Some of you here might know of the indie game Mount&Blade. Its name was bandied about quite a few time during the development of Oblivion as the quintessential example of how mounted combat should be handled in a game.

That was two years ago, and back then, Mount and Blade looked like this. Now, in the year 2008, Mount and Blade looks like this. And the good thing is, two years later, this game is still the greatest example of how to implemented mounted combat in a game, making it fun and balanced. And the game has grown.

If, in the year 2006, combat was pretty much all one could enjoy, along with trading and doing quests for lords, now the scope has greatly increased. You can now be a lord yourself if a king happens to notice your prowess. You can own villages, cities or castles in the name of your king and, with due time, you can even become a Marshal of the kingdom, organizing campaigns and dictating where your fellow lords should ride. You can also fight in tournaments which vary from region to region according to local custom.

If the Nords (all-foot faction with great melee capabilities) prefer their tournaments to be foot-combats where the combatants fight with shields, axes and javelins, the Swadians (classic western-European faction with heavily armoured knights and infantrymen) prefer their tournaments to be mounted affairs where the combatants are heavily armoured and fight with lances.

And, if you don't like the current ruler of a kingdom, you can very easily become a kingmaker and support his rival to the throne. These are called claimant rebellions, and in these you must convince other lords to declare for your king-to-be and turn against the current king. With luck and skill, the loyalists can be defeated and a new king can then sit the throne. One which will shower you with gifts and favours of course, considering the fact you helped him on his rise.

But, arguably, the best thing about Mount and Blade is the module system. The game is easy to mod and a great many interesting settings can be created. To demonstrate this, there are several total conversion mods ranging from The Last Days (A Lord of the Rings mod) to the Realism mod (which is in my signature). There are also graphics mods, which can easily make the game look like this.

Mount and Blade version 1.0 was publicly released yesterday and the trial version can be downloaded from the links on this page.

http://forums.taleworlds.net/index.php/topic,45208.0.html

And for your viewing pleasure, here are a few more screens.

A knight on horseback.
http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii123/A...ff/0929fc85.jpg

A battle-line preparing for combat.
http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii123/A...tewolvesek3.png

I take it you play this game? I have to admit it's pretty damn awesome. And funny. There is nothing like going out to free a village from mountain bandits, only to have two bandits escape your axe. Then you turn around....to see said bandits get slaughtered by two dozen angry farmers.

Oh, and one thing Griff forgot to say. System requirements are really low. 766mhz and a 32mb 3d-card. While it won't look as good as some of Griff's screenshots, it will run and the gameplay won't suffer from poor graphics.

As for the setting, it reminds me of Darklands. Medieval, no (or at least minimal) magic and stuff.

The only downside I can find would be trial-version only. Once you reach level 7, the game will automatically safe and quit. You won't be allowed to play with that character again unless you buy an activation key. And level 7 can be reached really fast if you pull a few charges on sea raiders and stuff.

Yes, I do play this game quite a lot. I've been playing ever since someone pointed out on the Bethesda forums that Oblivion horses sucked and that Mount and Blade was the way to go. I've been playing for so long, that the combat actually appears easy to me now and very accessible, unlike what some reviewers think.

And yes, Jack is right. The game has very low system requirements and it's only 700 megs. That's basically 700 megs of awesome. And there is no magic whatsoever. This game is a pure medieval experience with humans going at it until one of them is defeated.

This video is a rather good example of Mount and Blade's content.

And as for the trial version, it's designed to leave you wanting for more so you buy a serial key. Like I did. Heck, some people paid 6 dollars for that serial key several years ago, and now they're playing the full game for free! I paid 25 dollars and can now play the full game for free. Anyway, the game will appear in stores for those of you who are credit-card impaired.

My friend has been bugging me about this game, maybe I should try it.