Shadowed expectations

I just completed Shadows of Mordor. Yes we are going to pretend the last 3 weeks of abesence didn't happen, what're you going to do about it?
Stop reading? well that doesn't seem fair now does it? Get back over here, read on and pretend with me, dammit!

Shadow of Mordor!
This was by far the best assassins creed game I've played in a long time, perhaps ever, and considering it's not actually assassins creed you gotta give it props.

I have to admit that when I first looked at Shadow of Mordor a long time ago, when it was adverts on a theoretical game I didn't care. it looked like another failed attempt at a good LOTR game. I thought, like the movie games, I'd look at it on someone else's computer, play it for 5 minutes maybe and decide not to buy, but the more I saw the more it surprised me, the more I craved it.

Shadow of Mordor is an open world melee combat game that offers the options of stealth, knee deep combat or ranged battling using a system reminiscent of Assassins creed's free running to get around and a system quite heavily based on the Batman Arkham games to fight.
The player is given a story, an open world filled with missions, uruks (Bad ass Orks I think) and collectables and told go nuts, do the story in your leisure.
The first half of the game takes place in a desolate area that, admittedly, looks pretty crap, while the second half takes place in a beautiful foresty, grassy world that looks fantastic. In the first half you are trying to kill your way up the ranks of Uruks to take out the Warchiefs and eventually kill the black captains. This is fun and it gives the player time to get to grips with the Nemesis system (I'll explain later) for when they move onto the second area where they have to magically recruit all of the Uruk warchiefs.

Okay, the story really isn't all that great and for the most part it doesn't make sense - I mean lets be honest, if there was a good wraith teleporting around out there, killing off Saurons forces and turning them against him I'm fairly sure Frodo, Gandalf and Aragorn would have had a much easier time of it... of course they ignored the Eagles, maybe they knew about Talion and Calibrimbor and decided 'Fuck it, that would make it too easy.
But I digress.
The story is a fairly simple, underwhelming revenge plot, save for the first ten minutes where they show Talions life before Saurons return and what happened to his wife and kid, making me genuinely feel for him. After that point I lost interest and just started enjoying the Nemesis system.
The story was okay, but mediocre, ending in, not a bang but a whimper.

The Nemesis System though is what brings this game together.
The game play is good, it's fun and engaging, but the Nemesis System is art. There are characters in this game that you will hate. Enemies that will make you stumble, that will make you turn left when you should have turned right. Enemies that will kill you over and over again making you genuinely hate them, thirst for their blood, and that's all because of the Nemesis system.
In Shadow of Mordor any Uruk can become a Captain and any Captain can become a bodyguard and any bodyguard can become a war chief.
This is what happened to me:
First time out the gate playing I go to a captains base, find him and almost kill him but one of his minions kills me. His minion is promoted to captain rank, an Uruk named Hugor the Surgeon - that's right, without turning the game on I know his name he got so far under my skin - while the captain got promoted up to elite captain and half a dozen other things changed that I wasn't involved in.
So I came back to life and decided to take out Hugor first since I'd just made him and I didn't want someone who'd killed me walking around. I go find him and from a mile away - because I'm awesome, not cowardly - I shoot him with an arrow to the head. He dies and I get a rune for my weapon.
A few hours pass, I'm going about my business, hunting down body guards of Uruk Warchiefs and my screen stops, moving towards a captain that was walking nearby. For a moment I don't recognise him. He has metal plating on one side of his head. I consider that he actually looks pretty cool, maybe I should let him kill me and rank up like some other people had done, but then I noticed his name and his clothing. Then he shouts at me "You left me for dead, Tark! Now I'll kill you!" Hugor the surgeon. The first Uruk to kill me. He'd survived the execution I'd wrought upon him.
Clearly I couldn't let that stand, I had to kill him- but the battle didn't go my way, hordes of the Uruk descended upon me and Hugor dealt the final blow, murdering me and ranking up, his power level increasing and his weaknesses disappearing, one by one.
I re-spawn and go after him again. I sneak up on him this time, wanting to end it quickly and carry on, after all he had to die, but I didn't want to make a thing of it. And die he did. I dominated his mind, ripped intelligence from him and snapped his neck. Or so I believed for a day, until the next time I played and found him walking with another Captain.
Together they slayed me. At this point my blood was boiling. I needed that damn uruk to die and stay dead. It'd had enough. I went for him again. This time I knew not to make any mistakes. I found him eating with his minions. I set fire to him, I stabbed him, I shot him, and skewered him through the chest... and he still came back. His face gone, melted and burned away to be replaced by cloth. A sack had been torn apart and used to cover the flesh that was not covered by the metal plate.
"You don't recognise me ranger, but I bet you know my voice!" Hugor had survive... again.
This time I ran. He didn't kill me but he still powered up, emboldened by my fleeing. I had no choice, I was surrounded and out of elf-shot.
Later I found him again and made swift work of him murdering him for good. It certainly seemed that way, for a week after doign it. I played through the area, continued the story mission into the second half, got to the point where I had to go across the sea and decided to re-visit the first area... where Hugor the Surgeon had risen to the rank of War Chief. He was stronger than any other, with more body guards...
My Nemesis was back and I had to deal with him swiftly, replacing him with a captain under my command. I took his bodyguards, I had them betray him, and I gutted him.
Only to have him turn up one final time when I went to face the Black Hand. the place of Nemesis shining brightly, he was the last test I had to face before the end...
scarred with burns, stab wounds, metal plating, and stronger than any other Uruk in the game; I had truly made my own Nemesis.

The game is a solid 8, despite the weak story. it's gameplay and nemesis system more than make up for it. I may even 100% it.

Tubage
- James

Apologies

A lot has been happenning to me in the past few weeks since I got back from America, and I don't know what to say. I don't know how to apologise for not being here. I know, I know, we've been here before. I've said sorry I've made promises, and theres no reason this time will be different.
Hell I don't even know.
But I want to get back to it. I want to carry on. I have 2 podcasts ready to be edited so I will get around to that soon. I want to record a few more before we start posting again, so until then I suppose you only have me to talk to.

Since I returned I've had a ton of stuff to deal with, including going back to work, tryign to convince myself to start working out again, a couple of new games (Destiny, Sims 4 adn recently Disney Infinity 2.0) and my work contract has been changed so that half of my time will be devoted to Design, not solely Quality assurance. Which is huge for me.
It means I get to start working on new projects, start designing how games will be, not jsut making sure that they are how other people expect them to be.
I went to University to design games for a living and for 5 years all I've been able to do is help other people to do that.
Of course this may not work out exactly how I hope it will. My style may not fit with the company, My company may not need another designer by the end of my 3 month trial period or I may just not be very good at it. But it's closer than I've ever been before, and while it's exciting - terribly, terribly exciting - It's also terrifying. 5 years and my chance finally comes up, what if I screw it up?
But regardless, I'm going to do my best.

In hope to make sure I post in the future here's what I'm going to do in the next few posts:
Review of Destiny.
Review of Sims 4
Review of Disney Infinity 2.0

Along with anything that comes up I feel is worth talking about.

Your-Grammar-Tubes
- James

Home

Okay, so I've been back for a week and a half now, but I've been too depressed to blog and while it still sucks to be back I figure its about time I try and get things back to normal. We did manage to podcast a couple of times before I left the states, but it's been a little hectic since i got back so I haven't had time to edit, nor to record any more, but rest assured; season two of Stuff and Things is on it's way, and with them will come probably more pictures that you could possibly care about.

But suffice to say I had a hell of a lot of fun over in America. I even surprised myself by having a hell of a lot of fun in Disneyland. though not so much Tower of Terror. That ride kicked my ass. KICKED. MY. ASS.
the majority of the time at the park I the people I was with were taking it in turns to watch their baby while the other went on a ride with me, then we'd swap and the other would go with me on he ride, so I went on every ride at least twice the number of times as they did... but when I got off of tower of terror? nope. it was time for me to look after baby Sherlock for the first time.

But there will be more of that later, when I post the podcast adn the pictures.

For now, however, I just wanted to tell you all that I am back. It sucks but I'm back. With my return I am playing Minecraft, Disney infinity and learning Unity 3D

Tubage
- James

Superior Heroine

Speaking to Comicbookresources on august first Marvel movies boss, Kevin Feige talked about their movie plans, specifically how they've not got any plans to create female led movie projects in the near future. His reasoning made sense, but it was still just excuses. Don't get me wrong. I understand, there are some very legitimate reasons, but I still think there's room for another franchise, after all Ironman has run it's course (by that I mean it's pretty awful at this point) and nobody REALLY likes the thor films. we could easily put those aside for a few years (as Feige said would be a necessity) and make space for some good female leads.

And since we're talking about it I thought I'd make my Three suggestions.

While usually I would go into things like the different time lines and worlds, ultimate marvel being my favorite, but for the most part people like to focus on standard continuity. Earth-616.

Brunnhilde The Valkyrie

Brunnhilde was an obvious choice for me. Brunnhilde comes straight out of the Thor side of the Marvel universe, appointed by Odin to lead the Valkyrior. For those not versed in Norse Mythology the Valkyrior were the female angels who selected fallen warriors who had accomplished great deeds, performed heroic acts or simply impressed them to go with them to Asgard to train in war all day then drink and feast all night until Ragnarok, the end of time.

Brunnhilde would make a great movie, in part because Thor's setting and back story have already been established so this would slip right in there, but mostly because she's just a cool character. Interesting, strong, she has a rich back story that even the comic book fans are still getting to know.

A lot of people consider her to be just a female Thor, but she's really not. She doesn't have any of the same motivations, nor the same characterizations. With the right actress, the right level of sarcasm in her writing she could be great.

There are many possibilities for a film about Brunnhilde, but the one I like most is the idea of Souls going missing when she tries to bring them to the after life. The story I keep coming to would be one where she is watching a hero, a particular person that she likes for Asgard, and in her day to day acts she discovers that souls are being stolen. It's at this point that she discovers that the man she wants for Asgard is going to be killed soon so she must find out where the souls are going and stop the bad guy before he dies.

That or make sure he doesn't die, in which case she wouldn't bring him to Asgard, at least not yet.

Laura kinney X-23

Now I know that X-23 is an impossible choice, in part because the franchise that she is from (X-men) is still owned by another company, Fox. I also realise that she's from a franchise that is primarily about group movies, but she's still well worth mentioning.

Laura Kinney or X-23 as she is known to many is the successful clone of the original Weapon X, the Wolverine. Which would imply that she's just a cheap female knock off of Wolverine, but like Brunnhilde; she is not. Another thing people might be concerned by is her time amongst the New X-men. She did spend a lot of time amongst the X-men, but arguably she's spent significantly longer on her own, learning about her self, about her progenitor and about who she could be. This hero has the potential to be the next Spider-man with a hint of Hitgirl thrown in. That isn't to say that she's just a female Spider-man, she is far from it. My point was more that she's relatable. or could be. The outcast. The girl who is just learning to find herself. There have been so many shows and films where a character with a special ability wants to keep out of trouble and just blend into the background but gets pulled out of 'retirement' to take care of something that they can't ignore - from Buffy the Vampire slayer to the new Constantine - that I can't imagine it would be hard to come up with a story here.

Laurie has escaped from Weapon X and has re-located to small town america. She starts school - because of course she does - and tries to remain hidden, but something happens. A field trip accident, a gym prank gone awry, a lab experiment and she's exposed. News gets back to Weapon X and they come for her, uncaring of the lives of the people in town. Laura has to decide whether to escape and live or protect the people who treated her differently... but who also became her friend.

It's an old story, but one I would love to see with X-23 at the helm.

Natasha Romanoff Black Widow

Lets be honest, this was the most obvious one, no? This one was always going to be in this list, we already have an actress, a set up, a basis for what to do and where to go from here. There are a thousand things we could do with the character that Scarlett Johansson portrays surprisingly well in Ironman 2, Avengers and Captain America, Winter Soldier.

I hadn't been a big fan of Johansson before her foray into the world of Marvel. Nothign against her, of course, she simply hadn't done any work in genres I have any particular attachment to (That I'm aware of). But her portrayal of the Russian mob hitter turned secret super agent with a dark and sordid past was great, and with the end of the winter soldier movie (spoilers) destruction of Shield, the realisation that Hydra had infiltrated every level of the Worlds government there are surely hundreds of spy stories to get us involved in, because as Winter Soldier showed us; not every super hero movie has to be about a big monster tearing up the city or the super villain blowing up the world; it can be a spy thriller or a comedy or a horror story or a sci-fi or an adventure.

Can you just imagine Natasha taking to the streets of Russia once more to go after one of her old contacts who has information about Hydra, only to get caught up in a plot to make war with the USA, or discovers that the russian mob have gotten hold of an asgardian artifact that could open the world to some alien race bent on their destruction.

I personally think it'd be great. 

Now these are not in any particular order, nor are they by any means the only heroines in Marvel who deserve a look.

if your interested in looking out for more check out the following names:

Ms. Marvel, Jessica Drew, Julia Carpenter, Wanda Maximoff, Kitty Pryde (who I love btw, but she is very much a grouper), Martha Franklin, and a whole host of others from all walks of the Marvel universe, not to mention the other verses.

Tubage

-James