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[maquiladora]

Sounds cool. Early days though.

 

[sixteen-bit]

No One Lives Forever - Great, great game that's up in the air regarding licensings.
Condemned: Criminal Origins 1 and 2 - spooky survival action game involving hobos and bears.
FEAR 1 - Spooky Shooter that's really damn good.
FEAR 2 - Spooky Shooter that's good but not as good as the sequel but still holds up pretty well.
FEAR 3 - Shit shooter that's not spooky at all and requires Co-Op - This wasn't done by Monolith Productions at all.
Gotham City Impostors - Honestly it's my FAVORITE shooter of this generation. Oozes style and the gunplay is phenomenal.
Guardians of Middle Earth - it's a MOBA.

I think they're qualified. Interested to see what Monolith can do.

Don't forget Shogo

 

[BraXzy]

The Lead Designer (and writer) of Red Dead Redemption is working on it!

https://twitter.com/ccantamessa/status/400353412673310721

Hooray!

That sounds promising! I hope they have a trailer of some kind or even gameplay, although that might be too hopeful.

 

[cdkee]

I've never read Lord of the Rings. I tried many years ago. Might have to give it another shot.

 

[Queen of Hunting]

well lead designer of red dead is on this project so count me interested

 

[ironcreed]

I absolutely loved Condemned. Especially 2. I have faith in these guys to deliver something good.

 

[Amir0x]

Yes please. YES

 

[Coffee Dog]

I've never read Lord of the Rings. I tried many years ago. Might have to give it another shot.

Have you read The Hobbit? It's a much easier read than LOTR and eases you into the universe.

 

[Quentyn]

Just got done reading the story, it seems really amazing on paper but a lot of games do. It looks like there's a lot of ambition behind this and a drive to do something truly new so they've got a lot on their plate to pull off.

Thanks, I was waiting for impressions from people with the digital issue. How does the game look? Any screenshots or only concept art?

 

[Wer34truh]

There really hasn't been a good single player Lord of the Rings RPG. With titles like Skyrim and Witcher seeing commercial success it seems like a no-brainer. It is after all the most lucrative fantasy IP in the business. I'm not particularly excited about Monolith, at least not when it comes to RPG's as they don't seem to have any experience of developing any whatsoever.

Has anyone heard anything about release dates? I couldn't find anything although I gathered that as it is planned to be released for current-gen it can't be to far into the future. Q3 2014?

 

[Guy.brush]

No One Lives Forever - Great, great game that's up in the air regarding licensings.
Condemned: Criminal Origins 1 and 2 - spooky survival action game involving hobos and bears.
FEAR 1 - Spooky Shooter that's really damn good.
FEAR 2 - Spooky Shooter that's good but not as good as the sequel but still holds up pretty well.
FEAR 3 - Shit shooter that's not spooky at all and requires Co-Op - This wasn't done by Monolith Productions at all.
Gotham City Impostors - Honestly it's my FAVORITE shooter of this generation. Oozes style and the gunplay is phenomenal.
Guardians of Middle Earth - it's a MOBA.

I think they're qualified. Interested to see what Monolith can do.

Don't forget Shogo

And TRON 2.0
And BLOOD 1 & 2 with 1 being on BUILD engine and BLOOD 2 being the first LITHTECH game (together with SHOGO)
Question repeated: Any1 know if MONOLITH is still developing LITHTECH and using it?
F.E.A.R.3 was done by another team using another engine.

 

[Father_Brain]

I would expect Fall to have a few.

I mean Ubisoft is already doing The Division and The Crew, EA has NBA Live, UFC, and Tiger Woods, and there are some random various titles like The Witcher 3 or TESO.

I suspect most things that started as a current-gen game though will likely still have a current-gen version.

No doubt there will be some next-gen-only multiplats next year, but I can't see them becoming a common thing any earlier than mid-2015.

 

[Kintaro]

There really hasn't been a good single player Lord of the Rings RPG.

Granted, it was years ago but this was a very enjoyable RPG.

 

[bengraven]

The Lead Designer (and writer) of Red Dead Redemption is working on it!

https://twitter.com/ccantamessa/status/400353412673310721

Hooray!

Fuck.

Go back and work on RDR2!

 

[Wer34truh]

Granted, it was years ago but this was a very enjoyable RPG.

Forgot completely about Third Age. Rock solid game. Although by the time Shadow of Mordor is released it will have been ten years since the release of Third Age, which in video-game years is as close to an eternity as you'll get.

 

[RoKKeR]

Just read through the article. Seems promising enough. Doesn't visually look next gen at all which is unfortunate. Still really baffled by the decision to go cross gen with this.

 

[Andrew.]

So it's the Condemned guys, not the Xenoblade guys.

Big difference. Will keep an eye on it.

 

[Andrew.]

SLICE

All in all I'm impressed by what I read.

And like clockwork, you'll be disappointed upon release =D

 

[DrBo42]

Seemed to me it was more concept although it was in gameplay form, like the camera was in the right spot if you were to actually play it but if it was real then it looked rough. But it's still early so I'm not worried about that. The gameplay seems really ambitious though.

-Every enemy has a name, rank and memory. If you don't kill them in an encounter for whatever reason they will remember you later on and change their tactics, not only getting stronger in level but learning new immunities. Enemy dialogue changes because of your previous encounters as well.

-Enemies have their own jobs to do and their AI allows them to do certain things on their own. For example an Orc you have to kill may be dueling another at one point or he may be doing whatever his higher ranking officer assigned him to do. It all progresses in real time with or without your interference.

-If an enemy kills you in battle you don't "die" in the traditional sense. You do eventually respawn but time in the world passed (they didn't say how long). During this time the enemy that killed you was likely promoted because of him killing you or he could have been killed somehow (like losing one of the duels I mentioned above).

-If your objective is to kill a high ranking warlord you can do it in several ways. One way would be chipping away at everyone under his rank and either killing them or making them become "agents" for you which will enable you to launch ambushes on their base or possibly even assassinate the warlord by making his 2nd in command your agent. However it's not guaranteed, the 2nd in command can fail and be killed but he may have partial success as well which takes a chunk of the warlord's health away to make your battle easier.

-The combat seems like it takes cues from the Batman games. They mentioned there was a rhythm to it and you get to keep a combo multiplier going.

-It's fully open world so it has all of the stuff you'd expect. XP, skills, sidequests, random events (hell the whole game is basically a random event with that nemesis system and the AI working on their own even when enemies aren't on screen).

-You get to use normal melee combat, stealth with a dagger or ranged with a bow. How you level those up depends on what you took the target out with. A stealth kill will get you a special rune to use on stealth skills, direct combat will get you a melee rune and so on.

All in all I'm impressed by what I read.

Damn I really want to see this in action. Thanks for typing this up.

 

[Quentyn]

Seemed to me it was more concept although it was in gameplay form, like the camera was in the right spot if you were to actually play it but if it was real then it looked rough. But it's still early so I'm not worried about that. The gameplay seems really ambitious though.

-Every enemy has a name, rank and memory. If you don't kill them in an encounter for whatever reason they will remember you later on and change their tactics, not only getting stronger in level but learning new immunities. Enemy dialogue changes because of your previous encounters as well.

-Enemies have their own jobs to do and their AI allows them to do certain things on their own. For example an Orc you have to kill may be dueling another at one point or he may be doing whatever his higher ranking officer assigned him to do. It all progresses in real time with or without your interference.

-If an enemy kills you in battle you don't "die" in the traditional sense. You do eventually respawn but time in the world passed (they didn't say how long). During this time the enemy that killed you was likely promoted because of him killing you or he could have been killed somehow (like losing one of the duels I mentioned above).

-If your objective is to kill a high ranking warlord you can do it in several ways. One way would be chipping away at everyone under his rank and either killing them or making them become "agents" for you which will enable you to launch ambushes on their base or possibly even assassinate the warlord by making his 2nd in command your agent. However it's not guaranteed, the 2nd in command can fail and be killed but he may have partial success as well which takes a chunk of the warlord's health away to make your battle easier.

-The combat seems like it takes cues from the Batman games. They mentioned there was a rhythm to it and you get to keep a combo multiplier going.

-It's fully open world so it has all of the stuff you'd expect. XP, skills, sidequests, random events (hell the whole game is basically a random event with that nemesis system and the AI working on their own even when enemies aren't on screen).

-You get to use normal melee combat, stealth with a dagger or ranged with a bow. How you level those up depends on what you took the target out with. A stealth kill will get you a special rune to use on stealth skills, direct combat will get you a melee rune and so on.

All in all I'm impressed by what I read.

Sounds great. Thanks for the write up, appreciate it.

 

[Nirolak]

Seemed to me it was more concept although it was in gameplay form, like the camera was in the right spot if you were to actually play it but if it was real then it looked rough. But it's still early so I'm not worried about that. The gameplay seems really ambitious though.

-Every enemy has a name, rank and memory. If you don't kill them in an encounter for whatever reason they will remember you later on and change their tactics, not only getting stronger in level but learning new immunities. Enemy dialogue changes because of your previous encounters as well.

-Enemies have their own jobs to do and their AI allows them to do certain things on their own. For example an Orc you have to kill may be dueling another at one point or he may be doing whatever his higher ranking officer assigned him to do. It all progresses in real time with or without your interference.

-If an enemy kills you in battle you don't "die" in the traditional sense. You do eventually respawn but time in the world passed (they didn't say how long). During this time the enemy that killed you was likely promoted because of him killing you or he could have been killed somehow (like losing one of the duels I mentioned above).

-If your objective is to kill a high ranking warlord you can do it in several ways. One way would be chipping away at everyone under his rank and either killing them or making them become "agents" for you which will enable you to launch ambushes on their base or possibly even assassinate the warlord by making his 2nd in command your agent. However it's not guaranteed, the 2nd in command can fail and be killed but he may have partial success as well which takes a chunk of the warlord's health away to make your battle easier.

-The combat seems like it takes cues from the Batman games. They mentioned there was a rhythm to it and you get to keep a combo multiplier going.

-It's fully open world so it has all of the stuff you'd expect. XP, skills, sidequests, random events (hell the whole game is basically a random event with that nemesis system and the AI working on their own even when enemies aren't on screen).

-You get to use normal melee combat, stealth with a dagger or ranged with a bow. How you level those up depends on what you took the target out with. A stealth kill will get you a special rune to use on stealth skills, direct combat will get you a melee rune and so on.

All in all I'm impressed by what I read.

Thanks, splitting this.

Edit: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=714011v

 

[Derrick01]

And like clockwork, you'll be disappointed upon release =D

I can't guarantee I won't. Like I said this seems like it's a lot to pull off really well. I certainly appreciate the attempt at trying something new in the AAA space in this tired ass industry though.

 

[element]

Good group of people working on it. It is pretty awesome.

 

[nacimento]

Maybe a new LOTR licensed masterpiece? There have been two, so maybe after both Battles Shadow joins the club; I hope so.

 

[Omega]

Please don't suck

PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC. Developed by Monolith Productions and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

looks like you won't get your wish cubs fan.

 

[cdkee]

Have you read The Hobbit? It's a much easier read than LOTR and eases you into the universe.

The Hobbit was actually the one I started reading. I'll probably give it another shot soon, as that was in 7th grade IIRC. So about 10 years ago.

 

[Remmy2112]

"Before it became a blasted hellscape"? I have not read the books but hasn't Mordor always been hell on Middle Earth?

 

[gabbo]

And TRON 2.0
And BLOOD 1 & 2 with 1 being on BUILD engine and BLOOD 2 being the first LITHTECH game (together with SHOGO)
Question repeated: Any1 know if MONOLITH is still developing LITHTECH and using it?
F.E.A.R.3 was done by another team using another engine.

Lithtech was spun off into its own company around the time they got to LithTech Jupiter (NOLF2/TRON2.0) I believe

 

[tazz3]

When does this issue hit GameStop

 

[balgajo]

Holy shit! Entered here thinking that it had two covers. One for LOTR and another for Monolith Soft's new game.

But the game seems pretty cool anyways.

 

[MonaKyshu]

it is monolith so it has potential to be good, but the things they seem good at aren't really related to this i don't think...

anyway, hopfully it will be a return to form though, but seriously, why LOTR, i can easily see thing being an grand scale new IP

and anyone else thoroughly dissatisfied with WB games over the last few years? fishy season pass for origns, online pass for catwoman, stuffing a merchandise catalog into the packaging of Arkham City that is bigger then the B&W manual. i heard the WiiU version of Mortal Kombat was lesser, haven't followed the game otherwise. You know, that kind of stuff?

i had dial up at the time and bought Arkham City day 1 and wasn't able to access the catwoman content i was promised because their way of punishing used buyers created obstacle for actual customers. i can understand if its multiplayer content since its implied that you'd have the means to acquire it if you plan on playing online, but SP content is so ass, now ive got part of the game i bought in physical form and the other part up on sony's servers, whats next, need to friend WB on facebook or they won't give me a serial key to install my game.

Mad Max has me interested though

not to mention they've had monolith working on bullshit this whole time, hopefully this is a return to form for the studio.

 

[Liabe Brave]

"Before it became a blasted hellscape"? I have not read the books but hasn't Mordor always been hell on Middle Earth?

Mordor was Sauron's stronghold before. But the battle that's shown at the very beginning of the Fellowship movie, where Sauron is defeated (but not killed) is almost 3000 years before The Hobbit begins. During that time Sauron has been missing*, so Mordor presumably healed a bit. (This is never explicitly said in the books, I think, but it makes sense.) Though I guess the article should say "Before it became a blasted hellscape again"!

*

Spoiler

When they come out, it seems the other Hobbit movies will reveal some info about where Sauron has been.

 

[Megalosaro]

"Before it became a blasted hellscape"? I have not read the books but hasn't Mordor always been hell on Middle Earth?

Only the area of Mordor called Gorgoroth is that "hell on earth" thing you see in the movies. Sourthern Mordor (far South of where Frodo and Sam ever go) is described as kind of pleasant. It's full of farms ran by slaves.

 

[Sentenza]

*

Spoiler

When they come out, it seems the other Hobbit movies will reveal some info about where Sauron has been.

Uh, wasn't he hiding in Mirkwood (more specifically Dol Guldur) when everyone in the White Council suspected/assumed his identity was actually the one of the Witch King?
At least in the years before (and during) The Hobbit took place.

 

[ekim]

The Lead Designer (and writer) of Red Dead Redemption is working on it!

https://twitter.com/ccantamessa/status/400353412673310721

Hooray!

Now we're talking!

 

[IvorB]

Why the hell would you not support cross-gen projects? I don't understand why everyone is against this.

Because it's a new gen coming up and I want devs to focus on creating content built for up-to-date systems without making compromised for out-of-date ones.

 

[Ushojax]

It's a shame that most third parties won't be releasing real 'next-gen' software for at least couple of years. It's amazing how the 360/PS3 are keeping their successors on a leash.

 

[Archpath1]

You have my axe?

 

[coinoperatedboy]

Will buy if good.

 

[adamsapple]

I really enjoyed Battle for Middle Earth.

I'm down for a good LoTR game.

 

[IvorB]

Uh, wasn't he hiding in Mirkwood (more specifically Dol Guldur) when everyone in the White Council suspected/assumed his identity was actually the one of the Witch King?
At least in the years before (and during) The Hobbit took place.

Yes, he was in Milkwood known as the Necromancer.

The_Necromancer_of_Dol_Guldur

 

[Rarity]

Decide who lives and dies in a prequel?

 

[RPGCrazied]

No screenshots yet? When do you think we can expect some gameplay videos? The VGA's?

 

[Hindle]

The Agent idea sounds awesome. I've wanted more creative ideas to completing objectives for a while now.

 

[peanutbutterlatte]

"Before it became a blasted hellscape"? I have not read the books but hasn't Mordor always been hell on Middle Earth?

Well they could never rip down Barad-Dur (his tower) completely after his first defeat, because the foundations were strengthened by the power of the Ring. I don't think anybody tried to live there or anything.

Decide who lives and dies in a prequel?

If it's anything like the other LotR spinoffs, it'll be Bimli the Dwarf, Legohan the elf, and Araporn the man.

 

[Poetic.Injustice]

There are scans floating around, Game looks...underwhelming.

 

[McHuj]

There are scans floating around, Game looks...underwhelming.

As soon as you see support for 360/PS3 set low expectations.

 

[Vaiim]

I think he's holding his sword wrong... and it's broken...

 

[Vico]

There are scans floating around, Game looks...underwhelming.

By the way, they were posted on jeuxvideo.com, so I guess we're allowed to show them on GAF:
http://www.jeuxvideo.com/news/2013/00069151-des-images-de-la-terre-du-milieu-l-ombre-du-mordor.htm

Looks a bit rough right here.

 

[Stark]

It'll get better as it goes along in development, hopefully.