One of the most fun and addicting sword fight games out there: Mount & Blade (and don’t let the functional graphic turn you off).

The new patch (0.730) was released just a few hours ago. The full install is just 46Mb. The upgrade patch from the 0.711 version is 36Mb.

This is a shareware game that allows you to play up to level 6. Which is already tons of fun. You can also use the mods with no problem even if the level limit will remain there but you can use the arenas to hugely multiply the enjoyment of the shareware version. “The Last Days” is the most popular mod at the moment, it is inspired by Lord of the Rings and also includes the Arena mod. A new version of this mod should be released tomorrow (there’s even a rumor about multiplayer support), so check that thread for an update. The current version (1.7) is not compatible with this last version of the client.

The full, unrestricted version of the game can be bought online only for 14$. And it’s surely worth it, you’ll see.

Completely unrelated, but I’m also waiting the new patch for Civ4 (because I’m a patch whore). It could be released any day now. (btw, the Soren Johnson mythical creature now posts on QT3 and has a blog! I simply *loved* to read his design notes at the end of the game manual. That alone was worth the price of the game for me.)

I’m going to mirror the patch if I manage to download it. It’s being slow right now… I’ll add more comments later.

One mirror up (for the patch file) on filefront, from QT3.

And I finally mirrored the full installer on this site: mountandblade_0730_setup.exe

Please leave a message if there are problems.

This is a quote from a preview on Telefragged describing a gameplay scene. And yes, the game is like that :)

Here’s an example of a situation that can commonly occur in mid-battle: you’ll be on your horse, plunking away with your bow when you realize that some enemy mounted troops have snuck around behind you. They charge up with their swords, brutally crippling your horse as you topple to the ground. You’ll fight your way back to your feet and fire off a shot that one of the mounted riders blocks with his shield (and the arrow will stay stuck in the shield!), doing a grand total of zero damage. A horse tramples you, hurting you somewhat but not too badly. Again you get on your feet, and then you realize that one of the horsemen has no shield – a couple seconds later, with an arrow sticking out of his neck, he drops off of his horse and you take this opportunity as a chance to get away. You jump on the dead guy’s horse to barely escape two more mounted units, and as you ride off, you turn to your side in the saddle and start scoring more killing blows with your bow.