Born in the trenches of World War I, J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth grew to become one of the most expansive worlds to ever grace fantasy fiction. Tolkien created an entire world history that never appeared in his actual stories, yet there are letters, notes, unfinished stories – all manner of apocrypha relating to Tolkien’s published works. Warner Bros. Interactive and Snowblind Studio’s Lord of the Rings: War In The North takes a stray line from The Lord of the Rings and expands it into a story using said apocrypha. The result is not a bad game per se, but it doesn’t tread new ground in gaming either. (more…)