playing some mount and blade warband beta.
it's pretty alright. mounted combat is like insta gib, and archery is annoying.
but, you can only kill one dude at a time when lancing on a mount, and aiming with a bow takes more skill than you would think.
i did my best game with a two handed sword running in and raping whoever i could see. have a shield handy to quick switch to when you have ground to cover with archers firing at you, when you close the distance, bye bye archers.
it's nothing like a hardcore multiplayer game, but it's pretty fun. i only wish the single player was in the beta so i could see what they did to it. i mean, the new graphics aren't awesome, but they are certainly ok, especially when compared to the stand alone vanilla game.
ohh, and the gear system is pretty interesting. you have set amount of gold(1000 to start) to equip your character with whatever at the start of a game, and as you get kills you get more gold to get say that 2000gold armor, or that badass 600 gold sword with that 476 gold shield. as you are getting kills, you are getting money to get better gear throughout the game. you lose gold when you die, so i assume you want to keep spending it as you get it, since you spawn with the gear you have equipped. but it's nothing broken, just better equipment. i mean, if you take a horse charge lance without blocking with a shield, you are dead regardless of what you are wearing. it's funny seeing a fail charge into a group of allies, then see the fucker get chopped to pieces since he lost all momentum.
ive only played for an hour or so, pissing around, but i like what ive played thus far.