Battle for Middle-earth II demo available now

For fans of The Lord of the Rings books and movies, there is now one demo to rule them all. The first playable demo of Electronic Arts' The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth II is now available on GameSpot.

The hefty single-player sampling (it weighs in at more than 1.3GBs) allows gamers to try their hand at the real-time strategy game's tutorial, as well as the skirmish mode on two different maps. The demo's playable factions include two of the three new races--the goblins and the dwarves.

The game is currently being developed by EA LA and is the follow-up to the well-received Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth, released in late 2004. The sequel takes advantage of EA's acquisition of the license to J.R.R. Tolkien's literary works, allowing gamers to take part in battles not shown in Peter Jackson's popular cinematic trilogy.

The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth II is rated T for Teen and will retail for $49.99 when it is released on February 28. To learn more about the game, read GameSpot's previous coverage.