He and his team started from scratch, trying to devise a comfortable and ubiquitous way to play a real-time strategy game on a console, rather than simply trying to port an existing RTS over right off the bat. This is all a tall order to bring to a console, but Castle explained that the crucial issue of accessible control is something with which EA LA has been grappling long before it was decided to bring this particular game to Microsoft's next generation platform. It is of the universally recognized resource-gathering, army-building real-time strategy segment, and is populated with a wide range of unit types and environments, including powerful hero units. Broad in scope, Battle for Middle-Earth II has campaign sets for both the good and evil factions, tied together with a Risk-style tactical game between missions.
#LOTR BATTLE FOR MIDDLE EARTH 2 XBOX ONE LICENSE#
(Devout Lord of the Rings fans may recall that the Tolkien book license was previously held by Vivendi.) This allows the games to feature locations and battles from the entire Middle-Earth mythos, while still capitalizing on the popular and easily recognizable visual style of the films.
As Castle was quick to point out, the games make use of EA's extensive Lord of the Rings license, which now includes both Tolkien's original source material as well as Peter Jackson's recent films.
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The first two iterations of EA LA's Battle for Middle Earth series has been well received on PC. At a recent Microsoft event, I had the chance to get a demo from Castle and some brief hands on time with the game to see how this ambitious effort is shaping up. EA LA is bringing The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II, currently a PC-only real-time strategy title, to Xbox 360. Castle has plenty of know-how in the real-time strategy realm, being a co-founder of Westwood Studios, the studio responsible for the legendary Command & Conquer franchise. A team from Electronic Arts LA, headed up by Louis Castle, is looking to change that. While console first person shooters have managed to overcome their analog stick roadblocks largely by piggybacking on the insane popularity of a few key games, the versatility and speed of a mouse has never really been adequately reproduced in a console RTS. Real-time strategy games haven't exactly had the most illustrious life on consoles.