War of the Ring beta invitation

Vivendi Universal Games is offering orc slayers everywhere a chance to join the battle for Middle-earth early. Anyone who preorders VU's The Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring real-time strategy game through GameStop.com or EBGames.com will be allowed to participate in the game's ongoing public beta test.

Starting the night of October 8, the test will focus on multiplayer play balancing, and it will include five maps from the game. Players will be able to download the beta as soon as it goes live and will be able to talk to the developers at Liquid Entertainment via a private message board.

With the help of beta testers, VU, Liquid, and Sierra Entertainment hope to get all the, er, goblins worked out of WOTR by its November 4 release date. And with good reason--Electronic Arts' action adventure title The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King comes out the same week.

War of the Ring's official Web site has additional information.