EA has announced that they will bring their fantasy strategy title, The Battle for Middle Earth II to Xbox 360. The Battle for Middle Earth 2 comes out for PC in February, building on the success of the original. The Xbox 360 version will see a revamp to suit the console controller and will feature Xbox Live multiplayer, bringing serious strategy gaming to the home console for the first time. (No, we're not going to count Starcraft for N64 as a legitimate effort.)
The Battle for Middle Earth series puts gamers in charge of the massive armies of Middle Earth and recreates the many gargantuan battles from the films. The real-time strategy gameplay is augmented in the second incarnation of the franchise, which adds a new Living World Map aspect to the gameplay. This element adds a "Risk-like" quality to Battle for Middle Earth II.
Additional improvements this time out include more playable races (Elves, Dwarves, and Goblins have been added) and naval battles. Those inclusions should expand the game significantly. To further personalize armies, players can now also customize their heroes, which should go nicely with the highly individualized nature of Xbox Live.
The Battle for Middle Earth II should hit Xbox 360 during the Summer of 2006. Please note that the screens below are from the PC version of The Battle for Middle Earth II.