Just watched it and holy shit!! I mean I know most people here are not really m&b fans but seriously this is the most anticipated game ever for me, not kidding, I could have no other game come out this year as long as this does and I'd be happy.

Should start at the right part but in case it doesn't it's at the 3:02:15 mark

I mean once this thing comes out I'll literally disappear for at the very least 1 entire month, just watching that battle, how much better the combat and animations look, man... also just imagine the mods we'll see for this thing like a couple of years from now.

This is day one for me, no questions asked, I don't care how much they charge for it, most certainly it will have a bunch of horrible bugs but hell if I care.

Anyone else as excited as I am(or at least a tiny bit excited) for it?

I'm super excited for this and a lot of the changes they're showing off look great, but I'm surprised at how dated parts of the game look. The AI, for instance, seems poor and doesn't appear to have changed all that much from Warband, and the formation controls look terrible. Also, why on Earth are they still using that awful cursive font and gaudy colour-coding on the campaign map? This stuff wouldn't bother me so much if the rest of the presentation wasn't such a cut above the previous games but as it stands the stuff that hasn't changed sticks out like a sore thumb.

Anyway, I don't want to sound too down on the game because I really am excited to play it, but I was a little taken aback by some of the stuff they were showing off. Hopefully they'll iterate on that stuff before the inevitable Early Access release.

@conmulligan: The thing with M&B is that they can't go crazy with graphics and super complex AI, since the meat of the game are the great huge battles even the beefiest PC would chug by having like 300 dudes on screen at the same time all with heavily detailed graphics and complex AI running, to me it looks to be a significant enough step up from warband, but yeah I'd say that it won't come out before holiday season, if it actually does make it this year at all, so they should have time to touch it up a bit.

Also I agree that it makes sense for a game like this to come out in EA, but at the same time I really hope they don't do that.. I'd rather have a more finished game from the get go, did TW actually said anything about an early access release?

@onarum said:

Yeah, I know they're somewhat constrained by the sheer number of actors that can potentially be active at any given time, but there are still basic issues around flocking and target acquisition that haven't been solved yet. This was always most evident in Warband during sieges where units would clump together around choke points, so I'll be really curious to see if that's gotten any better when they show off sieges in Bannerlord.

As for the graphics, I actually think they've done a really good job overall. The meshes and animations are pretty basic by modern standards but they look more than good enough for what the game is, and the lighting is great by almost any standard. My main issue with how the game looks is how little the UI has changed since Warband.

They haven't confirmed anything, but that's what they seemed to be suggesting at the end of the PC Gamer lifestream. Plus, Viking Conquest was in EA for a short period of time, so it seems likely they'd do the same with Bannerlord.

@conmulligan: I don't mind the ui really, get's the job done quick.

Yes! YES! YESSSSSS! Easily one of the game series I've spent the most time in. I'm actually glad they're keeping a lot of the elements the same. My guess is that's what allows them to keep the simulation so diverse and deep.

Cannae wait

It could be new content with the same jank and I'd be beyond pleased. I worry this won't get any new fans on-board though, and i'd like to see it's audience grow, the gameplay in there is great, if they could polish it, i think it could be really well received.

Looking great!

I'm pretty stoked to see the combat still looks just as janky and robotic even with the significant graphical upgrade.

I'm also a person who is super hyped for this. Looks like they are doing a great job updating the game.

@arbitrarywater: come on, it does look a lot more dynamic and way less robotic, not perfect of course but hey.

Missed this bit first time I read your post, and yeah I agree 100%, few things get me more frustrated than when my troops all bunch up at the end of a siege ladder and I have to fight for 10 minutes to get in it.

I really hope they made vast improvements to sieges, like having a real mechanic for getting ladders up perhaps, the possibility to have both towers and ladders at the same siege, or maybe multiple ladders (might make the attacking side of it a bit easy though), there's a video from the last gamescom showing a catapult and a battering ram! that should make things better.

@onarum said:

Yeah, being able deploy more ladders and towers and the addition of battering rams should definitely help. Part of the problem was that there were usually only one or two ways to breach a castle so everyone ended up being herded into the exact same choke point.

Shit, I really do want to play this now. Maybe I'll reinstall Warband...

@conmulligan:Heh, warband is never not installed on my PC, I've been playing a lot of perisno lately, great mod.

I'd also recommend playing a mod called light and darkness if you haven't already, it was made by some very talented chinese people so it has completely broken english and a rather cliche story but it's pretty much the best mod I've ever played.

I have a kind of masochistic fondeness for the clusterfuck of sieges.. in any case I cant wait to loose hundreds of hours to this game

Man I am so excited to lose myself in this game. I lost a couple hundred hours of my life to Warband and horse archery.

Never was good enough for the multiplayer but the singleplayer is just so unique.

Hope it's just as mod-friendly as M&B/Warband.

@finnith said:

Yeah I'm not hot on the MP as well, all I play is SP.

Mod support should be crazy for it, or at least that's what TW have been hinting at, that it will be way more powerful than WB ever was and mod makers will be able to do some crazy shit, honestly can't wait to see what sort of amazing mods will be available for it like one year down the line.

I want Mount & Blade to have game babies with Gladius.

Sadly I'm guessing this'll be PC only, if they're sticking with the awesome control scheme of the previous games. Shame, this'd do well on Xbox and PS4.

It would be awesome to have an SRPG that had the simulation aspects and freedom that this game does. I would be a sucker for that. I love M&B's combat as well but that sounds great.

I'm okay with getting a slightly better Warband so this looks perfect for me. I can already see the Austin/Vinny Quick Look with my minds eye.

I own Warband for PC and have yet to install it. All these hype posts are making me think I've been making a massive long running mistake for the last year or so...

Looks good, I appreciate that they're always going to be limited graphically due to the nature of the game it's cool to see what they've done.

@gstats said:

They did release a version of warband for the nvidia shield, i have no idea how it controls though since I never tried it because who the fuck owns a nvidia shield... but either way it means that it can possibly work with a gamepad? I mean the only thing that should have to be really simplified in order to work would be the ordering your troops around system.

I'm not so sure if the majority of the console only players would actually give it a try though...

Well, the mistake depends largely on the point of view really, M&B is often a love/hate thing, most people will immediately get put off by the "peculiar" visuals and the overall jank, some will take one look at the abilities screen and be like "nope!", and then there are those who can get past all that and by that point you're in deep man.. I mean the first time I played it (way back in 2010) to add insult to injury I was unemployed so let's just say there were many occasions where I only stopped playing because the hunger got the better of me, I mean seriously.. there were some good 12-15+ hour play sessions, and you don't even realize it, it's one of those games.

So maybe if you had installed it you'd see that as the biggest mistake you know, either way I love this thing.

As someone who played like 250 hours of M&B back in the day... I don't know if I'm ready to make that kind of commitment again.

I guess you could maybe mimic the mouse controls with the right analog stick. I can't imagine it working that well though.

I bought all(most) the mount and blade games a while back but never dove into them, i got a bunch of games to try out the steam controller and this was one series i wanted to try out. New game looks pretty damn good

New siege gameplay from Gamescom... looks so much better than the old sieges. A lot more going on.

Plus I love that dudes just retreat at some point.

I miss Chivalry Medieval Warfare's screams and taunts in the above video.