Seeing as Richard has already checked-in with a review for the version of this game I am going to skip past any preliminaries, past any game description, past anything that would be covering the same ground. Instead I'm going to be quick and nasty and just cover what differences you can expect if you pick up the version over the 'Cube.

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Well the first thing I would recommend any PC owner grab is a gamepad. As the game was developed for gamepads that is just what you are going to need to get the best out of the combat system. Having said this the keyboard controls work just fine, with the only problem being pain and cramps from prolonged key-mashing. has done a good job converting RoTK for the PC and there are plenty of options to choose from. All the keys can be remapped, resolutions and sounds set. Unfortunately there aren't any finer controls over the graphics settings as the game does tend to suffer from slowdown when the particle effects kick in.

Naturally it is in the graphics department that the PC version stands head and shoulders above its more compact and cheaper cousins. The amazing graphics really stand out well in higher resolutions and with the detail that only a monitor can provide. As a result you can really appreciate the great work that has been done on populating the levels and making them not just absorbing to play through but interesting to look at as well. Unfortunately we can see just how poor the level of texturing is on console games as no effort has been made to up their resolution for the transfer to the PC. Seeing as such a fine job was done on the rest of the conversion and the muddiness of some textures, particularly all those of the character models, it is a real shame that EA didn't go the whole hog and give us some top class detailing to truly make the console owners weep into their toys. While this is a wasted opportunity it may well have been made as a concession to speed. The game runs fine on a medium spec machine at 1024x768, but as I've said special effects will slow it down. Some of the larger levels also get a little sluggish but fortunately the number of characters on screen seems to have little noticeable effect on speed so combat remains a pleasingly vicious and frenetic affair.

The sounds also deserves special mention as they are great. Hearing the actors bellow out warrior cries as the sound of Orc arrows whistles past your head while the glorious score pulses around you and all in sumptuous 5.1 really gets the blood pumping. Combine the sonics with the visuals and we have what is probably the best transfer of cinematic material to another medium yet witnessed. While you play the game you are as close as is possible to being in the film itself. The lands of Middle Earth truly come alive in this game and as all the art is identical to those in the the extensions of locales from the movies feel authentic. This helps to make this game a worthy addition to the Middle Earth world as envisioned by Jackson and his cohorts in the artistic sense. And it does a great job in its other role as a marketing tool. A few shots when the game arrived and my desire to see the last film passed so far the thermometer popped.

Like all versions of the game you should only play it through if you have seen the last film as the game quickly takes you through the events portrayed within. There's a co-op mode but unfortunately this requires the both of you to sit round the one PC and totally ignore this networking thing that some PCs are rumoured to be capable of. Loading times can stretch a bit and the fact that you can't skip any movies or cut-scenes the first time round may irk with some, but the quality of these interludes is of such high standard only someone who was regularly picked on at school for being too weird will have a problem. As to be expected there is no quick-save option. While the checkpoints and auto-saves work really quite well this is a bloody hard game so I often found myself wishing for some functionality on the old F6 key.

This PC conversion has a few niggling that could have been sorted out with some more time (probably at a premium), and money (definitely not an issue here), but none of them come close to spoiling what is the most enjoyable film license since Blade Runner. It does get a bit repetitive gameplay-wise but there are so many unlockable features, from characters to cast interviews and art galleries that if the idea of rampaging around Tolkien's world cleaving the minions of Mordor in two isn't enough then there's still more than enough incentive to hack your way through the whole game at least once.

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By Sam Gibson