Controller Layout Revealed for the Xbox 360 Version of The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II

The controller setup has been reveleaed and briefly tested for the first RTS on the Xbox 360, The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II.

The control scheme focuses on a cross shaped reticule that remains in the center of the screen. The left stick will move the camera about the environment, while the right stick controls zoom. The key is that the reticule is context sensitive, meaning that as it highlights a certain object, the commands inherent to it will only be accessible. Highlighting an army for example would bring up move commands, attack orders, etc. The A button is used as the selection tool to select individual units, or you can simply hold down the button and highlight multiple units in a selection set. The right trigger acts as the action menu once objects are selected, in order to carry out commands. The left trigger acts as a “select all” of sorts. The right bumper button can be used to sort units by type and the left bumper is used to add/subtract individual units from the selection set. The X button jumps the camera back to a selected unit if you’ve moved about the map, and the Y button is used to activate a number of hotkey functions. Despite having only a few minutes in-hand, the control scheme was surprisingly easy to work. The real test will be seeing if this holds true throughout the long haul.

You can check out TeamXbox's coverage here, and Gamespot Xbox 360 has a bit more in-depth preview here.