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 Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is an Action RPG game coming out September 30th for PC, PS4 and Xbox One. It follows the adventures of Talion, a Ranger of the South after he is brutally slaughtered and brought back from the brink of death by a mysterious elven spirit. The game is a mismash of Arkham combat, Assasin's Creed stealth and a hitherto unexplored Nemesis system that gives every named enemy their own personality and motives. It's on track to be the sleeper AAA hit of the year, and if you're so inclined you can find literal hours of footage about every aspect of the game. If beheading, stabbing, skewering and mind controlling orcs for dozens of hours sounds like your jam, we have the game for you. How Does It Play?           Bruce Wayne had a timebaby with Ezio Auditore and the baby somehow translocated to Middle Earth whereupon it got infested with an elf-ghost. You kill an awful lot of orcs. The Nemesis System    The Nemesis System is Shadow of Mordor's new push for innovation in video games. It isn't going to change video games over night but it's an appreciable step in the right direction for the new generation of console games. Spoken of in grandiose terms, the system breaks into easily manageable chunks once you understand it. Let's break it down.
RPG Systems   Being an Action RPG, Shadow of Mordor has two major progression systems. The first is your skill trees. You have two skill trees, Wraith and Ranger. Wraith tends towards stealth and fear tactics, controlling and removing orcs through subterfuge and guilde. Ranger is your primary combat tree, focusing on controlling and killing orcs from straightforward, brutal tactics. The second progression system is the runes. When a named orc dies it will drop a rune. There are runes for your dagger, your sword and your bow. Each rune has a varying percentage of some effect, most returning health, elf shot, focus or causing more damage. Around 60 different types of rune exist across all three weapons, and gathering the best ones will require you to play the Nemesis system like a fiddle. The Story The story of Shadow of Mordor revolves around Talion and the mysterious elven spirit who resurrects him. Upon Sauron's return to Mordor, immediately after the events of the Hobbit and 80 years before the events of the Lord of the Rings, Talion and his family are slaughtered at the Black Gate. Brought back from the brink of death by an amnesiac elven spirit with great powers at his fingertips, Talion must take a dual path of salvation, finding the answer the spirit he now shares a body with seeks, and finding vengeance for his loved ones. The story is written by Christian Cantamessa, the man who wrote the story for Read Dead Redemption, one of the last console generations greatest sandbox games. Along Talion's journey you meet many faces new to the story of Middle Earth, and even one you might already be familiar with. The story, if rushed, takes around 12 to 15 hours to complete. Games Journalism? IGN 9.3 Polygon 9.5/10 Shacknews 9/10 EGM 8.5/10 Eurogamer 8/10 Joystiq 5/5 Gamesradar 4.75/5  Things To Note
Orv fucked around with this message at 00:20 on Sep 27, 2014 |
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Sep 26, 2014 20:50
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May want to get the thread tag changed, Orv.
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Sep 26, 2014 20:50
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Mr E posted:May want to get the thread tag changed, Orv. Goddamnit I always forget that.
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Sep 26, 2014 20:51
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Great OP Orv. I have never been happier to have a Tuesday off.
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Sep 26, 2014 20:56
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Feels like the hype train is picking up speed on the final days. Or maybe I am imagining it. Either way this game is going to rule so hard.
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Sep 26, 2014 20:57
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Orv posted:Each orc in the world has a simple binary switch, Have You Killed Talion Y/N. If the answer becomes Yes, the orc gains a name, traits and motivations. Might want to change this as it isn't strictly true, as some orcs can just run in to replace dead captains and previously branded nameless orcs can also be on that roster.
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Sep 26, 2014 21:07
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dogstile posted:Might want to change this as it isn't strictly true, as some orcs can just run in to replace dead captains and previously branded nameless orcs can also be on that roster. Done. Mostly trying to avoid going "Hey the Nemesis system is actually pretty simple!   "
Orv fucked around with this message at 21:14 on Sep 26, 2014 |
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Sep 26, 2014 21:09
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Orv posted:Done. Mostly trying to avoid going "Hey the Nemesis system is actually pretty simple! I also don't think ALL orcs are tracked, just the named ones. If one interacts with Talion, it gets tracked for a time, but ultimately they must be doing garbage collection on most orcs.
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Sep 26, 2014 21:25
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You actually went with that thread title  Great OP, I'm trying to pre-order a digital copy for my PS4 my phone but apparently I have to wait for two days before I can.
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Sep 26, 2014 21:35
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Pre-order is paid in full. This is going to be a long weekend 
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Sep 26, 2014 21:36
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If anyone pre-ordered this from GMG prior to their "pre-purchase SoM and get four free games!" offer going live, submit a ticket to their support and they'll hook you up. Or at least they did for me, "as a goodwill gesture". Pretty cool of them, even if the freebies aren't much to write home about (Canyon Capers, Gun Monkeys, Sanctum, 30 day EVE trial plus a bunch of add-on packs they certainly didn't have back in my day ).
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Sep 26, 2014 21:44
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Orv posted:Bruce Wayne had a timebaby with Ezio Auditore and the baby somehow translocated to Middle Earth whereupon it got infested with an elf-ghost. You kill an awful lot of orcs. As vidyagaem gameplay summaries go, this is a good one. 
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Sep 26, 2014 21:51
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Really tempted by the GMG deal, but I'm nervous about trying to run this on my 2500k/560ti. Hopefully some performance stuff leaks from someone playing it early
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Sep 26, 2014 21:52
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Great OP, I'm just gutted I have to wait until next Friday to play this. Granted, I knew nothing about it until last weekend, but drat you International release dates!
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Sep 26, 2014 21:53
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Just curious but is the Nemesis system obligatory or could you technically wade through and murder literally everything in the universe without touching it? Not that I won't spend time loving around with orcs, but still.
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Sep 26, 2014 22:32
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So some dude got his copy early and recorded some gameplay. It's got facecam and commentary but from the little I watched of it he seems fairly laidback, and he kept it spoiler free.
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Sep 26, 2014 22:33
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If you want to finish the story line you will have to dabble in the nemesis system time to time. Edit: Oh god Ratbag has zero strengths and is plagued with weaknesses. BillBear fucked around with this message at 22:38 on Sep 26, 2014 |
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Sep 26, 2014 22:34
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poptart_fairy posted:Just curious but is the Nemesis system obligatory or could you technically wade through and murder literally everything in the universe without touching it? Not that I won't spend time loving around with orcs, but still. It's optional in that you can just go in and slaughter/brand dudes, yeah, but it'll be more difficult. There are story missions that require it tho'
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Sep 26, 2014 22:43
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Fair enough then! Was wondering how far you could get without building an army, haha.
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Sep 26, 2014 22:44
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poptart_fairy posted:Fair enough then! Was wondering how far you could get without building an army, haha. Well, you're tasked with killing and/or branding warchiefs. Everything else is pretty much free reign.
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Sep 26, 2014 22:45
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ShootaBoy posted:So some dude got his copy early and recorded some gameplay. This video is private, you tease 
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Sep 26, 2014 22:46
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You can get this on GMG for $37.50 using this code: SEPTEM-BEROFF-ER25XX
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Sep 26, 2014 22:47
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Captain Ironblood posted:This video is private, you tease He just put it to private for some reason but promised more gameplay if people liked it.
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Sep 26, 2014 22:48
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Pc options Look like there will be a optional texture pack.
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Sep 26, 2014 22:53
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Why the hell can't all graphics options be that thorough with their explanations!
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Sep 26, 2014 22:57
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So is that VRAM or a combined total of... whatever the hell regular RAM is plus your video card's?
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Sep 26, 2014 23:00
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OP should probably mention the Bioware-esque romance system
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Sep 26, 2014 23:03
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Capn Beeb posted:So is that VRAM or a combined total of... whatever the hell regular RAM is plus your video card's? Just VRAM. I mean, you could still run it with less than 6 but it'll have to dip into system memory which generally causes stuttering.
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Sep 26, 2014 23:03
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Capn Beeb posted:So is that VRAM or a combined total of... whatever the hell regular RAM is plus your video card's? No. See his card is 1GB? he has it on medium and it's telling him it will effect performance. That is because medium is 2GB recommended. Get your titan's ready for Ultra setting. Shadowlz fucked around with this message at 23:09 on Sep 26, 2014 |
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Sep 26, 2014 23:05
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Oh I didn't even see that little memory readout in the bottom right 
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Sep 26, 2014 23:07
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I've been following this game from afar and the positive reception has piqued my interest again. However, I watched a video review and they said that there isn't any loot or collectibles to hunt down in the game. I'm this close to picking up the game but I was wondering what things there are to do in the world?
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Sep 26, 2014 23:25
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It's a small thing that I always sperg about, but I really like that the motion blur setting seems like it'll let you choose between per-object motion blur, camera blur and a combo of the two. Most people tend to turn blur entirely off, but I have a raging nerd boner for per-object blur. Gonna make all that snappy combat look gorgeous  .Also, this was linked in the last thread, and drat does it make stealth look good. Lots of little intricacies in the sound design, too. The 30th can't get here fast enough.
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Sep 26, 2014 23:30
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I've gone back and forth on getting this day one since I know it will drop in price pretty quick, but God dammit I want to support risk taking on triple A games that get creative inside of big IPs.
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Sep 26, 2014 23:30
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Moartoast posted:Also, this was linked in the last thread, and drat does it make stealth look good. Lots of little intricacies in the sound design, too. The 30th can't get here fast enough. *Jumps on orc, stabs repeatedly as he screams* STEALTH KILL 
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Sep 26, 2014 23:33
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Faltese Malkin posted:I've been following this game from afar and the positive reception has piqued my interest again. However, I watched a video review and they said that there isn't any loot or collectibles to hunt down in the game. I'm this close to picking up the game but I was wondering what things there are to do in the world? There are some challenges here and there in the world for hunting that will presumably be fleshed out more with the Lord of Beasts DLC, but we don't really know much about side activities beyond manipulating the Nemesis system and general exploration.
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Sep 26, 2014 23:33
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Welp, looks like time to upgrade from my 460 GTX and its measly 768MB edit: quote:At one point, I defeated a smaller Orc captain named Norsko of the Welts with a single arrow shot through his eye. The next time Norsko showed up, he had a metal plate over that same eye and promised revenge for the injury.  gently caress I can't wait
Hexenritter fucked around with this message at 23:40 on Sep 26, 2014 |
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Sep 26, 2014 23:33
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Orv posted:There are some challenges here and there in the world for hunting that will presumably be fleshed out more with the Lord of Beasts DLC, but we don't really know much about side activities beyond manipulating the Nemesis system and general exploration. We know some. There are human prisons you can free, and if you clear enough you can do a "liberation" mission. There are hunts/duels/warparties rolling around you need to deal with. There are audio logs of a sort that explain what happened in the past, and most of the ghostmans quests are sidecontent you do through the open world that make him remember loving with Sauron. As Kotaku said, they beat the game at 20ish hours, and still had 70% of the game to go from side content. That implies there is SOMETHING there.
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Sep 26, 2014 23:43
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Yeah, looks like from one of the videos that there will be lore content in the form of collectible glyphs. As if this game didn't have enough Assassin's Creed in its DNA, they straight up look just like the code glyphs that you could find on monuments in AC2/Brotherhood.
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Sep 27, 2014 00:03
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Rookersh posted:We know some. There are human prisons you can free, and if you clear enough you can do a "liberation" mission. There are hunts/duels/warparties rolling around you need to deal with. There are audio logs of a sort that explain what happened in the past, and most of the ghostmans quests are sidecontent you do through the open world that make him remember loving with Sauron. As Kotaku said, they beat the game at 20ish hours, and still had 70% of the game to go from side content. That implies there is SOMETHING there. Basically the kind of missions you get are this: There are random slaves. Freeing thing can give you a more detailed mission which usually just involves freeing slaves, with some optional objectives for flavor. They're mostly straightforward. There are Power Struggles which directly influence the Orcs but you can gently caress with if you want. They're mostly pretty simple. There are three kinds of "legend" missions: Sword, Bow and Dagger. These are the game's challenge missions and task you with completing a certain objective, usually with a secondary objective. They are the most detailed of the sub-missions. There are artifacts you can find. You can to examine them in 3D ala Tomb Raider and finding a "memory spot" earns you an audio log. Each audio log is voiced and contains a short conversation from the Wraith and Talion afterwards. Some of them are also really funny. My personal favorite is the description of the Battle of Five Armies from the Orc perspective: "Once again those filthy humans sided with the Dwarves who had help from the those sanctimonious bastards the Elves who were rescued by - and I am not making this up - the damned giant Eagles to slaughter thousands of our brethren in what we should all be calling the battle to unfairly gang up on the Orcs." There are also hidden starmetal runes you can find which complete a brief bit of legend and prophecy. Kinda boring honestly. There are Hunting and Gathering missions. Gathering missions are kinda boring. (Find a specific plant/set of plants), hunting missions a little more interesting. (Kill specific enemy types.)
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Sep 27, 2014 00:05
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  I haven't preordered on PS4 before, so this is probably just until the pre-download starts, but I got a little but hyped there for a second.
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Sep 27, 2014 00:09
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