Electronic Arts is bringing its PC RTS title Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-Earth II to Xbox 360. "An RTS on a console?!" you exclaim in bewilderment, I'm sure, but it actually works pretty well. Westwood co-founder Louis Castle is at the helm, and I recently spent some time with the game to see what this wacky endeavor is all about.

Real-time strategy games haven't exactly had the most illustrious life on consoles. 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. A team from Electronic Arts LA, headed up by Louis Castle, is looking to change that. 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. 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. 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.