I have written quite a bit about dating sims in which you hook up with buff dads: the post-apocalyptic one, or the one where you can also date a manly goldfish. Well, I have one more for you, and it’s about dating gay Orcs. Yeah, Orcs.
Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor was a game about attachment in the face of decapitation. You came to love certain orcs, even as you warred against them. It was a game about relationships, more romantic in some ways than games that are explicitly about romance. So I had to know: in Shadow of War, is there orc romance?
The Bright Lord, Shadow of Mordor's new DLC campaign, promises an epic showdown with Lord of the Rings head honcho Sauron. It was designed in part to address a common fan complaint about the original game's anticlimactic ending. But while it does give players a chance to fight Sauron, I'd hardly call it an epic battle.
Is there anything more menacing than Shadow of Mordor's grisly assortment of orcs and uruks—especially the ones with super creepy taunts that nobody knows how to kill? Well, how about one such grisly uruk riding into battle on top of an acid-vomiting ogre?
Even since the game got its snazzy new photo editor, Shadow of Mordor fans have been doing their best to capture the game's ultraviolence in all its gruesome glory. But what about all those quiet, sentimental moments that unfold in the midst of all the orc-killing? Sauron's forces have feelings too, you know.
Ah, Shadow of Mordor orcs. So silly. And also so, so creepy when they want to be. Reddit user ootinii captured this particularly...vivid taunt from a nemesis I have yet to come across in my own orc-slaying adventures.
Last week, I wrote about a strange issue Shadow of Mordor players have been reporting since the game came out: Orcs they insisted they'd killed kept coming back from the dead. Developer Monolith has now told me that while they're aware of people's confusion, they're also having a hard time testing for a solution.
Ever since Shadow of Mordor came out, many gamers have taken to its unique brand of orc-killing with a gusto. There's just one problem: some of these orcs keep coming back from the dead. And while developer Monolith says this is partly an intentional feature, they haven't given me a straight answer for how it works.
A whir, a pop, and then the head explodes. Ceases to exist, really. Ropy tendrils of gray-black goop spiral outwards from the point where the head used to be, and then the body falls heavily to the ground. There's precious little time to think about what I just saw, because another enemy is headed my way.
Over twenty orcs, annihilated in one go. Holy shit.
Things don't always go according to plan when you're trying to hunt an orc. Sometimes, things can get a little wacky—especially if you happen to encounter a glitch.
It's so easy to resort to lazy and hurtful stereotypes whenever we talk about orcs. If nothing else, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor shows us how disrespectful this is. These monsters may be hideous, but they're also individuals with hopes and dreams—unique and precious like snowflakes. Let's celebrate them as such.
We've been slaying lots of orcs lately around the Kotaku office/converted anti-orc nemesis death fortress lately—lots and lots, all thanks to Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. But not all orcs want to kill or even fight. Some just want to drink. Orcish Inn's Animal Crossing-esque antics are for them.
Rangers of Gondor! Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor is upon us. The time has come to stand up to Sauron's evil forces. But you know what they say about not simply walking into Mordor and so forth. So here are some useful tips to get your and Talion's quest started.
Sure, the many problematic sexist tropes used to depict women in games are worth exploring. So too, apparently, are tropes vs men in games (enough to merit a bona-fide indidgogo fundraiser.)
If you like your fantasy comics grimy, roguish, and filled with orcs trying to lop each other's dorks off, you'll love James Stokoe's Orc Stain. And if you don't, you're dunderheadedly depriving yourself of some of comicdom's finest artwork.
The Scottish Sun - "Scottish Newspaper of the Year" mind you - reports that a woman gave her 42-year-old husband an ultimatum: Ditch that six-foot-tall World of Warcraft orc statue, or I move to Canada. Who did he choose?
