Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor Review

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is a game for all. I have to admit, I came into this game thinking it would be an onslaught against the Tolkien fandom. So far, digital media has somewhat sullied the works of J.R.R. Tolkien with the Lord of the Rings movies and the new Hobbit Trilogy, both done by Peter Jackson. While I admit, they have brought Tolkien’s works to a wider audience, and have made themselves into media I like, they aren’t the truest to Tolkien form ever. However, this game touches on bits and pieces of less known Tolkien works like The Silmarillion and other assorted poems written by J.R.R. himself with a few references to the Jackson films (with an appearance from Gollum).

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Full house tonight with special guests Guy and Andrea on top of the regular cast.  Ryan and Trey geek out about Shadow of Mordor while I geek out about all the different drape options in Dragon Age.  All that and actual news and music, so make sure to check it out.


-=Download 4.08=-

Completed: Let's Play Dark Souls 2 + DLC

So 5 months and 34 episodes later, I'm not only finally done with my first Let's Play, but also all of the crown DLC for Dark Souls II.  For me anyway, I like the clear dichotomy between the experienced and quick parts from the main game that I know like the back of my hand compared to the slow cautious approach of new content.

But I'm also really glad that I'm done.  Stretching it over months, and learning first-hand some of prep. needed for a Let's Play series has been nothing if not personally valuable to me.

So yeah, if you're looking for some gameplay, some random lore rabble, this is the series for you:

Let's Play Dark Souls 2 Playlist

Let's Play Dark Souls 2: Crown of the Ivory King

Well we're closing in on the end of the Dark Souls 2 Let's Play.  There's just a handful of bosses left in the main game, and this fancy new DLC to conquer.  This will end up concluding the crown trilogy, so if you feel like watching me stumble through this icy challenge blind, this is a good video to start with.

Want to watch from the start?  Click the link below for the playlist:

Let's Play Dark Souls 2

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What's on deck for VGR this week?  Destiny is still chugging along, fixing problems and making new ones, Shadow of Mordor gets a season pass, lots more info on Dragon Age from a dev stream, and Windows 10?  Because 7, 8, 9?  Sure, why not.

-=Download 4.07=-

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Tonight we're talking about Tokyo Game Show, more Destiny content, Titan's cancellation, and a host of other stories.  Trey and I also discover just how old we are, and how we both managed to dodge the bullet that is Runescape.  All of that plus plenty of Clam Chowder.

-=Download 4.06=-

The hypothetical darkest future with a net that is no longer neutral.

We get down to the doomsday scenario for possible futures of the Internet, and manage to sneak in a bit of talk about video games for a change.  Ryan is hosting this week, along with myself, DJ, Trey and Miguel.

Destiny Review

During the lead-up to it’s release, Destiny suffered from an identity problem when presented by Bungie.  It was slated to be the next big shooter by company with a well known pedigree for the genre, but it would to attempt to mix in RPG statistics with a loot game.  It would also try to present a persistent online world with numerous activities to do at any time, but the creators didn’t want to classify it as an MMO.  Class and character customization would be a feature so everyone could tell their own story, but the extent of this customizing was left nebulous at best.  The general gaming public seemed to be intrigued if nothing else that Bungie would be delivering on a new experience that they couldn’t classify.

In the end however, the vague remarks seem not to indicate a new breed of shooter, but rather a game that seems to have a sort of identity crisis that lacks focus on what exactly it wants to be.  Halo mixed with Borderlands or Diablo is probably the easiest shorthand to what Destiny is most analogous to, yet this new intellectual property, perhaps one of the most hyped games for this console generation, leans heavily on it’s predecessor.  What we get is something that is familiar, not revolutionary.  There’s a solid foundation of game here, but so many divergent parts to the experience that you end up with a slightly hollow experience.

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So the question on everybody's mind right now (and what's finally getting some definitive answers this week) is how is Destiny, and we here at VGR are finally ready to do some in-depth talking about Bungie's newest shooter / mmo hybrid thingy but not really.  Also some stuff with Mojang and Microsoft, along with other news tidbits.  Miguel and Trey had some fun commandeering the playlist to pack as much Final Fantasy VIII on it, and Ryan defends himself from a merciless assault in regards to mobile gaming.  All and all, a super packed episode, so make sure to check it out!

-=Download 4.05=-

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Little late on posting this one, in all honesty, Destiny is currently eating up a lot of my time.  In fact, we had a few people get to try out a bit of it and give their first impressions.  Some gaming news and music to top it off, and you get episode 4.04, which hopefully won't be broken.

-=Download 4.04=-