Tolkien’s epic Middle-earth setting, The Fall of Gondolin, will be released this August, according to publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. The elven city of Gondolin — and its sacking by the dark lord Morgoth — was “the first real story” of Middle-earth. It stood for 400 years, before its location was revealed to the dark lord Morgoth — of whom Sauron was merely a servant — by Turgon’s nephew Maeglin. And that’s a good thing, because Idril and Tuor wound up being Elrond’s grandparents — which me

Showrunners Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy delivered upon their promise to give Westworld fans something, but the 22-minute video that hit YouTube last night only contained the grimace-inducing echoes of the internet’s favorite practical joke — the Rickroll. The decision to turn a Westworld joke about spoilers and fan theory culture on Reddit into a Rickrolling prank is almost endearing. If the link came from Jonathan Nolan himself on Twitter and went to Astley’s actual video, it might have even be

The next limited-time event for Pokémon Go begins this week, Niantic announced. From today, April 10, at 1 p.m. PT until April 17, players will find way more first-generation Pokémon out in the wild than usual. Two of those Pokémon will be Aerodactyl and Snorlax, which will stake out at gyms for players to face during Raid Battles. That’s about it for the big stuff during this Pokémon Go campaign, aside from a doubled amount of candy when transferring Pokémon. Despite a weekend datamine revealin

Fortnite Battle Royale’s building game is about to change, thanks to a new item: the Port-a-Fort. Epic Games revealed the new item, which is “coming soon” to Fortnite, that will let players build defensive structures in the blink of an eye. It’s essentially a grenade that gives players the high ground and tactical advantage, according to its official description: “New portable fort sprouts a quick defensive position upon impact.”A quick trailer for the Port-a-Fort shows how it can be used in pra

Radical Heights, Boss Key’s follow-up to LawBreakers, is now available as a free-to-play early access game on Steam. We’ve jumped into a few rounds of the Smash TV meets battle royale game set in a retro-futuristic game show, and the most apparent issue is that this is a game in the earliest stages of production. “This is a five month passion project for the studio as we’re creating and publishing the game entirely by ourselves,” said Zach Lowery, Radical Heights’ creative director, in a stateme

Radical Heights, Boss Key’s follow-up to LawBreakers, is now available as a free-to-play early access game on Steam. We’ve jumped into a few rounds of the Smash TV meets battle royale game set in a retro-futuristic game show, and the most apparent issue is that this is a game in the earliest stages of production. “This is a five month passion project for the studio as we’re creating and publishing the game entirely by ourselves,” said Zach Lowery, Radical Heights’ creative director, in a stateme

Overwatch’s new limited time event, Retribution, is now live on PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One. Of course, players can also earn a bunch of new cosmetics in new Retribution loot boxes. Stuffed into Overwatch’s event loot boxes are new skins for characters like Mei, Winston, Sombra, Doomfist, Lucio and Hanzo. Of course, last year’s skins from the similarly story-based Uprising event are also back (and discounted), which includes some old-school looks for Reinhardt, Mercy, Torbjörn and Tra

LawBreakers developer Boss Key Productions announced its free-to-play title Radical Heights just yesterday and it’s already making adjustments to avoid appearing pay-to-win. In a tweet issued Monday, Boss Key announced changes to the game’s Founder’s Pack, a $14.99 add-on filled mostly with cosmetic items. “Early Access at work!” Boss Key said on the game’s official Twitter feed. The Founder’s Pack itself is not available for pre-order at this time. The announcement and subsequent release of Rad

LawBreakers developer Boss Key Productions announced its free-to-play title Radical Heights just yesterday and it’s already making adjustments to avoid appearing pay-to-win. In a tweet issued Monday, Boss Key announced changes to the game’s Founder’s Pack, a $14.99 add-on filled mostly with cosmetic items. “Early Access at work!” Boss Key said on the game’s official Twitter feed. The Founder’s Pack itself is not available for pre-order at this time. The announcement and subsequent release of Rad

Westworld season two was on the precipice of being spoiled by its own creators — or so it seemed. It’s a Rick Roll, a joke so old that some of my colleagues at this publication were in junior high school when it hit peak popularity. Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan initially presented the would-be spoiler video as a preventative to the sort of speculation that surrounded (and some would argue spoiled) the first season. By spoiling the second season up front, the logic went, fans and critics would be

Westworld season two was on the precipice of being spoiled by its own creators — or so it seemed. It’s a Rick Roll, a joke so old that some of my colleagues at this publication were in junior high school when it hit peak popularity. Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan initially presented the would-be spoiler video as a preventative to the sort of speculation that surrounded (and some would argue spoiled) the first season. By spoiling the second season up front, the logic went, fans and critics would be

We know that Jade Raymond’s studio Motive is working on a big game, based on an entirely new idea, but the Electronic Arts-owned studio has yet to reveal any details. So far, the studio helped out with Star Wars Battlefront 2, and is working on other Star Wars games alongside EA Vancouver and EA Worldwide Studios developers. “It’s not about, ‘here are the people who make the games and here are the people who play the games,’” Raymond said said, citing streamers, modders and other influencers as

We know that Jade Raymond’s studio Motive is working on a big game, based on an entirely new idea, but the Electronic Arts-owned studio has yet to reveal any details. So far, the studio helped out with Star Wars Battlefront 2, and is working on other Star Wars games alongside EA Vancouver and EA Worldwide Studios developers. “It’s not about, ‘here are the people who make the games and here are the people who play the games,’” Raymond said said, citing streamers, modders and other influencers as

Fortnite players have been practicing riding rockets for a bit now, with some amazing plays coming from players “shooting” their teammates on a rocket to take out the enemy. Getting on top of the first rocket is hard enough, and some of the transfers from rocket to rocket are close calls, but he pulls it off in the end. That video was an evolution of this idea from four days ago, showing just how quickly this all develops. pic.twitter.com/dhiLZhuySJ — NoahJ456 (@NoahJ456) April 6, 2018Or it coul

Fortnite players have been practicing riding rockets for a bit now, with some amazing plays coming from players “shooting” their teammates on a rocket to take out the enemy. Getting on top of the first rocket is hard enough, and some of the transfers from rocket to rocket are close calls, but he pulls it off in the end. That video was an evolution of this idea from four days ago, showing just how quickly this all develops. pic.twitter.com/dhiLZhuySJ — NoahJ456 (@NoahJ456) April 6, 2018Or it coul

More government agencies around the world are beginning to take note of loot boxes, the practice of selling randomized items with in-game transactions. Late last week The Korea Herald reported that several top South Korean game developers were fined a total of nearly $1 million for deceiving customers about the odds of attaining high-level loot. The FTC said that these three game developers misstated the odds of earning high-level loot. The loot box controversy peaked here in the United States d

More government agencies around the world are beginning to take note of loot boxes, the practice of selling randomized items with in-game transactions. Late last week The Korea Herald reported that several top South Korean game developers were fined a total of nearly $1 million for deceiving customers about the odds of attaining high-level loot. The FTC said that these three game developers misstated the odds of earning high-level loot. The loot box controversy peaked here in the United States d

The next limited-time event for Pokémon Go begins this week, Niantic announced. From today, April 10, at 1 p.m. PT until April 17, players will find way more first-generation Pokémon out in the wild than usual. Two of those Pokémon will be Aerodactyl and Snorlax, which will stake out at gyms for players to face during Raid Battles. That’s about it for the big stuff during this Pokémon Go campaign, aside from a doubled amount of candy when transferring Pokémon. Despite a weekend datamine revealin

Later today, Microsoft plans to reveal news about Xbox One backward compatibility and which original Xbox games are coming to the console next. Based on store listings at the official Xbox website, it appears at least five more original Xbox titles may soon be playable on Xbox One. The titles that have recently appeared on the Xbox Games Store, some of which carry release dates of April 10, 2018, are:The Elder Scrolls 3: MorrowindDestroy All Humans! Currently, 13 original Xbox games are playable

Later today, Microsoft plans to reveal news about Xbox One backward compatibility and which original Xbox games are coming to the console next. Based on store listings at the official Xbox website, it appears at least five more original Xbox titles may soon be playable on Xbox One. The titles that have recently appeared on the Xbox Games Store, some of which carry release dates of April 10, 2018, are:The Elder Scrolls 3: MorrowindDestroy All Humans! Currently, 13 original Xbox games are playable