Huh? If there’s one thing I didn’t expect the next big Lord of the Rings game to resemble, it was Assassin’s Creed. But that’s all I could think about when watching this footage of Middle-Earth: Shadow Of Mordor (well that, Bacon Pancakes, and this otter). It’s an open-world action RPG, and when Wraith-possessed (sigh) Ranger Talion sauntered up a wall and rope-walked over a courtyard, it was right out of Ezio’s* skillset. When he then used his Wraith powers (sigh-sigh) to scan the crowd, they might as well have added an eagle screech and a wink. Not that it didn’t look like fun, and there’s some stuff in here about a nemesis systems that you should look at, but the inspiration is incredibly obvious.(more…)