Middle-earth: Shadow of War - Blade of Galadriel is out now, so here's a trailer

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A new Middle-earth: Shadow of War expansion called The Blade of Galadriel went live today, giving players the opportunity to switch things up as Eltariel, an elite Elven assassin who's been sent by Galadriel to hang a job on the Nazgul. The new character comes complete with new Nemesis characters including Flint, Tinder, and the Slayer of the Dead, plus eight unique Legendary Orcs who will join your army in the main campaign.

It also appears that she has a beef with Talion, the lead character from Shadow of War, who—and this is all quite spoiler-ish, so stop here if you're still trying to avoid such things—took Isildur's ring after killing him in Shadow of War. He eventually took to wearing the ring after being abandoned by Celebrimbor, which has him on a slow ride to becoming a Nazgul himself—an unfortunate metamorphosis that's put him in Galadriel's, and therefore Eltariel's, sights.

It's a pretty dramatic retcon of the existing Tolkien mythos, but also relatively harmless as these things go—and let's be honest, it's not as though Shadow of War itself has demonstrated an iron-clad commitment to Middle-earth canon. After sexy Shelob and Orc bling run amok, I don't think a Nazgul name change is too much to stress about.

Also out today is an update to the game that brings new traits to Orc Captains, upgrades the Photo Mode with new filters, frames, and styles, adds an Eltariel skin for the main campaign, enables Training Orders for garrisoned Orc followers, and incorporates a new Player Stats menu with information on kills, dominations, betrayals, conquests, and more. That update is free for all players, with or without the Blade of Galadriel update. It also makes the usual array of fixes and balance, a full rundown of which is available on Steam.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.