Elijah and Dom Duke it out

SAN DIEGO – At Comic-Con, a cluster of people means an item of interest. It could be a scantily clad vixen posing for photos, a particularly delectable giveaway or Dominic Monaghan and Elijah Wood playing an early version of EA Games’ “Return Of The King.”

Smack in the middle of Day Four, yards from the TORn booth the pair showed up to indulge in one of their personal passions – gaming. The crowd gathered as if the pair were a magnet and just moments into their demonstration, they were surrounded by a swarm of fan girls and boys who thankfully didn’t try to do more than take photographs. Still, like an aggressive basketball team, there was a lot of boxing out, blocking off and not-so-subtle positioning. For a few moments at least, the pair were the most famous game players in the world.

Security was on hand to spare the stars the to-be-expected crush of autograph requests and hand-shaking. All rumors about Wood being present for the New Line presentation later in the afternoon were obviously confirmed, creating more buzz for an event that didn’t need any.

David Siverman, EA’s marketing assistant was on hand to explain the game and coach the duo as they fought through part of the only playable level, one of 14 intended for the final playabler level.

According to Siverman, the pair from the show was really positive about the game and he speculated it must be a particularly cool experince to play a character that to most movie fans is you.

The game will be released November 4 on all four game platforms and according to Siverman each will have its subtle differnces. The Xbox for example will have better textures and may feature a Dolby 5.1 surround feature. In the words of Gimli, YES!

The game will feature a two-player co-op mode and will also have highly interactive environments so players can climb ropes, launch catapaults and explore the corners of the world that the film introduces.