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Warner Bros. Humble Bundle adds Mortal Kombat, FEAR, more
The Warner Bros. Humble Bundle, which runs until November 19, has added some new games and DLC today. Those who have yet to pay over the average or have already done so will find Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection, FEAR, Guardians of Middle-earth (including "Smaug's Treasure" add-on) and a special starter pack, which includes exclusive boosts, armor and quests, for Lord of the Rings Online available. On top of the free games, there's also a weapon pack for free-to-play shooter Gotham City Impostors, plus some additional skins for Batman: Arkham Origins. That last one is a little odd considering the game isn't even included in this bundle. The Warner Bros. Humble Bundle made its debut last week, offering up a collection of six games: Game of the Year versions of Batman: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, along with FEAR 2 Project Origin, FEAR 3, Scribblenauts Unlimited and Lord of the Rings: War in the North. The Warner Bros. Humble Bundle will be live for the next five days.
Guardians of Middle Earth heads to PC this month
Lord of the Rings MOBA Guardians of Middle Earth journeys to Windows PC on August 29, free to those who've already bought the game on XBLA or PSN. New guardians will have to stump up $20, or $18 if they take advantage of Steam's pre-purchase offer. Warner Bros. Interactive says XBLA and PSN players who bought the game prior to August 15 are eligible to redeem a free PC code; for more info on how, head here. Exclusive DLC for the PC version will include 36 alternate Guardian skin; an $80 ($72 pre-purchase) Mithril Edition of Monolith's multiplayer online battle arena is also available, featuring all 36 Guardians with alternate skins, a Mithril Guardian Relic equipment item, and a base game key to give to one of your fellowship. Our review cast four stars over Guardians of Middle Earth, deeming it a "neat experiment in translating a very PC-centric experience over to the console space, and a fun throwdown featuring some of fantasy's finest." Now that PC-centric experience will be on PC. Seems appropriate.
Guardians of Middle-earth is coming to PC
Of all the magic in Lord of the Rings, nothing makes me more envious than the elf-tossing power behind Sauron's giant mace. The look on those pretty faces as they flail through the air is just priceless. Guardians of Middle-earth, a console MOBA from Monolith Productions and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, is finally coming to the PC, and with it my dreams of throwing elves to and fro are realized. With playable characters such as Sauron, Radagast, and Elron, it's easy to see why any Lord of the Rings fan should take a look at this upcoming MOBA.
Guardians of Middle-earth adds new Survival mode, one-lane map
Warner Bros. and Monolith have announced a new update for their console MOBA game, Guardians of Middle-earth, that will add both a Survival mode and a new map for the one-lane versus mode.The new Survival mode takes place in the Glittering Caves of the White Mountains, and pits one to five players against a series of incoming enemy and boss waves, trying to keep towers up and stay alive as long as possible.The "Goblin-town" map for the one-lane mode sets the battle in the Misty Mountains near the Witch-king's dwelling, as seen in The Hobbit last year. We've got videos of both the new mode and the new map down below.To celebrate the release, Monolith devs are jumping in on the PlayStation Network and hosting a special "Play with Devs" session on Friday, March 1 from 5-8pm PT. The game is free this week for PS Plus members, so if that's you download away.Monolith says the new content is coming "soon" to both PSN and XBLA, so no date yet. The company tells Joystiq that the new one-lane map will be free. Survival Mode will also be free for anyone with a season pass (included in the boxed retail copies of the game), but cost extra otherwise.
PS Plus: Free Guardians of Middle Earth this week, cheap Karateka
Another week, another round of goodies of PlayStation Plus members on PSN. The biggest of this week's bonuses is a free download of Guardians of Middle Earth, a game that does a surprisingly good job of bringing the MOBA genre to consoles.There will also be a handful of discounts on other games. Jordan Mechner's Karateka will see its price punched and kicked down to $5. Twin-stick shooter Big Sky Infinity will be $5.99 and features Cross Buy, unlocking the game on both PS3 and Vita. Finally, we have the stylish, humorous platform adventure Knytt Underground, which will be available for only $5.
Guardians of Middle-Earth review: MOBA fête
"Multiplayer Online Battle Arena," or MOBA, is the name given to the emerging genre of games initiated by Dota, and now led by games like League of Legends, Dota 2, Heroes of Newerth, Smite, and more. Because MOBA games come from a heritage of real-time strategy gameplay, they tend to have most of the qualities of that genre. They're complicated, high stakes affairs, with lots of controls and nuances, where one little move can sometimes turn the tide of battle completely. These are traditionally games meant for hotkeys and minimap clicking, mouse precision and a Ventrilo client, rather than the relatively imprecise triggers and joysticks on a console controller.Which makes it all the more impressive, then, that Monolith (a studio with a long shooter tradition that includes No One Lives Forever and the FEAR series) has chosen to take on Guardians of Middle Earth, a MOBA game designed from the ground up to recreate the traditionally PC-centric experience on consoles. Yes, games like Awesomenauts and Monday Night Combat have borrowed MOBA principles, but Monolith here goes full bore, all the way back to the top-down isometric view that began with the original Starcraft Aeon of Strife map at the genre's inception.In fact, given this task, the fact that Monolith's game also happens to use the Lord of the Rings license (right around the release of the new Hobbit film) is almost inconsequential. Tolkien nerds may want to see Sauron battling it out with Gandalf directly, but MOBA nerds should be even more excited to see what Monolith does with this emerging new form.%Gallery-157247%
Guardians of Middle-Earth brings competitive MOBA gaming to consoles
It seems as if the world has gone MOBA-mad in recent years, with Dota 2 launching the first ever million-dollar competitive tournament and League of Legends becoming the most played game in the world. While there are plenty of PC games following in the competitive footsteps of classic DotA, the console market has remained largely untested. Today that changed with the launch of Guardians of Middle-Earth, the first 3-D console MOBA to be designed for classic DotA-style competitive matches. Guardians of Middle-Earth gives players control of iconic characters from the Lord of the Rings lore, like Gandalf and Gollum. Each character has an array of special abilities, and teams of five players battle against each other in short competitive matches. A streamlined item system and directional attacks adapt the game for the controls and faster pace of gameplay console gamers expect, but it remains to be seen whether the console audience will form a hardcore competitive tournament scene. The game went live on the Playstation Network today and goes live on XBox Live Arcade tomorrow.
Guardians of Middle-Earth on Xbox 360 Dec. 5
Guardians of Middle-Earth will launch on Xbox Live Arcade one day later than previously stated. The official Twitter account for the game confirmed the new Xbox 360 date of December 5.The account also confirmed the PS3 version is still on track to launch one day earlier on December 4. The PS3 version will be available both at retail and as a download through PSN.
Guardians of Middle-Earth release dates clarified, out 12/4 on Xbox and 12/5 on PSN [Update: In Europe]
Warner Brothers sorta, kinda dropped release dates for the various versions of Monolith's Lord of the Rings-flavored MOBA Guardians of Middle-Earth earlier today, but fans were still confused about exactly when the game was going to be out, especially on Xbox 360. So let's set the record straight: The game will arrive on PSN on December 5, and an actual retail version for the PS3 (complete with early access and a full season pass to the DLC) will be out on December 7. On the Xbox 360, there won't be a retail version, and the downloadable version will arrive on December 4 [Note: These dates are unfortunately just for Europe. A North American Xbox 360 release hasn't been announced yet].So there you go. By December 8, you'll be upgrading towers, killing minions, and ganking top lane with Sauron and Gandalf. And on December 14, you'll be watching The Hobbit in theaters. It's almost here!Update: Warner says the dates are wrong again. In North America, the PS3 version will be out at retail on December 4, and the PSN version will be downloadable at that same time. There reportedly will be Xbox 360 versions for both XBLA and retail, but official dates on those haven't been announced yet -- Warner is still saying "this fall." Joystiq is following up to find out why, and when we can expect the Xbox versions.
Guardians of Middle-Earth goes sort of retail in UK this December
Guardians of Middle-earth begins lording over PSN on December 4 in the UK, with an XBLA release due "this autumn." The Lord of the Rings tie-in MOBA will retail for 1200 Microsoft Points or £11.99. Specific dates have not been announced for other regions yet.Publisher Warner Bros. is cleverly ensuring that its big holiday movie tie-in game will be in stores for gift purchasing potential, despite being digital. A UK retail edition will contain a PSN code for the game and pre-paid access to DLC, including characters based on the movie version of The Hobbit. That retail version will be in stores December 14, for £24.99.
How Guardians of Middle-earth innovates on the MOBA gametype
We first saw Guardians of Middle-earth in action back at E3 this year, and it was quite impressive even then. Monolith has taken the PC-centric gameplay of the emerging MOBA (or DotA, or LoL, or even action RTS, whatever you like to call it) genre, and translated it over to a console and a controller. But since that first play at E3, I've gotten a few more chances to play the game at Comic-Con and PAX. GOME (acronyms!) is more than just a console clone of the popular League of Legends and the upcoming Dota 2.Monolith has iterated on this complex strategy/action genre in a few different ways. Here's a list of five different things, whether you're a level 30 summoner or a Venomancer newbie, that you'll find new and interesting about Guardians of Middle-earth when it arrives for consoles later this year.
Layoffs hit Warner Bros. Seattle studios [update: WB confirms]
An unknown number of layoffs are affecting WB Games Seattle staff – the umbrella name "WB Games Seattle" comprises Monolith Productions, Snowblind Studios, and Surreal Software. A source close to the studio confirmed reports to us this afternoon, following statements from 3D Realms founder George Broussard on Twitter, stating, "Another Warner Brothers layoff going on as we speak. In progress now. Shame. Hope people land safely."WB Games Seattle is currently working on Lord of the Rings: Guardians of Middle-earth, and it's unclear if any other projects are currently in production. Layoffs hit the studio last November, and were said to have affected "60ish" people. Warner Bros. didn't respond to request for comment as of publishing.Update: WB issued the following statement, confirming the layoffs: "Due to shifting business imperatives, WB Games Seattle has made staff reductions. The group will continue to remain an integral part of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment."
Gollum gets tricksy in Guardians of Middle-earth gameplay video
Given Gollum's propensity for killing things in the dark, it only makes sense that his character is suited to hit-and-run tactics in in Guardians of Middle-earth. On the other hand, we never thought we'd hear Gandalf described as "tanky," but there you go.
They're taking the hobbits to Isengard, elsewhere in this Guardians gameplay video
Sometimes when we start up a game with branching story paths or "evil" character options, we'll get down with our bad selves and go for the dark choices, intent on violently slaughtering the goody-two-shoes right off the "light" side. With Guardians of Middle-earth, we don't think we'll be able to do that, though.Perhaps it's because we're invested in the lore of Lord of the Rings, because we've spent years devouring the books, films and Trivial Pursuit board games, and we've rooted for Frodo, Gandalf and the good guys to win the whole time. Choosing to play as Sauron now would feel dirty.That said, the first-ever gameplay trailer for Guardians of Middle-earth makes each side look equally cool, and it promises the game will launch this fall, for XBLA and PSN only. Go Gandalf! Really, go -- Sauron's like right behind you.
Guardians of Middle-earth brings MOBA to XBLA and PSN
Monolith Productions has one of the most varied histories in video game development. The studio first cut its teeth on first-person shooters, finding a cult hit in the popular No One Lives Forever series. Then, it was a vast experiment with The Matrix Online, before coming back to shooters with the Fear and Condemned series of games. And now, the company's trying to reinvent itself yet again with two licensed downloadable titles for Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment: first Gotham City Imposters from earlier this year, and now Guardians of Middle-earth.Guardians of Middle-earth is a weird one. It's a licensed Lord of The Rings title, starring characters from Tolkien's series. It's a MOBA game, similar to League of Legends or DOTA 2, featuring Tolkien's characters fighting it out across a battlefield full of AI-controlled troops. And it's a complicated, deep online multiplayer title, designed for competitive play."What's so weird about that?" you ask? It's being developed only for consoles.%Gallery-157247%
The first Guardians of Middle-earth trailer puts LOTR's celebs in a fight to the death
Wondering what that DOTA-inspired Lord of the Rings game, Guardians of Middle-earth, will look like? So are we, as the first trailer for the game is little more than a who's who of LOTR, and features zero actual gameplay. But hey, Gollum's got a big rock! Don't you go taking his precious!
Lord of the Rings meets MOBA in XBLA/PSN 'Guardians of Middle-earth' from F.E.A.R. devs
Guardians of Middle-earth is the next "massive online battle arena" heading to Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network. Warner Bros. Interactive's Monolith Productions is crafting the Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit-themed MOBA, and the studio plans on launching the game this fall (ahead of this December's film, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey).According to the announcement, 10 players will battle in five-on-five matches set against the backdrop of Middle-earth. Various Lord of the Rings bulletpoints will be hit, of course, with characters like Gollum and Sauron available for fighting (as "Guardians" – think League of Legends' "Hero" characters). We'll assuredly get a closer look at the game next week during E3.
