The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II [X360]

Real-time strategy games on consoles don't work. Along with "movie licensed games are all horrible" and "nobody likes flight sims any more," it's one of the great truths of early 21st century video gaming. But nevertheless it's a position EA is set to challenge with the Xbox 360 version of PC hit Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II. We spent some quality time with the game's multiplayer modes ahead of the game's anticipated July 5 release.

Although Battle for Middle Earth II was a sizable hit on the PC, it's certainly a strange choice for a console conversion. RTS games rely heavily on the mouse-and-keyboard interface PCs offer, and converting that to work on the 360 can't have been an easy task; although it is one that EA has faced in the past, as the original was ported to PlayStation with some success.

Mind you, Battle for Middle Earth 360 isn't quite a straight port, as a glance through the game's multiplayer modes reveals. It ships with some new modes exclusive to the platform: King of the Hill, Capture and Hold, Resource Race, and Hero vs. Hero. Appropriately, the new modes are aimed more at console-style online gaming, offering a choice of shorter, more intense experiences to go along with the traditional versus style, which is also included.

Hero vs. Hero is the most unusual of the new modes. Rather than building up a huge base and economy before starting the fight, you begin the game with a pack of powerful heroes and a single fortified building that doubles as a respawn point. The player with the strongest hero group when the clock runs down wins, so leveling up your heroes quickly is the goal. Whether you do this by harassing the local wildlife or confronting your opponents head-on is up to you.

King of the Hill and Capture and Hold will be more familiar to most gamers. Both focus on territorial control; King of the Hill includes just one area for you to fight over, whereas Capture and Hold maps have several. Again, they're over a lot faster than traditional RTS kill-em-all multiplayer fights -- much easier to squeeze into busy schedules.

Battle for Middle Earth also supports all the usual Xbox Live features, like voice communication, player rankings, and achievements. It also introduces "negative" achievements that'll present gamer point completists with an interesting quandary: do you really want to have the "In need of a lesson" or "Try a tutorial" achievements on your record? They're easy to get -- all you have to do is play badly enough -- but everyone will see your shame.