What's new in 1.9.7
Versus
Player 1 against player 2, one on one, on one PC. Main menu > Versus.
Arenas: every level but Westfold: Weathertop, Balin's Tomb, Amon Hen, Fangorn Forest, the Gates of Moria, the Plains of Rohan, the Road to Helm's Deep, the Deeping Wall, the Breached Wall, Hornburg Courtyard, Orthanc, Orthanc's summit and the prologue. Each plays another level's music.
Heroes: Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli and Isildur; with the Extra heroes mod also the seven extra heroes and three Versus-only ones: Three versus exclusive hero's added, the Nazgul, a Shield Orc (his shield halves every blow until it breaks) and Eomer. Each cries out in his own voice.
Rounds: choose 3, 5 or 7 rounds to win. A countdown starts each round; the first to the rounds chosen wins, then a results screen (hits, damage, biggest hit, arrows on target, fastest round, awards).
Fair fights: both heroes have the same health and every move. A guard breaks after four blocks in a row, kicks knock back but do almost no damage, ranged attacks lock on to the other (a step aside dodges them), and health and ammo pickups appear each round.
Your saves stay yours: both players are at the top level for the match only. Your heroes' levels, experience and upgrades, and the extra heroes' records, are put back as they were when you leave Versus.
Devices: as for co-op (Options > Co-op Options > P1 Device / P2 Device). With P2 Bot on, the game fights player 1.
Its own menu background, results screen and sounds in the versus folder (menu_bg.bmp, results_bg.bmp, fight.wav, match_win.wav); add round_win.wav for a round won, or replace any of them with your own.
See COOP.md for the details.
Also new
Achievements: 47, for the story and for Versus/co op, noted in the corner as you earn them and listed on the F10 panel's Achievements page. They're kept in achievements.txt, only on your PC.
Impossible difficulty: past Expert, any enemy's second blow fells you. It's right of Expert on the New Game's difficulty screen, or in Options > General Options, and works in co-op too.
F10 > More: colour grading (Cinema, Rich, Shadow) and its amount, movie sharpness, pause or mute while the window is in the background, and achievements on or off.
F9 hides the HUD; F8 (or F12, Print Screen) saves a screenshot in the Screenshots folder beside the game.
Co-op
Camera: playing the levels with Camera Zoom (Options > Co-op Options) on Normal or Wide is recommended, so both heroes stay in view.
Fixes
The Breached Wall at high frame rates: fire and blasts did their damage every frame, so above 30 fps the catapults broke the gate far too fast (at 500 fps within a minute). Their damage now adds up the same at any frame rate.
Credits scroll at the same speed at any frame rate (above 30 fps they ran too fast).
Main menu: Co-op and Versus no longer get stuck when the game misses the press. Before, the menu could stay put, and the next press opened Credits or left a black screen.
Co-op: loading a co-op game no longer stops on a black screen when the window loses focus while it loads.