

For example, on May 25th, 2023, video game journalist Alex Avard posted a tweet comparing a promotional screenshot and an actual screenshot from the game, with the tweet (shown below, left) gaining over 1,300 retweets and 10,800 likes in one day. The release of the game and its early reviews were followed by viral discussions online as users shared screenshots of the game to criticize and mock it. On Steam, the game had a 35 percent approval rating with 100 reviews as of May 26th, 2023 ( IGN review shown below). On OpenCritic, the game had a 42 average score with 46 reviews. On Metacritic, the PlayStation 5 version of the game had a 40 average reviews score with 29 reviews. Upon release on May 25th, 2023, the game was met with very negative reviews both from critics and players, who criticized its poor implementation of mechanics, bad interface and design choices and poor optimization.

The game features stealth and platforming mechanics, and the player is presented with choices in which he can take action as Gollum or Smeagol, with the decision-making presented in the form of dialogues between the character's two personae (gameplay video shown below). Lord of the Rings: Gollum is an action-adventure game that follows the character Gollum, with the story set eight years before his appearance in The Lord of the Rings books. Originally scheduled to release in 2021, the game was released for PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series X/S and Windows on May 25th, 2023 (launch trailer shown below). The authorities in Turkey are responsible for repeatedly brutally mistreating journalists, according to a fresh Reporters Without Borders (RWB) release.On March 26th, 2019, German video game developer and publisher Daedalic Entertainment announced The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, an action-adventure video game following the story of Gollum / Smeagol, a character from J.R.R. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the national media of being "accomplices" in the killing of Prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz for publishing "terrorist propaganda." This year, a Turkish court blocked access to 166 websites, including YouTube, Facebook and Twitter on April 6, following the posting online of a video of a prosecutor being held at gunpoint by far-left radicals.

The defendant, who now faces a sentence up to two years in prison, stated that he hadn't intended to insult Erdogan by comparing him to Gollum, whom he claims is not a bad character at all, the Zaman reported. The chief judge in the trial called in experts after he confessed he's never seen any of The Lord of The Rings films in full and postponed the next hearing until February 13th, 2016. "The court ordered that the investigation be conducted by a group composed of two academics, two behavioral scientists or psychologists and an expert on cinema and television productions," the Today's Zaman, another daily newspaper, explained.
