The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Xbox)

Graphics:
Stunning. Ash and sparks float gracefully down to a body-strewn battlefield. Spray from a trolls mouth as it pushes a siege tower over rubble and corpses...the smoke and flames flicker perfectly against a mountainous backdrop. Up to sixty characters on screen at once, arrows and spells being hurled through the air. Richly detailed characters with realistic movement. Superbly detailed flora and fauna. Amazing.

Gameplay:
Great! Massive interactive environments. See a spear in the ground? Pick it up and hurl it through an unsuspecting U'ruk Hai's chest. Watch him flounder around before collapsing in a heap. Need to access the top of that wall? Cut the rope of a trebuchet and watch the building collapse as a two tonne rock crushes it. Many enemies approaching the gate of a wall, where you are currently defending? Kick a vat of burning oil over and watch the effect.
Ladders, ballistae, spears, ropes and many more objects can be interacted with. Sure the game is all killing and maiming, but it is great, and addicting!

Music:
It's Lord of the Rings! What more could you want? Excellent tunes to go with an excellent game.

Lifespan:
If you have a friend and two gamepads...many hours, days inf fact. I've had it for a nearly a week and I show no signs of giving up yet. With a friend...oh, months. There are fifteen main levels that follow the different characters paths throughout the adventure, but when you complete it, you unlock a load of stuff and can replay any level with any character.

Unlock new abilities - turn Legolas's puny elvish arrows into mythril killing-machines. Become able to destroy a shielded enemy, knock him to the ground and finish him off, all in three buttons!

For one player, it is the same length, but even harder as having two humans are better than one. Except now you get continues from checkpoints dotted around the levels.

Difficulty:
Game difficulty - Actual difficulty
Easy - Hard
Normal - Really Hard
Hard - Hard Hard

Graphics: 9/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Music : 10/10
Lifespan: 10/10

This game has great graphics, music, gameplay and great replayablity. Overall it gets a 9/10 (Which is essentially 4.5 stars, but four didn't justify it!) It would get the golden ten if you are like me and love killing. If you wish for a more strategy related challenge, this could get repetitve.

Like killing? 10
Not so keen? 9

Either way, an essential purchase. Oh yeah, thanks to the X-box there are very few loading screens. Maybe four seconds for each one, which only occurs between levels.....get it!

You get the opportunity to choose your path, be it the path of the wizard, king or hobbits, and progression unlocks addtional features, as in the first game.

Once again footage from the films has been used which seemlessly puts you right in the heat of battle. From the epic opening scenes, this game grabs you by the throat and doesnt let go. The opportunity to play as Gandalf, Frodo & Sam as well the staple characters (Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli) is a welcome one....particularly when it comes to Gandalf, who's a lot harder than he looks.

As in the first game you earn experience points for well executed moves and combos, and you then get chance to 'spend' the experience points on upgrades and levelling up your character in the true tradition of rpg's.

The graphics, some of which use actual models from the movies, sound, once again using actors voices, gameplay and maps have all been improved and a special mention has to go to the co-operative gameplay option which is pure genius. You also have the opportunity to interact a lot more with the environment which could mean anything from launching flaming catapults to throwing spears or climbing up and down battlements to access different levels of an area.

Electronic Arts have had full support and collaboration from the movie makers and it shows. Ok, so its a hack 'n' slash at heart, but one with balls and so much style its hard to beat.

My only complaint, if you can call it that is that there are major spoilers from the new movie, but if you can see beyond that, what you have is easily one of the best action games of the year.

I enjoyed this the most when I finished it and then went back playing with the unlocked characters, building up their special abilities. This is a good game, and an improvement on The Two Towers, but could have been a lot better.