Two new Lord of the Rings games released by EA

IN A MOVE that's sure to do wonders for its reputation as license pimping hoes, EA Games has announced today that it has acquired the rights to make a bunch of new Lord of the Rings games based off of the books this time, which should sit well with their already garnered licences to make games based off of the films (…Yes, there's a difference - Legal Ed.)

“Now that we are expanding our Lord of the Rings universe to encompass Tolkien's books, we'll be able to combine the visual impact of the films with those complex stories,” said Steve Gray, Executive Producer of The Lord of the Rings Tactics, one of the new titles announced, at EA. “The RPG genre, in particular, is a great medium for story telling. We are delving into unexplored depths of Tolkien's works to deliver new, compelling and immersive experiences.”

To go with this EA will be releasing two new games. The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II is a sequel real-time strategy game based off of the films which will have to make up a lot of ground on its predecessor to actually bother to be good this time.

The second game tentatively entitled “The Lord of the Rings: Tactics” is based off the literary license and will be for the PlayStation Portable. The game will put players in the universe of Middle-earth from the books and films and allow them to lead the Fellowship or take control of the forces of Shadow. If anyone knows what that is, please put the answer on the back of a postcard and send it in.

We await the dawn to see if EA will change its tack with licensed games and produce half-decent ones instead of forcing an army of chain-smoking monkeys to do half assed jobs for them. After all, hands up who can remember what happened to the Star Wars franchise until fairly recently when Lucasarts copped on and started getting decent developers to produce decent licensed games?