Publisher Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has outlined its recommended hardware specs for the Windows PC version of Middle-earth: Shadow of War, giving series fans plenty of time to bulk up their gaming PCs prior to the game’s launch later this year.
Among other suggestions, Warner Bros. recommends an Intel Core i7-3770 CPU and a higher-end video card from AMD’s Radeon or Nvidia’s GeForce lineup in order to run Shadow of War at its full intended framerate at maximum settings.
Shadow of War is the sequel to 2014’s Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, an open-world action game that features characters and settings from J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings series of fantasy novels. Gameplay consists of a series of melee combat encounters in which players pull off combos, counters, and finishers within a mechanical framework similar to other Warner Bros-published games like Batman: Arkham City and Batman: Arkham Knight.
Shadow of Mordor also introduced the Nemesis System, which pairs players up with adversaries who grow in strength and intelligence over the course of the game’s campaign. Though no details regarding Shadow of War‘s gameplay have been revealed as of yet, the Nemesis System is likely to return in the sequel.
While Warner Bros. is currently teasing its upcoming reveal of Shadow of War‘s gameplay, the publisher has issued a set of recommended hardware specs for PC players, likely in response to Batman: Arkham Knight‘s disastrous PC port in 2014. According to Warner Bros, all Shadow of War players will need at least 8 GB of RAM, 60 GB of hard drive space, and a DirectX 11 installation in order to boot the game.
Players will also need an Intel Core i5-2550K CPU and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 670 or AMD Radeon HD 7950 video card in order to run Shadow of War at minimum settings. For maximum performance, Warner Bros. recommends an Intel Core i7-3770 CPU, 16 GB of RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 970, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060, AMD Radeon R9 290X, or AMD Radeon RX 480 video card.
Middle-earth: Shadow of War launches for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC platforms on August 22.