Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor trailer introduces your orc chum Ratbag

I like the orcs from the Lord of the Rings films, because they're cockneys, and they're called things like Gorbag or Shagrat or Plopbog.

I like the orcs from the Lord of the Rings films, because they're cockneys, and they're called things like Gorbag or Shagrat or Plopbog. It makes a nice contrast from all the floaty elves named Elendermenderil or Alenduil or Katefromlost. Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor contains an Uruk orc named Ratbag, which is obviously great. Ratbag "plays a critical role in the story", apparently, and he can act as your personal, rather smelly informant if you choose to let him live. But how does Ratbag look, sound, and get on with our troubled ranger hero Talion? These are things we can glean from the following trailer.

Say hello to Ratbag, everybody. Probably best not to ask how he came by such a name.

Ratbag, of the New England Ratbags, differs from most of the Uruks you'll encounter in that he's a set character—the others will be "dynamically generated through the Nemesis System and unique to each player", according to Monolith/Warner Bros. I'm looking forward to seeing how all this Nemesis stuff plays out in the game, even if I've seen nothing that's really sold me on the idea yet.

Shadow of Mordor is out on October 3rd, and here's a linkto another video if you want to spoil the whole thing before you play it. That one doesn't feature Ratbag, however, instead focusing on the sad story of how Talion came to be all wraithy like.