(no subject)

Happy birthday to petzipellepingo, woman_of_, and mwrgana

'Lord of the Rings: War in the North' was released today in the British Isles. It's very annoying that we had to wait three weeks after the rest of the world but at last the wait is over. I had it on pre-order, it arrived yesterday, but it was locked so that it couldn't be installed before the 25th. So I installed it at midnight and played until noon - well, that was the plan, but in fact I played until 1.30 in the afternoon. I'll restart in an hour from now, after QI.

It is excellent. There is a little too much button-thumping compared to the Neverwinter Nights games, and the inability of characters to climb over even the lowest of obstacles is jarring, but the characters are engaging and the storyline is excellent. And the visuals are stunning.

Almost all the characters from the films appear played by themselves. Although Arwen doesn't look like Liv Tyler - I wonder if she refused to allow them to use her likeness? In fact Arwen isn't all that good-looking, and I have found myself thinking, on behalf of my Ranger character "Hah, Aragorn, my elf-maiden is prettier than your elf-maiden!"

There will be fanfic eventually.