Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II for Xbox 360 Reviews by Gamers

I'm a long-time fan of RTS games, and I played the PC-based Age of Empires and Command & Conquer series for many years. And I'm instantly hooked on LOTR for Xbox 360. Finally, someone (EA) figured it out, and they did a very nice job.

Using a controller is slower and more tedious than the keyboard-mouse combo of PC games, but EA did as well as you could hope for on their 1st attempt. Be patient -- learning all those shortcut keys on PC games isn't so easy at first, either. After just a few games, you'll be right-bumper-A selecting units like it's 2nd nature.

It could use some improvements, sure. The framerate gets sticky sometimes, and even though they've done a nice job with the controls, there's still some room for improvement there.

The armies (six to choose from) and units are pretty well balanced, and each army has it's own unique units and powers. The games are fast-paced, and geared more toward military strategy and epic battles than economy and micro-management.

Overall, they did an excellent job, considering it is the first of this genre - a much needed and desired genre - for the 360. I've played about 10 games since renting it, and with each game, I like it more. I find it funny how some of the reviews give it a rating of 3 or 4, because the graphics aren't superb and the framerate gets sticky. THOSE are good reasons to rate a game at 3?! When it's the first successful RTS, and the gameplay itself is fantastic?

If you're an RTS fan and, like me, you've migrated from PC to console gaming exclusively, you should definitely rent LOTR. Like me, you'll probably end up buying it.