Every week we launch Brendan from a catapult into the early access fortress. This time, the haphazard RPG adventuring of Veil of Crows [official site]
I’ve just murdered four villagers. I was grumpy and I wanted their village, so I went in with eleven peasants and killed them and took their lumberyard. To be fair, they murdered four of us right back. Sadly, all the bodies now lying on the village grounds are practically indistinguishable - all the same greyish peasant corpse. I own a village now, but I am still grumpy. Is it because the kingdom who once guarded the lumberyard are now sending an army to take back their rightful land? No. It’s just because Veil of Crows is messy, buggy and not very fun.
]]>The mod news ticker is all tick-tick-tick-tack-tack-tack-i-will-kill-you-in-your-sleep. I usually don't pay it that much attention, because it's not plugged in and doesn't actually exist, but now it's clacking away and demanding that we should pay more attention to Mount & Blade's mod scene. While I don't imagine the High School Of The Dead mod it prints out is in anyway representative of the scene's usual output, it's silly enough to make me want to investigate more. I shall. Meanwhile, H.O.T.D. is a mod that brings high school pupils, zombies, cities, and civil unrest into the base game's feudal war nonsense. There is some footage below. Also, can someone recommend an exorcist who deals in imaginary electronics? The news ticker is now spewing blood and doing something horrible with a crucifix.
]]>Good news! Better news! BEST NEWS. TaleWorlds is finally pregnant with another Mount-&-Blade-shaped baby, and your hopes and dreams are the father. This is no With Fire and Sword-style spin-off, either. Or at least, that's what the number two (and in Roman numerals, no less - making it the two-est two of them all) suggests. Unfortunately, I say "suggests" because there's really not much else to say. All we have right now is a full title - Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord - a brief description, and a trailer that seems determined to abandon its family lineage and become a Powerpoint Presentation.
]]>Caribbean! is Mount and Blade with pirates, or at least that's what I'd be telling everyone if I was making it. To learn more about what the game will actually include, how naval combat will be implemented and what kind of rum cocktails should be consumed while playing, I buried a list of questions in a treasure chest and gave a map marked with the location to producer Alexander Souslov. His responses, stuffed in a bottle, were floating in my bathtub this morning. Among other things, I found out that the governor's daughter isn't quite the catch I'd been led to believe.
]]>Games about pirates sometimes feel the need to exclaim their titles, as if rushing into a room and excitedly waving their arms, jumping up and down, screaming in your face. 'Pirates', they yell, spittle flecking your bewildered visage, 'piiiiirates'! Or, in this case, they're bellowing 'Caribbean', which makes it really hard for me to work out which vowel to elongate. I guess it would be 'Caribbeaaaaaan'!. Anyway, Caaaaaribbean! is a newly announced game from Snowbird Game Studios of Mount & Blade: With Fire & Sword, and it uses the same engine for a piratical game, with naval combat, boarding operations and sieges. More screenshots below.
]]>This week, a few mods that I've been monitoring but haven't had a chance to have a proper go at yet. In some cases, that's because they haven't been released yet, in others it's because the hours in every day are sadly limited, and as well as playing games and writing about them, I very occasionally sleep. I even venture outside from time to time, although admittedly not in the current political and meteorological climate. Too chilly. Too bitter. All too real. Onward to fantasy. Preferably with decent central heating.
]]>I'm not sure how we managed to miss this. I'm also not entirely sure that we mightn't have been better off continuing to miss this. Gangs of Glasgow is what happens if medieval warfare sim Mount & Blade was transposed to modern Glasgow, Scotland - or at least an exaggerated version of it where the extreme football hooliganism, rioting and assorted other urban violence is worse than it already is/was. On the one hand, bringing so much - from police cars to football stadiums - into a game about dudes with swords on horses is an amazing technical achievement. On the other... well, I don't know about you, but I'm making a face that tries to convey something I couldn't begin to describe accurately.
]]>Hrm, we somehow missed Mount and Blade: With Fire and Sword getting announced yesterday. It's a new Mount and Blade game! Yes it is. This time it's set in a "new century of warfare that brings pistols, muskets, grenades, and other advanced weaponry to the battlefield." There will also be weapon and armour customization, new economic systems, new quest types, and "ferocious" new multiplayer elements. We do not use the word "ferocious" enough. Please make a note to use it more in the future.
]]>I woke up to Fredrik Wester's twitter about the Waterloo event for Mount & Blade. Which is actually based around a load of people playing Mount & Blade: Warband with the Mount & Musket mod, which sounds like the sort of thing we should encourage. Also, linking to the last post, it strikes me that the most RPS mod in the world would be someone modding Zoats into Mount & Blade. We have thrown down the gauntlet. Do not fail us, Internet.
]]>We mentioned it was released earlier this week, but Mount & Blade: Warband now has a trial version (Or here). It's basically the full game, which you can advance your mounted, bladed one up to level 7. After that, you'll need to pay to unlock the full version. Honestly, if you've never played Mount & Blade, this is an ideal chance to start with its Horsey-Horsey Elite-meets-Rohan-isms, and a fine thing to spend your Easter weekend on which doesn't involve eating your bodyweight of chocolate Jesus. Trial here and launch trailer follows...
]]>Just a quick post about this, I think. Previous MUCH CELEBRATED RPS GAME Mount & Blade's expandalone was released today. Mount & Blade: Warband's primary attraction is its focusing on multiplayer, allowing 64 players to bash the flax of out of one another, but there's much more which is worth of comment. Graphical upgrade is promising, but additions to let you rule a faction and force people to become your vassals is pretty neat. But best is doing what I like to call "the Quinns option", where you can hitch up with a lady by romancing her with poetry. Sexy poetry! Or you can be a right bastard and do it for political gain. Anyway, launch trailer follows and you can buy from places on the electric internet. Time for a yelp, I think: yay!
]]>Own horsey-fighty RPG Mount & Blade? That means you can go and try out the open beta version of upcoming expansion Warband for free. Right now. Go! Go here! Experience better graphics and multiplayer! Become a king, kinda! Get married! Help the developers by reporting any bugs you find! Have a nice day!
]]>Open-world warrior favourite Mount & Blade is getting an expansion: Warband. This major overhaul is swollen with a gamut of new features, including additional graphical cleverness, better horses, and a 32-player multiplayer mode. Other extras include improved sieges, and a bunch of changes to combat. You can sign up and help with the beta testing here. If you haven't played Mount & Blade yet then you will likely be castigated by your peers. To avoid humiliation you can download the trial version of the full game here. Do so.
Trailer below.
]]>Emerging from a cloud of dust of E3 is the sound of horse-feet. Hooves. That's the word, hooves. Sorry - it's early. As you'll hopefully be aware, RPS-fave Mount & Blade is getting an expansion. In terms of features they revealed at E3, we're talking about fancier graphics with redone models and - er - graphic effects I can't be bothered listing and now 64 player multiplayer (with game modes including team death match and the iggy-pop-inspired Search & Destroy. Worth noting it's more than just a MP expansion too - the SP will have the ability to become a faction ruler and force people to become your vassals, in a manner akin to how Jim rules RPS. Also, Soldier Morale, adding proper cowards. Run! Run from my horse feet. Er... gameplay trailer beneath the cut.
]]>This is the kind of thing we'd normally leave for LewieP to herd into his weekly Bargain Bucket post, but if we wait to mention it till Sunday, most of the great offers will be gone. So, call this the RPS Bargain Jar or something. Quite a few of you have griped about digital store GamersGate's general design over the past few months, and it seems they too were aware of their fugliness. There's just been a big old redesign to make the site sleeker and noticeably faster - and, if you ask me, just a little bit GoG-esque. Shiny! And, thank Vonnegut, it doesn't demand to install yet another icon into our heaving system trays. To celebrate, they've a week of ultro-discounts - a new price-slashed game each day, plus a particularly splendid one lasting the course of the week. Buy buy buy!
]]>This year's GDC wasn't all unhelpfully cryptic teaser trailers - it was also a chance for enthusiastic developers of lesser-known fare to demo their wares first hand. F'rinstance, this awkward but illuminating talk from one of the Turkish chaps behind the splendid, inventive, horse-centric RPG Mount & Blade, showing off exactly what to expect from the forthcoming expansion, Warband. Significantly enhanced graphics and siege-orientated multiplayer, primarily - both of which seem, from this video, to mean an even better game, and one that neatly papers over its more obvious cracks.
WARNING: the guy doing the presentation does have an unusual beard.
]]>It's been a bubbling indie favourite over the last few years in its Beta state. Mount & Blade is arguably the greatest horse-based combat game ever, a medieval open-world game with true freedom and genuinely pretty nifty. Having finally reaching V1.0 and its commercial debut, we thought it time to talk to TaleWorld's lead developer, Armagan Yavuz, about the long journey from inspiration to release
]]>If there's one thing that RPS endorses heartily, it's running down your enemies on horseback and slaying them with great prejudice. Such activities are routine in the excellent horse and sword game, Mount & Blade, which is why RPS also endorses this excellent product of medieval violence.
]]>I've been following this for longer than the site's existed, but Mount & Blade is finally available in retail. You can buy in the states shops now, and in Europe tomorrow. Alternatively, you can buy it directly at Gamers Gate for thirty euros. I'll be writing more - and hopefully reviewing it for someone - later, but if you need the game explained further, I point you at my Adventures of Violent Trevor.
]]>News reaches us via Blues that it's the last chance to get involved with the Beta period of long-favoured Indie-sensation Mount & Blade. You have to go to Gamespot and register to get it too. Now, not sure to make of it - because V0.96 is actually the last version which was released to the public, so it's hardly new. It may just be American publisher Paradox trying to drum up attention prior to its September release. Or it may be a timely reminder that once Mount & Blade reaches V1.0 the Betas will somehow - er - magically disappear from the net, despite being all over the place. Maybe Paradox do have magic, so best play the bloody thing ASAP. It remains splendid.
]]>We've never actually explained Mount & Blade properly, in terms of what you do. I figured the best way to actually capture the random adventuring lifestyle was to narrate the adventuring life-style. Since the demo stops at level eight, it struck me as the right sort of length for a sample. You know - with the added advantage of showing what you can get up to with just clicking on the download link. So I make my character, choosing options to make Violent Trevor a gruff nobleman character out for trouble. Click create and...
Damn. It's hit one of the latest version bugs where you start in the wilderness, unarmed in your underwear.
I decide to find out what I can do even when the game goes wrong. And it all ends up working delightfully.
]]>And lo! my evening was gone. V09.5 of Mount & Blade has been released. This isn't the fabled V1.0 yet - which will come out later in the year, with proper real-world distribution by Paradox - but apparently includes the vast majority of the content Taleworlds plan for it, with primarily polishing, bugfixing and balance-balancing ahead of them. Which means it's a good time to start playing this Pirates-but-with-Medieval-blokes-and-Serious (fairly). I love Mount & Blade - it's like an alternate dimension of idea of what the RPG would be like if the genre was created by people who'd only had a game of D&D described to them rather than ever playing it. Expect to read much more about it when it finally hits 1.0 - from everyone, and not just us - but it's not too late to be ahead of the curve.
]]>News reaches us from (er) our comments thread that TaleWorld's long in development Mount & Blade is going to get a proper release from Paradox Interactive. Which reminds me I've never mentioned it, or its perpetually available Beta on RPS before. Better sort THAT out then.
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