
Ambitious modding projects are a bit like baby fish, in that millions of them spawn, but relatively few survive to adulthood. Hence, it's always worth celebrating when one makes it through to full release. Such is the case with the Middle-earth Extended Edition, which launches into 1.0 today after 13 years of development.
Middle-earth: Extended Edition first arose in the east way back in 2012, aiming to give Danger Close's beloved RTS The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth the same embiggening treatment Peter Jackson applied to his film trilogy. Over the course of the last decade plus change, it has added new maps to the game like Moria and Lothlorien, added new playable factions such as the Elves and the Haradrim, expanded existing factions like Rohan and Isengard with new units, and much more.