Independent developer Free Range Games and publisher North Beach Games today revealed The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria, the only survival crafting video game set in the Fourth Age of Middle-earth, the iconic fantasy world created by J.R.R. Tolkien. Unveiled in the Epic Games Summer Showcase during Summer Game Fest, The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria follows the Dwarves of Middle-earth as they embark on an original adventure to reclaim and restore their Dwarven homeland of Moria. The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria will be available exclusively on PC via the Epic Games Store when it launches in Spring 2023. Players interested in securing their role in the adventure can add the game to their wishlist starting today. "We're beyond excited for the Dwarves to return to Khazad-dûm! Thanks to our friends at North Beach Games and Free Range Games, we'll delve deep into the Misty Mountains together, by this time next year. We do hope you'll join us!" Middle-earth's Fredrica Drotos enthusiastically exclaimed.



The story of The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria takes players beyond the books and into the Fourth Age of Middle-earth, the fantastical world created by J.R.R. Tolkien. Summoned to the Misty Mountains by Lord Gimli Lockbearer, players take control of a company of Dwarves tasked to reclaim the lost spoils from the Dwarven homeland of Moria—known as Khazad-dûm or Dwarrowdelf—in the depths below their very feet. Their quest will require fortitude, delving deep into the Mines of Moria to recover its treasures. Players will join forces to survive, craft, build, and explore the iconic, sprawling mines. Courageous expeditioners will need to be vigilant as mysterious dangers await.
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AJAZZ Announces Year Of The Tiger Themed Limited Edition AC081 75% Mechanical Keyboard
AJAZZ is on a limited edition roll, first with the cheese-themed AC067 65% keyboard and now a zodiac-calendar themed take on its popular AC081 75% form factor keyboard. Given this is the year of the Tiger as per the Chinese zodiac, I fully expected to see the likes of Ducky to come up with a limited edition as they have for a while now. But it appears this year other brands have decided to take on the arguably easy formula, and I have a review of another such Tiger-themed keyboard in the works. AJAZZ's version uses a gasket-mounted structure with a thick CNC-machined aluminium alloy chassis which undergoes a combination of anodizing and electrophoresis processes for a matching textured finish, and PBT keycaps with dye sublimed legends. As with the cheese-themed keyboard, AJAZZ has once again worked with Kailh to bring out a limited edition Year of the Tiger switch that is a linear switch rated at 45 gf actuation at 1.8 mm travel. This is a heavy keyboard weighing 1.8 Kg and available for purchase from Mechkeys for $219.

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MOONDROP Releases DAWN Portable DAC/Amp Dongle with 4.4 mm Balanced Output
After a successful launch of its MOONRIVER 2 portable DAC/amplifier (review coming up on TechPowerUp), MOONDROP announced a cut-down version using the same dual Cirrus Logic CS43131 DAC chips and dual crystal oscillators, but in a dongle form factor. Making the DAWN quite novel in the dongle market is the output adopting a 4.4 mm balanced TRRS connector rather than the usual 3.5 mm audio jack, meaning you will have to get adapters or go with headphones/earphones that use 4.4 mm cables. In return, this fully balanced connection provides some truly excellent and independently verified metrics including an SNR of 132 dB and THD+N 0.00017% with up to 4 Vrms output in high gain that translates to an output power of 230 mW@32 Ω and 54 mW@300 Ω to easily drive the vast majority of consumer headphones even, let alone earphones/IEMs. The MOONDROP DAWN with its aluminium alloy shell weighs under 14 g, measures 120 x 16.4 mm, can decode PCM playback up to 32-bit/768 kHz and native DSD256, and costs $70 from the likes of HiFiGo and SHENZHENAUDIO for those interested.

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(PR) Goat Simulator 3 Launches This Fall With 4 "Person" Online Multiplayer
For the Summer Game Fest 2022, Coffee Stain Publishing, Coffee Stain North and Koch Media are udderly proud to announce the long dreaded sequel to the global annoyance 'Goat Simulator'. Goat Simulator 3 releases this fall on Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 and on PC exclusively on the Epic Games Store. This follow up to 2014's Goat Simulator starts an all-new adventure, once again featuring Pilgor the goat. This time she's found new pastures on the sprawling sandbox island of San Angora, a place where mysteries and chaos follow wherever you go. Players are free to roam around and discover the island's secrets or, well, just destroy stuff. This is a Goat Simulator, after all.



Built from the gravel up, this next generation of goat simulation has it all; Goats, goats wearing hats, goats riding a goat wearing a hat. There are also unnatural disasters, secret animal societies, triple jumping and probably any other nonsense you could think up. But truly, what is all this exciting newness without friends to explore it with? In Goat Simulator 3, you can gather as a herd of up to 4 friends to be the goats of your dreams, together. Yes, Goat Simulator 3 has online multiplayer!
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