Cross-Post: A Fan’s Reaction to Mount and Blade: With Fire and Sword

2011-07-05T08:28:00.000-04:00

Apparently, sometime in the past year I forgot this blog existed. So when I went to write a post that is exactly what I intended to post here, I published it on my other, also-neglected, blog, preposterous. Following is the intro and a link to said post. Hope you enjoy! And maybe next time I'll remember to use to right blog.

This is the first time I have actually sat down to write a review of, or rather a reaction to, a video game. I say a “reaction to” because I’ve logged less than 10 hours and therefore I have not gotten the full experience yet. With a game like one of the Mount & Blade series, you have to spend a lot of time playing the single-player campaign to really experience it all. I think I’ve played over 50 hours in Warband, and I still enjoy running around the map doing my thing and definitely have not seen every aspect of the game. Also, I am not a video game developer, nor am I a critic. I just play ‘em and sometimes have opinions.

I have been quite a fan of TaleWorlds’ Mount & Blade series for some time. For those of you that are not familiar with the Mount & Blade series, they are a set of open-ended RPGs focusing on medieval mounted combat (hence the “mount” in the title). You create your own character and lead a band of heroes and soldiers in a world wrought with war (you get to decide who makes up your army and how many soldiers you take along). The games prior to With Fire and Sword took place in a semi-realistic fictional medieval land called Calradia. When I say semi-realistic, I mean that there’s no magic, and that the characters mostly stick to what we would consider the societal norms of a medieval realm. Though the Mount & Blade series lacks the polished feel of other sandbox-like games, they are probably the most accurate RPG representation of a medieval world I have encountered. Granted, I haven’t encountered that many games that focus on realistic medieval mounted combat. But if you enjoy exploring a world of lords and ladies and carving a name out of the war-torn land for yourself — these are some niche games that are worth a shot.

On to my observations about the newest installment of TaleWorld’s signature series, which by now, came out a couple months ago.

Mount & Blade: With Fire And Sword!

BANG!

2010-09-07T19:19:00.000-04:00

As I decided to call this blog "An Expanding Universe," I thought it would be fitting to start off with a big bang. Bad joke. Moving on.

I've had a couple personal blogs in the past, but those all died somewhere around freshman year of college. Now, several years later, for some reason I am compelled to make another. Don't worry, I'll try to avoid posting weepy nonsense or incoherent rants. No promises, though. I am also going to avoid using emoticons. I have deleted three so far in typing this post. It kind of frightens me the sheer amount I use them. Back on track, pwny!

As one can possibly gather from my username, pwny galore, there are many facets to my interests. For those of you who have no idea what this "pwny" means, how can I describe it? Urban Dictionary defines it as the following:

Pwny, the leetest animal around. Often mistaken for the pony, when in actuality its the PWNY.

Not too descriptive there, Urban Dictionary. If you're not familiar with the word "pwn," I suggest you google it. I considered linking it, or even describing it, but decided not to reinvent the internet-community's-wheel. Anyway, I figured the "pwny" would be a way for me to get the fact that, why yes I am familiar with some part of geek lingo. And like ponies. Right. Got it. Then there's the "galore" part. James Bond anyone? Okay, the name just sounded hilarious and amazing to me. So here I am. (That explanation sounded a lot better in my head.)

Hopefully you're not too bored by now. If so, you've probably navigated away by now. If not, you get a cookie.

I really want to be able to write about what I love: video games! Star Wars! Ponies! Aliens! Freakish-alien-pony-hybrids? Maybe not. The third Alien (Alien^3, really blogspot? no superscript?) movie went there with the dog/cow-alien and that was a little weird.

Meanwhile, there's a game calling my name: Elemental: War of Magic (that's the game, not my name). Maybe I'll write about it next time. Until then folks - Catch you later.