I know what some of you are thinking. You're all, "Here it is. EA is slapping The Lord of the Rings on a Japanese-style role-playing game (RPG). There's no way an American developer can do this right." And while The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age does indeed appear to be Final Fantasy X-3: Gimli's Adventures, it's shaping up to be a really strong RPG that makes excellent use of the source material. Furthermore, the team behind it contains several ex-Square talents. There's a very good chance that The Third Age will be one of the best Japanese-style RPGs made by westerners.


The Third Age takes place concurrently with the events in the movies. Many of the major events and battles in the movies also happen in the game. There are also plenty of nifty crossover occurrences that have a more subtle tie in. For example, your party will face off against the Nazgul that were swept away in a rush of water by Arwen during The Fellowship of the Ring.