Humble are stuffing stockings with free Lego The Hobbitses today
Not very preciousssss, but nice to have
It's a good day for free stuff - the second giveaway of the day is Lego The Hobbit. While not the greatest of Traveller's Tales's sprawling list of film-to-virtual-plastic adaptations, it's a decent way to distract the kids, or yourself if you're young at heart. Based on just the first two films, it's a platformy action-adventure with local co-op and tongue firmly in cheek. Blocky little dwarves - including the gratingly handsome one - accompany the smallest person (a tiny plastic Bilbo Baggins) on his quest to irritate a dragon and conclude on a cliffhanger. Yoink yourself a copy here before December 15th, 6pm GMT.
Update: It looks like the giveaway ended early as they ran out of digital stock. Such Grinch-like behaviour is worthy of a grumble about Humble.
Adam (dearly departed to write scripts for Larian) reviewed Lego The Hobbit when it first came out in 2014 - sadly he was a bit underwhelmed, and surprised that it capped off at the second film. Not bad, just not TT's best - but free is free, and Humble provide a Steam key that you can throw at young relatives if it doesn't tickle your fancy. Thanks to strong art direction and the wonders of another slow console generation, the game has held up pretty well, visually speaking. Its environments are especially pretty, almost clashing against the little plastic folk bumbling around in them, although the added slapstick does help take the edge off the surprisingly grim tone of the films.
Contrary to Adam's predictions, no third chapter was released for Lego The Hobbit. There's a handful of minor DLC gubbins (not included in the giveaway), including the tempting-sounding 'Saruman's Day Off' side-quest, but the game is mostly complete, in an oddly incomplete sort of way. If you want to imagine how the third film would have looked like in Lego form, just picture all of the little Lego people, monsters and a few thousand spare blocks thrown into a bucket, shaken around and poured haphazardly into snow.
As for us adults who came away from the Hobbit film trilogy stunned and confused as to how something so woolly and directionless could even exist, I direct you to Lindsay Ellis's brilliant documentary duology (in three parts) here. An excellent watch, I assure.
Snaffle your free Hobbitses here, and remember to activate your Steam key before it disappears into the ether. Also, if you haven't snagged it already, GOG's winter sale also opened with them giving away Full Throttle Reloaded for free. Not quite as kid friendly, but nothing a twelve-year-old shouldn't be able to handle.