First details have emerged on Lord of the Rings: Conquest which is being developed by Mercenaries crew Pandemic.

Reported on IGN, Conquest is a bit like Star Wars: Battlefront with players able to fight it out Rings style in battles taken from Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies and combat grounds created especially for the title.

Judging by the info, Pandemic's aiming to have every man, dwarf, elf, orc, troll, good guy, bad guy, hobbit yadda yadda you can think of the from the story and chuck them into mass confrontations that can support 150 on-screen characters.

However, we're scratching our heads over the news that only eight players are supported in head-to-head online multiplayer, and four in a co-op mode rampage through two campaigns on offer.

Does this mean the vast majority of on-screen fighters will be AI controlled? Presumably that's going to be the case, with you caught up in the thick of things.

"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."

Lord of the Rings: Conquest is out on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 in the autumn. Check out some screens here.

Courtesy of CVG

May 8, 2008