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Feb 16th, 2018 at 00:22:50 - Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor (PS4) |
I played another couple hours today and primarily focused on helping a lowly orc named Ratbag rise through the ranks by setting up and killing the captains above him. I've come to like him and hope that it doesn't set me up to kill him later on. I still haven't come across the power to turn the Urux against each other but Ratbag will do for now. I've been leveling up my attributes nicely to my play-style and the game is getting better the more I'm becoming comfortable with the mechanics.
Orcs and Urux are a nasty bunch of creatures but the ethical choices Ratbag willingly uses is questionable. We talked about Kantianism in class today and he 100 percent goes against his way of thinking by lying through his teeth and setting up other captains to be killed as they're just means to his end.
I'm definitely going to continue playing this game to the end and maybe it will prompt me to play the newly released Shadow of War.
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Feb 14th, 2018 at 18:04:50 - Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor (PS4) |
I played for Shadow of Mordor for another hour and a half today and while I advanced the storyline a little, I was continuing on learning the mechanics of the game. I'm a bit of a completionist when it comes to games and when I saw Shadow of Mordor was an option to play for this class, I was really excited since I had purchased this game a couple of years ago and had never been able to get to it. After running through a captain that had a slave who had information on the "Black Hand of Sauron," I came across Gollum and found out he had some information on the Elvish Wraith I had come into contact with in the purgatory like place I was trapped in after I was murdered. During the missions, I noticed there were “Bonus side missions” within the missions that if completed would give more experience points or currency to level up with tasks such as “free the slaves without being detected” or “kill the captain’s minions before the captain.” After I completed these missions I noticed in the map screen there was an option to complete tasks for survival or combat with tasks such as “Kill 3 spiders” or “collect 3 plants” which upon completion rewarded me with more experience points and currency.
I’m currently having trouble relating this to the class as far as ethics go but as far as I can tell, the ethical decisions that seem to be a part of the gameplay would have to do with the Nemesis system. I read that when a perk is unlocked later in the game, you can force the captains to bend to your will and turn on their own kind. The ethical question raised would be whether or not it’s acceptable to turn an enemy on their own. To think I myself could be forced to kill my own family through manipulation is horrifying and wouldn’t wish that upon my worst enemy. I’m going to play further into the game to see if I can get a better understanding of this mechanic.
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Feb 14th, 2018 at 18:08:38.
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Feb 13th, 2018 at 23:09:21 - Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor (PS4) |
I played roughly an hour and a half of Shadow of Mordor and I can say that after a slow start, the interest is there! I didn't advance the story line due to learning how the game works and picking fights here and there. The mechanics seem to be very deep and I'll continue to have that learning curve throughout the game which I imagine will continually gets easier to pick up. I found that this area of the world is absolutely filled with Orcs and baddies everywhere and by picking fights with just one or two minions you can soon be enveloped by 10-20 within seconds along with captains that may or may not be head and shoulders above you power-wise.The game has really interesting mechanics. I learned that captains can really destroy you within only a couple hits and when they do, they level up off you just like you would by killing them. The game also puts an emphasis on the fact that you really cant die. When you're defeated in battle, you just spawn back at the closest tower and continue on your mission but now have a "revenge" kill option which allows you to hunt down the last baddie who defeated you in battle. The narrative supports this no death mechanic by listening in on orcs who openly talk about how you can't be killed, you "only come back stronger." I'm excited to get back to this and continue on to the main story line to really see the narrative of the game develop more.
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Jan 18th, 2018 at 21:21:51 - Firewatch (PS4) |
Firewatch Log #3
I made it through day 77 of my firewatch and wow! Things have picked up and they are going in a direction I didn’t expect while semi-debunking my original theory that everything is all in my head while I’m slowly going crazy. The 2 girls that went missing earlier on in the game and the random man I saw by my tower seem to be connected to a weird group of individuals at Wapiti Station. Delilah helped me get a new radio so we could avoid having our conversations listened in on and formed a plan to break into their station. Once I broke into their station, it seemed as if no one was there. I found logs containing my (Henry’s) choices and personality traits along with Delilah’s and 2 others information which I’m thinking are the 2 girls that went missing.
Ethically, it’s interesting that the game seems to keep track of your dialogue choices with Delilah and your actions throughout the game to allow the station and people to formulate a decision on you. The logs seemed eerily close to what I had portrayed myself to be in the game and as a side note, when I was leaving the camp, Delilah offers the thought to burn the whole place down. I denied her request but then someone decided to burn it down anyways. I felt like this was a way to steer the story down a certain way regardless of my decision but I think it will still have an impact somewhere down the line in this game. I’m glad the game made the narrative decisions it did because I would have been bored with the conclusions I had drawn so far.
Ben Blackburn
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Jan 18th, 2018 at 21:29:40.
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