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Free Steam PC Game For A Limited Time: Lego The Lord Of The Rings

Sure, you could peruse the Steam Winter Sale for big discounts on PC games. Or you could hop on over to the Humble Store and grab a copy of Lego The Lord of the Rings for free. All you need is a Humble account and a willingness to subscribe to the Humble newsletter (you can always unsubscribe later), and you can add it to your library. No other strings are attached. Get your copy here.

The only problem is that the deal doesn’t last long. It goes away December 22 at 10 AM PT (1 PM ET). It’s also possible codes for the game will run out, so head to the Humble Store quickly to secure your freebie.

As for the game itself, like the book and film trilogy it’s based on, it follows the adventures of Frodo Baggins, an unlikely hero who ends up transporting a ring of great power into the realm of the enemy to see to its destruction. The big differences are that many parts of the game are made of destructible Legos, and it’s suffused with the Lego franchise’s signature brand of humor.

In GameSpot’s 8.5/10 Lego The Lord of the Rings review, Jason Venter wrote, “TT Games and Lego struck gold when they united for Lego Star Wars in 2005, and that rich vein is still yielding worthwhile results. Lego The Lord of the Rings is perhaps the finest treasure that the partnership has yet produced, a compelling mixture of cooperative gameplay, secrets galore, and a story that remains one of the most fantastic that Hollywood has ever captured on film. If you haven’t given the Lego games a chance yet, there has never been a better time to start.”

Grab your copy before the game goes back to regular price.

Check Out Six Photos From John Wick: Chapter 3

New photos from John Wick: Chapter 3 have been revealed.

The film, starring Keanu Reeves as the titular protagonist, sees Wick return with a $14 million price tag on his head and “an army of bounty-hunting killers on his trail.”

The film also reunites Laurence Fishburne, Ian McShane and Lance Reddick and introduces new characters played by Halle Berry, Anjelica Huston, Asia Kate Dillon, Mark Dacascos and Jason Mantzoukas. Yayan Ruhian and Cecep Arif Rahman join the cast as “formidable professional killers that Wick has to face off against,” and martial arts star Tiger Hu Chen.

Russo Brothers’ New Superhero Syfy Series is Hogwarts for Killers

Syfy has made the series premiere of Deadly Class available online ahead of its official broadcast debut, scheduled for Wednesday, January 16 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. This is an advanced review of the first episode.

There’s a wellspring of violent, nihilistic stories to match the current political climate. The Deadly Class comic — the Rick Remender-Wesley Craig monthly from Image — is one of them, and while its TV translation captures the feel of modern America, it has little to actually say about it.

Created by a who’s who of writers and producers (including Remender himself, along with Avengers: Infinity War’s Joe & Anthony Russo), the first chapter in Syfy’s series has arrived nearly a month ahead of schedule. Starring Benjamin Wadsworth as boys’ home runaway Marcus Lopez and Benedict Wong as a school-for-assassins ringleader — the suave, Rhadamanthine Master Lin — Deadly Class drops us right in the middle of Reagan’s America in 1987.

16 Changes WWE’s Raw And Smackdown Need To Make In This New Era

WWE’s programming has hit a slump. Viewership on its flagship show, Raw, is way down, and Seth Rollins even commented on the quality of the show recently. Although that was part of the storyline, Rollins was saying what fans of WWE programming have been saying for quite some time. WWE’s non-NXT content had become stagnant and boring.

On the December 17 episode of Raw, the entire McMahon family–sans Linda–came out to announce that there will be changes in WWE, and much like the announcement in the ’90s that ushered in the Attitude Era, the landscape for the sports entertainment company will change.

However, this change won’t happen overnight. The episode of Raw that followed was a bit more of the same, as expected, but we did get a fun gauntlet match for the number one contender for the Raw Women’s Championship. And Tyler Breeze returned to television and challenged Dean Ambrose for the Intercontinental Championship. On top of all that, six NXT superstars are getting called up. When? No clue, but probably in the new year.

We got more of this “everything is changing” landscape on Smackdown the next night, but again, it’s going to take time to see how all of this plays out. The Roadie didn’t become the Road Dogg overnight.

As we look at the current landscape with WWE’s primary programming–Raw, Smackdown, and the PPVs–we have a few ideas on how to return these shows to their glory days. Let us know what changes you want to see in the comments below.

Telltale’s The Walking Dead Final Season Becomes Epic Store Exclusive

Skybound Games has announced that the final two episodes of the PC version of Telltale’s The Walking Dead: The Final Season will be exclusively available through the Epic Games Store. The PC version of the previous two episodes of the final season will also be added to the store.

This does not apply to anyone who’s already purchased the Season Pass for TWD: The Final Season. If you’ve purchased the Season Pass through another PC game store–such as Steam–then you will still get the last two episodes through said retailer. However, if you’ve been buying episodes of the PC version of The Final Season individually, then you’ll have to go through Epic for the last bits of the story.

“The team at Epic owns a major chapter in the history of the game industry,” wrote Skybound Games CEO Ian Howe and president of interactive Dan Muray in a prepared joint-statement, according to Variety. “We’re excited to work together on their latest transformative event with the launch of the Epic Games Store. Epic stepped up to the plate immediately to work with us in order to bring the original team back together and ensure fans will receive the completed season of Telltale’s The Walking Dead: The Final Season.”

This announcement comes in on the tail end of several major events that shook up the games industry. After facing a financial crisis, Telltale closed its doors and laid off pretty much its entire staff, as well as announcing the cancellation of TWD: The Final Season. However, Skybound saved the game and took over development, and also did its best to hire on former Telltale employees to finish the project. Epic announced its game store months after, creating direct competition to Steam with the reveal of exclusive titles such as Hades and Journey, as well as a more favorable revenue split for developers. Days later, Discord followed up that announcement with the reveal that its game store would also have a better revenue split for developers in comparison to Steam, and also secured its own exclusive titles. The landscape of PC gaming is certainly changing, with both Epic and Discord making big moves to combat Steam’s control of the market.

Episode 3 of TWD: The Final Season, titled Broken Toys, is scheduled to release on January 15, the same day the game is made available for consoles.

The Games and Game Services With the Most Downtime in 2018

Whenever PSN, Xbox Live or any other major online game or service goes down, these become some of the most heavily searched topics on IGN. So, we wanted to see how various services, platforms and individual games fared throughout 2018 when it came to staying online. To do so, we asked Downdetector, a website that collects data on online service outages, who experienced the most downtime in 2018.

To determine which games and services go down and for how long, Downdetector “collects status reports from a series of sources. Through a realtime analysis of this data, our system is able to automatically determine outages and service interruptions at a very early stage.” Downtime analyzes reports from sources like Twitter, and detects outages when the number of reports jumps above a relative baseline level.

For Honor Welcomes Assassin’s Creed’s Ezio To The Battlefield

For Honor is mingling with another Ubisoft property, with a limited-time Assassin’s Creed crossover event. The “For the Creed” event will run from December 20 to January 10 and will feature familiar Assassin’s Creed characters with trappings of the animus.

During the duration of the event, you can play a special 4v4 Dominion mode called “Assassini e Templari” in which you capture zones to lure out one of two commanders: Ezio Auditore da Firenze or Cesare Borgia. Defeating either commander gives you 300 points, and reaching 1000 points and defeating the opposing team during the breaking period will win the match.

The maps rotating in the Assassini e Templari mode will feature animus glitches and soldiers will be themed after the factions in the AC series. Your drop attacks will appear as Leap of Faith and air assassination animations, and game modes will be displayed using an animus theme. Some game modes will also be narrated by Warren Vidic of the Animus Project.

You can also earn some new customization items, like the Odyssey of the Misthios mask from Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, a Haystack emote, Hidden Blade execution, animus effects and battle outfits, Assassin and Templar outfits, and weapons from the franchise. A special For the Creed bundle will be available for 35,000 Steel per hero.

For Honor and Assassin’s Creed seem tonally similar enough that a crossover makes sense. Ubisoft recently played matchmaker for two of its other franchises, with a special event that put Rainbow Six characters and story beats into Ghost Recon Wildlands.

Ubisoft Pulls Leaked Division 2 Alpha Footage

Ubisoft’s The Division 2 held a technical alpha test for the PC over the last week, and many of those who had the chance to play it came away with positive impressions.

The alpha, which was announced last week, took place between December 15-18, and those who had the chance to play it signed a non-disclosure agreement, strictly limiting what they could or could not publicly say about the game. While many leaks arose during this time, Ubisoft has removed much of this as quickly as possible. However, some details and impressions have remained, and they’re largely positive on this post-apocalyptic sequel.

Steam Winter Sale Is Live: Great PC Game Deals On Thousands Of Titles

It’s that time of year again, when Steam takes a large swath of the PC games in its massive library and drops prices. It’s the Steam Winter Sale, and it’s live between now and January 3. So if you could use some new games in your life and you’re interested in saving money, check out what’s on sale. There’s a good chance you’ll find something worth buying.

But first some freebies. When you check in on Steam between now and January 3, you can click on the Extremely Cozy Cottage of Surprises to receive free digital Steam Community items and DLC each day of the sale. It’s obviously part of a plan to keep you coming back, but that’s just business.

As for the games on sale, there are so many it’s hard to choose where to start. But let’s kick things off with the big games of 2018. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey just came out a few months ago, but it’s already available for the agreeable price of $30. Far Cry 5 is down to $28, while Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age is discounted to $36. And if you want to get creative with your kills, you can’t go wrong with Hitman 2, on sale for $42.

Some of the biggest indie games of the year are also on sale, including the challenging platformer Celeste for $16, the roguelike Metroidvania Dead Cells for $20, and the hole simulator Donut County for $9.75. And if you want to get mad at your friends, you can pick up Overcooked 2 for $19.

Even bigger savings are available on older titles. For instance, Prey will only set you back $15, while RPG fans can grab Divinity: Original Sin II for $29. Grand Theft Auto V is on sale for one of its lowest prices ever at $15, and Undertale is only $4.

You’ll find more highlights from the Steam Winter Sale below, or you can check out the full list on Steam.

Infinity War Artists on “Those” Thanos and Gamora Scenes

Some of the most enigmatic and visually striking scenes in Avengers: Infinity War are those set in the ethereal realm where Thanos is confronted by the spirit of Gamora.

They also left us with a handful of questions: Is this Soul World? Is it all a figment of Thanos’ power-addled imagination? We can’t say for sure, but those moments leave a strong impression. IGN had a chance to interview Digital Domain’s Kelly Port and Marvel Studios’ Dan DeLeeuw about the process of creating and depicting this mysterious realm — and to help us set the record straight on what it actually is.

“We just explore quite a few different things and play around with the idea that it was a sort of vault, or as if we were in the Soul Stone, for example,” said DeLeeuw. “But I think it ended up taking me playing around with the spread water as if… we had a lot of blood involved.”