25/11/2009 - The State of Independence

The previous two columns have primarily dealt with genres outside of the PC games mainstream. The first took on aion cd key that

exist in the casual gamer world or art space. The second examined the Shmup [shoot-'em-up - Ed], a founding-stone of our

gaming world now relegated to the touchlines. This time, we're looking at something that's a little more central to our

thoughts of PC gaming: the strategy preorder aion. The twist being that both of today's examples show precisely how limited our

conceptions of strategy games have become.
First up, Mount and Blade.
You play a freelance, in the original definition of the word. That is, a man with a lance who's free for hire. Well... at

least he will be when you've scraped enough cash together for a horse and a glorified spear, anyway. The medieval world you

inhabit is at war. It's up to you to have adventures.
It's one of those freeform games that preorder aion love but developers live in fear of actually constructing. Structurally, its

most obvious peer is Sid Meier's recently re-made classic Pirates!. The map is covered in small towns, each of which has

different resources and utilities. By traipsing between them, you can get involved in buy-high-sell-low-go-bankrupt style

trading. However, there are also merchants travelling between each aion god, which are in turn preyed upon by bandits or military

forces from the opposing side and... well, it's a living world, full of nuances. Most of the things you'd think a freelance

mercenary can get up to, you can get up to. Join one of the two sides and claim a wage for the work. Meet up with caravans in

the middle of nowhere and offer to escort them to their destinations in exchange for cash. And, in an updating of Elite's

Narcotics Glad-to-be-bad ethos, subdue the opposition with non-fatal weapons and then sell them into slavery.
With Tabula rasa aion rudimentary graphics and a lack of general polish - though there's a good reason for that, which I'll elaborate

on later - it wouldn't be worthy of the hype its receiving if it wasn't for the second string to Mount and Blade's bow. That

is, the mounts and the blades. The second a fight kicks off, you enter the combat game, which shows the majority of the

developer's efforts. Its one of the best sword-based combat games yet seen, based around timed blocking and carefully placed

attacks. It gets more impressive when you see the horse aion cd key, with these beautiful steeds cantering around the edge of the

battlefield, lining up and charging. And it gets more impressive when you realise that battles end up featuring dozens of

people, all running around in a convincing melee. Imagine Dynasty Warriors fired through a far more realistic filter, and

you've got the majority of its appeal.
It's a aion cd key that's also weighted more towards the traditional role-playing game than Pirates!, with more defined levels for

your character, skill-points to spend and experience to gather. Equipment is particularly important; you collect loot from

your defeated foes and then either keeping it for your own personal use or sell it for (er) more shiny, golden loot. Like

most freeform preorder aion, it's big on loot. But aren't we all?