• Real--time strategy game based on the Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
• Fight on either the side of good or evil by commanding one of four groups.
• Control massive armies across the vast world of Middle--Earth.
• Create new heroes and customise the abilities and powers.
• Single player and online massively multiplayer modes.

Product Description ------------------- The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth for PC comes from the team that created the award-winning real-time strategy (RTS) PC hits Commander & Conquer Red Alert 2 and Command & Conquer Generals. The Battle for Middle-earth captures the epic battles from The Lord of the Rings films. The game uses the Generals engine, and players can select from "good" or "evil" campaigns, where they're given the freedom to command a variety of major armies from the films, each with distinct strengths and weaknesses. It uses the digital assets created for the films and features exclusive voiceover from the real actors as well as movie footage from the films. .co.uk Review ------------- 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 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