![]() ![]() I can give this Chrome Experiment some allowances, because I didn’t fully understand what it was supposed to be, so I can’t rightly compare it to something that it’s not. However, this Chrome Experiment has since redeemed itself a little by releasing those last two. When I first heard that this “map” had finally been released, only the first three locations were unlocked, so having only viewed those first three, I was prepared to write an even more scathing article about it (which would have been possible), because I particularly thought that the first three interactive features were very lame. Lake-Town: by clicking, holding, and releasing, you do some bow-and-arrow target practice.Thranduil’s Hall: by clicking and dragging, you view a rather cool interactive epic story.Dol Guldur: by pressing arrow keys, you move around until a flash appears.Rivendell: by moving your mouse, you make plants turn green and grow.The Trollshaws: by pressing arrow keys, you evade capture by the trolls.Some of these interactive features are better than others: Each location is comes with pictures from the movie, short video clips, information about the location and characters that can be found there, narration, and lastly an interactive game or story. There are six locations that you can zoom in on for further exploration (though only five are open right now-the sixth, the Lonely Mountain, is locked). However, I should give the map some credit. So, really, this map only shows half of Middle-Earth. Actually, no Gondor or Mordor whatsoever. Because of this, the map doesn’t go any farther south than Helm’s Deep. ![]() Keep in mind, this map was made to help publicize the upcoming second Hobbit movie-the Desolation of Smaug-not the Lord of the Rings. Regions are labeled, but very few villages or towns-Hobbiton, Bywater, and Bree are all there, as well as Lake-Town. The detail in this map, compared with LOTRO’s in-game map, is totally laughable.Allow me to express my disappointment in bullet points: Instead, it is merely a souped-up map-like experience that is only viewable through the Google Chrome browser. As a Google Chrome experiment, it’s not something that is viewable through Google Maps. Now that this Middle-Earth map has finally come to fruition, I realize that I was wrong. I thought, especially since Google was in the process of revamping Google Maps at the time, that it would be an extension of Google Maps-a fully explorable, zoom-in-able, navigable map of Middle-Earth. When Google announced its forthcoming map of Middle-Earth during the I/O conference in May, I guess I wasn’t paying close attention to what this map would really entail. An online map would be much more convenient. It’s too daunting a task for just me.įurthermore, I have to start up the game to open the map. ![]() It’s a very detailed map, and we can hope that it is accurate to the books, but I’m not about to put in the research to find out what is and what isn’t. The best map that I have of Middle-Earth currently resides within the Lord of the Rings Online video game, and even then, it’s a game map, which means that it’s embellished by game features. When Google announced that they were creating a Middle-Earth map, I was frankly very excited.
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