Cashing in on some Oscar buzz, Aspyr Media Inc. announced that its Mac conversion of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King has reached its Beta development milestone. The game is coming this April.
The third person action/adventure game recreates the final events depicted in The Return of the King as players assume the role of the heroes determined to put an end to Sauron and his plans to control Middle-Earth. You can play as eight different characters including Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, Frodo and others as you explore twelve environments reproduced from the films. The Return of the King also features cooperative multiplayer modes that lets multiple players work together to defeat Sauron.
The Return of the King is already available for multiple platforms from Electronic Arts, but Aspyr is bringing the game to the Mac. Aspyr’s development partner for The Return of the King is Beenox, with whom the company has previously collaborated to bring recent installments of Tony Hawk Pro Skater, Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness, Kelly Slater Pro Surfer and Wakeboarding Unleashed Featuring Shaun Murray.
The Return of the King, the third and final installment of Peter Jackson’s adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic fantasy series, walked away with 11 Oscars during Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony — winning in every category in which it was nominated. On Monday, Apple announced that Weta Digital, the special effects house responsible for producing the effects for the movies, relied upon Shake, Apple’s own compositing and effects software, for some of its work.
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