Updated patches for The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II are now available, updating the fantasy strategy game to version 1.06. The update fixes an online lobby issue.

New patches for The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth 2 are now available, updating the fantasy strategy game to v1.05. The patch offers some bug fixes and a ton of balancing changes.

Turbine sent over an email announcing that Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar has finally reached beta status. People interested in testing can sign up at this location if you're in North America, or here if you're in Europe.

GameSpy and IGN have posted their own Rise of the Witch-king previews, checking out this expansion pack for The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II.

There's a The Battle for Middle-earth II: The Rise of the Witch-King preview on GameSpot this evening, checking out this upcoming strategy game expansion pack. Also included is a video interview with producer Amir Rahimi.

The Lord of the Rings Online website has been updated, offering a new development diary on crafting in the game. Thanks Blues News.

Turbine sends along a new Lord of the Rings Online video, showing four minutes of high def footage from their MMORPG. The company has also announced that the game has hit alpha, and they're still accepting beta testing signups.

The official Lord of the Rings Online development diary has been updated, offering a new development diary. This installment deals with the game's raids. Thanks Blues News.

IGN wastes no time and has the first Q&A on the newly announced Rise of the Witch-king expansion for Battle for Middle-Earth 2. Producer Amir Rahimi talks about the singleplayer campaign, the source material for the new content, the new Angmar faction , and additions to the War of the Ring mode and the Create-a-Hero feature.

Electronic Arts issued this press releaes, announcing that The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II - The Rise of the Witch-king (working title), is in development. The expansion pack is due out this winter and promises to "enhance every existing feature" in the game.

Full of exciting content, including an entirely new faction, completely new single player campaign, and additional units for all six existing factions, The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth II, The Rise of the Witch-king, allows players to explore the evil side of Middle-earth. The all new single player campaign's innovative units will help to tell the story of the evil Witch-king's rise to power, domination of Angmar and invasion of the great kingdom of Arnor, home to Aragorn's ancestors. To fully experience the evil side of Middle-earth, gamers can now play as the Angmar faction in skirmish, multiplayer, and War of the Ring modes.

It's taken a while, but an SDK is now available for EA's Lord of the Rings strategy game sequel Battle for Middle-Earth II. The SDK download includes a 3DS Max 7 Autodesk plugin, W3D Viewer and Asset Cache Builder, along with documentation and tutorials.

Computer Games Online has the second part of a Lord of the Rings Online Q&A, asking producer Jeffrey Steefel more about this upcoming MMORPG. Topics include in-game events, standout features, use of fellowships and update plans.

Computer Games Online is the latest site with a Lord of the Rings Online Q&A. Executive producer Jeffrey Steefel talks about working with the popular franchise, the general storyline, races, weapons and the environments. There's more on GameZone, where they have a recap of a recent IRC chat on the game.

There's not much rest for the employees at MMORPG developer Turbine. Having released Dungeons & Dragons Online earlier this year, the company is now getting ready for the beta release of The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar. David had a chance to ask executive producer Jeffrey Steefel about the game.

Shack: It's been said that Angmar starts out as a single player experience. What is the storyline for this portion of the game, and how does it work? What I mean is, when do you get to start the multiplayer portion of the game, are there single player features that are not available in multiplayer, etc.

Jeffrey Steefel: LOTRO does start out as a single player experience, but only for a short time; this brief period is essentially a tutorial to help new players learn how to move around, fight, use the interface, and so on. The game mechanics are the same whether you’re in the newbie experience or in the persistent world. We definitely want to get you into the massively-multiplayer part of the world as soon as possible! The storyline is different based on your character. For instance, Men and Hobbits begin their stories in the Chetwood Forest region, while Elves begin in Rivendell and Dwarves begin at Thorin’s Halls in the Ered Luin.

The Battle for Middle Earth 2 website has a new blog entry by executive producer Mike Verdu. Verdu mentions that even with the recent announcement of the development of Command & Conquer 3, the EALA team remains commited to updates to the Lord of the Rings strategy game. A fifth patch is being worked on for release late summer, one that will be all about game balancing. "Cool new tools" for the mod community are promised as well.

EA has released a new patch for Battle for Middle Earth 2, updating the Lord of the Rings strategy game sequel to v1.04. The update fixes more desync issues and changes the Palantir button order.

Over at the Turbine website, you can now sign up to beta test the upcoming The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar. The beta program will launch this summer.

As expected, a new patch for EA's Lord of the Rings strategy game Battle for Middle-Earth 2 is now available. The 1.03 update offers new skirmish maps, game improvements, bug fixes and balancing updates.

GameSpot's E3 2006 pre-show impressions continue with this preview of Lord of the Rings Online, taking a look at this Turbine MMORPG.

This post on the EA Forums offers word that a 1.03 patch for Battle For Middle Earth 2 is being released soon. It will offer "numerous technical fixes, increased de-sync fixes, extensive balance changes, and the additon of 5 brand new multiplayer maps". A 1.04 patch is already in the works as well, to offer more comprehensive balancing changes. Thanks Blues News.