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Look at him! Couldn't you just eat the little guy up with a spoon? We're getting our first looks at screens and video (check after the break) from family-friendly Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest, and they're just precious. If you think Lil' Aragorn is cute, wait until you see the kiddy-fied hobbits. They're like squishable, baby-shaped teddy bears.

On a completely unrelated note, do you think we could crack open J.R.R. Tolkien's coffin and use his spinning corpse to power a small generator? Just curious.

We've officially stopped keeping up with Lord of the RIngs Online, but the updates for the game just keep on coming, so we assume that someone out there is paying attention. So, we're going to do our part for the mysterious, silent fans by letting them know that the next free expansion for the game will arrive in June and will be called "Volume II: Book 8: Scourge of Khazad-dum."

... Wait, that's seriously the name? Jeez, no wonder we haven't kept up.

We just think it's adorable when publishers announce games that we've all known about for days already, like this release for Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest from Warner Bros. ... yes, the same one you read about last week. But it almost always pays to read these little missives. For example, in this one we learned that the "first Lord of the Rings videogame created specifically for kids and their families" will come to Wii, DS, PS2 and PSP.

Warner also hints at the future of the franchise, saying upcoming offerings will appeal to families as well as "hard-core RPG fans." ... Could we maybe just skip straight to that one, please?

Now that Warner Bros. Interactive has its hands on the precioussss Lord of the Rings license, Shacknews reports that the company has revealed its first game based on the franchise. The game was listed among Warner Bros' E3 debut titles and is reportedly named The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest. Okay, so an LOTR game starring Aragorn. That could be really aweso ... oh, wait, what's this?

Shacknews states the game "is the first Lord of the Rings videogame created specifically for kids and their families" and features "accessible gameplay set in a friendly, colorful rendition of Middle-Earth." Oh dear.

We'll be honest, just the prospect of Lord of the Rings: Conquest has us excited. Getting a chance to take part in a massive fantasy battle out of J.R.R. Tolkien's universe is a geeky dream come true. Helping to fuel our nerdy desires are the newly discovered achievements for Conquest as provided by Xbox360Achievements.org. Most of the achievements center around completing single-player campaign levels or killing X number of enemies as class X. There are a few, however, that stand out. We're particularly fond of Flame of Anor, which is given to players for killing 100 enemies with a mage's firewall on a single life. It also might be hard to top You Shall Not Pass!, which is given for defeating the Balrog -- as Gandalf -- in the Mines of Moria. Nerdgasm complete.

The Shacknews folks are reporting that Pandemic Studios' Lord of the Rings: Conquest - a game dedicated to re-creating epic LOTR battles sans Elijah Wood - will be landing on retail shelves next January 13th. And from the factual deets we've already been given, LOTR: Conquest doesn't sound half bad ... possibly even good. We believe in you Pandemic, so do us proud!

The world of Warcraft (and subsequently World of Warcraft) owes a lot to Lord of the Rings ... but this is outright thievery! We jest, of course, but The Eye of Acherus does bear a striking resemblance, palette swap notwithstanding, of a certain bling-seeking, fiery ocular orb. The folks at WoW Insider have more on how the orb is used in questing.

In other WotLK news, check out what WI is dubbing the quintessential Death Knight armor set.

There are few existing licenses that can pull large scale, arena-style, battles off and it looks like Lord of the Rings has just joined the ranks -- so far. In the teaser trailer for the upcoming title Lord of the Rings: Conquest, Pandemic showcases the epic battle of good versus evil from both perspectives. Pulling inspiration from Battlefield and its own Star Wars: Battlefront franchise, Lord of the Rings: Conquest has shown great potential. Working closely with Peter Jackson's Weta Digital to capture the look of the award-winning films, LotR: Conquest looks to impress gamers when it ships this fall.

Pandemic just released the first trailer for their Star Wars: Battlefront-esque take on Tolkien's beloved fantasy world, Lord of the Rings: Conquest, and despite a few framerate issues, we're as pleased as Miruvor-flavored punch. Though past titles have tried to capture the grand scale of Middle Earth's climactic battles through various methods of interactivity, we've never really felt the exhilaration associated with cutting through swathes of Orcborn adversaries with our trusty Andúril. The familiar Battlefront gameplay formula looks to be just what the doctor ordered -- though PETA might have a few unkind words to say about the Proboscidean homocide apparently featured in the title.

In a recent interview with Crispy Gamer, Pandemic got the chance to shed some light on their recently announced Battlefront-meets-Lord of the Rings title, Lord of the Rings Conquest. With the interview come a few details regarding the game and just what gamers can expect. Said details are as follows:

• Three types of combat: Melee, Ranged, and Magic (expect warriors, archers, etc)
• The game will play from 3rd person perspective
• There will be several playable creatures and vehicles including ents, fell beasts, catapults, siege towers, trolls, battering rams and eagles
• Much like the Battlefront series, players will be rewarded with playable heroes for completing objectives
• Players will fight through the major battles of the film and a few that appear in the books. There are also battles included that were "hinted at" in the books.
• The Evil campaign plays out as though Frodo failed in his mission to destroy the One Ring
• No cross-platform play between PC and 360 (surprise, surprise)
• Conquest features "a recognizable actor from the films" as the narrator (dare we hope for Hugo Weaving?)

The concept of mixing Battlefront with Lord of the Rings already had us intrigued, but this new info has us even more excited, particularly the news regarding the available creatures and vehicles. Hit the "Source" link for the full article.

Just how many people are working at Pandemic anyway? Not only are they still finishing up Mercenaries 2: World in Flames and (maybe) making the next Batman game, but news has come from IGN today that the Lord of the Rings game the studio is currently crafting (called Lord of the Rings: Conquest) will arrive on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC this fall. By the developer's own admission it's an unabashed mash-up of the fantasy property and its own Star Wars Battlefront (read: huge fights in Middle Earth).

The game will incorporate every battle from the movies, a few from the books and some from whole cloth. Conquest's large-scale battles, which will sport up to 150 characters on screen at once, can be waged by eight players online [update: It's apparently 16] against one another or with four players teaming up on the main campaign online or via split screen. Frankly, we got a little burnt out on Lord of the Rings games when a glut of them arrived with Peter Jackson's films, but this sounds like the kind of meaty experience that justifies a return to Middle Earth.

MMO developer Turbine found its purse a bit heavier this week after securing a $40 million round of financing from a group of investors led by Granite Global Ventures, filling the Lord of the Rings Online creator's total venture capital money bin to around $90 million mark.

According to a report by Private Equity Hub, the investment also saw Granite Global's managing partner Hani Nada take a seat on Turbine's board, presumably in order to make sure the money was put to good use and not slipped into the underwear of Elvish hookers after a night on the town. While we remain in the dark as to what exactly the studio will do with its newfound wealth, Turbine is expected to make an announcement regarding its future plans in the next two weeks.

[Via GI.biz]

With only so much time left in the day, we thought we'd fit in a handful of the gros amount of April Fools' pranks found in the various MMOs today.

• Age of Conan announces the Elf class (If you think this is real, check out the creation video)
• Guild War turns everyone into stick figures, making us pine for a Xiao Xiao MMO
• Dungeons & Dragons Online introduces Pimp My Warforged
• The Battle for Middle Earth gets their chicken on
• World of Warcraft developer Blizzard does their usual thing

Speaking of WoW, our Azeroth-obsessed sister site converted to Hello Kitty Insider for a day of mass coverage (30+ posts!). Here's what their front page looked like today.

You know what it's like when it's early morning and so toasty under the covers snuggled up against that someone special that you just don't see any reason to get out bed. We imagine that's a lot like the relationship between The Lord of the Rings Online developer Turbine and Tolkien Enterprises, as the pair have agreed to extend their relationship until 2014 -- with an option to work together for three more years after that -- ensuring that players will be able to continue to frolic and grind their way through Middle Earth.

We're very interested to see where Turbine takes the franchise going forward, especially after comments made by executive producer Jeffrey Steefel in January regarding the developer's console-based aspirations for the license. In addition, while no new game announcements have been made, the recent confirmation of a new 2-part Hobbit film finally getting underway would seem to make excellent fodder for the MMO developer, and we expect that the pair will continue to play footsie beneath the sheets for years to come.