Lord Of The Rings : Battle For Middle Earth II

Now I'm not going into any great depth with this review, as there are plenty of reviews out there for you.

What I will do is note anything that I think gamers should be aware of, that sometimes get 'omitted' from reviews because they aren't favourable.

First of all, this is a polished presentation. The cut scenes and story delivery fit in well with the theme and the whole Tolkien essence.

However, if you have not got this linked to a hi-def screen, you may find the graphics a little wanting, and there is terrible slowdown when a large battle is playing out on screen.

The controls are intuitive and fit in well with using the 360 controller. It will take a few games to get wholly used to it, but it isn't as complicated as it could have been.

Another suggestion is save often! There is an autosave feature with this game, and if you complete a mission without completing all the objectives, you do not get the option to re-try. So on this nugget, save often.

Its been suggested once at the start of the level, and once when roughly half the objectives have been completed. I'd concur! In fact, this should be standard procedure for all gamers, as it will reduce the frustration factor of certain games to an insignificant hiccup in the gaming proceedings.

Can I just mention that although I am primarily interested in online gaming, I do understand that sometimes you want a pleasurable single player experience, and this is often overlooked when reviewing games. I'll attempt to alleviate that problem in the future.

There are 3 game modes. Single Player, Multiplayer (on LiVE) and Skirmish.

The achievements are unlocked by completing all game modes, so unless you are connected to LiVE, you are not going to get the full 1,000 gamerpoints.

As I am only renting this title, I am going to play Single Player (Both Good and Evil) then send it back for a new gaming experience.

Overall, it's your typical RTS (Real Time Strategy) with resource management thrown in. If you have played and enjoyed Rise Of Nations, Age Of Empires or even Civilisation 4, you will probably enjoy this.

Not overly difficult, with a nice steady learning curve. Plus it's set in the Tolkien world, what more could you ask for in a game!

I've always thought that RTS games should be confined to the PC as it lends itself more to this type of game, and after playing this, I still feel the same.

Although it's not a bad game, it's neither a groundbreaking title either. Rent, don't buy!