The reviews for this game are up for anyone who is interested, and apparently it's very very good. 9.3 from IGN.

I'm really looking forward to this game! The story seems really cool and I just love the idea of riding a Warg. Also I find this Celebrimbor story intriguing.

I am picking it up 100%. I am always looking forward to LOTR video games and, at last, this one seems to have got rave reviews.

Here's hoping my computer doesn't choke on it next week.

The nemesis system definitely seems pretty cool. And it'd be an interesting idea to bring into the LCG, enemies that follow you, bringing burdens with them based on how you beat them in the past.

NEVER trust IGN. They are an extension of marketing departments, not journalists. I'm waiting on some of my fav reviewers in youtube to post a review I can trust.

That being said, this looks like a fine game, even though I am not a fan of Assassin's Creed-like combat.

The combat is actually Arkham style not Assassins Creed style. As in, the same engine pretty much. Which is great because Arkham is some of the most fun I've had in a game.

Excellent!

It's turned out pretty well on metacritic too. Everyone seems to be praising the Nemesis system. I hope this game does well. There haven't been many Lotr games recently.

Yeah me too, and personally I think War in the North looked great but in the end was extremely boring..

War in the North is only worth playing if you can do it co-op with someone. Then its pretty fun hack and slash, and you can both make fun of the terrible dialogue and plot together.

Actually, for those who care about the lore, I found War in the North to do the best job of any lotr video game (barring lotro) in respecting and letting players explore the lore. Elladan and elrohir talking about Celebrian being kidnapped, Arwen sewing the banner at rivendell, gloin talking about his adventures with bilbo, etc. I suppose if you don't care about lore, then the gameplay could be a bit repetitive.

Yeah, but heroes talking with Smaug? A Dwarf lair in the Misty Mountains somewhere... So far for lore..

But it was indeed one of the few games who did listen to lore a bit.

gandalfDK, that dragon was not Smaug. His name is Urgost and was made up, just like some characters in LotR LCG.

Yeah okay, haven't played the game for a longlong time, but imo it ought to represent him. And Agandaûr was also not really lorelike..

And the Eagles, and the whole Radagastpart and I could go on and on.

But, as I said, it certainly took lore into the game. (Third Age was worse)

Just looking forward to this game, the (madeup or not) story about Celebrimbor is really intruiging. Also the combat and nemisis/domination system looks cool!

I thought that Battle for Middle Earth II (Xbox 360) was an excellent game. I still play it from time to time. There was also a game called Guardians of Middle Earth that did well.

Yeah, BFME II and it's expansion pack Rise of the Witch-King were cool! I've got them still installed. I really liked the Age of Empires related playstyle, but instead of 1 unit you created a whole squad. The different factions to choose from and all those different units are cool to play.

Guardians of Middle-Earth for the PS3 I thought meeh. Not very much people played the game, and you needed to wait for hours until you could play a game. And actually it was just League of Legends with a LotR sauce over it.

I think there's a difference between adding stuff to Tolkien's world that fits in with his overall vision and that could possibly exist, which is what I think War in the North did with Agandaur, the Eagles, etc. (and which is what LOTR LCG does as well), and adding stuff that seems contradictory to something Tolkien would write, which is where Shadow of Mordor falls for me. I've said before that I'll play it and I will, but the whole idea of a fallen ranger being possessed by an Elf wraith and using wraith powers to mind control orcs is about as far removed from Tolkien as anything else I can imagine. To me, adding stuff doesn't mean going against lore necessarily, it's all about how it's done.

When you put it like that, I can only agree.

Of course, I'm still going to buy and play the game, so I suppose that makes me a bit of a Tolkien lore sell-out! Oh well.

That was indeed an eyeopener of some sort.

When you think about it, the socalled lore in SoM does really not make sense.

Celebrimbor lingering as a wraith in Mordor.. That already does it.

There seems to be a sort of witch ruling a part of Mordor and giving you advice how to fight Sauron and those brainwashed Orcs, it indeed isn't really Tolkienish..

But, I didn't like how WitN added their lore that much and the gameplay certainly didn't help the game. Only the name Agandaûr was cool to speak out loud, but the part with the dgon was not my cup of tea.

But like LotR LCG I played it anyway for my unstopable craving for lore, as will I play SoM. Something in me jusy wants to know anything there is to know about Middle-Earth and especially about its inhabitans, canonial or not, and imo LotR LCG does this really well, except maybe KD/Dwarrowdelf. The scenarios are really cool and feel 'right' and the designers have done a great jobr in that point of view.

So anyway, SoM is about to hit the stores in two days here. Looking forward to playing it.

As a giant skin-changing bear that uses a computer and flies on airplanes (instead of eagles), I can only shake my head in shame at you, Ian.

That was indeed an eyeopener of some sort.

When you think about it, the socalled lore in SoM does really not make sense.

Celebrimbor lingering as a wraith in Mordor.. That already does it.

There seems to be a sort of witch ruling a part of Mordor and giving you advice how to fight Sauron and those brainwashed Orcs, it indeed isn't really Tolkienish..

But, I didn't like how WitN added their lore that much and the gameplay certainly didn't help the game. Only the name Agandaûr was cool to speak out loud, but the part with the dgon was not my cup of tea.

But like LotR LCG I played it anyway for my unstopable craving for lore, as will I play SoM. Something in me jusy wants to know anything there is to know about Middle-Earth and especially about its inhabitans, canonial or not, and imo LotR LCG does this really well, except maybe KD/Dwarrowdelf. The scenarios are really cool and feel 'right' and the designers have done a great jobr in that point of view.

So anyway, SoM is about to hit the stores in two days here. Looking forward to playing it.

Now I've only read Fellowship and half of The Two Towers but none of it sounds that lore breaking to me. Just because he didn't write it doesn't mean it can't be. Lore-nerds just can't handle that fact. I don't really care if it does or doesn't break the lore though since I hate Tolkiens writing and if it wasn't for the movies I wouldn't have ever gotten into LotR.

That was indeed an eyeopener of some sort.

When you think about it, the socalled lore in SoM does really not make sense.

Celebrimbor lingering as a wraith in Mordor.. That already does it.

There seems to be a sort of witch ruling a part of Mordor and giving you advice how to fight Sauron and those brainwashed Orcs, it indeed isn't really Tolkienish..

But, I didn't like how WitN added their lore that much and the gameplay certainly didn't help the game. Only the name Agandaûr was cool to speak out loud, but the part with the dgon was not my cup of tea.

But like LotR LCG I played it anyway for my unstopable craving for lore, as will I play SoM. Something in me jusy wants to know anything there is to know about Middle-Earth and especially about its inhabitans, canonial or not, and imo LotR LCG does this really well, except maybe KD/Dwarrowdelf. The scenarios are really cool and feel 'right' and the designers have done a great jobr in that point of view.

So anyway, SoM is about to hit the stores in two days here. Looking forward to playing it.

Now I've only read Fellowship and half of The Two Towers but none of it sounds that lore breaking to me. Just because he didn't write it doesn't mean it can't be. Lore-nerds just can't handle that fact. I don't really care if it does or doesn't break the lore though since I hate Tolkiens writing and if it wasn't for the movies I wouldn't have ever gotten into LotR.

Hahaha, that last sentence just made me laugh really hard. Sorry if that offends you, but there are not many people who play this game and don't like the Professor his writings.

Since you didn't read all of the story and certainly not the Silmarillion or Unfinished Tales, it may be a bit hard to explain, but there never was a Ranger who was occupied by Celebrimbor his ghost in the years after the end of the so called Watchful Peace. This would have been a too big of an event to leave out, even for Tolkien (who forgot about a lot of his own tales if you ask me)

And it's also not about lore-breaking, but about the possibility for a story to be true. Maybe I am a lore-nerd, but I think more of that like a compliment than anything bad.

WitN was indeed less lorebreaking then SoM as far as I can see for now.

The only human who was ever granted a second chance at life after dying was Beren. Coming back to life just does not happen for mortals, no matter the method, in Tolkien.

Elves go to the Halls of Mandos after death, and are eventually returned to their old bodies (unless they've done something really terrible), but almost always stay over in Valinor rather than returning to Middle-earth. Celebrimbor should not and could not be a wraith, because he is off living in Valinor in his old body during the time of the story.

As I said before, most "lore nerds" don't care about adding to Tolkien, it's directly going against Tolkien's rules for the world he created that is annoying.

http://youtu.be/9-ZXC-08gd8?list=PLysyph0r-780VT8H_iGtqqJUs5c6ipfAv

For those interested in a trailer.

As for Ian, in Dutch we've got a saying 'baas boven baas' which could be translated in english in this particular situation: "Every nerd meets it's match."

You explained everything going through my mind.

And as a matter of fact, other then Barrow-wights, the Army of the Dead and the Nazgûl, no such thing as a Wraith of Wrath exists in ME. And they depict Celebrimbor wielding a Ring of Power in the Battle of Dagorlad, which we know of were not kept by him, just the opposite is true; Gil-Galad may have wielded Narya and Vilya during this battle but certainly not Celebrimbor.

Magic, as for such needed to 'dominate' Orcs as it is called, has always been a thing in Tolkiens works that are only used few times and in great need of help. Even Gandalf, in the end the mightiest of the Istari, rarely uses his powers. The ones who do use magic and such things are often found at the wrong side of good and bad, like Saruman and Sauron. So Celebrimbor his wraith giving a power to posses other beings (which is all wrong, for Elves never would want to posses other liveforms, (edit) even if it be an Orc) to a Gondorian Ranger.. Well, fill in the other gaps for yourself because I think I elaborated a bit to much about this subject.