I can't believe it took me this long...

Well, in order to cure my disease (Lackofelderscrollsitis), I had to find a game.
Now, this cure has manifested itself in the form of Battle for Middle-Earth II.

As a long time fan of the books, and somewhat of the movies (although they slaughtered the books. Not quite as badly as HP did with Goblet of Fire), I am eager to get into this.
What's more, it couldn't come at a better time. Instead of buying Half Life 2, I'm going to buy BFMEII with my b'day cash. Then, after I get employment later this year, I can buy Half Life, and by then, it's expansion.

So, I can't believe it took me this long to jump on the BFME bandwagon. It surprises me. I actually admit (although somewhat miserably) that I haven't had the fortune of playing the first one. Majorly, because I don't have an Xbox, and up to a point a few weeks back, a decent PC either.
So, now I can afford BFME, and also have great specs for it.

Battle for Middle Earth II sees the introduction of the Create A Hero sequence. Basically, it means you can build a custom hero, with any armour, any weapons of any of the major races in the Middle Earth tales, and also you can set your attributes (speed, strength and the like).
I plan to be a Wizard.
I've been watching a few gameplay videos, and it all looks exciting. The visuals on BFME are spectacular. The best of an RTS I've ever seen. And the unit-structure looks sound. So much variety to choose from, yet just enough to keep track of in the heat of battle.

It seems that it follows a somewhat Rome: Total War formula. In other words, you can select a large (and we're talking larger than the 12 units of WC3 and Starcraft) amount of your soldiers to forge onwards into battle against beings such as Trolls, Uruk-Hai, and goblins. Also, goblins can scale walls along with spiderlings, which have influenced me a little to the dark side. But Wizards! Can't get them on Sauron's side (as far as I know. If you can, I'm so there).
Unless you're playing as Sauron's forces (who I refer to as the Horde, as they remind me ever so much of Blizzard's Horde), in which campaign you march against the likes of dwarves and elves. Turns out the final mission is actually a siege on Rivendell (for the evil side).
Yay for evilness!

Recommended Specs:
System Requirements:
Microsoft Windows XP
PC with 1.6 Ghz equivalent or higher processor
256 MB of system RAM
512 MB of system RAM for online play with 3 or more players
6.0 GB available hard disk space
16x speed or faster CD-ROM drive
64 MB GeForce3-class video card
We will only officially support cards with ATI and Nvidia chipsets, and the Intel GMA 900 and GMA 950 products. We are not supporting the GeForce 4 MX.
Sound card with speakers or headphones
Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device
56.6 Kbps or better modem for 1v1 online play
Broadband connection for online play with 3 or more players
DirectX 9.0c or above

So, not too high end, but enough so that most computers these days can run it. My old lappy could probably run it with the visuals set to low with some small amount of success.

It is being released as a Standard Edition, but there is also a Collector's edition being released (for a measly $10 more). I am definitely getting the Collector's Edition.
It includes a "making of" of BFME2, I'm told it's likened to the Halo 2 bonus disk, where they show you what goes on at Bungie Studios with the animators and all the cool geeks etc.
It also has a lot of other bonus content, like tracks of the in-game music. I can admit with geeky pride that I actually listen to the LOTR tracks on occasion. My favourite is Concerning Hobbits actually.

Another large factor that my influence your purchase of Battle for Middle-Earth II is that... wait for it... Tom Bombadil makes an appearance. Everybody's favourite merry super-magic-benevolent-singing-overlord is making an appearance as something like a Super-Hero. He can pretty much destroy anything in his path, all the while singing and dancing. Now that's style.

How now brown cow, that's all it for today. Check back regularly.

~Hey! Come derry-dol, merry dol...