Steamworks in Lord of Rings War in North
Does your PC have enough Beleram?
The PC version of The Lord of the Rings: War in the North will use Steamworks, developer Snowblind has confirmed.
"Yes, I believe so," said producer Ruth Tomandl, answering a question asked by Eurogamer during a roundtable interview.
Steamworks integrates Steam on a development level. The benefits are that a game can take full advantage of nearly anything Steam offers; things like authentication, peer-to-peer multiplayer, voice communications, matchmaking, Steam communities, friends, statistics and achievements.
The downside for rival digital distributors is that they can't remove Steam from the game, so they end up selling a product that promotes a competitor. In the past, this has lead to boycotts.
Snowblind couldn't reveal any other extras heading to the PC version of Lord of the Rings: War in the North. "I don't know if there will be [any]," admitted Tomandl. "That's something that will be announced later."
The Lord of the Rings: War in the North is a bloody action-RPG being made by Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance and Champions of Norrath: Realms of EverQuest developer Snowblind. The focus is on co-op gameplay, as human, elf and dwarf work as a coherent unit to decimate the forces of super-evil villain and Sauron ally Agandur in the north of Middle-Earth. The game unfolds in parallel to the well known events of The Lord of the Rings books and films.