Another month, another fresh batch of Game Pass goodies. February’s PC Game Pass additions have plenty of variety and should appeal to fans of the following subjects: American ‘football’, the Dark Ages, stabbing Japanese demons, and shooting Soviet robots. February’s Game Pass picks kick off tomorrow with the online action-RPG SD Gundam Battle Alliance, and EA’s Madden NFL 23 - which corrupted a number of players’ saves last month.
]]>The devs creating historical combat sim Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord have revealed that your little medieval murderblokes will soon be able to officially carry banners into battle at last. TaleWorlds Entertainment shared details of what’s coming to the game before it releases on October 25th, along with a look at what to expect after. That includes the possibility of DLC further down the road.
]]>Horse-rush action RPG Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord launches on October 25th following a two-year-long early access period. It’s journeying onto consoles at the same time, too, but its 1.0 release isn't going to be the end of the road for Bannerlord. Devs TaleWorlds Entertainment say they’ll continue to update it in “the coming months” after launch, although in what capacity they haven't said yet. In any case, have a watch Bannerlord's sweeping launch trailer below.
]]>While Crusader Kings 3 is a great simulation of medieval political jostling, when this degenerate into war, it lacks a little pizzaz. Enter Crusader Blade, a new mod which lets you fight CK3 battles inside Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord. When it's time to rumble in CK3, it'll generate a Bannerlord battle based on your armies for you to fight in-person, then transfer the results back into CK3. Immensely impressive.
]]>UK retailer Gamesplanet is running a medieval and strategy sale in honour of their 15th anniversary, including a pretty outstanding offer - get the excellent Viking strategy game Northgard for free when you spend more than £3.50 and use code NORSEGODS. There's plenty discounted in the sale too, including some of the best PC strategy games ever made, so take a look!
]]>15 years feels like both a long time and none at all, considering how much was crammed into them. In the 15 years since I first played Mount & Blade, there's little that hasn't changed in games, and yet it still has very few direct competitors other than its own sequels.
It also feels like 15 years since Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord entered Early Access in late March 2020. At that time, it felt far too leaky to write conclusively about. Even after some urgent patching, I had too many reservations to give it more than a "wait and see" recommendation. But how's it looking now?
]]>Every now and then, along comes a mod which sounds such an impressive accomplishment that my first thought is: "That can't be real." Such is the case with Bannerlord Online, which turns the singleplayer sandbox warfare RPG Mount & Blade 2 into an MMO with hundreds of players running around raising armies, battling, and working jobs. But apparently it is real! The first version launched on Sunday, so you can try it now.
]]>Crusader Kings 3 is a great strategic romp that lets you play out your kingmaking fantasies of intrigue and plotting. When it comes to pulling out the swords though, wouldn't it be cool if you could actually get down on the battlefield to fight your way to victory? Hold up, there's definitely a game for that. Well several, really, but this is about Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord. An upcoming mod will let you play out your crusading wars on Bannerlord's battlefields and then send the results back to your Crusaders campaign to continue strategising.
]]>Flee, gentle reader, for she has come again! It's not too late for you to escape her: Horaszdóttir the Endless, she of the big boots and bear fur. Alas, our fate is sealed. She visits us every winter to split open turkeys from her eldritch flock, and soothsay our most anticipated game releases for the year to come.
She shows us many a game in those birds, reader, and we must impart the dread knowledge to you. We've already done strategy games; what hideous vision of the future is forced on us today? Ah yes, of course. It is the time of the storytellers, the quests and levelling, the congress with aliens. RPGs!
]]>The number of games that support Nvidia's performance-boosting DLSS tech has grown by two today, with Nioh 2 - The Complete Edition and Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord both joining the DLSS games fold. Bannerlord's DLSS support had been previously announced by Nvidia earlier in the year, but Nioh 2 is a welcome surprise, especially after the various tech woes it suffered at launch. Indeed, Nvidia claims that all RTX owners should now be able to get 4K 60fps performance in both games with DLSS enabled, boosting frame rates by around 50% across the board.
]]>Golly, look at the time. Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord has been in early access for close to a year now. TaleWorlds are prepping for more updates to their early access RPG including multiplayer duels, a sandbox mode, new siege maps, and other additions. They've given a look at all of the upcoming features in a new development video.
]]>Whether you prefer wizards, sword-and-board warriors, the irradiated wasteland, vampires, or isometric text-heavy stories, the RPG is the genre that will never let you down. Accross the dizzing number of games available where you can play a role, there's something for everyone - and we've tried to reflect that in our list of the best RPGs on PC. The past couple of years have been great for RPGs, so there are some absolute classics as well as brand spanking new games on this list. And there's more to look forwards to, with rumblings of Dragon Age: Dread Wolf finally on the horizon, and space epic Starfield in our rear view mirror. Whatever else may happen, though, this list will provide you with the 50 best RPGs that you can download and play on PC right now.
]]>Muster the mod-makers! Official modding tools have finally arrived in Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord with bespoke editors and toolsets for the feudal romp entering open beta today. While the lack of these tools hasn't stopped stubborn modders from taking a crack at Bannerlord, it should now be easier than ever to bash together your own weird twist on TaleWorld's sword-swinging sequel.
]]>Regicide is once again a topic at dinner, thanks to the release of Crusader Kings III. Your aunt passes you the gravy, and asks about council matters. Your mother comments on the rise in guillotine stocks. Your father, the king, chews his mutton with a rueful and distant glare, probably thinking about war. A cloaked advisor enters and hands you a note on parchment. “The ten worft kingf and queenf in gamef,” it reads. You cough politely, put it in your pocket for later, and continue pushing poisoned food around as if you are eating it.
]]>While charging ahead through its early access period, Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord has added some new features to make your warring a bit more convenient. A hefty list of changes and bug fixes got moved to the main public version of the game and it sounds like it'll be solving a few common headaches. Automatic blocking with shields has made the cut, as has a feature that allows you to choose your troops before heading to hideouts. You can celebrate both by cheering with your troops, another thing you can do now.
]]>Feudal fighting simulator Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord has added a gold tier update that I’m going to immediately abuse. No longer will I need to celebrate a victory by grabbing my cat and hoisting her aloft. Instead, there are new in-game emotes that I can deploy after reducing my foe to a pile of corpses.
There are other additions, including Epic Games Store and Steam party play and an in-game clan creation system. Let’s take a look.
]]>What is the best workshop for each city in Bannerlord? Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord allows you to develop your settlements into money making machines! But in order to get the most gold flowing through your town, you need to ensure that you have the right infrastructure in place. Setting up workshops is key to doing this, and there are some workshops that are better for specific towns than others.
On this page, we will detail which workshops are the best choice for each town, how to set up workshops, and which resources are the best for your towns.
]]>Want to know how to handle villager requests in Bannerlord? Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord has a whole bunch of quests that give you a good direction to head into when first starting out. However, the main questline isn't the only one to follow in the game, as local villagers and nobles also give you requests. These optional side-quests can help improve your renown, which is invaluable for expanding your diplomatic networks.
On this page, we've put together a brief walkthrough on completing every villager request we've found so far in Bannerlord.
]]>What are the best mods for Bannerlord? Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord has been around for a little while now, but its enormous popularity has been maintained by one very exciting thing: mods.
There are naturally limits on what can be effectively modded without causing players a headache. But the Bannerlord launcher has an integrated mod selection and sorting screen, and many talented modders have shared the fruits of their work to alter the game to the way they think it should be. Here's a selection of our favourite player-made mods for Bannerlord.
]]>What is the best character build in Bannerlord? I've seen complicated skill systems in the past, but I've never seen anything quite like the one found in Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord. Every skill has a bunch of perks that you can choose from, and upgrading your attributes requires you to take multiple factors into account.
On this page we'll help you get started with building your very own leader in Bannerlord. You'll learn how to increase your skill level, what focus points are and how to use them, and how to create a character. We'll also be listing the whole lot, and with good planning, you'll make your character a force to be reckoned with in battle.
]]>Are you a new player looking for an essential Bannerlord walkthrough? Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord has finally left early access on PC, and is also available to our friends on consoles at long last!
If you're new to the world of this Mount & Blade sequel, or even dipping a toe into the franchise for the first time, then worry not! We've spent a lot of time globetrotting across every region in Bannerlord, battering skulls and taking land for the good of our kingdom. On this page, we'll teach you how to get significantly better at combat and amass an army that will have the local bandits and rival armies quivering in their boots.
]]>Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord has only been around for a few months, but that’s plenty of time for modders to have a good tinker. We’ve already been blessed with a bounty of minor Bannerlord mods: there are hundreds of ways to tweak, alter and optimise your experience, and the option to turn your character into a sword-swinging, death-dealing toddler is not to be sniffed at. But this is just a taste of what’s to come. After all, Mount and Blade is famous not for tweaks but for immense overhaul mods that completely transform the game, transporting us to our favourite fictional worlds and historical periods. There’s every reason to expect great things from its sequel: whereas Warband’s modders had to make do with a system not designed to be altered, Bannerlord is being built from the ground up with modding in mind.
The biggest mods are some way off, however. Modding a game that’s in early access is a bit like trying to ice a cake before its baked, and Bannerlord’s fans don’t even have a spatula – by which, of course, I mean official modding tools – to work with. Without these tools, not due until the game’s full release, there’s no easy way to access Bannerlord’s internal scripting language and make changes. In spite of this, many have decided to roll up their sleeves and just get started – tools be damned.
]]>Wondering how to make money fast in Bannerlord? When you first begin Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, you'll only have a paltry sum of gold to your name. Gold is an especially important resource when it comes to succeeding in this game, and of course you'll want a lot of it. Why? To fund your war campaigns of course!
So in order to build up your army and keep them fed, you'll need to make some smart investments. This can be done by trading profitable items with traders and getting tips of which items sell for a lot of money by talking to caravans. On this page, we'll show you how to make a profit with trades; how to set up your own caravans, and other ways to make money.
]]>Looking for a complete list of Bannerlord cheats? Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord features a whole suite of cheats and console commands that allow you to control your game in greater depth. This can mean anything from making the game slightly easier for yourself, to enabling a testing ground for your very own mods.
On this page, we'll cover how to enable cheats and console commands in Bannerlord, along with an up-to-date list of every cheat and command you can use. Just bear in mind that in the name of fairness, these cheats only work in single player; but beyond that restriction, feel free to fill your boots with everything from free gold to infinite items!
]]>Much like every other person with a Steam account and a penchant for penetrating plate armour with pikes and pillaging poor pig farmers, I’ve spent a good portion of the last few weeks with mammoth medieval moshpitter Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord. I’ve besieged castles, sired heirs, and sniped horses. But recently, I’ve been wanting a bit more from the experience. Enraptured by the possibility of meeting new and interesting people to stab, I strapped on my platemail and saddled up until my wanderings led me to the Bannerlord Roleplay project, and its director, 'Flavberg'.
“If a player decides they want to play a priest character, they can write up a character sheet for this character, go on the server, and speak to the local church to join their parish," says Flavburg, giving an example. "They can start preaching the word of God, help and feed the poor, or they can become corrupt and demand indulgences from criminals. There is no limit to people's imagination.”
]]>Brendan: Infantry! Ready your shields! Okay, move to-- hang on. Sin, why is your shield not readied? We are trying to play the multiplayer in Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord, so we can pass a substantial sneer or cheer in its direction, and you have not even readied your shield. It is wholly unreadied. Explain yourself!
Sin: ...what?
]]>Recruiting people to your cause in Mount And Blade 2 Bannerlord is key to achieving your goals, whatever they may be. The most valuable people in your army will be companions, who are people that can be assigned roles and who can be upgraded in similar ways to your player controlled character.
Recently, it was discovered that there was a bug that was blocking some companions from appearing. We've also seen a fair few changes to the stats, so if you want a full breakdown of all of the best companions available, then look no further.
]]>Football. Tennis. Conkers. What do these historic, reputable sports have in common, I ask you. That’s correct, they are not extreme enough. Please, quiet now. I am here to do the talking. Yes, there are sports videogames, your FIFAs and your Mario Tennises. But they do not fulfill the desire within all of us for the extreme, the radical, the pushing of it to the max. I will now demonstrate, through force of listicle, the 9 most extreme sports in PC games, from bone-breaking snowboarders to motorcycle Wipeout. And you, in your turn, shall be thankful to this website for providing such diversion. Now, read.
]]>How do you manage your troops in Bannerlord? Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord has you commanding large armies in epic battles! But first, you're going to have to win them over. Keeping their loyalty, feeding them, and upgrading them to stronger troop types will be the key to conquering the land. It'll take a lot of work, so we're here to help you learn the ins and outs.
On this page, we'll show you how to recruit troops, how to increase your party size, and how to command those troops in battle. (Note that this is not to be confused with how to recruit companions in Bannerlord, which is an entirely different process.)
]]>There comes a time in Mount And Blade 2 Bannerlord where you must think about raising the next generation. In order to bring new life into the world, you need to seduce a partner. Luckily, this is one of the few things in the game that isn't especially complicated to achieve once you know how.
]]>While Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord's combat will never be mega-realistic, a new mod brings a few animation tweaks to make it look less cartoony. Where blades currently pass clean through a target's body, looking like they should be cleft in twain, the Realistic Weapon Collision mod will make strikes get stuck a bit into their bodymeat or glance off their armour. The end result is weapons have more of a physical presence and less like they're slashing about in Devil May Cry. A small but neat mod.
]]>Y'know, sometimes I can be difficult to amuse. At other times, I install a mod that reduces everyone's size in Mount And Blade 2: Bannerlord by a third, and that's all it takes.
]]>It's inevitable at this point. Where there are games, there are antics, and a game as big and complicated, and as work-in-progress as Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord, there will be slapstick. There will be creativity. There will be gifs. The game's various subreddits have been buzzing constantly for over two weeks. Let's have a look at some of the highlights.
]]>I've been fairly critical of Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord. I even went far enough to say I couldn't yet recommend it outright, but maybe I haven't made it clear that there are a lot of things about it I love.
For example...
]]>How do sieges work in Bannerlord? To get your own settlements in Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, the most direct way will be to lay siege to a town or castle. Doing so is extremely risky without having ample supplies and a high enough skill point rating in engineering, and that's not counting other armies interfering in your plans.
On this page, we will teach you how to lay siege to an enemy stronghold, as well as explain what each of the siege weapons does and when to commence your assault.
]]>For weeks, Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord's biggest threat hasn't been some rival army, amassing its forces. No, it's been the nature of the game itself - crashing and crumbling and splintering apart, bringing feudal campaigns to a frustratingly abrupt close. This weekend, developers TaleWorlds decided to strengthen Bannerlord's defences against this existential threat with two new test
]]>How do you win fights in Bannerlord? It's all well and good knowing how to rule a kingdom in Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, but are you any good wielding a sword and board? Perhaps firing arrows at your enemies is your preferred method of fighting, or maybe you like to charge foes with your lance? Whichever style of combat suits you, we have some tips on how best to use your weapons.
On this page, we'll cover how to manage your inventory effectively, how to feint, how to use a shield, where to fire arrows, how to couch a lance, and more.
]]>The best thing I can say about this, the most eagerly awaited medieval ARPG of all time, is that I want to keep playing it. I have played exactly four million games, a number which is only possible when you learn to drop something you're playing without hesitation. Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, for all its teething problems, will probably be brilliant when it's finished.
]]>How do you start a settlement in Bannerlord? It's not all just battles in Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord. You're also be able to take on the role of ruler in your own kingdom. This means managing the many settlements that you'll be conquering along the way. Taking over the settlements is rather difficult in itself, but keeping control and developing them further is also a big challenge.
On this page, we'll teach you the basics of how to take over and manage your own town, as well as how to defend it against invaders.
]]>How can I recruit prisoners to my army in Bannerlord? In Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, the most efficient way to get new troops for your army is to recruit prisoners and convince them to change their alliances. That's not all you can do with your prisoners though: you can also ransom them for a good source funds for your campaign, if you prefer.
On this page, we'll tell you how to capture prisoners, how to recruit or ransom them, and how to execute lords or nobles (as well as explaining why this might be a bad idea in most cases).
]]>During the main quest in Mount And Blade 2 Bannerlord, you'll meet a couple of influential people who want to steer you in a certain direction. Whichever person you decide to side with out of Arzagos or Istiana, the other person will try to thwart your plans later on. There is a lot of confusion surrounding these quests, so let's talk about what's happening in each one.
]]>We're still neck deep in horseflies and looter gizzards here at the sinister RPS emergency underdome. Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord is a hefty game with a lot of moving parts, and I expect to be playing and talking about it for a long time.
But right now the most important news is that a player has created a custom banner editor. You can now fly your own designs on flags, shields, and even over your own castles.
]]>Settlements of bugs and crashes burn behind them, but the campaign is not yet complete. This Friday, Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord developers TaleWords took the fight against the game's crashing to a new front. Patch e1.0.4 purged the game of 17 more crashes, with a scant few performance issues and balance oddities finding themselves caught in the crossfire.
]]>How does smithing work in Bannerlord? You can just buy weapons from traders in Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, but why would you do that when you can make your own? You'll need to set things up first: get some hardwood to refine into charcoal, loot fallen enemies to learn weapon parts, and so on. But with our help, you'll soon be making wonderfully powerful weapons to massacre your foes with! This guide will show you how to refine materials, how to smelt down loot, and how to craft new, powerful weapons.
]]>I met Arwa during a siege. She was a spearwoman of the Aserai. A fighty southerner who had been taken prisoner on four separate occasions, but still loved to go to war. She made me feel dizzy, a real knock-out. Or maybe that was the Imperial mace that cracked me across the skull. It's hard to say what mystery ailments arise from love, when you're storming the battlements and slashing inaccurately at the air in front of your foe. They'll tell you Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord is a medieval war game. But it's not. It's a dating sim.
]]>A phalanx of heavily-armed bug fixes cut down a number of crashes in a new Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord patch released last night. The sandbox medieval warfare multi-hyphenate RPG entered early access on Monday but some players got off to a bumpy start. Enter this patch at 9pm, with fixes for over 18 crashes and soft-locks as well as some 'infinite loading' problems. I am so glad to see TaleWorlds don't mention anything about playing Bannerlord as a baby and I pray to god that this will remain in the game forever.
]]>Let's just say that Mount And Blade 2 Bannerlord has had a bit of a rough start. Performance issues are plentiful and many have complained about it. Some are funny, like the baby mode pictured above, but many are really not amusing at all.
Some workarounds have been found, as well as causes for critical errors, so we'll list the most troublesome ones here for your convenience.
]]>You can play as a baby in Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord. I have words, but I'm not sure why.
]]>Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord has finally charged into early access, albeit with quite a number of technical issues in tow if Sin's early experience is anything to go by. I've yet to become mired in the same loading time issues and mission crashes as she has, so I'm afraid I can't offer any quick fixes for those unfortunately, but what I can talk about is how the game runs more generally, and how to make sense of its various graphics settings to help you get the best experience from Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord, as well as the best performance. Onwards!
]]>Mount & Blade predates RPS. That's how long we've been waiting for its sequel, Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, which released yesterday afternoon.
I had hoped to have some basic impressions ready last night, but that wasn't possible, because whatever else I can say about this open world medieval(ish) combat RPG, it's completely overshadowed by technical problems.
]]>It's time to saddle up and ride out, for Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord entered early access this morning. The long-awaited follow-up to Warband (one of the best RPGs, don't you know?) will once again send us out to ride around a sandbox medieval world, raising armies, politicking, laying siege, and charging around big battlefields with hundreds of soldiers throwing down. But if you'd rather wait for the full and finished game, it's expected to leave early access in "around a year." For now, onwards to the launch trailer!
]]>After seven years of waiting, Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord is finally almost here - and it'll actually be a little early. TaleWorlds Entertainment today announced they're bumping the sandbox warfare RPG's date up, shifting its early access launch from March 31st to March 30th. That's one whole extra day! But hey, each day feels about six years long right now.
]]>After nearly a decade of development, it looks like Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord might be finally upon us. This prequel to the much-beloved, much-modded open-world RPG Mount & Blade looks to expand greatly upon almost every aspect of the original. Below we've outlined everything you need to know about the game, from Bannerlord release date details to gameplay previews, combat details, multiplayer and modding tools, and much more.
]]>Seven years after its announcement, Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord is almost here. TaleWorlds Entertainment have announced an early access release date of March 31st for their feudal sandbox. Mount & Blade is a strange series, a big open-world and open-ended sandbox combining bits of empire-building strategy, political manoeuvring, roleplaying, and getting your hands dirty on the battlefield yourself fighting alongside your army. It's also historically a bit janky and old-looking, so I'm stoked for a shiny new one. The full launch will come after about a year but if you refuse to wait any longer, March 31st is the date.
]]>One Gamescom tradition is that a lucky few get to play a new Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord preview build, then developers TaleWorlds lock up their medieval warfare sandbox fight-o-RPG for another year with nary a word of when the rest of us might get to play it. Well, Gamescom is here again, we have another appointment to play a preview build there, and... wait! Surprise! TaleWorlds have at long last announced that we'll get to play Bannerlord in March 2020, when the long-awaited prequel enters early access. So we still don't know quite when it'll be finished. But hey, here, watch the new Gamescom trailer.
]]>Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord is the medieval war ‘em up that often pops up to say: “Hello, I still look good.” We have seen its sieges, its horse archers, and even played some of its multiplayer sword-clashing. But at this year’s Gamescom, I played some of the single player campaign. And oh yes, that’s the good stuff. I played as Valtis, an athletic sword-swinging dude from the Southern Empire who can also throw javelins. I like javelins. I like the sound they make as they whoosh by and impale a man.
]]>As we lay 2017 to rest, let us remember all of the wonderful games that flickered across our screens and occupied our hearts and minds. But now we must promise never to think of them again because times have changed. This is 2018 and if we've learned one thing from the few hours we've spent in it it's that there are games everywhere. Every firework that exploded in the many midnights of New Year's celebrations was stuffed with games and they were still raining down across the world this morning. We cannot stop them, we cannot contain them, but we can attempt to understand them.
Hundreds of them will be worth our time and attention, but we've selected a few of the ones that excite us most as we prepare for another year of splendid PC gaming. There's something for everyone, from Aunt Maude, the military genius, to merry Ian Rogue, the man who hates permadeath and procedural generation with a passion.
]]>The third death was probably the most painful. Not pain in the normal sense - I can’t feel what the little armoured swordsmen of Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord [official site] feel - but the pain of a shameful defeat. I’ve just had a go at TaleWorlds’ upcoming swordfighting-meets-strategy-meets-RPG at Gamescom. Sadly the singleplayer was off limits, but I did get to do some medieval multiplayer mauling. I was stabbed soundly and repeatedly, in case you were wondering, left to die in a pool of blood on the hot sand of a desert map. At this point I would just warp into another soldier. He too was often killed.
]]>Each year E3 rolls around like a giant evil worm, crushing all that's good and pure. BUT that worm also announces lots of exciting gaming news as it wreaks its carnage upon the Earth. Here we have gathered every announcement, reveal, and exciting new trailer that emerged from the barrage of screamed press conferences over the last few days. And lots of it looks rather spiffy.
A rather enormous 47 PC games were either announced, revealed, or updated upon, with new trailers, information, and released dates that will all be missed by at least three months. We've collected the lot, with trailers, in alphabetical order, into one neat place, just for you.
]]>We’ve seen much of the swords ‘n’ shields of medieval strat-RPG Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord [official site] over the past year. But you know what we haven’t seen much of? Horse archers. Angry hordes of arrow-launching Steppe nomads who absolutely hate using their own legs to walk places but absolutely love using their hands to kill you. Oh look, here they come now.
]]>The last we got to see of Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord [official site] was a castle siege, and what a grand siege it was! Now developers TaleWorlds are showing off their medieval sandbox action-RPG's sieges from the other perspective, with a new six-minute gameplay trailer showing defenders fighting back as siege towers roll in and cannonballs rain. It looks pretty swish and a big improvement over earlier games, though mostly I'm into it for hurling rocks down at people's heads. Observe:
]]>E3 2016 has been finished for a couple of weeks, giving us time to wash the taste of LA smog from our mouths and reflect upon the games we saw there. This seems like a good time to talk about what we want to see from those games next, when they no doubt appear at Gamescom 2016 in August. What games are we most hoping to play, to see new trailers of, or hoping will reveal a different side of themselves in Cologne?
]]>At the intersection of Total War, Crusader Kings and the Elder Scrolls, there is Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord [official site]. Incorporating siege warfare, with hundreds of characters on-screen at a time, as well as diplomacy, roleplaying and strategic simulation, it’s a living world in which the player can act on the periphery or work their way into a central role. At E3, I saw a siege play out, up close and personal, and it looked absolutely stunning. But it’s the machinery making the whole thing tick that impressed me more than the spectacle.
]]>Nope, we still don't know when Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord [official site] will come out. If that's the news you had been hoping for out of E3, hey, maybe you'll still be cheered by this seven-minute new gameplay trailer showing off castle sieges in the sandbox medieval warfare RPG. Catapults! Destruction! Battering rams! Ladders! Murder holes! Fire! People tumbling off ramparts! Good stuff right here:
]]>Mount & Blade: Warband is one of my favourite games but I haven't played it for a long time. In part, that's because I've been waiting for the sequel, Bannerlord [official site], since it was announced four years ago. After over half a decade of development, details about the game have started to emerge and I spoke to Armagan Yavuz, CEO and Founder of developers TaleWorlds, to find out how the team are aiming to improve on the dynamic world of the original. We talked combat, historical influence, settlement management, co-operative possibilities, modding and AI.
]]>What a Christmas miracle it would be for Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord [official site] to arrive just in time to be a holiday escape! I mean, it would be. It hasn't and it won't. I'm sorta sorry if I got your hopes up? This is why I only receive coal every year (but I'm a practical sort and value useful gifts over trinkets and baubles, so nuts to you Saint Nick). However, what we can have is a wee devblog post from developers Taleworlds going into what's new with the medieval warfare sandbox RPG's overworld map and world simulation.
]]>For the rest of this weekend Mount & Blade: Warband [official site] is free on Steam, finally bringing an answer to the question on everyone's lips: "What is free this weekend is it Mount & Blade?" It is! Along with all its expansions - Mount & Blade: Napoleonic Wars and Viking Conquest Reforged Edition are also both free. Imagine me bellowing this information to you like a television mattress salesmen.
]]>This is an embarrassing admission: when I first played the original Mount & Blade I spent twenty minutes walking around trying to find other players and confused by the mostly empty villages I found instead. I had thought it was an MMO.
This makes me the person in the world best equipped to write about its sequel, Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord [official site], which is aiming to make many of the series' systems easier to grasp for idiots like me.
]]>I think of Gamescom as the most PC gaming-friendly of the major games conventions, which may largely come from being hosted in Germany, the land of oddball simulators. One of the most PC Gaming of PC Games is Mount & Blade, the open-world sandbox action-strategy-everything-RPG about building armies and ruling lands in medieval kingdoms. If you could sweep its dirt streets yourself and compose for tavern minstrels, it'd be The PC Game.
We didn't hear much from Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord [official site] at E3, that land of gleaming PlayBoxes, but developers TaleWorlds have plenty to say at Gamescom. Or to show, really. Come check out two trailers, one showing off its engine and the other snippets of gameplay:
]]>Our last post about Mount&Blade II: Bannerlord was one year and four days ago. That won't do at all. Oh look, here's a new video from developers TaleWorlds showing off some of the game's engine and its level editor. That's the level editor we hoi polloi will get to use too, creating our own huge landscapes and castles for sandbox feudal fun. It supports that pleasant MS Paint-style sweepy-draggy landscaping creation style, among other techniques, so even my crack at making a majestic forest might not end up looking like a foolish child's paint-splattered macaroni art.
]]>In this crazy-busy, senses-overwhelming world of ours, it's sometimes all-too-easy to lose track of the important things in life. For instance, my mother's birthday is coming up and I have obscured my monitor with a forest of "DON'T FORGET TO CALL" post-it notes. (I will still somehow find a way to forget. Just watch me.) Also, it totally slipped my mind that Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord is a thing. I am, of course, entirely ashamed of myself and plan to amass a heroic army and die horribly at the hands of a noble in penance. But before my bitter, inevitable end, let me just say one thing: OooooooOOOoooOOoo. Because these Mount & Blade II screenshots? They're making me wail (in happiness!) like the ghost I'll soon be.
]]>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.
]]>
