Concerned individuals are petitioning the UK government to consider regulation for loot box systems in video games. The rationale behind the petition is that various loot box systems represent a form of gambling embedded into video games and should be regarded as such by the law.

The latest bit of promo material for Middle-earth: Shadow of War teases the less sentient and more primal creatures inhabiting the game's world. It also rekindles the age old question of "Can a fire be put out by dry leaves?"

Talking to Eurogamer, Monolith's creative vice president Michael de Plater has tried to explain why Shelob has foregone her giant spider form in order to appear as a dressed-up Liv Tyler lookalike. The cause for this may be a lot simpler than Monolith would have you believe.

Shadow of Mordor's Bright Lord DLC plays like a very thin vertical slice for Shadow of War, but there is one thing in particular that it does way better than the base game - tightly focused storytelling.

Middle-Earth: Shadow of War will have a loot box microtransaction system along with an obligatory multiplayer invasion-like vendetta mode and a similar social conquest mode for fortress assaults, because otherwise microtransactions wouldn't make any sense or money.

The latest trailer for Middle-earth: Shadow of War offers a look behind the scenes of video game voice acting work and introduces a new orc character, The Agonizer. The wannabe comedian and orc chieftain is voiced by Kumail Nanjiani.

Middle-Earth: Shadows of War has apparently had some optimisation work done to it, according to the updated hardware requirements for the game. It should now be a little lighter on your rig. In addition, some story bits have been revealed about a certain evil thing in spider-form.

With more and more features of Middle-earth: Shadow of War being revealed as the release date draws closer, it is becoming increasingly obvious that all of the game's systems will be a nightmare to balance. For once, this may actually turn into an advantage for the game.

Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor was last patched in October 2016 for PlayStation 4 Pro purposes and the latest patch is a bit of a mystery, since no official announcement came along with it. Save files transferring to Shadow of War are still a rumour at this point.

Middle-Earth: Shadow of War just got a story trailer and it's fine. Revenge, drums, a few new characters and some horrible lip-sync animation; more or less what we have come to expect recently. It looks a lot like a trailer for some Hollywood movie, but this is a story trailer, so that is ok I guess.