Monolith have announced plans to remove loot boxes from Middle-earth: Shadow Of War in July, eight months after the open-world enslave-o-stabber launched. They’ve realised that they make the game worse, they say. The ‘War Chest’ loot boxes in Shadow Of War contain random items, orc slaves, and bits, and are sold for either the virtuacash earned in-game or for a microtransaction currency bought with real money. Monolith say the loot boxes cause people who buy them to miss out on the experience of the game’s Nemesis system – and even if you don’t buy them, their presence detracts from the game. Neither realisation is remotely surprising. Read the rest of this entry »

The supervillains at TT Games at continuing their fiendish plot to turn the world’s superheroes into virtual plastic. Having trapped Marvel and DC champions inside a string of games, now they’re making LEGO The Incredibles to snare Pixar’s heroes too. It’ll do those usual TT LEGO fight-o-jump a things, this time with the combined superpowers of the Parr family. It’ll will launch in a few months on the same day The Incredibles 2 hits cinemas, which disappointingly is one month late for us here in the UK. Ooh it’s like the 90s all over again. Read the rest of this entry »

The success of the LEGO games and films as a vehicle for legitimately good family comedy continues to be one of geekdom’s most pleasantly inexplicable surprises. The LEGO Batman film had no right being so funny (or self-aware), and the LEGO Star Wars games even managed to make the prequel trilogy palatable.

As such, pairing Pixar’s knack for visual comedy and TT Games’ consistently solid game design seems a match made in heaven. Disney presumably agree, as the much-rumored LEGO Incredibles game seems just a little bit closer, thanks to a leak spotted at American retail-arcology chain Walmart. (Credit to LEGO blog The Brick Fan for that)

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My favourite Middle-earth: Shadow Of War nemesis story isn’t my own, but one I found on Reddit. It was about a musician Orc who the player mercilessly humiliated time and time again, until his mind had broken and all he could do was murmur about how he’d “lost his song”. It’s tragic stuff, and while the new behaviours added in today’s patch might not generate the same heart-wrenching tales, they should mix things up if you’ve found those encounters have grown stale.

The Blade Of Galadriel expansion is also out today, and lets you step into the Elven shoes of Eltariel, one of Talion’s sidekicks from the main game. She’s better known as the Blade Of Galadriel, so expect to run around stabbing Nazguls in the name of freedom, justice, or whatever it is that Galadriel actually stands for. Bright white lights, maybe.

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The Atom, DC’s shrinking scientist, is coming to Injustice 2 this month. It’s Ryan Choi, the character created by Grant Morrison, rather than the probably better known Ray Palmer version. That version is currently being played by Superman actor Brandon Routh on Legends of Tomorrow, a show that I love, despite knowing it’s bad for my health. Becoming really tiny never sounds like a great superpower, but as the trailer below shows, it’s actually the best power.

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Superheroes, supervillains, and superantiheroes from DC Comics are now kicking seven shades of heck out of each other in Injustice 2, the new fighting game from Mortal Kombat developers NetherRealm. The supersequel hit consoles in May and finally launched on PC today. Our Adam already played a bit on PlayStation 4 quite likes it so good, grand, ta. Read the rest of this entry »

Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a very big game, full of very big Orcs. It’s probably big enough. Regardless, it’s getting a slew of DLC, introducing two new Orc tribes and some story expansions that let you play as the tale’s secondary characters. The tribal addition is due next month, and you can get a brief taste of all the upcoming DLC in the trailer below. Read the rest of this entry »

Update: Injustice 2’s PC open beta hasn’t kicked off today, unfortunately. Is Brainiac to blame? Is evil Superman up to his old tricks again? The developers are keeping shtum right now, but have promised more information. We’ll let you know when a new date is announced.

Injustice 2 is a game in which superheroes punch each other so hard that sometimes they’re sent flying into orbit, or back in time where they clip the nose of the Great Sphinx of Giza. Turns out merry speedster The Flash is a TIME VANDAL.

Although I don’t particularly care for its Snydery grimdark take on DC, I have been enjoying Injustice 2 a lot. It lives on my PS4 and I wasn’t sure if it’d ever come to PC, but Warner and developers NetherRealm (they of Mortal Kombat) send word that a port is on its way. And not only is it set to arrive in this very season of autumn, an open beta will begin tomorrow on Steam. Cracking news.

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War, I’m told, war never changes – and nor need it end. Middle-earth: Shadow of War [official site] will add the option to endlessly play Shadow Wars, the fortress-assaulting mode that’s the focus of the game’s fourth act. Leif Johnson told us he grew bored of Shadow Wars before the end of the chapter but hey, if you want to endlessly attack and defend, you will get that option. Read the rest of this entry »

Tootle on your warhorn and coax your ghostpal back into body, as Middle-earth: Shadow of War [official site] launched overnight. Monolith’s sequel to 2014’s Shadow of Mordor brings more open-world action with orcs to antagonise, fortresses to capture, limbs to hack off, baddies to enslave (ikr?), faces to fill with arrows, spooky ghostpowers to learn, and a sexy spider to puzzle over. The sequel also expands the ‘Nemesis’ system which builds relationships with NPCs and changes how they react to you. This is great, Leif Johnson said in his Middle-earth: Shadow of War review: Read the rest of this entry »

A Middle-earth: Shadow of War [official site] DLC character created to memorialise and fundraise for a deceased member of the development team will now be given free to all players, Warner Bros. have decided after it raised a stink. Styled after executive producer Michael Forgey, who passed away in 2016, the Forthog Orcslayer is a friendly NPC who was initially sold to benefit Forgey’s family. But a communication mistake suggested WB would only donate money from purchases in the US, keeping money from elsewhere for themselves (WB later clarified that wasn’t the case). After the memorial became a mess, WB will make the Forthog Orcslayer free and themselves donate money direct to the family. Read the rest of this entry »

As exciting as an expanded Nemesis system and an itsy busty spider might sound for Middle-earth: Shadow of War [official site], Warner Bros. had been sitting on a hot, juicy, and thrilling marketing blast. Now they have finally let rip: heck yes Shadow of War will have optional microtransactions to hasten powering-up in this singleplayer game. Come on gang, give me a “Hell yeah!”

I said give me a “Hell yeah!”

No? I thought one of you Willennials would at least do it ‘ironically’. Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re anything like me, you’ve likely often wished that spiders were hot babes. “This giant spider is okay,” you thought while watching the biggun in Peter Jackson’s And Then And Then, “but I wouldn’t kiss her. That’s far too many eyes for me to stare lustily into. I wouldn’t stroke her spinnerets. And she’s not even wearing a dress for thigh to cheekily peek though.” Mate, we’re in luck, you and I: Shelob is back in Middle-earth: Shadow of War [official site], and this time she is hot. Here, watch Shelob take human form to be all magic and cryptic: Read the rest of this entry »

LEGO’s classic Space set is coming to the Minecraftbut LEGO Worlds [official site] in its first themed DLC pack. To some, the sight of that little spacecar and the honking great spaceship might inspire nostalgic joy. Myself, I am reminded that the greatest shame of my childhood was stealing a LEGOman from a family friend because LEGO was a once-a-year birthday treat and I ached for that knight with a horse wearing a dress. As soon as I finish explaining about the DLC and how it’s due out in July for a couple quid, I will phone and apologise. First, let’s look at this trailer: Read the rest of this entry »