RTS's have stayed off consoles (most strategy for that matter) because they simply haven't translated well.

Louis Castle: I feel very good about how we have adapted the game for the Xbox 360. The controls are very easy to learn and extremely powerful if you learn all the shortcuts. Please give it and try and see for yourself. We welcome comments and read everything you post!

Melon_Popper: Is Battle for Middle-earth II for Xbox 360 going to support system link?

Louis Castle: No. We favored Xbox Live support, and worked to put in many unique Live features, since this is the first game of this type.

RaaaAAAAAAPPPPPPPPPpe

Stainer117: Was the game's actual content “dumbed” down for console conversion? I heard that it wasn't but can't be too sure.

Louis Castle: It was not dumbed down! The full game content is in the Xbox 360 version. We did change a few things in some missions for design reasons but they did not affect the scope of the game. We completely changed the interface screens and added new multiplayer modes, again for design reasons to ensure the best experience possible on this platform. I hope you like our choices and the new features!

Coola: Thanks for your time Louis!

Louis Castle: Thanks Coola!

The Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth 2 Demo is available for download via the Xbox Live Marketplace and features:

Introductory tutorial level - learn how to play RTS on Xbox 360

Evil Lorien - 1st mission from the single player evil campaign

Buckland 1v1 Xbox Live Multiplayer Map

Take on opponents in 1-on-1 multiplayer battles on Xbox Live

Play as either the Goblin or Elven faction

For more information about Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth 2, click here.

XBOX365 Says

Truly the first time a RTS has worked on a console and I'm proud to say its about damn time.