VU Games cans Isengard

Vivendi-Universal Games has sent out a short release confirming that PS2 and Xbox title The Lord of the Rings: The Treason of Isengard has been canned. Originally due out in Q4 2003, Isengard was dumped from release schedules earlier this year - apparently because "it was determined that the game was not shaping up as strongly as anticipated and would likely not satisfy the expectations of Tolkien fans". Which is fair enough until you consider that VU Games happily published The Fellowship of the Ring...

However despite EA's success with The Two Towers (now on PS2 Platinum) and this year's multi-format Return of the King, VU Games isn't about to give up on its book deal, which means it can adapt direct from the literary works of JRR Tolkien but has nothing to do with Peter Jackson's films. Amongst its other Tolkien-based games are The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring, both due out today in Europe, with massively multiplayer title Middle-Earth Online due in 2004. Early reviews of the former two titles have been positive but not stellar.