Lord of the Rings: The battle for Middle-Earth 2 for Windows

This is not a game that I myself purchased; my friend bought me a copy so we could play multiplayer. How awesome is that?
About getting used to the game play; well it's a lot like Age of Empires II with respect to the controls, except more advanced in some respects.
For those of you that have been living under a rock and have not played Age of Empire II, the inputs (commands are mostly mouse based). There are some keyboard shortcuts, but one need not learn the keyboard shortcuts to enjoy playing the game. Grab some coffee before beginning a multiplayer game though because in the game the economics are simplified compared to Age II and the multiplayer mode tends to move pretty fast from the beginning into full fledged combat.
It's not a good idea to try playing this one with a laptop track pad; it will slow down game play considerably. It differs from Microsoft's Age II in that the camera angle is not fixed, and that graphics, as one other reviewer noted, are quite exceptional. One can zoom in and find a lot of detail, although the graphics are somewhat cartoonish in my opinion.
The "special effects" in particular are quite a neat source of eye candy. Certainly a far cry from Age II's 2D graphics, though the game does have specific system requirements that are somewhat "power hungry" in terms of system requirements. Please be sure to check the system requirements before purchasing this game, and if you are running an older system you need not apply for admission to the LOTHR II club.
Although I didn't buy this game, it is certainly one that I would recommend purchasing, since it's available in some places for the bargain basement price of only $10. It nice of EA games to follow the basic rules of economics; they're obviously willing to sell large quantities of games for quite reasonable prices. They obviously did their Economics homework.
I love the fact that this game plays very much like my favorite strategy game of all time, Age of Empires. I love the graphics and the game play is quite interesting. I think the online play is especially a challenge, but there are some significant differences between Age of Empires II and Lord of the Rings. The game seems to move faster than Age of Empires, economics and resource collection is simplified, and the battles take precedence over Age II's propensity towards economics and micromanagement.
There are many "special powers" available which gives it an edge over the older and more dated Age of Empires II, and this is certainly a great game with great visual effects. (The special powers depend on which faction you choose, there are good and evil powers; for example: summon giant eagles, floods, etc.).
There isn't much to hate about this game except that I think the game play moves rather fast, and it is a challenging game to play online because people seem to attack almost right away, (like 5 or 10 minutes into the game). I rather prefer Age of Empires II's isolation provided probably provided simply by the way the game was programmed. In my opinion strategy games are not meant to take place too quickly necessarily. Strategy requires thought and that doesn't necessarily happen all that quickly. That is purely my opinion of what a strategy game should be, and it should also include plenty of room to play around. In most game modes this game provides that freedom.
In conclusion I have played this game a number of times and I still like it, although the novelty has somewhat worn off more quickly than Age of Empires II. That is to be expected because the basic premise of the game is nothing new, which is why I compare it to one of the greatest strategy games of all time (Age II). I played Age II for years before adopting this interpretation of what a strategy game should be, but I still recommend Lord of the Rings II.