Guardians of Middle Earth unveiled

This Autumn, gamers will be returning to Middle-earth, and helping some of Tolkien's most iconic characters beat seven shades of hell out of each other. No, it's not an action adventure; it's a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game, and it's coming to the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade.

The game is in development at Monolith Productions, and the gameplay is built around five versus five battles. With over 20 characters, these showdowns could be pretty epic, with the likes of Gandalf, Sauron, Gollum, Thrain, Legolas, Gimli and more squaring off. MOBA games generally emphasise complementary abilities, teamwork and dynamic levelling, so it will be interesting to see how it plays out here.

Quite how Gollum with a rock facing off against the incredibly powerful Gandalf will be balanced remains to be seen. Marvel fans will also be interested to see that apparently Gimli has learnt a few lessons from Thor, if his hammer-throwing is anything to go by in the brand new CG trailer below. Naturally enough, the game will feature tie-ins to Peter Jackon's upcoming The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey film.