Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth (PC)

By PETER ELEY

No, there isn't a fourth Lord of the Rings volume entitled The Battle for Middle Earth.

This game is a composite of the Tolkien/Jackson trilogy and focuses on the battles, heroes and villains of Middle-earth without getting too bogged down in detail and hobbit-lore.

It is built on the acclaimed Command and Conquer Generals 3D engine, which delivers breathtaking graphics at the expense of some serious hardware. A Pentium 4 processor and a GeForce4 video card are recommended.

Trailers and screenshots from early versions of The Battle for Middle Earth are impressive, with highly detailed units fighting it out in spectacular environments based on the game, such as the mines of Moria, and Helm's Deep.

At heart though, it is a fairly conventional real-time strategy game where you gather resources and use your wealth to build more and better units.

As with Generals, you can choose from a variety of playable sides, and play the missions from a good or evil perspective, Rohan and Gondor the former and Mordor and Isengard the latter.

The good campaign follows the book to the extent that the Fellowship has to destroy the Ring, while in the evil campaigns it is captured by Sauron and Saruman.

As with most such games, sides have different strengths and weaknesses: Gondor is basically a defensive, castle-based nation while Rohan uses fast and powerful attacking units.

Saruman builds vast armies of relatively weak units, while Sauron has the might of the Nazgul as well as the walls of Mordor.

The game is due for release later this year.

EA, No rating available

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