Though his review is mostly a feature list, Matt Peckham’s enthusiasm for Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II – Rise of the Witch King is contagious. Maybe even good enough, he suggests, to restore BfME2 to the top of the “Best RTS of 2006” poll. He’s absolutely right that this has been a great year for real time strategy games, but so was last year. If anyone thought this genre was stale and dead, they clearly haven’t been playing many RTS lately.

Giles Bird over at Yahoo Games gives, I think, a more complete look at the changes in the expansion and how they affect gameplay and strategy. I’ll admit to never giving the “War of the Ring” mode much more than a token play through for review purposes. The real charm is in the skirmish game.

I’m still holding out on a few other reliable opinions – when you read as many reviews as I do, you get to know who you can trust and I’m waiting on two or three strong recommendations.

Oh, who am I kidding. I’m buying this this weekend. Until Company of Heroes came along, BfME2 was my strategy game of the year. I doubt this expansion will make me revisit that opinion, but it sure will be a lot of fun online.