Not so long ago, the dark lord of video-game publishers, Electronic Arts, took its mighty Lord of the Rings license and began the forging of the great games. Three games went to PS2, Xbox and GameCube. Four went to PC—three more to GameBoy Advance—and finally, one to Xbox 360. One game to rule them all.
Battle for Middle-earth II is easily the most epic of the LOTR games, but most amazing, it makes the real-time strategy formula work on a console. Because of the meticulous nature of RTS games, they tend to need the precision of a computer's mouse about as badly as Sauron needs a dose of Visine. But the control scheme on Xbox 360 lends itself to intuitive micromanagement. So whether you're sinking Orc ships with the good guys or burning down the Shire with the bad guys, these battles are almost as easy to oversee and manipulate as they are on the PC.
If you have an Xbox 360 and you like LOTR or any big-scale RTS games, you should cling to a copy of this game like Gollum clings to his favorite jewelry.
pirates of the caribbean: the legend of jack sparrow by bethesda softworks (2.5 stars)
Platform: PlayStation 2.
Rated: T.
Johnny Depp contributes original voice-work to this cockamamie fish story, which has Captain Jack describing the events of the first film from his own skewed perspective. As a result, we're occasionally treated to a humorously Jacked-up version of familiar events. Unfortunately, these few treasured moments aren't worth all the digging through hours of brainless, hack-'n'-slash button-mashing it takes to get to them.
juiced: eliminator by THQ. (3 stars)
Platform: PlayStation Portable.
Rated: T.
Last year's Juiced took you through the seedy world of illegal street races, but racing for respect and pink slips was so needlessly complicated, you spent most of your time parked. This PSP version improves on that system in every way, making it easy to set up bets and upgrade your ride with your winnings. If THQ could just make the races a little less dull, they might really have something.
tomb raider: legend by Eidos. (2.5 stars)
Platform: PlayStation Portable.
Rated: T.
When Tomb Raider made its triumphant return to consoles earlier this year, no one could deny that Lara looks great for her age. But cramming that game into a tiny PSP disc is like squeezing Lara into too tight an outfit—it just serves to highlight her flaws. Frequent losses in frame-rate make combat and driving sequences, which were already barely tolerable in the console versions, nearly unplayable.