Cynical Mike writes in to say that a new playable demo for The Hobbit is now available--or actually, a trilogy of demos showing off Sierra's upcoming game based on The Hobbit (thank you, Cynical Mike!). Sierra has released two internet demos on its official site, which you can visit here, however, a third demo was released as part of a local McDonald's fast-food promotion, and several mirror sites have bundled all three demos together. Some mirrors are even carrying a 160 MB version, which is reduced by some 30 MB thanks to the removal of a DirectX 9 installation. Mirrors can be found on 3D Gamers, Boomtown (registration required), FileFront, Gamer's Hell, Loadedinc (registration required), and Worthplaying. Go forth and download!

Check out IGN's exciting interview with Troy Skinner, Senior Producer of VU's The Hobbit. Get the skinny on combat, weapons, and the discrete use of "sneaking". [IGN]

The Hobbit is one of the most beloved novels of all time, when we here at Gaming Havens found out that Sierra had begun work on The Hobbit for the Nintendo Gamecube and then that it would also be released on the PS2, XBox, and GameBoy Advance... we were speechless. Could it be done? Would they ruin it? Would it have good gameplay? Then along comes Chuck Lupher, Design Lead on The Hobbit to qualm are fears and show us just how dedicated the team is to bringing Bilbo to life. [More]