Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Sauron helped forge the Rings, hence how he was able to control them.

The Three were forged in secret, away from Sauron, so he had much less influence on them. He still tried to corrupt the Elves, so he gets a Gold Star for trying.

My headcanon: The means by which the Rings were made allowed big spikeman to connect with them.

And now I want a Buffy Speak name for every LOTR character.

Skinny Mc Stalkerface, Longhaired bowboy, Scruffy axe midget, Pointy hatted molester, Scruffy beard elf fancier,

Have to say I' m really enjoying playthrough 2 of SOM. Not really met a memorable captain YET. But it's only the opening hours.

edited 5th May '17 8:29:16 AM by JerekLaz

I'm still getting used to the fact that Celebrimbor is pronounced like "Kelebrimbor" and not "Selebrimbor."

It's a hard C.

That's what she said.

All Elvish uses a hard c instead of a k because Tolkien thought it looked better, visually. So Kelebrimbor instead of Selebrimbor, Kirith Ungol instead of Sirith Ungol, that sort of thing. I remember something about his son telling him that a lot of readers would use the soft c instead, but obviously he didn't change it.

So is it actually written Tolcien, pronounced Tolkien instead of Tolsien?

Makes sense. Use the nice round, soft-looking C for Sindarin and use the angular, pointy K for the Black Tongue and the orc language.

THEY ARE ORKS! CANNON WARHAMMER CONNECTION CONFIRMED!

...what?

So, still hyped, just want moar.

Nah. I'm fine. I just will wait for the release.

New trailer! This time with a focus on the open-world aspect of the game:

Ok. Biggest selling point for me:

There are TREES in this one.

No more featureless flat areas with only ruins to break things up! Much as I loved the first game the maps had a bit of an unfinished quality to them. This view makes it feel a bit more like a world.

You know what game introduced trees? Assassin's Creed III.

PS. I don't know what game you played, but there were TONS of green trees in Shadow over Mordor.

edited 17th May '17 7:04:18 AM by AnotherGuy

There are a few of them in Nurn but they're kinda shoved aside and out of the way, mostly uninteractable.

I don't want interactive trees. That was on the bottom of my wish list.

For me it's just that there was SOME form of scenery beyond "bush" or "archway". Something always felt a bit "lacking" about Mordor - hence my slightly tongue-in-cheek comment.

But the wider variety of maps and areas gives a bit more of a broad feel here. The expansion of gameplay options and hopefully a little more complexity and open endedness to the story and how the fortresses impact it would work wonders. Just raises again how so many games could benefit from a Nemesis style system.

Yeah, the coast of the Sea of Nurn had a lot more greenery to it (you could run around and see plowed fields, for example), but having so many new environments is definitely a step up.

I've been mowing through Shadow of Mordor since I got it last week. Not steadily, of course. I'm definitely keep my eyes open for this one and getting it a year or two in when it's on sale.

I didn't notice the lack of trees.

Sauron truly is a heartless monster.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzugQBkUrZk

edited 17th May '17 12:22:21 PM by PolarPhantom

Eh, not in as good detail as the official fort assault we saw. I definitely like how Talion's army is more diverse, though. I wonder if we can get scaling ladders or something, so our orcs can climb the walls.

edited 22nd May '17 8:42:31 AM by theLibrarian

She mentions you can stealth it up and set up the invasion by laying traps, making moles, etc, so not everything is fight fight fight!. Imagine blue-ing up almost all of the population so when you attack the bosses suddenly find out the entire fort targets THEM.

"Imagine blue-ing up almost all of the population so when you attack the bosses suddenly find out the entire fort targets THEM."

I do that in SoM already So yes, fuun.

Wow, Ur-benu Dwarf-hater's necklace of bearded skulls is macabre, hilarious, and a nice detail of customization. I like it.

I'm really liking the additionally customization of the Orcs; the original game's was decently enough, but more's better.

Wonders if you can brand the fortress Overlord?