Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor was excellent. While the combat and stealth gameplay was very Assassin's Creed -- just with some added ghostly powers -- Mordor had something truly unique: the nemesis system. Players would almost forget the main storyline as they were caught up battling with other Orcish leaders who had become sworn enemies. With Shadow of War, little has changed. Again, the nemesis system forms the most intriguing part of the game, offering more variety of Orc thanks to an increasingly diverse voice cast.

A lot of time and effort will be spent discussing Middle Earth: Shadow of War's improved Nemesis System between now and probably about a month after release. And for good reason--the Nemesis System was the only thing that elevated predecessor Shadow of Mordor from another me-too Assassin's Creed clone into a technical wunderkind. Leaning into that aspect for the sequel is probably a good call, especially since we've failed to see similar tech make its way through the industry. The dynamic characters that made Shadow of Mordor such a joy are still, three years on, a novelty. But I had 20 to 30 minutes of hands-on time with Shadow of War during E3 and to be honest, the Nemesis System was the least of my concerns.

We can roughly divide the year into two halves: September through February is the "Release" bit, and March through August the "Hype" bit. Sure, there are exceptions--games get released all year long at this point. The Game Developer's Conference, which took place this week in San Francisco and where we start to see news about the year's most-anticipated games. Another solid Humble Bundle this week, this time focused on the Arma series. The tiers are a bit complicated but basically $1 gets you the original Arma, beating the average gets you Arma 2, and paying $15 or more gets you Arma 3. If you're looking for a hellishly complicated but ultra-rewarding military sim, Arma's a damn good choice--or if you just want to play the original DayZ, before it fell into Early Access hell.

The title of "Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor" sequel and its release date have been accidentally leaked by discount store retailer Target. And while the leak has already been removed from the website, it continues to live on through different online news publications and social networking sites. Just this Sunday, the gaming community noticed that Target apparently published a listing for the "Shadow of Mordor 2." The entry was entitled "Middle Earth: Shadow of War." The preorder page also included what is now believed to be the release date of the game, Aug. 22. In addition, the listing indicated that the game will be selling for $59.99.