There are several Lord of the Rings games coming out in the near future. Warner Bros has released some new behind the scenes footage for 2 of those; namely Lego Lord of the Rings and Guardians of Middle-Earth.

In the Lego universe of Tolkien’s tale, the developers discuss merging both worlds together. By using this known lore, they hope to bring a game that feels “more epic” than any previous endeavor. To do so, they’ve incorporated the entirety of the trilogy, together with implementing the map exactly how it was illustrated. All places should match up to the real thing. There, players will be able to follow the story or take on several fetch quests and side missions. This is one of the first times we’re hearing the term fetch quest being pitched as a positive. Anyway, Lego Lord of the Rings will also incorporate actual dialogues from the movie trilogy, which should make for a more cinematic atmosphere. Even so, the developers are confident that through the Lego medium, they are able to create a universe that is both genuine and humorous. This game comes out in November for just about every platform.

Guardians of Middle-Earth finally reveals the second part of their development process with professional gamers. The previous clip showed us how they invited the top players of the world to tweak their online game. Now, after Monolith worked on a new build overnight, these pros can try their luck once more and see how the game has adapted to their needs. The reworked version for instance altered respawn times to offer more reactive gameplay for both teams. Neutral soldiers were also boosted for more power and capture points went from a 10 second period to possess, down to just 3 seconds.

Once more the gamers could provide feedback on how the game behaved. In particular, reworking capture points made for a whole different game where everyone kept their focus constantly on capture. Some players expressed their positive surprise to an online fighting game that seems to work well for consoles. Through playing, they did manage to pick up on an exploit however. By using a set of potions, they could become more powerful than anyone else and end the game prematurely. That’s the sort of thing you want to cut short before releasing it into the world. After a few more jingles and empty cuts, this strangely edited scene resembling a reality show comes to an end. Guardians of Middle-Earth is due for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 this fall.