Mount & Worlds

Misguided allow me to post his beatifull story here, it is not finished but still is wonderfull.

"And then they were gone.

An eerie silence descended on the village; a deceiving peace mirrored in the breathless stare of a gut-shot child, too confused to realize she is dying. Even the fires seemed to burn quietly, the smoldering remains of the houses of her neighbors. Each was a pyre, a pathetic monument to the memory of those so easily forgotten.

A breeze blew through the smoking ruins, gentle fingers of wind brushing strands of hair across the eyes of the dying girl. It carried the smoke and the sickly-sweet charnel stench of burning families. In the wake of its passage, the calm was shattered by the crashing fall of the burning longhouse. The girl’s head jerked up as she awoke to her pain, and the roar of the renewed fire was punctuated by her high, heartbreaking keen.




“Filiadh, I think this one is alive.”

The rebel lord stalked over to where his surgeon was picking through the razed village in a search for survivors that had, until that moment, been in vain. When he got there he could not, for a moment, see whatever had caught Ansen’s attention. Then a tiny, soot-blackened arm separated itself from the muddy ruin that had been the foundation of a home, and he saw that what had looked like just another lump of blood and grime was in fact the body of a child, a black-fletched arrow jutting angrily from an ugly wound in its belly.

“My god,” said Ansen. “It’s a little girl.”

Filiadh looked down at the weakly moving child and watched her eyes, shockingly blue in her mud covered face, flutter as pain and fear glazed them into incomprehension. “Can you save her?” he asked.

“I don’t know, m’Lord. She’s been wounded in the stomach. Hurts like this are difficult to heal.”

“Try.”

“If you say so sir. Don’t get your hopes up, though. She’s strong, or she wouldn’t have survived the last three hours, but I’ve seen grown men die of lesser wounds.” The surgeon shook his head before calling two men over to aid him.

“Ansen,” said the haggard lord, “This was my village. My people. Mine!” He shook his balding head, and resumed in a quiet, almost subdued voice, “And so is the responsibility. I owe a debt to these dead, and the only person left alive to receive payment is that little girl. I want her to live.”

The surgeon nodded, but resignation tightened his lips as he bent to his work. Filiadh placed a hand on his shoulder. “Tell me, Ansen. Those men who died of lesser wounds… were they tended by you?”

Ansen looked up with a smile that was almost natural. “No, m’Lord. No they were not.” He took a deep breath. “I’ll do my best.”

Filiadh nodded, gave his friend’s shoulder a tired squeeze, and turned to survey the wreckage that had once been a thriving community.

His eyes hardened. Bandits he understood. In fact, many used the term to describe his own men, now that he had rebelled against the grasping weakling in Ravenstern and taken these lands for his own. He knew the hardscrabble life that could lead men to kill. He had lived that life. But this? This was the work of no bandit. Two bodies had been found in the wreckage which did not belong to men of the village. Both wore livery, and the story it told chilled the old warrior’s blood.

His village had been sacked, its people brutally raped and murdered… and it had been done by a lord of Sarleon."

Thank you Misguided for letting me put this fine art you did.

Cheers.

Today SenseiTW from http://shoguntotalwar.yuku.com announced the release date for the demo of the long awaited Empire Total War.
The announcement is as follows:

"Hi guys, I am pleased to report that our official Empire: Total War demo will be available via Steam from 4pm GMT on Friday 20th February.
Giving you a taste of the epic engagements that you'll be experiencing from 3rd March, the demo will take you through the basics of land and naval command and then unleash you in two historical battles!
You will get to play as the mighty British Empire as they do battle against the Americans in the 'Battle of Brandywine Creek' and then take on the French Navy in the 'Battle of Lagos'...

Battle of Brandywine Creek

After landing from his transport ships on the American coast, Major-General Sir William Howe led the British troops eastwards, with the intention of capturing Philadelphia. In preparation, American General George Washington readied most of his units to defend from this frontal assault around the narrow crossing of Chad's Ford on the Brandywine. The Creek flows through the countryside of Pennsylvania, enveloped by sheer cliffs and heavily wooded hills on both sides. Safe in the knowledge the fast flowing creek could not easily be crossed; Washington was confident of holding his position.
However, more detailed surveillance of the terrain would suggest that alternative routes could turn the battle in the favour of the British.

Battle of Lagos

As so often in 18th Century warfare, French plans to invade England during the Seven Years War were reliant on ships from the naval base at Toulouse joining ships from Brest. The British had both ports blockaded, and the French had to wait for one of the blockading fleets to withdraw for re-supply before attempting any rendezvous.
The opportunity came when the British fleet under Admiral Boscawen at Toulon withdrew to Gibraltar. The French under Jean-François de la Clue-Sabran left Toulon, and began to make their way towards Brest. Passing the Straits of Gibraltar, the French were spotted by Boscawen's lookout ships.
Giving chase, Boscawen's fleet was only slightly larger than the French force, and caught up with them off the coast of Portugal where battle was joined. Take control of the British and defeat the French to end the invasion threat to Britain.

We hope that you enjoy playing our demo, which will give you a small taste of Empire: Total War action in preparation to leading your own empire to victory in March!

Thanks, Mark O'Connell (aka SenseiTW) "

This will be a long night but tomorrow 9:00 a.m ( in my country) the demo will be out! Too bad that i'll be at school and after the school i'll make a trip, so i don't know if i'll be able to play the demo in the following week...=(
But as soon as i play it, i'll make a review of my thoughts =), even if it's not needed =D.

Cheers!

Hello everybody, I have to thank you all for my 2000 visit!
I know I didn't deserved it, for my absence, but I have to thank you that in a indirect form kept the blog alive and supported it, it was your visits that made me come back...
But, again I ask, please leave a comment/critique/suggestion anything.

Cheers.

Hello folks, i'm back and with excellent news: Mount & Blade will have a expansion with multiplayer feature!

Armagan, Mount & Blade creator posted:
"I see that there are some valid concerns. Let me address them briefly here:

-Multiplayer will not be the only new feature in the expansion pack and we`ll do our best to improve other aspects of the game.

-The main reason we wanted to include multiplayer is so that we can play it ourselves. You can be sure we'll do our best to make it fun. I hate exploits and unrealistic tactics in games as much as you, so we'll do our best to avoid those. We'll also no doubt have some sort of beta program so we'll get feedback from the players before any features are finalized.

-Players will definitely be able to run their own servers, though we want to have some official servers as well.

-Actually, our publishers have never interfered with our creative vision. The reason I opted for implementing multiplayer battles instead of focusing on cooperative multiplayer is because cooperative mp is even more difficult than what we are doing now (since you have to handle map movement, parties, various menu windows and everything else) while at the same time, it is much more restrictive. With the current system, apart from playing against humans, you'll be able to team up with your buddies against any number of AI opponents and play a cooperative game (albeit without the campaign aspect) so in a sense we'll have the best of two worlds.

-We are trying to be very careful to keep compatibility with the existing module system. (So far the only incompatibility is in module_animations) Therefore, porting will hopefully be very easy.

-Of course everything is not rosy and come out we are still at a very early stage and wondering how we'll overcome various hurdles. Compansating for lag is a particular problem, since the game allows you to become up close and personal with your enemies and observing your opponents moves and countering them is so essential. We are trying to be creative here and we'll adjust the gameplay if necessary, but there is only so much we can do and if you are on a slow connection or if the server you are playing at is too far your game may inevitably become somewhat sluggish compared to the single player game. We'll of course try our best to keep that to a minimum."

Besides, there are some rumors confirmed about graphics, they are much better.

For the announcement see here: http://www.gamersdailynews.com/story-8154-Paradox-Interactive-New-Titles-Announcement.html

For screenshots look here: http://www.fz.se/bilder/?id=90011 (it is in a foreign language)

Cheers and can't wait to play it with you!
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SEGA has announced a DEMO for Empire Total War, for more information look here:
http://www.totalwar.com/empire/index.php?t=EnglishUK

Cheers.

Cheers.