Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch

From the same Wētā Workshop as the Lord Of The Rings films , Tales Of The Shire swaps Tolkien’s epic conflicts for a cosy life sim in bucolic Bywater, set between the events of The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings proper. If you're a hardcore Tolkien aficionado, you probably just bristled with grim foreknowledge, as that's the same Bywater of the infamous ‘Scouring of the Shire’, doomed to be overrun and utterly despoiled by Saruman. That puts quite the damper on your genteel efforts to grow organic produce and host dinners with your neighbours.

Or it would, if that factored into Tales Of The Shire at all. Instead, as a custom Hobbit – designed to your tastes in a passable-if-uninspiring character creator – you're newly

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