Middle-earth: Shadow Of Mordor's servers are no more

Middle-earth: Shadow Of Mordor has lost some of its online features as a result of what publishers Warner Brothers say are "changes with our network". Among the features no longer available in the third-person orc stabber are the Nemesis Forge and Vendetta missions. Mordor is a six year-old game, but it's always a shame when bits of things we bought break off, isn't it?

The change was confirmed with a small update in the game's support site, which also adds that leaderboards will no longer show other players' scores. All of the achievemenets and trophies connected to these features can still be attained, if you're into that.

The Nemesis Forge was a feature added to Shadow Of Mordor shortly before the release of its sequel, Shadow Of War, and it let you select a nemesis and follower to import from the first game into its sequel. If you were still looking forward to one day continuing your epic battle with Budgin The Bash-Warbler, an orc you met that looked a lot like a baked potato, then I'm afraid that's no longer possible. Vendetta missions meanwhile allowed you to take down orcs that had been giving your pals a hard time in their own journey through the game.

I love little bits of ambient multiplayer in otherwise singleplayer games like this, and I suppose it's inevitable that anything with an ongoing cost attached will one day cease to be operated by a developer or publisher. Still, while I'm not mad about it, it's a shame, isn't it? Like a small chip on the rim of your favourite mug.