Windows XP (£34.99 plus monthly fee)

At last we have it, the answer to the most popular MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) yet, World of WarCraft. Starting at the beginning of the first book, it allows you to create a story, with your character as the hero, parallel to the familiar events, with details that will delight LOTR obsessives.

The graphics are brilliant — the elven landscape looks like something out of the films. The fights, although sometimes too long, are interestingly choreographed, with characters acting out the moves that the player commands. The main downside is the controls, which are clunky at times.

Other players that I contacted online felt that it was a worthy successor to World of Warcraft and it seems that many WoW players are heading to Middle-earth.

After two days of playing nonstop, my feeling is that although LOTRO is graphically superior, WoW still has the edge on gameplay. Still, that the new game should stand up so well against one of the greatest games yet made is high praise indeed.

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