Middle-earth: Shadow of War

Big fan of Shadow of Mordor but this gameplay trailer was not impressive at all.

 

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1443533

Summary of some of the end game content and potential grinding that is required if you do not pay for those loot boxes, contains spoilers but I found it interesting.
(Looks like the quotes are taken from various reviews of the game, guess the NDA was lifted then if those are starting to become available now.)

 

IGN's review commented on the Microtransactions...

They specifically advise against using the transactions, saying that there is no reason to do so.

 

For the base game itself it doesn't seem to be too important at least, that's good.

 

And, comments people are making about only facing Legendary Orcs through Lootboxes.... seem to be false or very exaggerated.
Many videos are have shown the player facing Legendary Orcs randomly in game, or during the fortress sieges.

EDIT: Ultimately, it sounds about standard for a Monolith Productions sequel.
Lith have always had a trend of creating amazing titles, and following them with good, solid games that just are not as good.

It's partially because their original first outings are so damn good. It makes it hard for the sequels to live up to and surpass.
I mean... BLOOD, NOLF, FEAR, Condemned... Shadow of War. All amazing games, with really good sequels. But sequels that are not as good.

 

If things weren't so tangled up I'd like to see Blood and Shogo get some revival in particular, No One Lives Forever had some finality to it as I remember though it would be nice too but that game in particular sounds really tangled up rights wise.

For this game I'm looking forward to seeing how it's received when it's released, if it's just the epilogue part that turns into a grind well it could have been worse, looking up whatever short scene you get as a reward is certainly possible too as I'm expecting it to be made available online not too long after the games release.

Not a huge fan of the online fortress mechanics either but if it's optional that's not a big deal either, well the game comes out in a few days so not too much waiting.
(And then Evil Within 2 a bit afterwards, probably nothing different from previous years but it feels like there's more and more titles coming out for the holiday season every year.)


EDIT: Hopefully Warner will not be too troublesome with support for the PC version either, Arkham Knight was probably a bit of a special case though where it just needed constant patches and the developers did at least try though it took time.

Well I don't remember the first Middle-Earth game from Monolith as being too problematic at least, had a cache system for VRAM (Up to 85% I think it was set to by default.) but outside of the add-on ultra texture DLC it wasn't too demanding.

 

Shadow of Mordor ran incredibly well, and given I've never had performance issues from a Monolith title, I'm willing to bet this one runs well also.
But, it's gonna have to be a game I get later on. I've already got Evil Within 2, Wolf 2 and South Park 2... so... I'm definitely set for a while.

But, I would love to see BLOOD or Shogo get a good revival. Shogo would be the most possible, since it's one that Monolith actually owns. Blood and NOLF are completely tangled up in rights messes with various companies. Sad, as Lith made some really amazing, and original shooters.

 

I believe Shogo got close to seeing a expansion released but it was ultimately shelved, Lit Tech engine saw some impressive use though I think FEAR moved to what was called Jupiter and I don't really know what this new engine is called come to think of it.

Well I guess there's a chance at least depending on what Warner decides to have them working on, for now I suspect Shadow of War has full focus and then the two DLC stories, but yeah lots of games being released now so some of them will have to wait.
But that does allow for some patches to be released and checking what the overall verdict on the game in question is from other people, hopefully the loot crates do turn out to be not as big of a deal as I had initially assumed.
Beyond that it would of course be nice if the game itself also delivered a solid action experience and it's not too tied into the whole original lore either giving them a bit of freedom what to do with the game which always helps.

 

Yeah, FEAR and Condemned used the Jupiter branch of LitchTech. With future releases just continuing to update that build.
Shadow of Mordor and War continue that trend, and just use a very heavily modified build of the Jupiter EX build.

I was always a fan of LithTech, though it's first two releases (Shogo and Blood II) did see some pretty rough releases.

 

Does it mean this game has in-game advertisements? for the micro dlc things...

 

This game is a pure pass atm for me, maybe a case of wait for the complete edition incl. all the inevitable WB dlc 2 years down the line for 10$ , and use a CE table to circumvent most of the lootcrate bullshit, even then, big if.

 

I enjoyed the previous game for the first dozen hours or so but then the combat and samey environment just got repetitive and I stopped playing. The Nemesis system was a great idea but that in itself didn't give the game the hook that it needed to keep playing right to the end. From the reviews I've read it sounds like the sequel is just more of the same but with small improvements (and some controversial additions) such that I find myself looking forward to other games more. May pick this game up later in a Steam sale, I think, as it's not something I'm desperate to play now (The Evil Within 2 is out next week anyway and that interests me far more).

 

Maybe in the menus, but titles like Dead Space 3 have done that in the past.
But, there's nothing "in game" advertising it.

 

Yeah, its effectiveness was massively exaggerated. It was a cool system but not enough to carry a full game experience. The 10 or so story quests / glorified cut-scenes were lackluster to the say the least. Good game, good system, but needed a good well implemented story to go along with the generic sandbox that was only interesting for as long as you were in the process of figuring the nemesis system's mechanics.

 

Conan plays Shadow of War

http://teamcoco.com/video/clueless-gamer-shadow-of-war-with-kumail-nanjiani

 

https://twitter.com/DanStapleton/status/916390185151037440]

98 GB.

Big game, or well big assets at least.

 

Been waiting for this game for a couple of months now. Can't believe it's coming out next week, can't wait.

 

Seriously, I just started playing shadow of mordor about a week ago and at first I was not too impressed, but all of a sudden i realized i am 18 hours in and I just cant get enough. I will be picking up this game as soon as I am finished with SoM. Man, what a cool ass game.

 

I'll pass. Still havent finished the 1st one anyway.