This week saw the first (small) look at the new and upcoming Hobbit-themed cosy life sim Tales Of The Shire, plus the news that Embracer group is splitting into three, including a Middle-earth And Friends group. We thus use this as an excuse to spend some time talking about The Lord Of The Rings games we'd like to see, plus our favourite Rings games from days gone by (and also Gollum, and also we do impressions of Gollum).
Nate has been playing an impressive number of games, including one that did not allow him to invent the stick and therefore hampered his progress. We also talk about AI NPCs again, because one of them tried to get James drunk. Plus: some lovely recommendations to round off your weekly pod (one of them is a long life meat product).
]]>A new mod for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim draws inspiration from the Middle-earth: Shadow Of Mordor series by turning regular enemies into powerful Nemesis versions if they kill you. Rather than simply die and reload a save, you'll respawn elsewhere in the world, ready to hunt down your new named Nemesis. They might even loot your gear and use it against you.
]]>Monolith's Lord Of The Rings games Middle-Earth: Shadow Of Mordor and Shadow Of War are fun action stealth 'em ups that deserve praise just for their combat. What really makes both worth mention though is the nemesis system that turns procedurally generated baddies into your own personal antagonists the more you encounter them. Why haven't more developers tried their own take on the nemesis system in the last six years? Because Warner Bros. patented it, turns out. That sucks.
]]>With Middle-earth: Shadow Of Mordor, I thought, "This is it. They've perfected Arkham-style combat. It can't get better than this." With Middle-earth: Shadow Of War, I realised how mistaken I'd been.
]]>Gather round, descendants of unwelcome occupiers. It is time to celebrate turkeys again. Now, I don’t have any comically large birds to slaughter, but I do recognise the emotional benefit of reflection, which is what this questionable holiday is all about. Being thankful. There are many small things we videosgamers take for granted, the stuff you don’t even think about. But tiny “quality of life” things still deserve a grateful thumbs-up. Here are 17 things to be thankful for in games.
]]>The results are in! The links between the longevity of Steam Charts and the decreases in violent crime, the improvement of sanitary water supplies, and sudden global drops in serious health issues, are no coincidence at all!
To quote from the paper recently published in Nature, "Causal links have been shown connecting Rock Paper Shotgun's Steam Charts articles to a remarkably number of positive worldwide trends, with strong suggestion that a global dependence on the column has been established, such that its weekly appearance is vital to humanity."
]]>HDR on PC hasn't improved much in 2019. Despite there being more HDR gaming monitors than ever before, the very best gaming monitors for HDR continue to be quite expensive compared to non-HDR monitors, and the situation around Windows 10 support for it is still a bit of a mess. However, provided you're willing to fight through all that, then the next step on your path to high dynamic range glory is to get an HDR compatible graphics card.
Below, you'll find a complete list of all the Nvidia and AMD graphics cards that have built-in support for HDR, as well as everything you need to know about getting one that also supports Nvidia and AMD's own HDR standards, G-Sync Ultimate and FreeSync 2. I've also put together a list of all the PC games that support HDR as well, so you know exactly which PC games you can start playing in high dynamic range.
]]>Oh hello! John is away in San Francisco gobbling up gum left on the underside of chairs at the Game Developers Conference, so I'm filling in for our regular rundown of last week's top-selling games on Steam. As is customary for weeks where I need to take over, the charts are full of the surprises he grumbles they never have. What can I say, John - video games must make more of an effort for me. And for goodness' sake, leave that gum. I don't care if Sid Meier himself stuck it there.
]]>It’s Halloween (month)! I don’t know about you lovely lot, but there’s nothing I find more spooky or chilling than charts detailing what the most popular video games are in a given week. That's me, Fraser, filling in for John who is on holiday. A terrifying holiday, I bet.
]]>Last week, after much hype and excitement, Nvidia's GeForce RTX 2080 graphics card was finally unleashed on the world. Today, it's the turn of its beefed-up big brother, the RTX 2080Ti, whose release was delayed by a week for reasons lost to the bowels of Nvidia's marketing department. As you can see from my Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080Ti review, this is hands down the best graphics card for 4K I've ever seen, and that's all down to the monstrous power of Nvidia's new Turing GPU. But how much of a leap does it represent over its immediate predecessor, Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1080Ti? To the graphs!
]]>In my Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 review last week, we discovered that Nvidia's super duper new graphics card was about as fast as their GTX 1080Ti when paired with Intel's Core i5-8600K CPU, representing only the teensiest bit of improvement to your overall frames per second output if you were to bung one in your PC today. That may well change once we start seeing more games take advantage of the Nvidia's clever speed-boosting AI-driven Turing tech, but until developers get their act together and start patching in support for all of the best RTX features, the only thing we've got to go on right now is raw performance data.
With this in mind, I thought I'd take a closer look at how the RTX 2080 compares to its direct predecessor, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080. The former might not represent much of a leap past the GTX 1080's souped up Ti cousin, but regular 1080 owners should see much better results compared to what they can do now, particularly when it comes to gaming at 4K. Let's take a look.
]]>Walking into Mordor used to be fairly simple, but the way in was guarded by the dragon of commercial necessity. Now that Middle-earth: Shadow Of War finally has a demo--nine months after launch--that dragon will turn a blind eye if you want to slip into Núrn for free. He's probably hoping you'll come back and pay £15/$20 to stroll around the rest of Mordor before the 66%-off sale ends this evening, but that's up to you.
]]>Middle-Earth: Shadow of War's much-maligned loot boxes are gone for good, thanks to a major patch today. The blood-splattered Assassin's Creed/Batman/Pokemon hybrid no longer crams orcs into chests to be sold for cash. If you want them to join your army now, you'll have to do it the old-fashioned way; beating them up and forcing them to. The massive patch notes also include some game-changing tweaks. Below, my thoughts on some of the bigger changes.
]]>We've just passed the half-way point of 2018, so Ian Gatekeeper and all his fabulously wealthy chums over at Valve have revealed which hundred games have sold best on Steam over the past six months. It's a list dominated by pre-2018 names, to be frank, a great many of which you'll be expected, but there are a few surprises in there.
2018 releases Jurassic World Evolution, Far Cry 5 Kingdom Come: Deliverance and Warhammer: Vermintide II are wearing some spectacular money-hats, for example, while the relatively lesser-known likes of Raft, Eco and Deep Rock Galactic have made themselves heard above the din of triple-A marketing budgets.
]]>Warad, a child from the southern lands of Middle-Earth, is taken from his family and sent north as a hostage of peace. Adopted by one of the principal families of the country, he takes on a new name — Baranor — and rises through the ranks of the Gondorian army to become second-in-command of one of its principal fortresses. One of the few men capable of keeping the forces of darkness at bay. With that background, you’d be forgiven for believing that Baranor is the main character of Middle-Earth: Shadow of War. He isn’t, initially. He’s a prominent NPC in the campaign (even fighting alongside you in some missions), a player skin, and finally, in DLC campaign Desolation of Mordor, he's the starring character.
This growth is impressive, not just because he’s a cool character, but because Baranor is a playable black man. Someone who, in many other fantasy games, wouldn’t exist.
]]>Middle-earth: Shadow of War Desolation of Mordor is the most nonsensical sequence of words I have typed in some time. Yes, this is the second expansion for the popular orc dating simulator set in the land of Lord of the Rings, featuring two brothers who love to fight sand and all the animals that live in the sand. It’s out now, and a free update alongside the expansion also brings the first of those loot box rollbacks promised by Monolith.
]]>A new cinematic trailer for the second (and final?) story expansion for Middle-earth: Shadow Of War introduces the brothers who'll stab orcs into a sandy new land. They're off to the land of Lithlad, which sounds like the name of an electro-powered superhero's sidekick. Here, watch the new Desolation Of Mordor trailer.
]]>Monolith have announced plans to remove loot boxes from Middle-earth: Shadow Of War in July, eight months after the open-world enslave-o-stabber launched. They've realised that they make the game worse, they say. The 'War Chest' loot boxes in Shadow Of War contain random items, orc slaves, and bits, and are sold for either the virtuacash earned in-game or for a microtransaction currency bought with real money. Monolith say the loot boxes cause people who buy them to miss out on the experience of the game's Nemesis system - and even if you don't buy them, their presence detracts from the game. Neither realisation is remotely surprising.
]]>Last year's explosion of negative press regarding loot crates in games (especially regarding their impact on Star Wars: Battlefront 2) is still being heard around the world. Now, the issue has reached the ears of a growing number of lawmakers.
As covered by the Hawaii Tribune Herald, the latest force to get involved is the Hawaiian state government, members of which have proposed two new laws that could have massive repercussions on the industry if they were to become nationwide law.
]]>My favourite Middle-earth: Shadow Of War nemesis story isn't my own, but one I found on Reddit. It was about a musician Orc who the player mercilessly humiliated time and time again, until his mind had broken and all he could do was murmur about how he'd "lost his song". It's tragic stuff, and while the new behaviours added in today's patch might not generate the same heart-wrenching tales, they should mix things up if you've found those encounters have grown stale.
The Blade Of Galadriel expansion is also out today, and lets you step into the Elven shoes of Eltariel, one of Talion's sidekicks from the main game. She's better known as the Blade Of Galadriel, so expect to run around stabbing Nazguls in the name of freedom, justice, or whatever it is that Galadriel actually stands for. Bright white lights, maybe.
]]>We've already seen which games sold best on Steam last year, but a perhaps more meaningful insight into movin' and a-shakin' in PC-land is the games that people feel warmest and snuggliest about. To that end, Valve have announced the winners of the 2017 Steam Awards, a fully community-voted affair which names the most-loved games across categories including best post-launch support, most player agency, exceeding pre-release expectations and most head-messing-with. Vintage cartoon-themed reflex-tester Cuphead leads the charge with two gongs, but ol' Plunkbat and The Witcher series also do rather well - as do a host of other games from 2017's great and good.
Full winners and runners-up below, with links to our previous coverage of each game if you're so-minded. Plus: I reveal which game I'd have gone for in each category.
]]>Another year over, a new one just begun, which means, impossibly, even more games. But what about last year? Which were the games that most people were buying and, more importantly, playing? As is now something of a tradition, Valve have let slip a big ol' breakdown of the most successful titles released on Steam over the past twelve months.
Below is the full, hundred-strong roster, complete with links to our coverage if you want to find out more about any of the games, or simply to marvel at how much seemed to happen in the space of 52 short weeks.
]]>Cowardice is a virtue. So says the team on this week's RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show. That's because our theme is "running away" - games that encourage you to flee from danger, or that give you a choice between fight and flight. Adam will run from the soldiers of Arma or the post-apocalyptic antagonists of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Brendan will scarper from poor odds in For Honor or Overwatch, while Alice only pretends to run away in Playerunknown's Battlegrounds, tricking her foes into giving chase before ambushing them like some kind of velociraptor.
]]>Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a very big game, full of very big Orcs. It’s probably big enough. Regardless, it’s getting a slew of DLC, introducing two new Orc tribes and some story expansions that let you play as the tale's secondary characters. The tribal addition is due next month, and you can get a brief taste of all the upcoming DLC in the trailer below.
]]>Some games can be finished, completed, defeated or beaten. They have an end-point, even though they might be replayable. Others have the potential to go on forever. Whatever the case, there always comes a point when you're done with a game, and it might be long before the credits roll, or it might be after that one update that breaks a habit that has lasted for years. Why do we stop playing?
Let’s get one potential answer out of the way: ‘when we stop having fun’. While there’s definitely something to that idea, it doesn’t take into account temporary frustration caused by difficulty spikes, or the satisfaction - a related cousin of ‘fun’ - from seeing a narrative through to its end. It’s a sentiment that might work for multiplayer games, but I’m not convinced it can be applied more broadly than that. With a look at Shadow of War, Spelunky and Caveblazers among others, here are some thoughts on the end of play.
]]>People, people of Earth, for the second week in a row GTA V isn't in the Steam Charts! And for the first time in human history, this week nor is Counter-Strike: Global Offensive! What's happened? I'll tell you what's happened. Everyone's got a copy now. Phew.
So instead, here are eight other games and Plunkbat, and one plastic box, in ascending order of dollar-eyes.
]]>Who's your worst nemesis? This week the RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show, is talking about our most reviled enemies, against whom we hold deep, lasting grudges. Matt harbours a lasting bitterness for Silencer, the magic-cancelling war jerk of Dota 2. Adam is fuelled by a dark hatred for the final boss of Ancient Domains of Mystery, a giant '@' symbol called Andor Drakon. And I still maintain a grievance against an entire electricity company in Final Fantasy VII. They killed my friends.
And speaking of nemeses, we've had plenty of time to play Middle-earth: Shadow of War, the icon-hoovering game of anti-establishment orcs, which has us divided. The Evil Within 2 also gets some attention, as Adam runs from spectres and fails to stealth-kill hideous monsters, and I am publicly shamed in Tekken 7 by a robot who takes off her head and throws it at me.
]]>War, I'm told, war never changes - and nor need it end. Middle-earth: Shadow of War [official site] will add the option to endlessly play Shadow Wars, the fortress-assaulting mode that's the focus of the game's fourth act. Leif Johnson told us he grew bored of Shadow Wars before the end of the chapter but hey, if you want to endlessly attack and defend, you will get that option.
]]>The UK government has responded to two questions posed by a Cambridge MP about loot boxes and gambling laws. It is a very very very very boring answer, and says basically nothing apart from highlighting current regulations about gambling. That’s not much of a surprise, although the speed at which the government has “answered” suggests an awareness that the issue of loot crates is smoldering upon the floor of the industry, like a flaming paper bag with a poo in it. Something might have to be done about it, sure, but nobody wants to volunteer their boot.
]]>Wotcha gang. Your old chum Alice here for this week's charts, as everyone else has been fired. Out of a cannon. Blown into a jillion little pieces. Hence the Apocalyptic yellow tone to the skies today. Hold your breath when outside, and hold your breath while we count down last week's top ten of the top-selling games on Steam.
]]>“Loot” used to be such a nice word. It brought to mind coffers piled with doubloons. Today it is often followed by the word “crate” and an expression of disgust. After recent controversies over the inclusion of loot boxes in games like Middle-earth: Shadow of War and Star Wars: Battlefront 2, the issue of this psychologically iffy practice has been brought up in the UK parliament in the form of two written questions submitted by a Cambridge MP. In short, they ask the government: what do you plan to do about “in-game gambling”?
]]>You may well already know this, but going on the basis that most of the RPS team weren't aware of it, let's put the word out anew. As if 65 gigabytes of PC Middle-earth: Shadow Of War weren't enough, there's also an optional extra, free 10Gb download, comprising what's officially called a 'High Resolution Texture Pack.' In other words, it in theory makes the grime, squalor and butchered viscera of Mordor that little bit more grimy, squalid and visceral butchered viscera-y.
It's not that simple. It's never that simple. Join me as I investigate whether installing ten gig of 'Ultra' textures really makes a difference to your nemesising.
]]>Nothing does revenge quite like Middle-Earth: Shadow Of War [official site]. But more games really really should.
When Shadow Of Mordor came out in 2014, no one was really expecting it to be good. But it was great. And the greatest thing about it was its Nemesis system. Because your character is already dead, and possessed by a grey, grey ghost, getting killed by an enemy was not your end. Instead you woke up at a respawn tower, with vengeance on your mind. The orc that killed you would automatically be given a promotion, a ranking among the orc leadership in the area, and greater abilities. He'd also be given a personality, strengths and weaknesses, and most of all, a name.
]]>Oh heavens look at you, you've been bingeing on videogames again. Pumping platformers into your veins and shoving shooters into your piehole. That's fine, so have we. This week's edition of the RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show, is all about binge gaming. Alec joins us to talk about chomping down on numbers-go-up alien-zapper Destiny 2, which Adam has also been gorging on. Meanwhile, I've been happily dig-dugging my way through robotic metroidvania Steamworld Dig 2, which as far as I'm concerned is far healthier and wiser.
]]>Tootle on your warhorn and coax your ghostpal back into body, as Middle-earth: Shadow of War [official site] launched overnight. Monolith's sequel to 2014's Shadow of Mordor brings more open-world action with orcs to antagonise, fortresses to capture, limbs to hack off, baddies to enslave (ikr?), faces to fill with arrows, spooky ghostpowers to learn, and a sexy spider to puzzle over. The sequel also expands the 'Nemesis' system which builds relationships with NPCs and changes how they react to you. This is great, Leif Johnson said in his Middle-earth: Shadow of War review:
]]>I hate defending fortresses in Middle-earth: Shadow of War. I hate it so much, in fact, that when an army of orcs from the Machine tribe showed up at the gates of my fortress in Núrnen in Mordor’s sunny southeast, I just went to the menu, clicked “Leave Mission,” and let them have it.
And so it often went with Shadow of War’s controversial fourth act - called The Shadow Wars - which involves a 10-stage series of battles over different fortresses before you can reach the “real” ending. Some say it’s essentially impossible to complete without using purchasable loot boxes stuffed with legendary quality gear and orcs for your army if you run out of money, with Polygon going so far as to say that the system is “predatory.” I, on the other hand, said in my own Shadow of War review that I didn’t get the point of the loot boxes. I never felt the need to use them. After playing a lot more of Shadow Wars, I feel the same way, and although I mainly came to that conclusion by pulling stunts like the one above, that "stunt" made the game more fun. I sincerely believe developer Monolith Productions could remove the boxes right now and it’d make little tangible difference to the game.
]]>Are you strong enough to read the Steam Charts? Do you have what it takes to read all the way to the end? Can you defeat the Plunkbat final boss? NO! NO YOU ARE TOO WEAK!
]]>I never thought I’d be playing Pokémon with Tolkienian orcs, but here I am in Middle-earth: Shadow of War, standing with my army before the fortress of Khargukôr amid the snowy peaks of Seregost.
The orc in charge is a dainty fellow who calls himself Krímp the Rhymer, and I can’t help but admire his fashion sense in this grubby world. That immaculately crafted leather jerkin. That bycocket with the two red feathers that match the shafts in his quiver. Such style. I almost want to let him be. Fortunately he shatters that thought when we meet in person and he blurts the cringy battlecry “Your fate has gone from bad to worse / You face an orc who speaks in verse!” Some crimes can’t go unpunished.
]]>A Middle-earth: Shadow of War [official site] DLC character created to memorialise and fundraise for a deceased member of the development team will now be given free to all players, Warner Bros. have decided after it raised a stink. Styled after executive producer Michael Forgey, who passed away in 2016, the Forthog Orcslayer is a friendly NPC who was initially sold to benefit Forgey's family. But a communication mistake suggested WB would only donate money from purchases in the US, keeping money from elsewhere for themselves (WB later clarified that wasn't the case). After the memorial became a mess, WB will make the Forthog Orcslayer free and themselves donate money direct to the family.
]]>Have you heard the one about Humble making a new Bundle? It's a good one. Rather, it's a Very Positive one.
Following on from the original 'Very Positive' Bundle back in May this year, Humble has brought the idea back for another go - in the Humble Very Positive Bundle 2, funnily enough. The collection of games brought together here all feature Steam ratings of 'Very Positive' or above and while we can't always rely on those ratings as proof of a game's intrinsic qualities, as recent happenings have taught us, rest assured these games are quite good.
]]>As exciting as an expanded Nemesis system and an itsy busty spider might sound for Middle-earth: Shadow of War [official site], Warner Bros. had been sitting on a hot, juicy, and thrilling marketing blast. Now they have finally let rip: heck yes Shadow of War will have optional microtransactions to hasten powering-up in this singleplayer game. Come on gang, give me a "Hell yeah!"
I said give me a "Hell yeah!"
No? I thought one of you Willennials would at least do it 'ironically'.
]]>If you're anything like me, you've likely often wished that spiders were hot babes. "This giant spider is okay," you thought while watching the biggun in Peter Jackson's And Then And Then, "but I wouldn't kiss her. That's far too many eyes for me to stare lustily into. I wouldn't stroke her spinnerets. And she's not even wearing a dress for thigh to cheekily peek though." Mate, we're in luck, you and I: Shelob is back in Middle-earth: Shadow of War [official site], and this time she is hot. Here, watch Shelob take human form to be all magic and cryptic:
]]>Shadow of Mordor [official site] has one of the most satisfying combat moves in gaming. It’s a simple double counter, performed by tapping the counter button twice when separate enemies attack you at the same time. You, the ranger Talion, block one attack. To deal with the other you summon an undead elvish Lord called Celebrimbor, who springs out of your body in wraith form to parry the shocked orc’s sword and pummels them into the ground. Every time it happens part of me wants to jump from my seat and whoop.
]]>Middle-Earth: Shadow of War [official site] expands on its predecessor's innovative Nemesis System and its believable NPCs take us one step further away from the static worlds of most open world games. I've been thinking about how that works, and why so many games make me think of The Truman Show.
]]>When Middle-earth: Shadow of War [official site] arrives in October, players will be fight alongside their worst enemy from the first game with their dearest friend. Warner Bros. today added the 'Nemesis Forge' to Shadow of Mordor, which can transfer your top Nemesis and most loyal follower over to the sequel. The Nemesis system was the most exciting idea of Mordor -- and one that far too few games have copied, both Adam and John will tell you -- as random foes became unique recurring loathed enemies, changing and growing after each fight.
Oh, but if you haven't played Shadow of Mordor, good news: it's free to play in full this weekend, and on sale with a big discount too.
]]>It's warm! Luckily the RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show, have come together to talk cold games, like chilly survivalist city-builder Frostpunk. That's because Adam is back from E3 and can tell us (Brendan and Pip) all about it. He's also played Destiny 2 and Middle Earth: Shadow of War, the lucky sod. Spill the beans, Adam! No wait, don't. We need those.
This week's back-to-normal-length episode also sees us talking about Darkest Dungeon's latest expansion, The Crimson Court, esoteric desert survival RPG Kenshi, and some news about GTA V and the sad fate of its modders. Also: the return of our patch notes quiz, Patch Adam, this time featuring Dwarf Fortress.
]]>Each year E3 rolls around like a giant evil worm, crushing all that's good and pure. BUT that worm also announces lots of exciting gaming news as it wreaks its carnage upon the Earth. Here we have gathered every announcement, reveal, and exciting new trailer that emerged from the barrage of screamed press conferences over the last few days. And lots of it looks rather spiffy.
A rather enormous 47 PC games were either announced, revealed, or updated upon, with new trailers, information, and released dates that will all be missed by at least three months. We've collected the lot, with trailers, in alphabetical order, into one neat place, just for you.
]]>Open worlds are dynamic. Sometimes they live and breathe. Occasionally they are systemic. Their stories and incidents are emergent.
That's what the voices say, from stages and in trailers, but the pictures tell a different tale. Anthem's big reveal felt like a series of echoes rather than a glimpse of the future, Assassin's Creed: Origins is sprinkling loot and stats across Egypt, and even Metro has sandbox ambitions now that it's making an Exodus to the surface. But what we've seen is more scripted than the teleprompted speakers at one of these E3 press conferences.
Putting the witty, system-led smarts of a Middle-earth: Shadow of War video on the same stage as the rest almost seemed cruel.
]]>"A wizard is never late," said Merlin in that documentary about New Zealand. "Nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to." I forget what happens after that - probably not much - BUT the quote felt applicable to this entirely separate bit of news where the open world combat of Middle-earth: Shadow of War [official site] is being delayed for release until 10 October 2017. Unless you're Merlin in New Zealand because they have a different release date anyway.
Let's unpick this!
]]>There's a moment in the 16 minutes of footage of Middle-earth: Shadow of War [official site] below where the clipped voice-over refers to the "RPG systems" as player finds some new armour. It seems odd to me to think of that as the RPG system though when the rest of the game greatly expands the original's Nemesis system and is about relationships forming dynamically between procedurally created characters. That sounds more like roleplay, to me. Watch it below, it's cool.
]]>Update: Following a little leak, Middle-earth: Shadow of War [official site] is now officially announced. It's coming on August 22nd and yup, it sounds like more of the same but with an expanded Nemesis system. Check out the announcement trailer:
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