It might seem odd but there are videogames launching in January 2009, even as most gamers are still struggling to play all the blockbusters released in the last two months of 2008. But don't let the fact that you have not finished Gears of War 2 stop you from getting your hands on the demo for The Lord of the Rings: Conquest, which is now available for download on the Xbox Live Marketplace. Be warned, the demo weighs in at an impressive 1.25 GB, so be prepared to wait a bit.

The Lord of Rings: Conquest is basically the Star Wars: Battlefront formula applied to the Middle Earth setting. A player can join either the Good or the Evil side and will then wage war in order to control the Ring and use its power to destroy the other side.

The Good campaign will largely rely on the battles depicted in the books and movies, while Frodo tries to destroy the Ring. The Evil campaign is highly speculative and shows how the fate of Middle Earth could be shaped if Sauron got his hands on the powerful relic.

Each of the two sides will get four character playable classes. The Warrior will rely on brute force and melee attacks, the Archer will be the ranged class, the Scout will be stealthy and will kill from the shadows, the Mage wielding lightning attacks while being very vulnerable to close quarter attacks.

In case the demo impresses you, be ready to get the full version of the game developed by Pandemic and published by Electronic Arts on January 9 - this Friday. The Lord of the Rings: Conquest will be playable on the Xbox 360 from Microsoft, the PlayStation 3 from Sony and the good old PC. A Nintendo DS version of the game is also set to arrive at some point after the initial launch. A demo of the game can also be found on the PlayStation Network.