Lotr Third age was amazing...however it could seem like evil got lots of back to back turns (mainly at helms deep)

All those back to back evil turns were the worst.

_________________
"Leave Sauron to me."
If you're in the Raleigh, NC area, let me know.

This is probably the only game of 2014 that I'm excited about. ESO is also looking incredible, but I won't be able to afford a next gen console or an upgraded PC so I won't be able to run it.

SoM is clearly screwing with the Lore, but as a Peter Jackson style adaptation its looking pretty good so far.

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My (more regularly updated) painting blog:
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Peter Jackson never screwed with the lore anywhere near this bad.

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"Release the Kragle!"
They were waiting 45 minutes to make that pun.
Totally worth it.

He has now with the Nazgul being entombed for hundreds of years by the Arnorians.

_________________
"Leave Sauron to me."
If you're in the Raleigh, NC area, let me know.

I think that was meant to represent just all their stuff (armour, cloaks, weapons) being stuffed in a mountain after Sauron's defeat, probably by Isildur's sons or something. You would hardly leave it lying around now would you?

_________________
"Release the Kragle!"
They were waiting 45 minutes to make that pun.
Totally worth it.

In AUJ The White Council quite explicitly states that the WK was buried by the men of the north after their wars with him.

_________________
"Leave Sauron to me."
If you're in the Raleigh, NC area, let me know.

Hmm, must have missed that. Still, hardly the same sort of bad as Night of the Living Dead Ranger is it?

_________________
"Release the Kragle!"
They were waiting 45 minutes to make that pun.
Totally worth it.

As I said before, it would be awesome if he turns into the Mouth of Sauron or something.

_________________
"Leave Sauron to me."
If you're in the Raleigh, NC area, let me know.

Did you say that before? That would be nice, and not even really a departure from the Mouth's Origins since we know absolutely Zero about him. That's a really great idea, I hope they go for that.

_________________
"Release the Kragle!"
They were waiting 45 minutes to make that pun.
Totally worth it.

I just caught another play through video on youtube and so finally but the bullet and pre-ordered. Sure it maybe a little fast and loose with lore but the game is looking great as is the gameplay, can't wait to explore the sea of Nurnen.

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My Miniatures Blog (covering LOTR/Terminator/Doctor Who/Warpath and more!):
http://cruciumgiger.blogspot.co.uk/

I am very much looking forward to this

I am very disappointing with this game - look and feel, it's very very movie-like (great) but it's basically Assassin's Creed with extra bits on. Ah well.

The gameplay is it's strength - it's a better AC than AC, honestly. Mainly since the targets are actual NPCs in the world rather than godawful missions (of which tehre were thankfully few). Combat starts off as a pretty good Arkham style fight mechanic, nice and challenging (especially when a boss walks in. Then another. Then another.) Nemesis system is excellent, and honestly would have benefited the game more if it had replaced the few story missions entirely. Emergent gameplay and story is far more memorable and satisfying than anything a game developer could ever create, and it's a shame more devs don't realise this. Some nice references to the wider tolkien lore, too (blue wizards get name dropped a few times, plenty of silmarillion references).

Downsides include the game getting too easy once you power up (it becomes almost impossible to die once you're on the higher tiers of the skill tree) and branding ruins the nemesis system. With every orc under your control the threat plummets, along with any fun the Nemesis system offers. Furthermore, outside fo some neat lore references like I mentioned above, the story makes PJ look like an absolute purist. It's comic book drivel that's only a Middle Earth game because someone decided to coat it in paint, and then throw gollum in there in a poor effort to convince us. I embrace many of PJ's changes to the books for the films - he at least demonstrates an awareness of tolkiens themes and intentions, this game doesn't seem to care, and has been designed to satisfy teenage boys who want to be superheroes rather than be a good middle earth story.

So, basically, I LOVED the first half of the game, was okay with the second and hated the story. It didn't need to be a Middle Earth game, and even suffered for it, IMO. I'd like to see them take a crack at a sequel (and one was heavily hinted at in the games final scene. Even though how it was hinted made me make a little groaning noise.) Perhaps weaken the wraith powers, a more true to tolkien story now that the casuals are hooked, and some setting/enemy variety (get out of mordor, visit Gondor maybe, and Harad would be cool as a second map with some major enemy variety.)

Only just started on this but enjoying it so far, I knew the lore would be ropey but I'm just enjoying slaughtering orcs at the moment.

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My Miniatures Blog (covering LOTR/Terminator/Doctor Who/Warpath and more!):
http://cruciumgiger.blogspot.co.uk/

I agree with Creaky. The game is excellent until the Branding gets out of control. Eventually there is no point in doing anything but Branding, and then soon you will have Mordor's entire army under your control. This of course dramatically drops the difficulty of the game. But before you get this power, the combat is actually very good!

If your already used to the combat style from Arkham games, then try playing the game without the combat prompts (can be disabled in the options). This makes the game 100% more challenging since there is no warning for any attacks!

Haha, yeah, I did that in Udun. All but two of the Orc leaders in Udun are under my control. Though I have now completed the region and will be moving on to Nurn.

My advice is, only brand the Tier 1 Captains, and help raise them up to the rank of Warchief by killing all their rivals. DO NOT brand ALL the Orcs in a region as that gets boring fast.

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My (more regularly updated) painting blog:
https://www.facebook.com/Pindergorn/

My solution was to hunt my orcs down and kill them all, then I went and skipped time forward again to fill the ranks. I'm deliberately not using the wraith powers any more - it's just too easy to do so. That said - limiting ourselves shouldn't be considered a solution. The fact that we have to consider it to make the second half of the game as interesting and challenging as the first is a failure of design. I think for future installments adding either a limit to the number of orcs you can control at any one time, or adding a time limit to the domination effect, would be a smart move. Perhaps you get 15 minutes per orc, and a maximum of a 5 orcs (with talents to boost those limits a bit as you progress, naturally). This could lead you to control an orc captain, boost his career to make him a warchief by following the pop up mission, but then you still run the risk of encounterin him, hostile, whilst out and about. I dunno, just spitballing ideas. I'm glad the game has been generally very well recieved - hopefully a sequel can iron out some of these gameplay issues that I've found.

Every game has its issues but if youre a casual lord of the rings fan and dont freak out about the lore, this game is well worth its money and just a blast of fun. Anything from the Tolkein universe is good news to me, and they did a decent job.

Looks gorgeous too as I just finally got a PS4! WOOT.

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BLACKHAWK 2010 2013 2015 DYNASTY

Just a heads up DO NOT BUY THIS GAME FOR PS3 OR 360 THE GRAPHICS ARE BAD, THE GAME IS BUGGY AND IT WILL FREEZE ON YOU, LIKELY ERASING ALL PROGRESS YOU'VE HAD. IT ALSO TAKES A FULL MINUTE AND A HALF TO LOAD THE START MENU JUST THE START MENI. IT ISN'T EN WORTH UPGRADIN SKILLS OR WEAPONS UNTIL YOU HAVE ENOUGH TO LEVEL SEVERAL AT ONCE.

_________________
"Leave Sauron to me."
If you're in the Raleigh, NC area, let me know.