Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor - Release Date

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment released a press release with infomation on the release date for their action-packed adventure-RPG Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor.

Shadow of Mordor Reveals: release date, story trailer, box art, pre-order bonus

Witness the return of Sauron's army to Mordor, the attack on the Black Gate and the origins behind Talion's quest for vengeance in the Official Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Story Trailer – Banished from Death.

Also today, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Monolith Productions confirmed the Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor ship date for 7th October 2014, and revealed the game’s official box art and pre-order bonus pack.

Pre-order bonus details:

Fans who pre-order Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor will get access at the game’s launch to The Dark Ranger exclusive bonus pack. Available at all participating retailers, the pack will provide exclusive content and challenges for players including:

• Dark Ranger Character Skin
  • Begin your own quest for vengeance with a new Dark Ranger character skin that embodies Talion's darker side
• "Test of Power" Challenge Mode
• Face Sauron's Captains and defeat them to earn powerful Runes and gain a head start in the game
• Test your speed, skill and strategy and measure yourself against your friends on the leaderboards
• Access to Exclusive Leaderboards for "Test of Power" Challenge Mode
  • Test your speed, skill and strategy and measure yourself against your friends on the leaderboards in this challenge mode

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor delivers a dynamic game environment where the player orchestrates their personal plan of vengeance as they bend Mordor to their will. The game begins on the night of Sauron’s return to Mordor, as his Black Captains brutally execute the Rangers of the Black Gate. Players become Talion, a ranger who loses his family and everything he holds dear, only to be returned from death by a mysterious Spirit of vengeance. As Talion’s personal vendetta unfolds, players uncover the mystery of the Spirit that compels him, discover the origin of the Rings of Power and confront the ultimate nemesis. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor will be available on 7th October 2014, 2014 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows PC.

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More information.

Kewl.

Saw this a couple days ago. Didn't think you were going to cover it but glad you have.

One of my most anticipated games of the year. Hoping they pull it of.

Oddly the older I get the more I find myself enjoying ARPG's. Not sure if this speaks to improved quality of the genre or a deterioration of my tastes.

sakichop said:

Saw this a couple days ago. Didn't think you were going to cover it but glad you have.

One of my most anticipated games of the year. Hoping they pull it of.

Oddly the older I get the more I find myself enjoying ARPG's. Not sure if this speaks to improved quality of the genre or a deterioration of my tastes.

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It was sent out three days ago, and I forget about it in my e-mail. I wasn't going to post about it, but other RPG sites cover the game.

Tolkien must be spinning in his grave - maybe he'll return as a "spirit of vengeance" and take out Warner Bros entertainment (or whichever undeserving sods are debasing his legacy)

booboo said:

Tolkien must be spinning in his grave - maybe he'll return as a "spirit of vengeance" and take out Warner Bros entertainment (or whichever undeserving sods are debasing his legacy)

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The majority of me agrees with you, but here is a flipside to consider.

If Lord of the Rings was released as a book today it likely wouldn't get to a top ten list. The books are too thick, the words are too complicated, the action to slow, distinct lack of sex, human dramas too slow.
I'm not saying it is for me, I'm saying that would be how it would be perceived by the average person picking up a book at a store today. Look at any "top ten" book in the last 10 years and you will see what I mean. The masses can't handle it, too many things would put them off the book before they finished the first chapter.

Whatever the morphed, twisted, carebear version Warner Brothers is selling, its actually keeping the legacy alive. Lord of the Rings is a household name because of projects like this. So while I can always chuckle at posts about preserving the spirit, intent, or memory of some long dead author, the truth is that its keeping it alive. For those with the nigh hipster attitude of treasuring the original; the original is still there. For those that don't like, or can't handle the original, whatever version they are reading is still somewhat related to the spirit and intent.

If you think of it as a binary decision it might help perceive these a bit better. If the person not exposed to the author only had "new stuff" or nothing. At least if they have exposure to the "new stuff" they have a chance of checking out the original.

This holds true for every one of these conversations I see about "Book vs Movie", "Book vs Game" (*cough* Witcher *cough*), "Original vs Remake", "Music!"

I don't think that this sort of thing debases anyone's legacy, unless the game is very poorly made in which case it'd probably just fade away from our conciousness. I read Lord of the Rings 10 times in a row when I was in junior high school over 35 years ago, and I think it stands up great against the test of time, and no video game or anything else can tarnish its greatness.

My first reaction was that someone stole Bound By Flame story and put in the LoTR setting. lol

I haven't found any gameplay information though. Has somebody saw some?

Batman arkham style combat with some assassin creed platforming. Looks quite fun.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fpRXiyIvvX4

They also have an app with lots of info and links. For iPad at least don't know about android. Just search App Store of shadows of mordor palantir.

I'm a big fan of Lord of the Rings, but as yet another action game, I'll pass on this one. One day maybe someone will do a new indepth role-playing version again for this series. Personally, I think a game based on the MERP system would work very well as a computer game, and word of mouth would most likely make it a decent seller.

I wasn't actually looking forward to this because I was Tolkien fan. After seeing how the nemeses system works and the fact we are getting a somewhat open world(Mordor only). My opinions have slightly changed. I am starting to really look forward to it.
Also there is many thing that were not explained in the books like werewolves and vampire they are in lore but not touched upon. The deepest we got in the lotr with the real dark things in the lore seemed to be werebears,necromacers and balrogs. Tolkien left a huge hole ready to be filled . Also there is a huge scope far the the Undying Lands. Its a huge expanse, as big as middle earth to the west. Tolkien didn't cover everything. The world he created was to big to fill. If middle earth wants a future it needs expanding on. I am sorry if I insulted any lore nuts.

sakichop said:

Batman arkham style combat with some assassin creed platforming. Looks quite fun.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fpRXiyIvvX4

They also have an app with lots of info and links. For iPad at least don't know about android. Just search App Store of shadows of mordor palantir.

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Thanks for the link.

Now this looks awesome. It's not just a "beat-em up" action-RPG, you got some choices to make with your prey and I love the jump around/walk on rope stuff. I will keep an eye on this.

edit:
The game seems to be a weird mix of The Witcher (with less monster types), Batman and Assassin's Creed.

"If Lord of the Rings was released as a book today it likely wouldn't get to a top ten list"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fG3dfwEkGos

Looks like a game similar to war in the north. I can imagine picking this up from some steam sale in the future. I enjoyed LOTR: war in the north for what it was and I kind of expect this to offer similar type of hack 'n' slash experience.

Now on the serious side it would be awesome if Obsdian for example would work with LOTR license and develop a real Lotr rpg, such as a game similar to project eternity or nwn2, but set in lotr universe? Now I'd throw my money on that.

No, it's not like War in the North (which was terrible and 100% linear), this is open world like AC.

I'm not sure how to feel about this game. I can imagine killing orcs and being in the same environment will get dull rather fast.

I thought war in the north was a pretty good hack n slash game. I could see being disappointed if you were expecting more though.

Watching some more videos on their wikia page, it seems that the game takes place after the hobbit and 60 years before lord of the rings.

It doesn't sound like it will be open world like Skyrim but more open world like KOA. From what I could tell.

I'm torn on whether it would get dull or not. If they just lead me from one copy and paste nemesis experience to the next then it could get old. OTOH I played war in the north for 40 hours and didn't get bored and after beating batman AA I wasn't tired of the combat even though you just keep fighting thugs with an occasional boss thrown in.

So if it's LOTR setting with batman combat I should be fine as long as it's not a 100 hour game or something.

An action game? Not a genre that can produce epic games as books are, but… An action game?

I'd rather go back in time and replay this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadows_of_Mordor
Sweet memories and moving by typing E instead of east.

Wisdom said:

Look at any "top ten" book in the last 10 years and you will see what I mean. The masses can't handle it, too many things would put them off the book before they finished the first chapter.

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I took up the notice so I went for this site (clicked on epic fantasy, the genre of the game)
http://productsearch.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?STORE=book&FMT=physical&CAT=292&SRT=SA

Song of fire and ice seems to be the big hen there.

Never read that series as I read an interviewer by the guy stating he is trying to emulate the complexity of a saga "Les rois maudits" written by author Maurice Druon. Apparently authored the preface to the english version.
Convinced me not to read his series as I read already "Les rois maudits" Useless to do things twice in this case.
If he manages to capture one third of the complexity though, his own work is complex enough to provide a strong rebuttal to the argument on the masses.

The fact is that video games are not a proper medium to convey a story. Writers do not know how to tell a story properly in a video game. It has nothing to do with the masses.

Batman games were a lot of fun; if this has an interesting non-linear world with batman combat it might be interesting.... Having watch the game play video - not 100% sure I like this special powers; also I hope the pc controls are better and is not a cheap console port (the video is clearly on console).

Hmmm, yes Mordor and Orcs could be very dull after a while. Much more dull than the Arkham City setting and all the crazy characters from the comics. So even if the combat is as good as Batman, this appears less appealing... I hope there's more there than what's been shown.