Mount&Blade

[Cyclotron]

If you haven't heard of it, there's a pretty popular beta floating around the net of the above title. Think first-person/third-person/RPG style medieval combat, straight up lances, swords, and bows without the fantasy element you usually find in these kind of games. Add to that the ability to raise a small army from peasants to knights and marksmen, and you've got a game that's been occupying the spare time of a whole lot of people here in my dorm.

The game can be downloaded at http://www.taleworlds.com/. The downloaded version allows you to play until 6th level for free; you can keep starting new characters if you want to play more. It's $11 to register the game, and in my opinion, very worth it.

Edit: The price is now $18; the plan is that the price increases slowly as the game is developed until it hits retail (see my post below). Still a great deal.

See, the interesting thing about this game is that it's apparently made by just some guy and his wife; there isn't really a company involved. How they found the time to do this, I'll never understand.

Check it out. If nothing else, you'll be giving the independent game developing world a hand.

[Asmodean]

Originally posted by cyclotron7

See, the interesting thing about this game is that it's apparently made by just some guy and his wife;

Asmodean

[General Ludd]

A great little game. I've been meaning to make a thread about it for a while.

[DrSpike]

If it's a beta when is the real game coming?

[Cyclotron]

Originally posted by Asmodean




Asmodean

It's true, but don't let it dissuade you. It's really astonishing how much they've done with it; certainly, many final realeases of games with big-name developers and producers are less fun than this thing in beta.

If it's a beta when is the real game coming?

The official response on that, I believe, is "when it's done." New additions and patches are released on a regular basis, mostly as a direct result of communication with users on their boards. For example, I posted that they should include a compass on the main screen, and armagan (the husband guy of the team) posted back, saying it's now on his list of things to do.

When the game does come out, apparently, it will retail for around $25, but those who registered for the full game while it was still $11 won't have to pay anything extra.

[child of Thor]

Cool , thanks for the link and info cyclotron7, i've been having a gander at their forums; the game sounds interesting for sure.

[Cyclotron]

I've been meaning to raise this thread from the dead for a while now. If you haven't played this game, it's awesome - no other first person medieval combat game is even in its class. It's basically the only game in town for realistic cavalry combat, and it's got a whole adventure game to boot.

You can download a free trial that goes up to level 6; the full game costs 14 bucks, and will increase over time until it hits the retail price of 25 (still not bad) when the developers complete the game.

For those of you who have played this before, some of the new additions are well worth checking out again - battles in rain, fog, snow, and in the desert really make the graphics much more interesting. Lots of new items and some very cool tweaks to combat (like riding an armored charger into a mass of river pirates and seeing them get blown away like bowling pins).

[Skanky Burns]

Very fun game.

I've registered my copy.

[Cyclotron]

I should add that - knowing that many of you at Apolyton are into moddable and customizable games - this game in particular is extremely open and very easy to mess around with. It's still in beta, and people have already made their own mods with castle battles, blue-painted briton barbarians, new weapons and skins, and much more.

[DrSpike]

I'll sure take a look when it is finished.

[Dis]

Originally posted by Asmodean




Asmodean

I was thinking the same thing.

[DrSpike]

It's just you think much much slower than Asmodean.

[Cyclotron]

Originally posted by DrSpike
I'll sure take a look when it is finished.

You can actually save money if you buy it while it's still in beta - people who purchase a key for the beta at the reduced beta price will get the final, retail version for free when it comes out.

[DrSpike]

I would rather play a finished product than save a few measly squid.

[duke o' york]

But you might as well try it while it's free, and then get a reduced price finished game if you enjoy it. After all, if you don't enjoy it, then it would be a complete waste of cash to buy it, but you wouldn't know until you got it home.

[DrSpike]

That's better logic, but what about Civ4?

[Sandman]

It's fun, although it crashes often and hard. I'll probably wait for it to be finished.

[duke o' york]

Originally posted by DrSpike
That's better logic, but what about Civ4?

Well you can play Civ 4 while you wait for it to download.

[Cyclotron]

In Civ4, you've got to let others do the dirty work. In this game you can do it yourself.

[Skanky Burns]

One glaring flaw in the Civ 4 combat mechanism is that you don't see javelins sticking out of the recently deceased enemy. Mount & Blade addresses this very important concern.

[DrSpike]

I'm sure work on a gore mod is underway.

[Skanky Burns]

But does the mod forum have 3 or more suggestion topics asking for more gore at any one time?
I thought not.

[DrSpike]

Start some.

[ravagon]

Originally posted by Skanky Burns
One glaring flaw in the Civ 4 combat mechanism is that you don't see javelins sticking out of the recently deceased enemy. Mount & Blade addresses this very important concern.

Well I'm writing off Civ 4 then.
One of my absolute must-haves in a strategy game is that when my heavy bombers smash an enemy surface battlegroup the shattered burning hulks should have javelins sticking out of them damnit!


Much as I may like the idea behind paying less to sign up during a beta, and may like the game itself, I'm not really motivated enough to buy it before it's finished ...

[Cyclotron]

You can play the demo, then - it's free, and it's the full game, up to level 6.

And it's not just javelins - arrows, daggers, bolts, throwing axes...

[Skanky Burns]

And you can suicide-jump your horses to death!

IF you run to the top of a hill and then get your horse to jump, it goes *splat* in the most spectacular way!

Of course, it is much better if you do this to someone else's horse.

[Cyclotron]

Personally, I enjoy point-blank throwing axes to the face while galloping towards an enemy; the screen goes entirely red if you're close enough.

[C0ckney]

i'm very scared that playing this game will eat up far too much of my increasingly limited free time, but it does look very tempting...

[DrSpike]

Yeah, if you are butcher by the sounds of it.

[Cyclotron]

Nah, we're making it sound more gory than it is. 90% of the time, I don't see any blood - this is because I usually gallop past people too fast to see the immediate results of doing a medieval drive-by.

The blood is not actually that much, apart from head shots - certainly nothing worse than your average FPS - and you can turn it off easily if you wish.

Look at it this way, C0ckney - you don't have to play this one every day like Ogame.