FEEL THE `MIDDLE-EARTH' MOVE.

Byline: Redmond Carolipio Staff Writer

Strategy games aren't meant for consoles, are they?

That's the question plenty of console gamers have when it comes to real-time strategy, a genre that's forged its popularity on the PC front. These games ask the player to do things like build empires and assemble massive armies -- think of an animated game of ``Risk.''

However, these games also take a lot of time, which is why they've been tagged with a reputation for being too slow (or boring) to appeal to the trigger-happy console crowd.

Electronic Arts alters that thinking with ``The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II,'' a captivating attempt to convince console players of the ``fun'' side of strategy, and perhaps create a cross-platform success. One game to rule them all, so to speak.

This work focuses on the battles that take place during Frodo and the Fellowship's journey to Mordor to destroy the Ring. If you don't know what I'm talking about, don't worry.

Cut scenes and other narrative elements outline what your situation is, what you have to do and who you have at your disposal. You get a sense of your role in all this, as well as who the main players are. Besides, in this kind of game, it's what you do that matters and not necessarily who you are.

And in ``Battle for Middle-Earth II,'' you can do a lot. The game's single-player mode lets you pick between a good or evil campaign. Both sides have a diverse stable of unit types, ranging from standard infantry battalions to mythic creatures, like dragons and mountain giants. You can also build everything from barracks to fortresses, which visually spring from the ground, sometimes in less than a minute.

Fans will appreciate the new elf, dwarf and goblin races they can use, and all players will like the fact that the game outlines the strengths and weaknesses of each unit.

Whether you're good or evil, the campaign battles range from all-out assaults on opposing strongholds to laying some wicked smackdown on the Shire, where you can lay waste to hobbits along the way.

The game sports some outstanding visuals of Middle-Earth landscapes -- the tranquil greenness of the Shire was especially a treat for the eyes, at least before my goblin horde overran it.

What really stood out about this game to me, pretty visuals and world of options aside, was its pace. It has all the elements you'd need in a real-time strategy game, yet I didn't run into many instances where the experience felt ``long.''

Part of that deals with control. The extensive commands, menus and options are all one button push or trigger pull away, so the longer you play, the more this strategy game feels -- dare I say -- intuitive.

This kind of accessibility is right in the wheelhouse of console players, who generally like having their options one click away. You can also scan your current world map relatively quickly with the right thumbstick, as well as zoom in and out of the action.

However, one issue that pops up, even in Middle-Earth, is how the frame rate suffers in larger-scale battles. I almost expected it, considering all the elements on screen, but for the 360 I expected a little more smoothness. You'll also run into some choppiness when scrolling the map, which can get a little annoying if your forces are spread out.

I got over it, though, considering I was actually having fun trying to build defenses for a dwarfen city. I wouldn't have thought that was fun a few weeks ago -- now I can't wait to get back to it.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE BATTLE FOR MIDDLE-EARTH II - Three stars

Platform: Xbox 360.

Rated: T for Teen.

In a nutshell: The ``fun'' side of strategy.