It seems that Kabam is getting serious about promoting its free-to-play Kingdoms of Middle-earth mobile app game. Our spies tell us that ads have been seen airing on the SyFy network — something apparently pretty much unheard of for this sort of game. (more…)
Middle-earth March Madness round 2 ends at 10pmET tonight, so get your votes in. [Vote] [Round 2 Bracket]
Here is how Round 2 is shaping up right now…
The Shire Division
(8) Huan is being handed his walking papers by (1) Galadriel, while the most powerful of the Ainur (4) Morgoth has a solid lead over the eldest ent (5) Treebeard. (6) Luthien seems poised to take down (3) Bilbo Baggins. But the closest story in this round appears to be the match between the Mirkwood Elvenking (7) Thranduil with a slim lead over the head of the White Council (2) Saruman.
The Erebor Division
The current Cinderella seed (16) Pippin is soundly beating ‘Hot Dwarf’ (9) Fili, can the Heir of Durin put in a late push? Last year’s champ (12) Samwise Gamgee is facing an uphill battle with (4) Beren. The owner of the Last Homely Home, (6) Elrond, is currently leading against (14) Eowyn, unless she can get some support from other Warrior Women. Can she make to the Sweet 16, possibly against Aragorn!? Speaking of (7) Aragorn, he is soundly trouncing the windlord (2) Gwaihir.
The Mordor Division
(9) Gil-galad, the high kind of Noldor, seems destined to lose to the number one seed (1) Smaug. The Dark Lord (4) Sauron is handily beating his dwarven opponent (5) Dain Ironfoot. (11) Fingolfin has a slim lead over (3) Thorin Oakenshield, where is his ARmy? (2) Beorn seems ready to send (7) Shelob packing. If things keep going this way, we could have Smaug and Sauron in the Sweet 16.
The Angmar Division
Not quite a fair battle, but (1) The One Ring seems ready to abandon (8) Frodo Baggins. The Eldar King (12) Manwe, has a very solid lead over a descendant of Girion in (4) Bard the Bowman. Some call him ‘creepy’ and ‘sneaky’ (3) Gollum, but he’s got a lead over the imposing dwarf (6) Dwalin. And last but not least, (10) Merry seems rather outranked and outclassed by (2) Gandalf the Grey.
Voting continues until tonight at 10pm ET. [Vote Now!]
Posted in Characters, Events, Fans, Fellowship of the Ring, Gaming, Hobbit Book, Hobbit Movie, Lord of the Rings, LotR Books, Movie Fellowship of the Ring, Movie Return of the King, Movie The Two Towers, Other Events, Other Tolkien books, Return of the King, Silmarillion, The Hobbit, The Two Towers
The Hobbit: Armies of the Third Age is a new web-browser-based game set in Middle-earth. Developed by Kabam Games, the idea seems to be to build your own little kingdom and command armies as you attempt to claim your own little bit of Middle-earth.
You can choose to play any one of three races: Dwarves, Elves, and Orcs, and you can recruit unique heroes to do your bidding. (more…)
Posted in Gaming
There is a lot happening in the realm of Tolkien fandom and we might be a little guilty of not updating players or potential players with everything that is going on in the world of Lord of the Rings Online. Warners and Turbine have kept the game updated and rock-solid for years now and with the Riders of Rohan expansion, it looks as though that will continue. We feature here a promotional video and then the latest press release about the game. Enjoy the video after the break. (more…)
The Warner Bros. legal team has shut down the development of a free Lord of the Rings mod for Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
The all-volunteer, unpaid team of game enthusiasts behind the mod say they repeatedly attempted to negotiate a compromise that would allow them to proceed in some form, but Warner Bros. rebuffed all of their proposals. Warner Bros. first requested that the 40-person-strong development team cease all work on the project, called MERP (Middle-earth Roleplaying Project), in July.
“Modding” is a term used to describe when users unofficially adapt or alter a game beyond its original specifications. Modders will often create new characters, character skins, plotlines and dialogue, music or even entirely new worlds for their favourite games.
Mod developer Alasdair Hurst believes MERP’s main problem could be that people need to buy Skyrim first.
“But the mod itself will be available to all the fans for free.” (more…)
Posted in Creations, Fans, Gaming, Lord of the Rings, Studios, Video games, Warner Bros.
If you like quests, enjoy board games and are always on the look out for family fun, we have some good news for you! The folks at Prolific Games, designers of innovative board games, are busy making The Hirelings, a traditional game which uses a board, dice and cards to create a world of myth and mayhem! The premise is this: ‘Deep in a dragon’s lair, the Heroes have been unceremoniously (but predictably) burnt to nothingness leaving the Hirelings to scramble their way to safety.’
Read more about the game after the break…
Posted in Board Game, Gaming, Miscellaneous, Shop
The Official Facebook page for The Hobbit has recently put up a little Trivia Challenge that comes with some rather cool prizes. Here is what they say about the contest:
The guys at wow.joystiq.com have posted a pretty cool fan made video by Grimalkins Machinima which is a mash up of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey movie trailer and World of Warcraft game.
Posted in Creations, Fans, Gaming, Hobbit Movie, The Hobbit
As you probably know, Games Workshop creates tabletop war-gaming miniatures. One of the licenses it holds is for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
The clever folks on our message boards have very recently unearthed on Pastebin a list of film-related gaming miniatures that GW is set to release in the near future. This is potentially of interest not only to tabletop gamers, but also to film spoiler hunters.
It’s hard to to know far one can legitimately extrapolate from this list to scenes, and creatures, that might make it into the movies, but there is certainly heaps of food for thought here! If you want to put in your two cents, head on over to our message boards where a healthy discussion is going on about the implications.
Full list below the cut — and, be warned, plenty of potential spoilers too! (more…)
Posted in Gaming, Hobbit Movie, Merchandise, Rumors Spy News, The Hobbit
Ringer Combee alerts us that it appears that the pre-order bonus for the Lego Lord of the Rings game is an Elrond mini-figure from the battle of Dagorlad. French site Lord of The Brick has more details.
Update: We also now have this translation courtesy of Ringer Elpidha.
And it is Amazon.de that releases information about the Special Edition version of the videogame LEGO Lord of the Rings now in preorder (release date: October 2012). We discover that the minifig of Elrond will be included as a bonus with the collector’s edition of the game, and it is indeed the same minifig that was seen in the minigame available on the line’s official site (see that article).
The minifig is a success, no doubt about it. It remains to be seen if it will also be available in a future set or if it will be necessary to go to Bricklink or eBay to buy it separately.
Posted in Collectibles, Gaming, LEGO, Merchandise
Fantasy Flight Games has posted another teaser for its new expansion of The Lord of the Rings: the Card Game.
We’ve now seen several card previews from the forthcoming cardgame expansion. As always, the artwork for these cards, not based on film images, is imaginative and well-executed. As noted in earlier previous teasers, this set still requires the original The Lord of the Rings core set. Fans of the game will likely enjoy the expansion, but new players will also have to get the core set — gift-givers or new players should take note.
Also note that the Shadow and Flame, completing the six-part Dwarrowdelf expansion cycle for the core game, will also debut soon.
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Posted in Gaming
Ringer Quackingtroll alerts us to a Lego Lord of the Rings playable online flash-based game over on the Lego LoTR website.
It’s called The Siege of Helm’s Deep. Personally, I found it a bit confusing, but go try your hand!
If nothing else, the lead-up cut-scenes look really, really cool.
[More]
Posted in Collectibles, Gaming, LEGO, Merchandise
