Overview

• Tales of the Shire launched July 29 on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows PC and Xbox Series X, marking Weta Workshop’s first non-combat Middle-earth life simulation.
• Reviewers highlight the immersive Shared Meal cooking mechanic as the game’s strongest feature for building friendships and unlocking new recipes.
• Critics praise the fishing system for its relaxing, well-paced gameplay, often comparing it favorably to Sea of Thieves.
• Several outlets fault the game’s narrative and side activities as shallow and repetitive, citing two-dimensional NPCs and endless fetch quests.
• The Nintendo Switch version is plagued by crashes, frame-rate drops and texture pop-in, prompting Weta Workshop to promise post-launch technical fixes.