By Kieron Gillen on June 5th, 2009 at 10:20 am.
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.
05/06/2009 at 08:33 MrBejeebus says:
Loved the original demo never got round to buying it, mainly because of its lack of polish and my economic state, may look into this…
RUN FROM MY HORSEY FEET!
05/06/2009 at 09:06 Crescent says:
I played mount & blade for a while, the combat is somewhat nice but it gets repetitive and boring against computer enemies.. Multiplayer is just what it needs.
05/06/2009 at 10:37 Andrew Dunn says:
Bit of a boring trailer but I have so much faith in this. M&B is lovely and this can’t screw it up. And 64 player scraps will be great.
05/06/2009 at 10:49 jay says:
“iggy-pop-inspired Search & Destroy”
Yes!
05/06/2009 at 11:06 Ludo says:
Kieron, it sounds like you might need a bit of a lie down.
05/06/2009 at 11:07 Jeremy says:
It’s a lot more fun when you’re the one on the horse. I’ll have to figure out how to convince people to get this.
I presume we’ll have to pay money for this?
05/06/2009 at 11:19 Heliocentric says:
I’ll be seeing you on the weekend sale hot stuff!
05/06/2009 at 11:23 I have forget my name says:
OH GOD, OOOOH GOOD!!!…
note: I am Tei. but with the shock I have forgot my own name.
05/06/2009 at 11:31 user@example.com says:
I’ve managed to put off buying M&B for this long, but you’ve just made me go out and buy a boxed copy.
[insert Alexander James Adams lyrics here]
05/06/2009 at 11:35 dartt says:
M&B’s the web’s forgotten toy.
05/06/2009 at 12:16 tigershuffle says:
Picked this up on Steam for a pittance (£6 ish) a few month back. Love it, especially with the plethora of good mods out there, some of which have already created some nice improved visuals.
Multiplayer battles should be fantastic. Cant wait
I hope they add some Holy Grail Pythonesque taunts for Mp.
MorningStar>Holy Handgrenade of Antioch
05/06/2009 at 12:39 MacBeth says:
Picked it up cheaply, haven’t played it yet… given the glacial pace of progress making maps for L4D it looks like it will already be fully modded and expanded by the time I get round to actually playing. Still keen to do so, just need to be made redundant or something to have the time!
05/06/2009 at 13:03 The Fanciest of Pants says:
@tigershuffle:
Funny enough, M&B is coded in Python(the scripting language). Coincidence? I think not.
I bought M&B back in the beta days years ago. Brilliant game, can’t wait to have some multiplayer scraps.
05/06/2009 at 13:04 Richard Beer says:
One of my favouritest games and one I keep coming back to. Very easy to get a hero complex when your entire army has been slaughtered and you manage to take out the remaining 20 enemy soldiers on your own with just a smidgen of health left.
05/06/2009 at 13:15 panik says:
“Bit of a boring trailer”
play some marilyn manson while you watch it
05/06/2009 at 14:48 abhishek says:
I really wish I had bought M&B when it was on sale on Steam for 5$. I had played the demo long before that and I hadn’t really gotten into it, so I figured that there was no point in buying it. But too many of the right kind of people say it’s a great game, especially after mods and I should have given it another chance at least. At worst, it would have been just another 5$ game added to my steam list. I really feel stupid whenever I see news about this game :(
05/06/2009 at 14:58 TC says:
My character has just had his warband wiped out for about the third time (Swabian lord who’s villages I had being looting caught up with me) so it back to recuiting villagers and duffing up looters for a while….god this game is addictive.
05/06/2009 at 15:07 Tei says:
*** SPOILER ***
Unconfirmed: It seems, if you win a tourney, you get ridiculous amounts of gold. Like 30.000 or something.
*** SPOILER ***
05/06/2009 at 15:19 lumpi says:
I prefer trailers like this over scripted scenes and fancy CGI montages with Hollywood actors narrating. This is pure, 100% gameplay.
05/06/2009 at 15:31 The Innocent says:
I love how the trailer doesn’t show the player kicking ass and taking names — it shows the player dying. Bunches.
05/06/2009 at 15:43 pepper says:
Awesome! Lets hope they get the MP right!
05/06/2009 at 15:53 TariqOne says:
Wonder if there is going to be any way to run persistent worlds of some sort with folks going around and doing a range of stuff, or if its mainly going to be a player-killing scrum of the typical fps-mp variety.
Whatever the case, I’m not a player, but I’ve a fair amount of respect for the title.
05/06/2009 at 16:18 PaulMorel says:
I can’t wait for this. Also, I hope they make the weapon hitboxes a little bigger.
05/06/2009 at 17:21 Alchemda says:
Fantastic looking sky and clouds. Very realistic
05/06/2009 at 17:32 Taill4f4r says:
I’d get the the biggest band of NPCs I could and dress them all in black (complete with black hoods) and terrorise the land. I never liked the game once I became an errand boy for a leader.
05/06/2009 at 17:47 Niklas J says:
Wonderful game ! I’m buying this expansion on day one. I hope there’s more stuff added to the singleplayer though, that’s where the heart of this game is. Any release date mentioned ?
05/06/2009 at 18:08 Chris R says:
So… what are some good mods for M&B? I’m throughly enjoying myself at level 3, but am curious about any mods out there.
This game is so much fun! When I played the demo, I started off somewhere in the middle of Calradia and could only find looters to kill who all had crappy gear. But when I started a new character in the full game, it put me by the sea, and also next to 9 Sea Raiders, whom I easily dispatched while treading them under my horsey-feets. These “Sea Raiders” had much better gear than the usual poor “looters” and I got a load of armor, swords, shields, bows, and awesome loots that I was able to sell and make myself 3k right from the start! I don’t think I got anywhere CLOSE to 3k in the demo, since everyone I killed had such poor weapons.
Anyway, I’m hooked, and the game gets even better once you buy a weapon with Blunt damage like an Iron Staff. Then you can ride your horse and “couch” the staff, knocking enemies unconscious instead of killing them, and then selling them to the galley slavers, MWHAHAHA. I’m getting rich quickly, and I haven’t even taken any proper missions yet!
05/06/2009 at 18:33 A-Scale says:
Reminds me of the bands of peasants that I mercilessly beat to death with my axe while riding around them in concentric circles. Surprisingly wealthy people, those peasants.
05/06/2009 at 19:13 sinister agent says:
Did they mention whether or not they’re going to fix the horribly broken game before adding another pile of poorly-implemented gubbins? I mean, I love Mount and Blade, but I’m not paying for more of it before the existing parts work properly. Also, the prospect of playing online with the denizens of its forum is … unappealing.
05/06/2009 at 19:26 poita says:
What I want is a Rome or Medaeval Total war type game where I can play it like Mount and Blade. I could even play as a legion even down to the last few men. I’d control one archer for example and the others in my unit would aim likewise on the battle field. Some other player can run the battle and I’d like to enjoy the soldiers eye view. It wouldn’t be laggy cause you get about twenty units in RTW so with the two commanders it would basically be a 42 player mp game but with each player controling a single soldier with a unit mimicing his general focus of aggression. The commander would send you the instructions and it would be up to you to carry them out or not. if you die you just go into the next senior figure in your unit.
When ever i play RTW i wish there was such an option with graphics and flow like Mount and Blade, only with thousands of soldiers (although only about forty actual players.)
Medieval 2 didn’t do it for me as every Euro nations knights looked too much alike. If the next Creative Assembly had such a vew as mount and blade i’d upgrade my computer for it.
05/06/2009 at 19:39 CryingTheAnnualKingo says:
There’s tons to great mods. Start here:
http://forums.taleworlds.net/index.php?topic=44196.0
Can’t wait for this expansion.
05/06/2009 at 20:40 M.P. says:
That looks like it could be fun. I do hope they’ll change the horrible shades of green and red they use for the different teams in tournament matches though! Like 10% of Caucasian males (which, let’s face it, is probably their target demographic), I’m colour-blind, and I really have to strain to tell those two apart.
It does look like they’re gone though. All I could see in that trailer were people with bare armour and people with white tabards over their armour, so it looks like they’ve gone with a “skins vs. shirts” rather than a “red vs. blue” thing for the teams :)
05/06/2009 at 20:50 Orange says:
Can’t wait for it! Loved the original and was glad to have bought it way back in early beta when it was a pittance.
Even if its just multiplayer skirmish that would still be great fun. I did love the visceral feel of the melee combat, get a big 2 handed axe and just chop away. Especially great in a massive castle siege.
05/06/2009 at 20:50 Guhndahb says:
I’m sure glad there are improvements to the SP experience as the MP doesn’t really interest me. Go Taleworlds!
06/06/2009 at 08:30 Wedge says:
Seems a bit of an awkward demo when they only appear to have 4 people to play it. Excited either way though, I’m in love with the combat from the game. Scoring an archery headshot at the length of the battlefield while on horseback makes you feel like the greatest badass ever.
06/06/2009 at 12:48 Tackle says:
This will be awesome
gamerboner!
06/06/2009 at 13:23 Jacques says:
Check out the understeer on those horse things.
06/06/2009 at 16:27 MA6200 says:
@sinister agent
I seem to remember them mentioning that they planned to fix sieges in the expansion, but be careful what you say – I got an earful last time I suggested that fixing poorly working mechanics in an expansion and not a patch might be in poor taste.
*ducks*
06/06/2009 at 22:13 sinister agent says:
You expressed a reasoned argument on the forum that wasn’t about the precise weight in bushels of the chainmail of a specific regiment of Byzantine infantrymen, I take it? You poor fool.
07/06/2009 at 05:43 ascagnel says:
M&B was good fun for a bit, but got hollow and repetitive. MP should be just the ticket. That said, I hope they include a menu overhaul is in order, because I could never figure out how to arm my soldiers.
07/08/2009 at 08:32 nicolas says:
Curious to see how this ends up..
The first version had some great mechanics but it honestly was very dated looking…
Hope the single player is not only graphically updated but they add more things to do..
07/08/2009 at 08:32 nicolas says:
Curious to see how this ends up..
The first version had some great mechanics but it honestly was very dated looking
Hope the single player is not only graphically updated but they add more things to do
26/03/2010 at 18:53 John says:
Where to get MP?