Battle for Middle-earth I and II were two excellent RTS games in which the armies of Tolkien’s iconic fantasy setting vie for supremacy, with the assistance of hero units from the books and films. The strategy games came out in 2004 and 2006 respectively, so they can look pretty drab by modern standards but, thanks to their fans, mods are available to bring both excellent Lord of the Rings games into the era of HD graphics.
The HD mods are essentially texture packs, featuring both reworked and all-new unit and hero models. Battle for Middle-earth 1: HD Edition and Battle for Middle Earth 2: HD Edition were both released in 2017, and both are still getting supported in 2021 as the mod team works on version 8.0. BFME2 even has a version to support the also popular Age of the Ring mod.
Original publishers EA were forced to switch off the official servers on New Year’s Eve 2010 due to the expiration of their Lord of the Rings videogame licence, but you can still play multiplayer games of BFME 1, 2, and Rise of the Witch-King via the T3A: Online unofficial server and through services like GameRanger.
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