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Preview:

9th January 2003:
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
After the success of the PlayStaion 2 version we take a look at how the Xbox port is coming along.
Posted by John Grothier - Xbox - UK and Europe

After the seeing The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring it seemed that the director, Peter Jackson, would have to go a long way to better the first movie. As anyone who has seen the spectacle that is The Two Towers will tell you, he has managed to take the second film in the trilogy to even more epic heights. Late last year Electronic Arts released The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers for the PlayStaion 2, which has been in the top five in the software chart since its release. The game features some stunning action scenes based on the first two movies; The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers. Players are invited to take control of one of the three main characters, Aragorn for the race of men, Legolas the elven archer, or Gimli the dwarf, and hack and slash their way through Middle Earth. Now Electronic Arts are porting over The Two Towers to the mighty Xbox, but will they use the power of Microsoft's console or will it be a lacklustre port?

The Two Towers features thirteen levels based on key action sequences from the first two films, some of these are truly spectacular and are fairly long action stages, but one or two are far too short, and a little boring to hold any true replay value. The game starts just like the first movie, with a prologue letting the player know the history of the one ring. Then suddenly the action starts, no menu screens when you first boot up the game may be a little disconcerting for some, but we think it actually encapsulates the mood of the film by taking you straight into battle at the foot of Mount Doom. Here you play as Isildur fighting wave upon wave of orcs. Once you have cracked enough skulls, the story moves onto present day Middle Earth, and you have the chance to continue through the remaining levels as Aragorn, who has a perfect balance of might and long range attacks, Legolas who's strength lies with the bow, or be Gimli the tough little dwarf who is strong in close combat.

The PlayStaion 2 version boasted some really stunning graphics, so how much better will the Xbox version be? Well reviews the other side of the pond have suggested that The Two Towers on the Xbox if anything looks worse than the PlayStaion 2 version of the game. The sharp stunning graphics that were seen on Sony's machine have lost something in the port over to the Xbox. The level of detail seems even less, the textures are blurred and unimpressive, and there are been problems reported with the contrast, which makes the game look a lot darker that it should be. Sure the Xbox port has Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound, but with just three short months before it's scheduled release in Europe, sadly The Two Towers on the Xbox will probably not be the version to rule them all.

John Grothier

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