The Lord of the Rings game you've always wanted is this fan-made Unreal Engine 5 project

gamesradar.com:

This fan-made trailer imagining a Lord of the Rings game built in Unreal Engine 5 is the middle earth RPG you've always wanted.

That's not to say there aren't any great Lord of the Rings games out there. I remember the GameCube movie tie-ins being some of my favorite games as a kid, and I spent a whole summer playing the MMO back in college. 2017's Middle-earth: Shadow of War and 2014's Shadow of Mordor, the two most recent adaptations, do let you explore a number of iconic locations from the movies in incredible visual detail for the time, but you're so busy decapitating orcs in those games that you don't really have time to take in your surroundings.

In this montage of fan-made concept trailers made in Unreal Engine 5 (thanks, VG247 (opens in new tab)), we get to explore, arguably, the most memorable locations from the books and movies: Hobbiton, Rivendell, and the Tower of Mordor in absolutely stunning clarity. It's just too bad it isn't real. You can see every artist included in the montage in the YouTube description (opens in new tab), but suffice it to say, none of them hold the license to the franchise and thus, probably won't be releasing anything playable any time soon.

Still, it's an absolute treat to see such a beautiful recreation of Tolkien's universe while we wait for The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, Daedalic's Stealth-focused adaptation that was recently delayed beyond its planned September launch by "a few months."

For everything else on the horizon, don't miss our guide to new games of 2022.