Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

[Wilian]

This fits perfectly to the low magic setting of LOTR. Oh wait....

LotR setting isn't as much low magic as it's rare magic. It's flashy and powerful. Only reason it was used sparingly for example in FotR as Gandalf himself put it, to avoid attention of the Enemy. Magic sure is rare occurence for any common rabble of Middle-Earth but when it does happen, it has nothing to do with what is often accosiated "low magic".

 

[J_C]

I thought low magic means it is rare.

 

[Art Vandelay]

"Peter Jackson and the artists" hehehe...priceless

 

[MrBuzzKill]

This fits perfectly to the low magic setting of LOTR. Oh wait....

LotR setting isn't as much low magic as it's rare magic. It's flashy and powerful. Only reason it was used sparingly for example in FotR as Gandalf himself put it, to avoid attention of the Enemy. Magic sure is rare occurence for any common rabble of Middle-Earth but when it does happen, it has nothing to do with what is often accosiated "low magic".

"Flashy and powerful"? Maybe we read different books, but there's nothing "flashy" about Tolkien's descriptions of magic, except history-changing events like the fall of Numenor or Barad-Dur. All magic in his books is subtle and ambiguous. In fact, the "flashiest" moment that I can remember is that one time when Gandalf strikes a goblin with lightning in The Hobbit. I don't remember anybody using any "flashy" effects in LotR, either. Not Silmarillion, for that matter (the one "magical battle" I can remember was between Sauron and Finrod, and that was a contest of songs).

 

[Wilian]

This fits perfectly to the low magic setting of LOTR. Oh wait....

LotR setting isn't as much low magic as it's rare magic. It's flashy and powerful. Only reason it was used sparingly for example in FotR as Gandalf himself put it, to avoid attention of the Enemy. Magic sure is rare occurence for any common rabble of Middle-Earth but when it does happen, it has nothing to do with what is often accosiated "low magic".

"Flashy and powerful"? Maybe we read different books, but there's nothing "flashy" about Tolkien's descriptions of magic, except history-changing events like the fall of Numenor or Barad-Dur. All magic in his books is subtle and ambiguous. In fact, the "flashiest" moment that I can remember is that one time when Gandalf strikes a goblin with lightning in The Hobbit. I don't remember anybody using any "flashy" effects in LotR, either. Not Silmarillion, for that matter (the one "magical battle" I can remember was between Sauron and Finrod, and that was a contest of songs).

I can think of few flashy moments outright. First one not so "flashy" but obviously magical with Gandalf casually puffing up smoke rings that colourfully settle over his head during some conversation. Then there's Gandalf vs. Nazgul battle on Weathertop that could be seen miles and miles away, as Aragorn noted the lightning is striking upwards, not downwards. Then the whole Balrog battle from start to end, where Gandalf would describe it in a manner of "And if anyone looked up at the mountain at that night they would've seen a storm not like any other", then when he rides out of Minas Tirith with his flashlight stave (This happened also in books, not just movies), driving the Nazgul away. Of course we shouldn't forget how his "little touch" to the waters unleashed to save Frodo from Nazgul was making them look like a pack of steeds.

All that shit sounds pretty flashy to me and I'm fairly sure I forgot some and he's not the only one. The world is filled (relatively) with magical trinkets like Galadriel's Mirror, Boromir's horn, Witch King is able to set his sword aflame, elves are regoniced to have magics of their own and some possess foresight and then there's the casual common man magic too with Beorns and shapeshifting. Or objects such as doors that only open at very exact moment of very exact time, same with maps. Talking sword makes a good contestant as well. Even the magic rings at some points were probably quite common due to all the beta-versions the elves of Eregion kept making.

And funny you'd mention that contest of song when Luthien managed to put asleep p. much everyone with a little lullaby. You also ignore pretty much everything Túrin Turambar, that storyline is filled with magic and curses by all sorts of creatures.

 

[MrBuzzKill]

Yes there were descriptions of magical things happening, but they were very vague and up to the reader to intepret. nothing like "Gandalf threw a huge fireball at the enemy exploding them into gibs, then cast a spell of invisibility on himself and teleported to Rivendell to heal"

 

[Kanedias]

Middle-earth: This is the new shit

 

[Jick Magger]

All that shit sounds pretty flashy to me and I'm fairly sure I forgot some and he's not the only one. The world is filled (relatively) with magical trinkets like Galadriel's Mirror, Boromir's horn, Witch King is able to set his sword aflame, elves are regoniced to have magics of their own and some possess foresight and then there's the casual common man magic too with Beorns and shapeshifting. Or objects such as doors that only open at very exact moment of very exact time, same with maps. Talking sword makes a good contestant as well. Even the magic rings at some points were probably quite common due to all the beta-versions the elves of Eregion kept making.

And funny you'd mention that contest of song when Luthien managed to put asleep p. much everyone with a little lullaby. You also ignore pretty much everything Túrin Turambar, that storyline is filled with magic and curses by all sorts of creatures.

Yeah, it's implied that Middle-Earth is still full of magical trinkets. One of the handwave explanations as to why Gandalf didn't immediately know Bilbo actually found The One Ring was that he initially just thought he got lucky and managed to stumble across some generic magical ring that granted him invisibility. It's only decades after the fact, when he see's Bilbo's bizarre obsession with it, does he start connecting the dots.

 

[Wilian]

Yes there were descriptions of magical things happening, but they were very vague and up to the reader to intepret. nothing like "Gandalf threw a huge fireball at the enemy exploding them into gibs, then cast a spell of invisibility on himself and teleported to Rivendell to heal"

That's going from one extreme to another. GJ. And there's nothing vague about bloody lightning striking up to the sky or casting immense lightbulb at Nazgul. The only thing that could be taken as vague is when Gandalf explains just how huge the battle was with Balrog on top of the mountain because everything else is pretty much written in the narrative rather than being part of some discussion.

Yeah, it's implied that Middle-Earth is still full of magical trinkets. One of the handwave explanations as to why Gandalf didn't immediately know Bilbo actually found The One Ring was that he initially just thought he got lucky and managed to stumble across some generic magical ring that granted him invisibility. It's only decades after the fact, when he see's Bilbo's bizarre obsession with it, does he start connecting the dots.

If I remember correctly it was actually more about Ring stopping Bilbo's aging rather than the obsession itself (Which to my understanding is natural to SOME extent when it comes to these rings) that warned Gandalf. Typical ring wouldn't outright stop that from happening.

 

[taxalot]

There is a difference between casting a spell every hundreds of pages and having fireballs and dark ominous magic onscreen all the fucking time. We can try having bets about which it is going to be in that game. You can already answer by answering this other question : who do you think they are trying to appeal to ?

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

That's easy: The Batman Arkham fans. Because that's exactly what SoM is: LOTR in name only.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

New preview and video:

http://www.destructoid.com/preview-middle-earth-shadow-of-mordor-269404.phtml



Gonna watch later.

 

[Athelas]

The story sounds like LOTR fanfiction ('Sauron is back!'/'Just like that one time Frodo used the Ring!').

Combat looks like a QTE/slowdown fest.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Looks fucking laughable.

 

[anus_pounder]

"Runs away when the tide turns against him."

This is a unique AI feature now?

Oh well. D1P.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

It's basically Assassin's Creed with Batman combat set in Mordor.

Why not, if it's good then it's good. If not, Metro will torment me with his lecturing again. So let the game be good, dear Monolith.

 

[Abu Antar]

I'll probably buy it even if it's not on its release. Looks like some fun could be had. I hope combat is more like the Batman games than the Assassin's Creed games.

 

[Old Hans]

well my favorite part in the silmarillion was when Beren and Luthien sneak into Morgoths fortress using wraith vision.

 

[Drax]

Well, as any good hippie, I'll start with the positive aspects:

- Orcs faces are funny
- The colours are nice
- Dude on fire after being thrown to the fire

Now the bad and the ugly

- Peter Jackson as a "lore fidelity supervisor"
- What the fuck do they think tolkien wraiths are?
- QTE and Combos. I'm not 12 years old anymore.
- Spidey-sense
- Peter Jackson
- GTA style radar/GPS
- PC resurrection
- Peter Jackson
- Nightcrawler teleport
- "Talion uncovers the truth of the Spirit that compels him, learns the origins of the Rings of Power and ultimately confronts his true nemesis." -> Stop the reapers!
- Peter Jackson

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

ITT we learn that Drax was rejected by Peter Jackson during film shooting as a possible minor Orc statist.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

http://www.computerandvideogames.co...2-lead-accuses-shadow-of-mordor-of-imitation/

And so the shit-smearing starts....

 

[Drax]

Shit, am I that transparent?

PS: For the record, the audition was for Tom Bombadil, and I NAILED IT (bombadil, that is)

 

[sexbad?]

I was looking forward to that enemy history/evolution feature, and it looked like it could lead to some unique gameplay opportunities, but not in something that looks so much like Assassin's Creed. Fortunately I think it looks better than Assassin's Creed and may have its own merit despite the enemy gimmick, but I'm not looking forward to hearing more now.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

It is a game for people who think they like LOTR, but actually hate it. I mean, what the fuck is this wraith garbage?

 

[veryalien]

This fucking game is looking fucking awesome. Choice and fucking consequence next-gen style.

edit:


WAIT WAIT WAIT...

Didn't two hobbits already take care of all this shit?