Middle-earth: Shadow of War - Catch All

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Middle-earth: Shadow of War is the sequel to Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor .

It's available for pre-order on Steam and will be out on August 22, 2017 in the US and on August 25, 2017 in the UK.

I wonder if they were originally saving this for e3 and the target shenanigans forced their hand.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. The Second Age would be so much more interesting for a setting.

Wembley wrote:

I wonder if they were originally saving this for e3 and the target shenanigans forced their hand.

On DLC, Jeff was saying that he knows someone at the studio and they were hoping to do a 'fallout 4' at E3 and announce the game and that it was out so soon after announcement. This really highlights how much of a rarity keeping fallout 4 under wraps to make that announcement really was.

It's especially difficult because you really can't contain leaks like the Target one.

Random retailer "accidentally" lists something! Boom, there goes the surprise.

Never attribute to malice and cunning that which can be attributed to incompetence and stupidity.

jrralls wrote:

Never attribute to malice and cunning that which can be attributed to incompetence and stupidity.

Fair enough. I apologize for my (likely misplaced) cynicism.

Day 1 purchase for me! Loved the first one.

No price on it but the Mithril edition looks nice. Love the stature

https://www.ebgames.ca/PS4/Games/728577

Infyrnos wrote:
Wembley wrote:

I wonder if they were originally saving this for e3 and the target shenanigans forced their hand.

On DLC, Jeff was saying that he knows someone at the studio and they were hoping to do a 'fallout 4' at E3 and announce the game and that it was out so soon after announcement. This really highlights how much of a rarity keeping fallout 4 under wraps to make that announcement really was.

Fallout 4 was just about the worst-kept secret in the games industry by the time E3 rolled around.

As it is, this game is being announced about five months before release. That's still ridiculously close by game industry standards.

I get it, the IP is too fun to not want to really create some cool games out of. However, wouldn't it be better to show its only inspired by it. I know it's hard when the cash cow is milked but it seems so odd when the universe is so well defined that none of this can really be placed or goes against the primary message.

That being said I am going to slay those orcs so hard.

Just for fun, auto correct changed orcs to orcas and that would have really set an odd tone for me. Eff it all, let's go whaling!!!

16-Minute Middle-earth: Shadow of War Gameplay Walkthrough

Looks awesome, again, LOTR is just a skin really. I hope they can start putting out more IP that can really do this in other formats as well. Can't wait to get into it.

I am so excited for this. It's going to be a challenge to wait for the Scorpio to come out and play it in its full glory.

farley3k wrote:

16-Minute Middle-earth: Shadow of War Gameplay Walkthrough

Ok that looks bonkers awesome..

I may wait and see on this one. To be honest, I'm not really thrilled about leading an army of orcs and trolls against... orcs and trolls. The flow of battle seemed really arbitrary, too. There was no indication of any planning before assaulting the stronghold, nor was there any feedback on the progress of the battle as it happened.

Yeah I love the idea, I'm just hoping that your armies contribution matters. IE you can just storm the whole castle yourself. They did hint at a few bits. Placing a spy and sabotage are a good start. More of that and I'd be happy. If it's just your army needs to be x level to fight them at that's it. Well blah.

I agree bonkers awesome. Makes me wish I had more time to play as it seems high in scope and I might still be doing Mass Effect.

I will put all other games aside for this. WOW just watched.

I've been to my bunk, and i'm goign back.

Damn real life getting in the way... I wonder if my old saves are in the cloud... maybe I can play a couple of nights before ME:A.

That was super awesome, and I didn't play the original. I've considered it once or twice on sale for $20. However, I remember watching a gameplay display video for that one, too, and it didn't seem nearly this awesome.

That said, the Fall is a busy time, and the temptation to wait for Scorpio may affect me, as well - and doing so means I'd probably get this game cheaper at that point, too.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

That was super awesome, and I didn't play the original. I've considered it once or twice on sale for $20. However, I remember watching a gameplay display video for that one, too, and it didn't seem nearly this awesome.

That said, the Fall is a busy time, and the temptation to wait for Scorpio may affect me, as well - and doing so means I'd probably get this game cheaper at that point, too.

Bundlestars has it for $5 game and DLC. If you're looking for 20 hours of a Hella fun time can't find a better price until the next steam sale.

Hobear wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:

That was super awesome, and I didn't play the original. I've considered it once or twice on sale for $20. However, I remember watching a gameplay display video for that one, too, and it didn't seem nearly this awesome.

That said, the Fall is a busy time, and the temptation to wait for Scorpio may affect me, as well - and doing so means I'd probably get this game cheaper at that point, too.

Bundlestars has it for $5 game and DLC. If you're looking for 20 hours of a Hella fun time can't find a better price until the next steam sale.

Thank you very much, but I don't dig on PC.

But that is a great price, and if I had a Steam Link...but no, I am busy with an older Link right now.

And honestly, this game looks much better, and like a great entry point for new players.

Preorders for SOW are up at GMG. 20% off plus another 5% off with this Voucher code
W0DLMT-R1SAZK-QH96D2

ordering now!

That code may be tied to my promo email from gmg

I'm interested, but I want to know if the sequel fixes some of my big gripes from the first game.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I'm interested, but I want to know if the sequel fixes some of my big gripes from the first game.

THERE WERE NO GRIPES! YOU'RE WRONG!

what didn't you like?

groan wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

I'm interested, but I want to know if the sequel fixes some of my big gripes from the first game.

THERE WERE NO GRIPES! YOU'RE WRONG!

what didn't you like?

Two things, I guess.

First, I didn't like how seemingly every battle drew in two, three, four Captains. Fighting the Captains were a fun challenge because you couldn't kill them like regular orcs, but so many of them in one fight became more annoying than fun. This was especially true with each of them getting a zoomed-in taunt and introduction that breaks the rhythm of combat.

Second, and I think I talked a bit about this in the Shadow of Mordor thread, the Nemesis system is really brilliant and novel, but it only works if you're good at the game but not too good. If you're not good enough at the game, you end up in a situation where you have enemies who are constantly leveling and evolving and becoming more powerful; if you're too good at the game, you end up in a situation where the Nemesis system can't evolve enemies as quickly as you can kill them off.

And I guess a third, bonus complaint. Giving enemies blanket immunities to things like stealth takedowns or combat finishers was probably meant to encourage players to mix things up and not settle into one way of solving a problem. It succeeds at that, but as a result, it can push players out of an aspect of the game they enjoy or are good at and into one that they don't enjoy or aren't good at. I ran into this myself: I hated anything to do with caragors and didn't find them fun, but I had to use them because eventually my enemies were only vulnerable to them.

I see...

I agree mostly with #1. I liked the challenge of multiple captains. But the zooming did break things a bit.

I never felt that with #2 but then I got to a point where I was just killing everythign because it was fun so maybe I was a bit of the second version of this.

I never thought of #3. Not sure it bothers me.

I did get some Captains with an incredible amount of immunities and one very specific weakness that required me to perfectly position them in the right way and then exploit the weakness in a tight time frame.. and more often then not some other captain would wander by and break it all up. It made for some frustration but overall I was able to overcome it.. frequently I just moved on and left that captain alone if possible.

groan wrote:

I see...

I agree mostly with #1. I liked the challenge of multiple captains. But the zooming did break things a bit.

I never felt that with #2 but then I got to a point where I was just killing everythign because it was fun so maybe I was a bit of the second version of this.

I never thought of #3. Not sure it bothers me.

If things align just right for a player, and they like all the different gameplay systems, and they respond well to the challenge, and they don't get behind or ahead of the curve... It's pretty much a perfect game. Outside of that green zone, though, I think it gets a little wobbly. The good news is that those are flaws that seem fixable and aren't inherent to the system.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
groan wrote:

I see...

I agree mostly with #1. I liked the challenge of multiple captains. But the zooming did break things a bit.

I never felt that with #2 but then I got to a point where I was just killing everythign because it was fun so maybe I was a bit of the second version of this.

I never thought of #3. Not sure it bothers me.

If things align just right for a player, and they like all the different gameplay systems, and they respond well to the challenge, and they don't get behind or ahead of the curve... It's pretty much a perfect game. Outside of that green zone, though, I think it gets a little wobbly. The good news is that those are flaws that seem fixable and aren't inherent to the system.

Yeah most of these seem like you were out of the green zone. I am sorry it didn't work for you.

1) I only had multiple captains surprise appearances when I was just fighting large groups on the ground. (Typically when I was being lazy or I had screwed up.)
2) Being too good is something I have no solution to, but I definitely had an orc captain that was too good for me. I got better then he died.
3) I really liked this aspect. The annoyance of not being uber overpowered and able to kill everything from stealth was offset by the awesomeness that ensued from solving the problem of how to kill the orc. I consider this core to the game play... environmental dynamic problem solving. It also helps with the whole being too good aspect.

I agree with CwH about a lot of that. It's been discussed to a great extent in the relevant thread, so I won't rehash it any further here except to say this:

I hope they do allow at lease ONE straight up combat type to be effective versus every captain. I don't want to be forced to use bees or fire or natural/unnatural beasts to kill something. One way might be by increasing resistances to the point where it's dumb to attack a certain way, but you still do at least a little damage. That's better to me than being totally immune.

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