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The Lord of the Rings: Gollum Review Thread

How can they even make games like this
I’m almost at the point I think this is the product of some weird ass ‘The Producers’ type shit.





That or the people who backed the money on this are literally insane and everyone else just went along with the weird ass concept because they were getting paid regardless. People thought Tommy Wiseau’s ‘The Room’ was a money laundering scheme…but really he’s just that fucking weird (so I wouldn’t count it out).
 
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This industry is possibly headed toward another crash.
That would be awesome. Well, at least for Western video games. Maybe we can finally get more Japanese games like we used to on consoles.

I know people aren't going to like what I'm saying here but the industry deserves to crash right now with all these unfinished games and bad business practices.
 
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Gojiira

Member
Well hope this is the clincher for the Tolkien Estate to put this IP under lock and fucking key until someone with a proven track record begs to purchase the rights. First Rings of Power, now this garbage…So fucking disrespectful.
 
Well, another "game" that will be on Gamepass soon
What's pretty messed up is this game doesn't seem to be getting any patches so they're just going to leave it in this broken state.

I actually wouldn't be surprised if this game gets pulled from digital storefronts unless you already bought it.

There was a Warhammer 40,000 game, Eisenhorn, that was apparently so bad it got pulled from Steam a while back.
 
Well hope this is the clincher for the Tolkien Estate to put this IP under lock and fucking key until someone with a proven track record begs to purchase the rights. First Rings of Power, now this garbage…So fucking disrespectful.
Yep. Christopher Tolkien was right. Hell, apparently he didn't even like the movies and those were good.

Now with him passed away, there's just no quality assurance anymore for this IP.

J.R.R. Tolkien and Christopher Tolkien must be rolling over in their graves right now.
 

simpatico

Gold Member
This makes me feel less bad. I was scared it was going to be at least as good as Styx but with a skin that nobody wanted. But wow after watching a couple long reviews I struggle to see how numerous adults spent 40 hours a week on this for years. While we were celebrating Christmas last year, dozens (hundreds?) of EA employees were thinking about this game. Focused on it 5 days a week. While you were on vacation last summer, somewhere there was a room of dudes hunkered over computers rapidly making caves. Tuning the motion blur and scrambling to perfect the look of Gollum Vision (they got it just right btw). What were their meetings like? Did they know what was happening? Was it really someones passion to bring to the wold this art of Gollum bossing around slaves to solve menial puzzles in vast cave system?
 
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This makes me feel less bad. I was scared it was going to be at least as good as Styx but with a skin that nobody wanted. But wow after watching a couple long reviews I struggle to see how numerous adults spent 40 hours a week on this for years. While we were celebrating Christmas last year, dozens (hundreds?) of EA employees were thinking about this game. Focused on it 5 days a week. While you were on vacation last summer, somewhere there was a room of dudes hunkered over computers rapidly making caves. Tuning the motion blur and scrambling to perfect the look of Gollum Vision (they got it just right btw). What were their meetings like? Did they know what was happening? Was it really someones passion to bring to the wold this art of Gollum bossing around slaves to solve menial puzzles in vast cave system?
They probably weren't actually working on it for 6 years. There was probably at least a couple years where the game development was just idle or a few people working from home tinkering with it for a few hours every week.

In fact, I can see covid being the main excuse for all this. Because why not?
 

Alebrije

Member
What's pretty messed up is this game doesn't seem to be getting any patches so they're just going to leave it in this broken state.

I actually wouldn't be surprised if this game gets pulled from digital storefronts unless you already bought it.

There was a Warhammer 40,000 game, Eisenhorn, that was apparently so bad it got pulled from Steam a while back.
Yea it could be, line Cyberpunk that was pulled out of PS Store
 
They probably weren't actually working on it for 6 years. There was probably at least a couple years where the game development was just idle or a few people working from home tinkering with it for a few hours every week.

In fact, I can see covid being the main excuse for all this. Because why not?

People were getting paid that whole time; ‘It’s not about the end of the journey, but the money you made along the way’. And for the most part that would be true for probably almost everyone on the dev team because to be fair most of them just did their job, did their best and got paid (they’re innocent).

It’s whoever thought of this monstrosity and the people that put actual dollars behind it either didn’t think this through very carefully, or they did it very carefully with the idea of tanking it.

The thing was obviously doomed from the beginning but they kept getting green-lit from multiple parties anyways …it just doesn’t make sense.
 
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simpatico

Gold Member
I really do wonder what the meetings were like. Has anyone worked on a game that you just knew was a turd the whole time? I just checked out the studio, small German one who mainly makes super basic indie games. I don't even understand how they got the contract to make this. I'm literally starting to think this is a money laundering operation (like Mattress Firm). I cannot find a stronger motive. Someone cut checks for these people for years, AND got to see this game as it was being developed? I don't believe it anymore.
 
I'm really curious about the development behind the scenes. I'm sure there are plenty of juicy stories to tell. This took 6 years???
 

Banjo64

cumsessed
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SJRB

Gold Member
Lol.

Developers piling in to defend their own.

Sorry, but Gollum is a turd, and trying to get people to part with their money for it is immoral.

I had some respect for the developers of some of those poorly reviewed games (harshly reviewed even), but for those defending this shite, now I don't.

Yeah the "some things are out of your hands" doesn't really fly when a game is both fundamentally broken on every level and being sold for 70 bucks.

Gollum is way, way beyond being unlucky with technical performance. It's straight up broken and releasing it in this state is outrageous. Even if this was sold for 20 bucks it would still be unacceptable.
 
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L*][*N*K

Banned
Lol.

Developers piling in to defend their own.

Sorry, but Gollum is a turd, and trying to get people to part with their money for it is immoral.

I had some respect for the developers of some of those poorly reviewed games (harshly reviewed even), but for those defending this shite, now I don't.
But this is really wrong, they didn’t do anything to you, you don’t have to play their game, you are just straight up toxic
 

kyussman

Member
Anyone who saw those previews and still preordered got what they deserved.
Yea,that's fair enough......but lots of fans of Lord of the Rings would have bought this pretty blind,remember when we use to get those crappy licensed games back in the day,they were always minimal effort cash grabs based on the popularity of the IP......this feels like a return to that,it was shitty practise back then and it still is today.
 
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