War of the Ring now for 2003

As common as it is to see game release schedules change, it's very rare for a game to ship well ahead of schedule. But that's just what Vivendi Universal Games has announced will happen with War of the Ring, saying that "the game is looking so good that the ship date has been moved from the first quarter of 2004 to this holiday."

War of the Ring is a real-time strategy game set in the Lord of the Rings universe in development at Liquid Entertainment, the studio that created Battle Realms. The game features many of the primary characters in the Tolkien novels, and it includes Aragorn and Legolas as playable hero units. For more on the game, check out our previous coverage.