Among the games EA was showing off at Hot Summer Night, were two LotR games, The Third Age, and Battle for Middle Earth. While we didn't get the chance to go in depth with BfME, we did get a chance with The Third Age, and came away plesantly surprised.

As some back information on the game, The Third Age(TTA for short) is designed as a traditional, turn-based console RPG, and has the player romping through Middle Earth in what’s best described as an original story. While it will be coming out for several platforms, for this case, everything we describe will be based on our impressions of the PS2 version, although the GC and Xbox versions should be nearly identical.