The Hobbit Hole III - Journey to the Cross-roads!

[HairOfTheDog]

Welcome to The Hobbit Hole!

Journey to the Cross-roads
The Two Towers Edition

Come on! Come in! -if you would like to have some seedcakes and a pint and relax a while. (If it is a special occasion, we still have a few bottles of the old wineyards left!)

Our first thread ( New Zealander builds Hobbit hole ) reached 4,100 posts, and we thought that was big. Our second thread (The New Hobbit Hole ) held us for over 48,000 posts, and we loved it dearly. We talked about moving to a new thread for the last 38,000 posts, but we are really slow to muster! Finally, the time has come. Tomorrow (at 12:01 am, to be precise!) The Two Towers comes out, and we start a new chapter.

[HairOfTheDog]

Well you should have gone with them!

[Overtaxed]

Sam didn't even wait up. He's gone with Merry and Pippin to Farmer Maggot's without Frodo!

Some friends! Poor Frodo is in it alone.

[RMDupree]

I must say that I cannot stand being caught. Which is why I stopped playing! LOL!!

The screen goes black and then you hear a thunder-like sound. Next thing you know, a Black Rider is pointing his sword at you commanding "Give me the Ring!"

Then, the PC is nice enough to let you know that the quest has failed. As if you didn't know.

[Dawntreader]

I found this: (Click here for full strategy guide for the PC.) - I formatted it myself. One thing about this guide is that the different sections are one big paragraph..it's a bit hard to read that way.

"Once he's done talking, you will talk to Gaffer after the Ring Wraith leaves. As soon as you are done talking to Gaffer, run straight from where you are facing and hide behind a fence and a tree in front of Gaffer's house.

Whatever you do, never use the Ring at this part!!! Never never never!!!!! Wait until the Nazgul has passed you and has turned the corner heading down the road to Bag End. This part may take a few tries so try to get the right timing.

Once he's turned the corner, or a little before or after, run right and down the road very quickly. On your left, you should see a house, a silo, and a fence to the right of the silo. Run between the fence and the silo to go behind the silo and don't stop running until you are behind a big rock next to a stream. Don't forget to save often but not too often. That part was the hard part so now it will be very easy.

From the rock sneak along the coast line until you can see the bridge. You should be able to see a Ring Wraith on the other side of the bridge. Get a little closer then switch to first person view and toss a rock over the hill onto the road to your left. The Nazgul should ride over to see what it was. Get just a little closer to the bridge and throw another rock farther ahead of the Nazgul to make him turn the other way.

Now hop the rock wall and run along the path to Bywater. Once you get to the arch at Bywater, you'll see Robin getting attacked by a wolf. Alright! Your first fight! Kill the wolf. My strategy is to attack it a few times then block just before it attacks. After it's dead, go past the bell again ,but instead of turning left, turn right and follow the path to another large arch. You'll be in a huge grassy and hilly sort of place so just follow the path.

After a little while of walking along the path, a bunch of wolves will attack you. Now you have 3 options: kill the wolves(not recommended), use the Ring and run along the path to safety, or run the path anyway because the wolves can't catch you in motion!

One thing I've learned through this game is that I never had to use the Ring. Not once! So ignore the games proposal to use the Ring at this part. Now you'll be in Green Hill Country.

Cross the two bridges in front of you and walk along the path until a cutscene occurs and Frodo sees the "Black Rider". Right from where you are standing, you should see a large rock close to being in the water on your left. Sneak into the water and hide behind the rock. Switch into first person mode and chuck a rock onto the path in front of you or more towards the way you came from.

Once the Nazgul has gotten to where you threw it, throw another one farther ahead of him. After that, sneak along the water until a rock blocks your way then run like a turkey in November on the path, across a bridge and up to the gates of Farmer Maggot where you meet up with Merry, Pippen and Sam. There you have it. The last you'll ever see of the Shire."

[HairOfTheDog]

The screen goes black and then you hear a thunder-like sound. Next thing you know, a Black Rider is pointing his sword at you commanding "Give me the Ring!" Then, the PC is nice enough to let you know that the quest has failed. As if you didn't know.

Cool! - Can't wait! the demo didn't go that far.

[HairOfTheDog]

Sounds hard!

[Overtaxed]

Maybe I should stick to Frogger.

[Dawntreader]

The Nazgul scare me LOL!! I hated playing that part. I only tried twice to get away (on my own..I hadn't seen that guide yet) and I kept getting caught and it's SCARY dang it.

[RMDupree]

Now you see why I gave up! LOL!

I'm gonna go play Frogger with Overtaxed.

[Overtaxed]

Oops! I put my old video card in my sister's machine and let her have the Frogger disk to play with.

[HairOfTheDog]

So it looks like you are gonna have to get past them riders.

[Lil'freeper]

Well, the briefing went much better than expected. Whereas I've been working on this thing for weeks, the other presenters just showed up and were completely unprepared....made me look fantastic in comparison. Heh heh heh.

They didn't have a chance to skewer me because the resident village idiot kept piping up about tangential issues and so all the curt comments were directed his way. Yaaaay. We call him Mr. Clippy because like the MS Word Paperclip- he is useless and annoying and always pops up when you don't want him...Terribly un-Christlike of me, I know.

Even so, I still have to rewrite the darn briefing for Thursday. Grrr...

[HairOfTheDog]

NEWS FROM TORN!

Mystery Towers Video Clip!
4/15/03, 8:58 am EST - Demosthenes

An anonymous spy dropped this little gem into our mailbox just yesterday. What is it? Well, it's a short video sequence of Gandalf chatting to Aragorn about the Ring in far more depth than we've seen previously. It could be from a Two Towers EE scene, a clip from the Two Towers PS2 game, or even a snippet from RoTK - we're not quite sure yet. You will need the latest div-x codec - which you can obtain from here - to view this file, but it's a free download. [More] Spoilers! ~[I have seen this clip somewhere before, but I guess it is new to TORN. You will have to re-download the latest Divx if yours is old - Hair]

Empire Online - Early RoTK Preview
4/15/03, 6:40 am EST - Demosthenes

Empire Online has this very early preview of Return of the King on their site. No really new information, but a few olds snapshots and a quote or three about Mouth of Sauron and the Dark Lord himself from Peter Jackson that you might have forgotten about. [More]

Towers Extended Edition: Word From Jackson
4/15/03, 3:16 am EST - Demosthenes

In the most recent edition of the LoTR 'Fan Club Official Movie Magazine', an interview with PJ states that FotR EE had 32 extra minutes, and the Two Towers EE will have 43 additional minutes. That means the extended Towers will come in at 222 minutes in length - that's a whopping 24 per cent more movie! Thanks to all who reported this! [More]

[HairOfTheDog]

Whereas I've been working on this thing for weeks, the other presenters just showed up and were completely unprepared....made me look fantastic in comparison. Heh heh heh.

WOO HOO!

[RMDupree]

Thanks Hair!

Is it just me, or are the ROTK morsels being doled out painfully slow?

[Corin Stormhands]

Glad it went well. I'll bring my axe again on Thursday.

[BibChr]

Such cool snips; thanks. I know I'm going to be seeing the start, as well as the finish, through tears -- or at least slackjawed.

Dan

[HairOfTheDog]

The RoTK morsels are incredibly slow! - Very few pictures are out! - No trailer yet! - I can't even picture it at all!

I am going to be shocked and awed too Dan... I look forward to it very much! Really with the same butterflies as the first few times watching Fellowship. My mood was muted for TTT because I knew it wasn't going to end, and that my favorite parts were yet to come!

[RMDupree]

Way to go, Lil' freeper!

*grinning*

[RMDupree]

I can't wait for the first teaser! FMM!!