The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth (PC DVD)

The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-Earth will give gamers the first chance to play the epic battles they've witnessed in Peter Jackson's films. Fans will be able to immerse themselves in Middle-Earth and experience The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy like never before, including controlling the evil side of the conflict.
The Battle for Middle-Earth utilizes the Generals game engine, and in the game players can select from the different "good" or "evil" campaigns, where they will be given the freedom to command a variety of major armies from the films, each with their own distinct strengths and weaknesses. Prepare for war by creating offensive and defensive strategies set in the memorable battle locations taken straight from the big screen. The Battle for Middle-Earth RTS game will utilize the digital assets created for the films and will feature exclusive voiceover from the real actors as well as actual movie footage from the three films.

Minimum System Requirements
OS Windows 2000/ XP
Processor 1.3GHz
Memory 256MB
Hard drive 3.5GB
DVD-Rom 8X speed
Video Card 32MB direct 3D
Sound card DirectX 9.0b compatible
DirectX DirectX 9.0b
 

Considering what a huge hit their existing titles have been for them, no one is more upset than Electronic Arts that The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy has finally ended. The games go on though and The Battle for Middle-Earth is a radical departure from the previous action titles, in that it's a real-time strategy game derived from Electronic Arts' hit Command & Conquer series.

As such the game simulates the entire world of Middle-Earth with designs based exactly on those from the movies. In fact enormous efforts have been made to make the game as cinematic as possible with numerous cut scenes and a cleverly streamlined interface. The latter not only makes the game look more visually interesting than other strategy games, with its huge animated map of Middle-Earth and game options only becoming available when you hover your mouse over buildings and units, but also makes sure it as accessible as possible for those unused to playing such games.

The graphics help too and the recreations of the battles at Helm's Deep and Minas Tirith, for example, really do look just like the films, with individual troops reacting realistically to the battle, with human soldiers hesitating in the face of huge trolls and balrogs or cheering and celebrating when defeating a band of orcs. So even if you're usually put off by this sorting of thing, thinking it either too complicated or boring, The Battle for Middle-Earth should appeal to just about everyone except confirmed Tolkien haters. --David Jenkins