Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

[Darth Roxor]

Please do keep in mind that the cool people have left Monolith to work on Betrayer instead.

Has there actually been any really good LoTR games the past 20 years?

Battle for Middle Erf 2 was decent, The Return of the King hack'n'slash was pretty good as well.

 

[J_C]

Please do keep in mind that the cool people have left Monolith to work on Betrayer instead.

Has there actually been any really good LoTR games the past 20 years?

Battle for Middle Erf 2 was decent, The Return of the King hack'n'slash was pretty good as well.

LotR Online was also pretty decent IMO:

 

[e-mailio estevez]

The best way to adapt the LOTR setting to a game would be in the style of Betrayal at Krondor.

But no, instead we get Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. Wouldn't surprise me if the main character even has a tribal tattoo.

 

[HumanTotemPole]

“In Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, gamers take on the role of Talion, a valiant ranger whose family is slain in front of him the night Sauron and his army return to Mordor, moments before his own life is taken. Resurrected by a Spirit of vengeance and empowered with Wraith abilities, Talion ventures into Mordor and vows to destroy those who have wronged him. Through the course of his personal vendetta, Talion uncovers the truth of the Spirit that compels him, learns the origins of the Rings of Power and ultimately confronts his true nemesis.”

Oh god why

 

[Borelli]

Is that a trailer for a videogame or for bunch or people sitting on a couch?

“In Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, gamers take on the role of Talion, a valiant ranger whose family is slain in front of him the night Sauron and his army return to Mordor, moments before his own life is taken. Resurrected by a Spirit of vengeance and empowered with Wraith abilities, Talion ventures into Mordor and vows to destroy those who have wronged him. Through the course of his personal vendetta, Talion uncovers the truth of the Spirit that compels him, learns the origins of the Rings of Power and ultimately confronts his true nemesis.”

Oh god why

I dislike this character concept. It is not AWSHUM enough. I propose making him a half elf so he gets the powers of shield skating while going fwoosh fwoosh with his arrows.

 

[HumanTotemPole]

Is that a trailer for a videogame or for bunch or people sitting on a couch?

“In Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, gamers take on the role of Talion, a valiant ranger whose family is slain in front of him the night Sauron and his army return to Mordor, moments before his own life is taken. Resurrected by a Spirit of vengeance and empowered with Wraith abilities, Talion ventures into Mordor and vows to destroy those who have wronged him. Through the course of his personal vendetta, Talion uncovers the truth of the Spirit that compels him, learns the origins of the Rings of Power and ultimately confronts his true nemesis.”

Oh god why

I dislike this character concept. It is not AWSHUM enough. I propose making him a half elf so he gets the powers of shield skating while going fwoosh fwoosh with his arrows.

I agree, surely he should be half-elven for maximum AWSHUM:



Excuse me, just off to go stick my head in the oven.

 

[mindx2]

This game is actually the best thing that could have happened, for the Tolkien Estate. They've been embroiled in a lawsuit for over two years regarding the increasingly illicit video game licensing of LOTR and how it has detrimentally impacted the property.

Now we have Warner Brothers, a defendent in this lawsuit, releasing a video game which just straight up violates the licensing terms with no shame (works can only be based on the events, characters and such contained within The Hobbit or LOTR). The Tolkien Estate was only looking for $80m in damages but I wouldn't be surprised if old Christopher goes for the throat and attempts to have the license revoked when he catches wind of this atrocity.

One can only hope.

This is just utterly ridiculous and that dev video was just full of... !

 

[lightbane]

Jesus, is this for real? It's so bad it cannot be nothing else but a sick joke. It's like raping franchises wasn't enough anymore. Now they have to mutilate them beyond recognition while doing so.

 

[Skunkpew]

Has there actually been any really good LoTR games the past 20 years?

Top 3 LoTR games of the last 20 years have all been non-video games.
1: War of the Rings boardgame (rated 25th best board game ever on BoardGameGeek)
2: Lord of the Rings TCG by Decipher
3: Lord of the Rings Card Game by Fantasy Flight

 

[DeepOcean]

Is there really no way to adapt Lord of the Rings's quiet aesthetic virtues into a video game?

Yes, there is but to do that, you need intelligent and talented game developers, good luck into finding those.

 

[Gragt]

This game is actually the best thing that could have happened, for the Tolkien Estate. They've been embroiled in a lawsuit for over two years regarding the increasingly illicit video game licensing of LOTR and how it has detrimentally impacted the property.

Now we have Warner Brothers, a defendent in this lawsuit, releasing a video game which just straight up violates the licensing terms with no shame (works can only be based on the events, characters and such contained within The Hobbit or LOTR). The Tolkien Estate was only looking for $80m in damages but I wouldn't be surprised if old Christopher goes for the throat and attempts to have the license revoked when he catches wind of this atrocity.

Well maybe Chris needs some more money from his dad's work. Being the son of a famous artist is certainly easier than marrying one.

 

[DemonKing]

Is that a trailer for a videogame or for bunch or people sitting on a couch?

Yeah - it looked like some god-awful Kickstarter video for a game you know will never make it.

I doubt petitioning the Tolkien estate will achieve anything - that boat sailed a long time ago otherwise we wouldn't be seeing the kind of crap PJ has to pad out the Hobbit films with to stretch a 300 page book into 3 movies. Frankly Christopher Tolkien should STFU about all the movies and videogames given that the sales of the original books have skyrocketed since they came out.

 

[Morality Games]

I quit regarding all the recent LotR games with any seriousness. I always have the books to enjoy the "genuine" LotR experience, and the games to me are just bad fan fiction slash popcorn entertainment

Has there actually been any really good LoTR games the past 20 years?

The Ring Wars, Helms Deep, War of the Jewels (Silmarillion), etc mods for Warcraft III. If you were looking for the Golden Age of Lord of the Rings gaming, you missed it when the Lord of the Rings movie mass popularity coincided with custom maps on battle.net.

 

[Dr Tomo]

Please do keep in mind that the cool people have left Monolith to work on Betrayer instead.

Has there actually been any really good LoTR games the past 20 years?

Battle for Middle Erf 2 was decent, The Return of the King hack'n'slash was pretty good as well.

LotR Online was also pretty decent IMO post f2p:

corrected

Is there really no way to adapt Lord of the Rings's quiet aesthetic virtues into a video game?

Yes, there is but to do that, you need intelligent and talented game developers, good luck into finding those.

Bioware ofc.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

http://shadowofmordor.wikia.com/wik...g_the_Story_of_Middle-earth:_Shadow_of_Mordor

So, it seems they got the lead writer of Red Dead Redemption at helm of writing, and as design director a Creative Assembly vet who worked on Total War.

A RTS specialist working on an open-world action game. Interesting. Sure beats other horrific combinations like soccer-moms and XYZ Montreal hipster drop-outs.

 

[abnaxus]

At least War in the North had the good sense to set the game away from the major LOTR locations, this however goes full retard. I bet the final boss is Sauron.

 

[OuterSpace]

“In Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, gamers take on the role of Talion, a valiant ranger whose family is slain in front of him the night Sauron and his army return to Mordor, moments before his own life is taken. Resurrected by a Spirit of vengeance and empowered with Wraith abilities, Talion ventures into Mordor and vows to destroy those who have wronged him. Through the course of his personal vendetta, Talion uncovers the truth of the Spirit that compels him, learns the origins of the Rings of Power and ultimately confronts his true nemesis.”

This sounds like something that would be vaguely eluded to in Tolkien lore. Using it as a centrepiece for the narrative is stupid as fuck. There goes the sense of mystery and ambiguity. Why couldn't they borrow Tolkien's narrative style instead of just haphazardly taking shit from the lore like some grotesque LOTR buffet.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

People calling this stupid as fuck but thinking War in the North wasn't that bad.

It's like I landed on a parallel universe of the Codex here (RPGWatch?).

 

[Tom Selleck]

this is just the force unleashed but almost exactly with the badass blue glow supersoldier megajedi/wraith interim prequel baloney

like, this occupies the exact same role/purpose/function/aesthetics as the force unleashed, it seems

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

http://neptunegames.it/en/middle-earth-shadow-of-mordor-ecco-le-prime-immagini-di-gioco/

This looks seriously underwhelming. And too colorful.

But I don't wanna just judge the graphics here. Perhaps the gameplay will be excellent ehhehhee hahwha oh gawd.

 

[taxalot]

Looks gritty and visceral. 10/10

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/featu...nd-shadow-of-mordor-39-s-rhythmic-combat.aspx

Good to know the sound design will receive Monolith's typical high-quality seal.

 

[Dr Tomo]

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/featu...nd-shadow-of-mordor-39-s-rhythmic-combat.aspx

Good to know the sound design will receive Monolith's typical high-quality seal.

I wonder if this title will join the QTE/open world fad that is the new rage in video games. Also, need to have Ryse's level of graphics as they are the bench mark everyone will compare to.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/featu...nd-shadow-of-mordor-39-s-rhythmic-combat.aspx

Good to know the sound design will receive Monolith's typical high-quality seal.

I wonder if this title will join the QTE/open world fad that is the new rage in video games. Also, need to have Ryse's level of graphics as they are the bench mark everyone will compare to.

Nobody gives a damn about Ryse's level of graphics. Also, this is cross-platform, so no, it won't compete with pure next-gen games graphically and it doesn't need to.

More open-world is always good. It tends to really mix well with fantasy settings.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

http://shadowofmordor.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:MarkvA/New_Shadow_of_Mordor_screenshots_released

Adequate enough, but I don't wanna see PS3/360 cross-development beyond 2014 anymore.