Lego The Lord of the Rings: Minas Tirith (8,278 pieces)

$650 | Releases June 4

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Lego has officially revealed its newest--and biggest--Lord of the Rings set yet, a massive 8,278-piece recreation of the White City, Minas Tirith. Available now to preorder for $650, the set will release first on June 1 for members of Lego's free rewards program, Lego Insiders, and it will be followed by a global launch on June 4. As an added bonus, any purchases made between June 1 and Jun 7 will also receive the Lego Icons: Lord of the Rings Grond battering ram set as a Gift with Purchase.

Lego The Lord of the Rings: Minas Tirith (8,278 pieces) $650 | Releases June 4

Based on the iconic location as seen in Peter Jackson's third Lord of the Rings movie, Return of the King, the Minas Tirith set is a diorama piece that combines an expansive cityscape with detailed interior scenes, including the citadel throne room. The assembled set measures over 23.5 inches high, 24.5 inches wide, and has a depth of 14.5 inches. Essentially, you're going to need a lot of room to display it in all its glory.

It also comes with the following 10 minifigures:

• Aragorn (in King Elessar garb)
• Arwen
• Denethor (with tiny tomatoes)
• Faramir
• Gandalf the White
• Gondor Guards (four in total)
• Peregrin Took

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As mentioned above, this is Lego's largest LOTR set yet, dwarfing impressive past releases like the Rivendell and Barad-dûr Tower by a significant margin. All of these sets are still available to order in case you'd like to complete your collection, alongside smaller LOTR kits like Sauron's Helmet and the Balrog Book Nook.

More Lego Lord of the Rings Sets

• Balrog Book Nook (1,201 pieces) -- $109 ($130)
• Barad-dûr Tower (5,471 pieces) -- $459
• Sauron's Helmet (538 pieces) -- $70
• The Shire (2,017 pieces) -- $270
• Sméagol & Déagol (181 pieces) -- $110 ($120)
• Rivendell (6,167 pieces) -- $499

Moving to other realms beyond Middle-earth, you can also preorder several more upcoming Lego sets. The company is expanding its line of video game console replicas with a Sega Genesis set and it's also celebrating 25 years of Shrek with an absolutely cursed diorama set.

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The Xbox Elite Controller 2 has remained one of the best options for gaming on not just Xbox consoles, but PC, for several years now, but it appears it's about to get an upgrade. Images of the Xbox Elite 3 Controller have appeared online via a Brazilian regulator, and they show a few new features that players should be very excited about.

As spotted by Tecnoblog (via The Verge), the new Xbox Elite 3 Controller features two scrolls wheels on either side of the headset connector, for reasons unclear. A pair button will also make it easy to shift between local play and cloud play, letting you choose whether the controller is connected directly to your system or to your Wi-Fi network.

Xbox Elite 3 controller leaked pic.twitter.com/4sMEpQm9Sd

— Xbox News & Deals (@XboxStockAlerts) May 14, 2026

The other big change is the inclusion of a removable battery pack. Previous Elite Controllers used a non-removable battery, much like PS5 controllers use, but offering the removable option should let players continue to use the same controller long after the original battery has degraded. Microsoft has made a point of including traditional AA battery compartments in most of its wireless controllers over the years, giving players the option of purchasing separate rechargeable packs if they so choose.

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For a long time, the common wisdom was that game consoles would usurp PC gaming, leaving it a niche hobby, ignored by the greater gaming community. And indeed, for a long time consoles were the most popular way to play mainstream games. But recently, especially since the release of the current generation of consoles, the very opposite seems to be coming true. PC gaming has been expanding while consoles falter.

Looking forward to the next Xbox and PlayStation consoles, analysts are predicting $900 as the low end of possible pricing--and that number is seeming more and more optimistic. That's a lot of money to spend for a dedicated machine that, for most console owners, is just used for playing Call of Duty or the latest football game. Consoles are becoming too expensive for all but the most dedicated gamers to justify--especially when gamers in their teens and early 20s have grown up in a world where a console is no longer needed to play the vast majority of games.

While the gaming industry as a whole is still massive, the traditional sector of games are struggling. Games industry sales tracker Circana reported that last year, games spending in general dropped by 4% compared to last year. Hardware spending specifically dropped 27% percent. Xbox Series and PlayStation 5 sales dropped by 70% and 40%, respectively. Nintendo's numbers were bolstered by the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2, but still saw a 10% drop. Both PS5 and the current Xbox consoles have seen multiple price hikes in the last 18 months, and the Nintendo Switch 2 launched at $450 in the US, 50% higher than the launch price of the first Switch.

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In the past decade, life sims (and farming sims, in particular) have gone from a relatively niche genre with a handful of standout titles to a full-blown phenomenon. While this is great for players who now have an abundance of fields to plow, animals to tend to, and townsfolk to woo, the sheer saturation of these titles makes it harder than ever for a game to truly stand out. As such, more and more of these games have sought out interesting angles to help shake up the formula--just look at the current trend of "cozy" games subverting the genre by incorporating horror. However, players looking for something horror-adjacent but decidedly less blood-soaked than Neverway or Grave Seasons have long been out of luck--until now.

Little Chicken's Moonlight Peaks seeks to bridge the gap between the cozy and the macabre, offering up a lighthearted life-sim experience set in a world filled with vampires, werewolves, witches, and seers. After spending around five hours with Moonlight Peaks, I found a fair amount to enjoy--its vibrant-yet-moody color palette and lush environments being chief among them. In the demo I played, the game feels a bit barebones and lacks the ability to truly compel me (both puns very much intended). The controls also feel just a bit off and the world and its characters, not fully alive. However, I remain cautiously optimistic that, with more time spent in development (the game is set to launch in July), Moonlight Peaks could deliver an experience that sets it apart from similar titles.

In Moonlight Peaks, you play as Count Dracular's heir apparent. After yet another fight with your blood- and soul-sucking father, you decide it's time to leave the castle and create a life of your own somewhere else. This journey leads you to your witchy mother's former hometown, the small village of Moonlight Peaks.

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Once you start getting past the initial area in Subnautica 2, you'll begin to encounter more resources, which are required to craft advanced tools, healing supplies, and materials. These resources aren't as common as Titanium and Copper, though, so they can take some time to track down. One of the resources you'll be chasing for hours is Silver, which is a necessary resource to improve all sorts of technology. While Silver can be a pain to find, there are specific areas you can look in Subnautica 2 that will yield a guaranteed supply of it.

Silver locations in Subnautica 2

There are technically two different kinds of Silver in Subnautica 2: regular ore and Silver Outcrops. Regular Silver ore can be looted with your hands just like any other metal, but Silver Outcrops require the use of a Sonar Resonator to mine due to their larger size and harvest potential.

The Sonar Resonator has fragments lying around that you can scan to eventually build it. However, that will take hours into Subnautica 2, and you need Silver to upgrade your oxygen tank rather quickly, so you'll want to know where regular ore can be found.

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After years of development and behind-the-scenes controversy, Subnautica 2 from developer Unknown Worlds is out now in early access. If you're curious about the game but don't have an Xbox or a PC powerful enough, there is another way to play it--by streaming it to a device you already own via Nvidia GeForce now or Microsoft's cloud gaming service.

For GeForce Now, you still have to buy the game and then subscribe to the service to play it. There is a free tier of the service, but it limits you to one-hour sessions, has ads, caps you at 1080p/60fps, and streams from a "basic" rig. Alternatively, you can pay $10/month for no ads and streaming from a GeForce RTX rig with six-hour sessions and up to 1440p/60fps. There is also an Ultimate tier of GeForce Now ($20/month) that has no ads, eight-hour sessions, and up to 5K/360fps.

Go to the GeForce Now website to learn more.

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Are you wondering about how to heal your character in Subnautica 2? The world of Proteus is full of mysteries and wonders, but danger also lurks in every corner. If you decide to play on Creative Mode, then don't fret, since your character is pretty much invulnerable. Conversely, if you're playing on Survival Mode, then this guide is for you.

Subnautica 2 survival guide: Healing

At the start, your character has 100 health/HP. This gets depleted if you experience mishaps, such as:

• Going hungry (starving) or thirsty (dehydration). Each time your food or water meter ticks, you lose -4 HP.
• Taking damage from enemies and the environment--i.e. extreme heat. The damage you suffer varies.
• Leviathans are also considered hostile creatures, but they'll gobble up your character whole, leading to instant death.
• Running out of oxygen causes your screen to darken. If you're unable to replenish it in time, your character will perish, too.

Healing up via Medical Gel Sacs

To heal your character in Subnautica 2, you can consume items known as Medical Gel Sacs. These come from underwater plants known as Acidic Raions:

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After nearly a year of speculation, AMD has announced that it is bringing its latest generation of AI-powered upscaling technology, FSR 4.1, to its older generations of GPUs, starting with RDNA 3 cards as early as July.

FSR 4.1 launched in March for AMD's latest GPUs, namely the RX 9070 XT, 9070, and more. Older, but just as capable, RDNA 3 cards such as the RX 7900 XTX, have been stuck on FSR 3, with AMD repeatedly stating that newer hardware in its latest cards enabled the AI upscaling in a way previous architecture couldn't. That is no longer the case, with AMD's Jack Huynh stating that the company has done a lot of work to ensure the upscaling suite is optimized for the older hardware. Better still, he says AMD is also planning to release FSR 4.1 on even older RDNA 2 GPUs, such as the one found in the Steam Deck, in early 2027.

This not only enhances older desktop GPUs during a time where the price of PC hardware has increased exponentially, but it also is good news for upcoming RDNA 3 devices, like Valve's Steam Machine. When it was originally announced, Valve said that the living-room PC would leverage upscaling to support games at 4K, but the reliance on FSR 3 at the time didn't make that option too enticing given its shortcomings. With FSR 4.1, the same technology that currently underpins Sony's PSSR 2 on the PlayStation 5 Pro, that is a different discussion entirely.

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Rockstar Games owner Take-Two saw its stock price jump by over 6% today after news broke that preorders for GTA 6 could start on Monday, May 18. Reading between the lines here, it appears investors are excited about the idea that Rockstar is finally going to start taking people's money.

Investors may also see this report as more of an indication that GTA 6 will not be delayed again and will actually come out on November 19, thus signaling strength and confidence in the stock.

With Take-Two's share value climbing today--it's at $242 as of publish time--the company has added $2 billion+ in market cap. Even with the growth, Take-Two's share price so far in 2026 has fallen by about 4%, however. The company's stock value took a beating in February when Google announced Project Genie, a new AI system that it said was capable of creating video game worlds.

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Cloud gaming has been a big focus for Microsoft and the Xbox division for several years, and the company has been rumored to be working on a new controller to help with this initiative. It looks like images for the peripheral have leaked, but compared to the standard Xbox Wireless Controller that has been in action for over five years, this new model looks to be a polarizing new design.

Images from Brazil's Anatel regulator (via Tecnoblog) show off a device that's smaller and more compact than a standard controller. The new controller reportedly features the standard inputs of an Xbox controller, a rechargeable 500mAh internal battery, Bluetooth connectivity for 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz, and Wi-Fi functionality for game streaming.

Este é o novo controle da Microsoft para Xbox Cloud Gaming https://t.co/P27j4Rn0M2

— Tecnoblog (@Tecnoblog) May 14, 2026

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At long last, Subnautica 2 is playable and open to explore. Set on an entirely different planet from the first two games, there are never-before-seen items, creatures, and locations to explore in Subnautica 2. So, whether you're a Subnautica veteran or someone getting into the franchise for the first time, you'll be entering a whole new world when you strap in for your first playthrough.

To help you out for the first few hours of your journey, we have put together a list of 10 beginner tips that will make your time on the Proteus planet much easier in Subnautica 2. While you'll still have to figure out a bulk of the game by yourself, these tips should make the beginning stages of the game go smoother.

Scan everything in sight

One aspect of Subnautica 2 that hasn't changed from the previous two games is the ability to scan objects and add them as data entries. Right from the start of the game, you'll have access to your scanner, which allows you to learn more about a creature or object after you spend a few seconds examining it with the device.

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Diablo 4's latest patch fixed a number of bugs, including one that is now allowing players to become near immortal by stacking Resolve.

Tucked away in the lengthy patch notes for update 3.0.2 is one, unassuming change for the Paladin's Aspect of Glynn's Anvil. Lord of Hatred's launch seemingly broke the aspect, causing it to not properly increase damage reduction based on stacks of Resolve. As of May 13, that's been fixed.

While the fix is listed as a Paladin change, the aspect is actually usable by every class except for Sorcerer and Warlock. Now that it's fixed, players have found that imprinting Glynn's Anvil on a piece of gear and then proceeding to Temper as many + Maximum Resolve stacks as possible on items results in a toughness rating in the millions.

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Are you curious about where to find all Colonist Bunkers in Subnautica 2? These habs are quite well-hidden. They used to be the hideouts and homes of colonists who were trying to eke out a living on the ocean planet of Proteus. Sadly, these buildings--and scattered clues--are all that they've left behind. That said, these locations happen to have biobeds, which unlock permanent upgrades for your character.

Table of Contents [hide]

• All biobed upgrades from Colonist Bunkers in Subnautica 2
  • Colonist Bunker #1: Anita's Garden
  • Colonist Bunker #2: Salvage
  • Colonist Bunker #3: Quaker's Meetinghouse
  • Colonist Bunker #4: Unauthorized NOA Modification
  All biobed upgrades from Colonist Bunkers in Subnautica 2

  As of now, we've found four Colonist Bunkers in Subnautica 2. While these are optional locations, it's a good idea to search for them as you're roaming around the seabed. The upgrades themselves increase your inventory capacity and add extra tool slots. As an aside, we do encourage you to check our mini-walkthrough, which should help you understand the lay of the land, er, water.

  Colonist Bunker #1: Anita's Garden
  • Location: 100 meters east-southeast of the Lifepod.
  • Landmark/tips: As you approach this area, you'll see an underwater current that pushes you downward. Ride the current and, once you're in the cavern, look for the Alterra crates with the Wakemaker fragment and recording. If you check the northeastearn side, you'll see a tunnel with red kelp. Go through the tunnel to find the bunker.
  • Reward: Endurance - Gain +3 inventory slots.
  • Other scannable objects: N/A
  Colonist Bunker #2: Salvage
  • Location: Roughly 200 meters north-northeast of the Lifepod.
  • Landmark/tips: This Subnautica 2 Colonist Bunker is close to the Angel Comb Adaptation. Look for a cave opening next to a ledge with Alterra equipment. Swim down to the bottom of the opening and look to your left.
  • Reward: Dexterity - Gain +1 tool slot/keybind.
  • Other scannable objects: Repair Tool and Habitat Builder.
  Colonist Bunker #3: Quaker's Meetinghouse
  • Location: 250 meters south-southeast of the Lifepod.
  • Landmark/tips: This is part of the objective where you search for the Chap blackbox recording. It's inside a cave guarded by a Coral Crab. Another notable landmark is the set of pillars that jut out of the top of the plateau.
  • Reward: Endurance - Gain +3 inventory slots.
  • Other scannable objects: Bioreactor.
  Colonist Bunker #4: Unauthorized NOA Modification
  • Location: 300 meters south-southwest of the Lifepod.
  • Landmark/tips: The hatch is jutting out of a ridge near the seafloor and a crashed ship.
  • Reward: Endurance - Gain +3 inventory slots.
  • Other scannable objects: Tadpole Fragment.

  That does it for our guide on where to find all Colonist Bunkers in Subnautica 2. We'll keep you posted in case we discover others, so stay tuned. In the meantime, we encourage you to head to our Adaptations guide so you can obtain permanent boosts for your character. We also have a mini-walkthrough that you can read so you'll know where to go next for the sandbox campaign.

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Some more classic virtual reality games are coming to flatscreen gaming platforms, as Polyarc has announced Moss: The Forgotten Relic. It's great that more players will have access to these wonderful games, but it does feel like a result of the struggles that VR gaming currently faces.

Moss: The Forgotten Relic combines Moss, Moss: The Twilight Garden, and Moss: Book 2 into a singular experience for Steam and PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo consoles. Like in the VR games, players will guide a mouse named Quill through a storybook adventure, interacting with the world to help out along the way. This version reworks the camera and presentation to work on flatscreen TVs or monitors, when it previously did not.

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Original Xbox: The Console and the Games (Hardcover)

$19.33 (was $43)

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Picture this: it's November 2001, and Microsoft has just entered the chat with the biggest, beefiest-looking video game console the world has ever seen. The original Xbox was the first console to ever feature a built-in hard drive and an Ethernet port for broadband internet, and it launches alongside the now-legendary first entry in the Halo franchise, Halo: Combat Evolved. It's been close to 25 years since this pivotal moment in gaming history, and if you remember it fondly, there's a way to revisit it: through the pages of Original Xbox: The Console and the Games, a new commemorative book which is currently on sale at Amazon for $19.33 (was $43).

Original Xbox: The Console and the Games (Hardcover) $19.33 (was $43)

Originally announced in 2020 to celebrate the 20th anniversary and Kickstarted into reality by XboxEra, Original Xbox: The Console and the Games dives into the history of the first American-made console since the Atari Jaguar. Featuring 360 full color pages and exclusive interviews, features, and retrospectives, this book covers many of the platform's most memorable releases, from Fable and Forza: Motorsport to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and, of course, Halo: Combat Evolved. More than 700 games are featured on these pages in total.

Interviews and excerpts include ex-vice president of game publishing at Microsoft Ed Fries, 'The Father of Xbox' Seamus Blackley, journalists Tom Warren and Jeff Grubb, and content creators Klobrille, ColtEastwood, Rand Al Thor 19, ForgeLabs, ModernVintageGamer, Lord Cognito, and Miles Dompier.

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If all this makes you nostalgic for your old Xbox days, we get it. Should you want to dig back into any of the classic games from that time period, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One are both backwards compatible with some original Xbox discs. To check what games are included, check out Xbox's list here. You can also purchase digital titles via the Microsoft store or play them using Xbox Game Pass.

As long as you're shopping for coffee table books, Amazon has some really good deals running on gaming books you might also like. Check out a few more of our recommendations below.

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Are you wondering about where to find all Adaptations in Subnautica 2? These aren't just permanent upgrades. They actually alter your character's DNA, granting new abilities that allow you to progress further into the campaign. Our guide has all the details that you need.

Table of Contents [hide]

• All Angel Comb Adaptation locations in Subnautica 2

All Angel Comb Adaptation locations in Subnautica 2

As of the time of this writing, we've discovered four types of Adaptations in Subnautica 2. These come from large tree-like structures known as Angel Combs. A couple of these can be obtained fairly easily, since you only need to interact with the pink bulb. The rest, however, require a bit of patience and effort.

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Subnautica 2 has only been out for about an hour, but it's already attracted hundreds of thousands of concurrent players on Steam alone.

Unknown Worlds Entertainment launched Subnautica 2 on Steam and Xbox Series X|S at 11 AM ET today, May 14. There was a ton of interest right out of the gate, and a look at Steam's most-played games shows some eye-watering concurrent player count stats. At the time of writing, its last reported peak concurrent player count was 465,204, and that number is trending upwards.

That dwarfs the launches of other hit Steam games this year, like Windrose and Slay the Spire 2. It's even more impressive when you consider that SteamDB doesn't take those playing on Xbox Series X|S or through the Xbox and Epic Games launchers on PC.

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Forza Horizon 6 is designed in nearly every way to feel like a party, but my coworker sought to make it my funeral.

Okay, not my actual coworker, but his Drivatar.

If you're unfamiliar, Forza Drivatars are CPU-controlled embodiments of you, making it so that even if you're playing the game solo, you'll get the thrill and the feel of racing real people. It gives CPU racers the names, custom license plates, and even the cars of those on your friends list, as well as others who have played the game, and it's trained on their driving habits to perform the way they do in races.

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Do you want to increase your maximum oxygen in Subnautica 2? If you're playing on Creative Mode, then you don't need to worry too much since your character can't die. However, in Survival Mode, your oxygen gets depleted too fast, which makes frequent dives very challenging. Here's our guide to help you with this particular mechanic.

Table of Contents [hide]

• Subnautica 2 survival guide: Oxygen
  • The surface and other safe zones
  Subnautica 2 survival guide: Oxygen

  In Survival Mode, your character has 45 oxygen by default. This gets depleted at the rate of -1 oxygen per second while you're underwater. That means you have to find ways to quickly replenish oxygen, as well as methods that increase the maximum amount.

  The surface and other safe zones

  Swimming to the surface rapidly restores your oxygen in Subnautica 2. This might sound simple, but it can be quite tough when you're hundreds of meters below sea level. Thankfully, there are safe areas that also help replenish oxygen levels:

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Are you wondering about how you can drink water and eat alien food in Subnautica 2? Similar to previous games in the series, your character is marooned in an ocean world and you need to find ways to survive. Things won't be that easy, since humans can't easily digest the meat from strange creatures.

Table of Contents [hide]

• Subnautica 2 survival guide: Food and water

Subnautica 2 survival guide: Food and water

If you're playing on Creative Mode, then you shouldn't worry about hunger and thirst at all. Your character, for all intents and purposes, is immortal.

In Survival Mode, however, things might be a little too challenging since you need to look for food and water items. These items can be crafted using a Fabricator, and the recipes that you unlock should appear in the device's Sustenance tab. It's also possible to find these consumables lying around as loot, such as those inside supply crates.

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