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LOTR demo now on XBL

By Tim Surette, GameSpotPosted Jul 13, 2006 4:03 pm PT

[UPDATE] Gamers get a taste of war with the single- and multiplayer demo for EA's Battle for Middle-earth II on the Xbox 360.

No Xbox 360 owner is going to complain that there are too many demos available for download over Xbox Live Marketplace. Apparently Electronic Arts also believes that there can't be too many demos either, as the publisher continues to roll out demos of each 360 game it has on store shelves, and even one that hasn't yet made it to retail.

That trend continues, as GameSpot News has learned that a demo for Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth II is scheduled to be released Thursday, July 13. The exact time of its availability has not yet been announced.

[UPDATE] The demo is now available for download over Xbox Live. The size of the file is 848.84MB.

The trial will feature both single- and multiplayer and will take gamers into the War in the North campaign. Console real-time strategy games will likely be unfamiliar to most, so EA has included a tutorial to show players how to use the 360's controller to direct their legions.

The single-player portion of the demo will feature the first mission in the evil campaign and will have players siege an elven stronghold. The multiplayer portion offers one-on-one battles over Xbox Live, pitting elven and goblin armies against each other.

The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth II was released last week, is rated T for Teen, and retails for $59.99. For more information on the game, check out GameSpot's full review.

88 Comments

  • blink-jfg

    Posted Jul 25, 2006 9:07 am PT

    This Game Looks Great And Even Better Its On 360

  • DaemonRacer

    Posted Jul 24, 2006 9:49 pm PT

    The first game for my 360

  • zidura

    Posted Jul 24, 2006 4:06 pm PT

    "Where are the short cuts to army groups? Where are the formations? Indeed the control system is simple enough but it doesn't inlude all aspects of RTS games and it is higly inaccurate compare to a keyboard and mouse setup."

    Rob76, the game includes all these controls just with simple button combinations (like RB plus A to select all of a certain type of unit on screen). It's only a matter of learning the buttons, which you would do with just about any console game anyways, and in fact, many PC games.

    Admittedly, it's not quite as intuitive as keyboard and mouse at first, but after playing for about 3 or 4 hours I have pretty much all the controls memorized to the point that i don't have to think about them. The controls Rob76 said are missing are demonstrated in the advanced controls tutorial.

    I enjoy playing the game on the 360 and I have the game for my PC as well. I just find that playing people on XBOX live with my widescreen TV and home theatre is a little more enjoyable.

    Why fight it? If you don't like it, don't buy it. I like it and plenty of others do too.

  • Proctar

    Posted Jul 21, 2006 5:12 pm PT

    Well im sure as hell not gonna wait 10+ hours to dl it.
    USA -245 Aust-0

  • nadir_emperor

    Posted Jul 20, 2006 2:41 pm PT

    hey guys ,,,,,do we have to pay to play this demo ????

  • rob76

    Posted Jul 20, 2006 11:28 am PT

    So much has been made about its innovative and supposedly functional control system.Enough of all this. RTS games can only be played with a keyboard and mouse. Where are the short cuts to army groups? Where are the formations? Indeed the control system is simple enough but it doesn't inlude all aspects of RTS games and it is higly inaccurate compare to a keyboard and mouse setup. Try picking any particular unit from a huge army in the heat of battle to trigger some special weapon!

    I just don't understand why developers don't implement a keyboard and mouse interface for specific games. It would cost them much less and prove much more effective.

  • Orague

    Posted Jul 20, 2006 7:26 am PT

    I like but it better for pc
    i realy didn't like it too hard controling it

  • cr250bronco

    Posted Jul 19, 2006 1:22 pm PT

    game downloaded no problem, couldn't tell you how long it took since i went to sleep, started downloading at around 1am. the gameplay is great!!!! never been into these types of games but i've played and betten the demo about 6-7 times now!!! lol can't afford the game.

  • mnash9926

    Posted Jul 18, 2006 6:29 pm PT

    Most Outstanding!

  • master_orion

    Posted Jul 14, 2006 12:03 pm PT

    ONLINE good
    oflline has fps drops

    neat game fun online!
    exept the fact that some1 just raped me ^^

  • Jrugh

    Posted Jul 14, 2006 11:03 am PT

    The Xbox Live Portion of the Demo isn't working. I keeps saying "connecting to EA servers," but never connects! But I am connected to XBL (doesn't make sense) I have deleted it and re-downloaded it, but I am still have the same problem. Anybody else having this problem with the demo?

  • s0l0123

    Posted Jul 14, 2006 10:28 am PT

    I think this will be a failure like Starcraft 64.

  • IROCNV35

    Posted Jul 14, 2006 9:42 am PT

    Downloads are a little slow ...but mine took about 1 hr...in the mean time i played another game and did some things around the house....presto!! its ready so ......im not complaining ...as long as the online gameplay is good...

  • juvinwo1

    Posted Jul 14, 2006 8:38 am PT

    I dled it, just havent had the time to play it yet

  • grave_rob

    Posted Jul 14, 2006 7:50 am PT

    didn't impress me. felt like a wc3 ripp with a dash of oldschool command & conquer. the terrain looked nice, but the unit models were unimpressive considering it's on the 360...

    plus it just doesn't feel right playing an RTS with a gamepad verses a mouse.

  • rynmls

    Posted Jul 14, 2006 3:23 am PT

    its for 360 i only have ps2...

  • jahnee

    Posted Jul 13, 2006 8:30 pm PT

    i doesn't work for me. It says after 20 seconds of dowloading "This demo could not be downloaded"

  • ZosoFan

    Posted Jul 13, 2006 5:46 pm PT

    Thats because a lot of people are downloading the demos at the same time

  • Thakingk05

    Posted Jul 13, 2006 5:43 pm PT

    It takes to long to download on xbox live now. So Forget about it. NCAA Football was on 1% so long last night I gave up on downloading stuff.

  • ZosoFan

    Posted Jul 13, 2006 5:42 pm PT

    Market place is on a roll! And im lovin it!

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