Xbox Living

Last week, The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II was released for the Xbox 360. In case you’re not familiar with this game, it’s a real-time strategy (RTS) game — not unlike Age of Empires, but set in the Lord of the Rings universe.

RTS games are very natural when played on PC. Just like navigating the Web, or using your OS, you can click and drag with your mouse and use keyboard shortcuts to control what’s going on. Most PC games use the keyboard in some way, but with an RTS game, it’s first nature.

It’s for that reason that you don’t see many of these games on consoles. Battle for Middle-earth II attempts to use the Xbox 360 controller here, and does a reasonable job of it.

But here’s where I feel something was left out. The Xbox 360 has two USB ports on the front of it. Why can’t the player plug a keyboard and mouse into those ports and play with those, if they so choose? The same configuration would be great for Battlefield 2: Modern Combat. Both of these games were designed with the PC in mind, and have corresponding keyboard/mouse controls.

But on the Xbox 360, they just don’t work. Why not? Final Fantasy XI makes use of those USB ports. When playing that game, since all communication is text-based, a USB keyboard is essential.

I’d like to see games of this type enable keyboard use as an option. It just makes them easier, and more fun, to play.