Beta Test Information

Participation

If you would like to participate in the beta test for Battle for Middle Earth 2, you can do so by preordering the game from a participating retailer who is promoting the Multiplayer Beta Test Pre-Order program. Be sure to read the full instructions here!

Additional Beta Test Maps

EA Games has listened to feedback from the community and has created new maps for use in the beta test. These include a 2v2 map (both with and without the One Ring feature), and new versions of the 1v1 maps that can be played without the One Ring feature. All of the new maps and installation instructions are available here.

Troubleshooting:

Reasons for crashes (from APOC):
1. The graphic cards are below minimum spec. Users need to have a GeForce 3-class video card minimum. We are only officially supporting cards with ATI and Nvidia chipsets, and the Intel GMA 900 and GMA 950 products. We are not supporting the GeForce 4 MX (it is a lesser powerful card than our lowest supported card).

2. Graphic drivers are not up to date. Many users with the Nvidia 6600 GT card have complained about crashes in the beta test. It seems to be the most common card having issues. In most cases the main reason has been a driver update. NVIDIA’s latest drivers are version 81.98. Users with NVIDIA cards are strongly recommended to update their drivers. Anything in the 70’s are now very old drivers and can cause issues such as crashes.

Click here for Nvidia’s latest driver

For ATI cards, users should update from this link.

Beta license (from APOC):
If your user license has broken or you are getting permission denied, or if you have done any of the following while having the Beta installed, please keep reading:

Your beta license can break if…

1. Changing system time more than 15 minutes back or forth.

2. Changing any Hardware of PC like, any network card, BIOS setup, video card, formatting hard disc etc. etc. If the “Full PC Binding” is selected during wrap that means any Hardware change can break license.

3. Changing hard disc or formatting (Only if Hard Disc Binding is selected during wrap), changing other parts of hardware will not make any difference. Breaking a license will require repair transaction of that license on that specific user PC.

The easiest way to fix many of the Authentication related issue where a license is successfully installed and somehow not working, will be to delete the LOTR BFMEII Beta license file B4266000.DAT file and then retry to Authenticate from server again. This should work. To delete B4266000.DAT, search in hard disc drive. Most probably it will be found at:

C: \\Documents and Settings\\All Users\\Application Data\\Electronic Arts\\EA Games