EA To Redesign Lord of the Rings RTS For Xbox 360

Electronic Arts has announced that The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth II, the real-time strategy title set for release on the PC next month, is now also headed for the Xbox 360. The Xbox 360 version, designed in-house at EA Los Angeles, features what is being touted as a unique and intuitive control scheme by the studio's Vice President of Creative Development, Westwood co-founder Louis Castle. "People will want to say, 'this is a port,' and well, it is and it isn't," Louis Castle told Gamasutra in an exclusive interview. "It's actually a re-imagining of the core compulsions that the PC games had, and in a way that's inherently intuitive to a console controller. It's a huge undertaking, and we've got a fairly large team working around the clock to make it a quality product." The exact details of this new control scheme have yet to be revealed, nor has the proposed release date, and EA is remaining tight-lipped for the time being. "We're not treating it as a mouse, it doesn't have a big complex display, it really is native to what you think of with camera movement and navigation for a console game," continued Castle. "And I can leave you to imagine from there." Additionally, the game will feature Xbox Live support, including voice over IP and a number of Xbox 360-exclusive modes, including FPS-favorites "Capture the Flag" and "King of the Hill," though in a real-time strategy setting. You can read the entirety of the interview, including further gameplay details, screenshots, and a philosophical discussion of invoking human emotion through gameplay, exclusively on Gamasutra (no registration required, please feel free to link to the article from external websites).