Mount and Blade Warband on PS4

[peter]

Just discovered the existence of this game and accepting its dodgy graphics as given, really like the sound of an open world sandbox rpg that gives the player the 'com' as it were. Anybody had a go at it and can tell me how it plays?


_________________
If you've ever wondered how you would have behaved in one of the great developments of historical oppression of the twentieth century - now you know.

....and the glory of the world becomes less than it was....
'Have we not served you well'
'Of course - you know you have.'
'Then let it end.'

We are the Bloodguard

[Avatar]

Haha, ok, I'm a huge Warband fan. Well over 1,000 hours at a guess, although to be honest I have never played the "Vanilla" version, I modded mine (Floris Expanded mod) immediately.

Funny story in fact, I got the original Mount & Blade as a freebie from GOG, installed it one night when I was bored and started playing.

At 05h00 the next morning, I bought Warband.

Please note that the sequel, Bannerlord, is also now available. (Dunno about on console.) https://store.steampowered.com/app/261550/Mount__Blade_II_Bannerlord/

I have to add that it's currently in early access, and as things stand a lot of it is much the same as Warband but with a much more modern look and feel, graphically speaking.

Also worth noting, (again, unsure if it applies to console) is the "Viking Conquest" expansion for Warband (based off a player mod) which sets it all during the Norse invasion, the 4 kingdoms of Britain, etc.

So...yes, Warband is damn amazing, its very old, and your experience may vary because I only played with the various faction and diplomatic and recruitment etc. improvements provided by the Floris mod.

(If you're looking for a truly brilliant game which gives the player the com, I can only shill for Kenshi again, but sadly pc only, so probably wasting my time. )

https://store.steampowered.com/app/233860/Kenshi/

--A
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It's easy to judge. It's more difficult to understand.

[peter]

Alas, tis so Av - but who knows.....

One further question - I'm not a multiplayer fan; my internet access is simply too slow (a regional thing, not one I can do anything about) and my proclivity is for single player anyway. Does the high rating for Warband still carry under this limitation? (Bannerlord is still a ways off from coming to PS4).


_________________
If you've ever wondered how you would have behaved in one of the great developments of historical oppression of the twentieth century - now you know.

....and the glory of the world becomes less than it was....
'Have we not served you well'
'Of course - you know you have.'
'Then let it end.'

We are the Bloodguard

[Avatar]

Definitely. I don't play any multi-player games, so my evaluation is always based on single player.

Just bear in mind that, (like Kenshi and (kinda) the X games (although less so in the more recent ones)), there is no story per se. No objective, no stated goal.

The game is never really over. So one of the key things about these "emergent" gameplay games is being able to set your own goals and deciding what to do for yourself. There is little to no hand-holding, and certainly nothing like handy objective markers on the map etc.

--A
_________________
It's easy to judge. It's more difficult to understand.

[peter]

Sounds good Av! All I need is to get kcd wrapped up - now let's see how far in I am after about six months play......oh yes, about twenty percent!

(I've made a conscious decision not to buy a new consul until ES 6 hits the stores, so having a good bank of 'to play' games is all to the good. My list however is increasing by the day; I've spent a week playing Dark Souls 1 Remastered and while I've returned it to the guy who lent it to me, have been bitten by the bug. Now I'm thinking Bloodborne and the rest of the DS output as well. Then there's God of War, RDR2, AC Valhalla.....the list goes on...!! )
_________________
If you've ever wondered how you would have behaved in one of the great developments of historical oppression of the twentieth century - now you know.

....and the glory of the world becomes less than it was....
'Have we not served you well'
'Of course - you know you have.'
'Then let it end.'

We are the Bloodguard

[Avatar]

Well, I'm just waiting for Kenshi 2 now. Oh, and Evil Genius 2. And for AC Odyssey and Cyberpunk to go on sale. (But then, I have literally dozens of unplayed, uninstalled games, it's just a matter of choosing between them...)

--A
_________________
It's easy to judge. It's more difficult to understand.

[peter]

Cyberpunk has been a bit of a disaster for Sony hasn't it! Am I right in thinking they've pulled the game until they've got some of the multiple issues and bugs that are effectively destroying the gameplay sorted? Not good for their image and the sales of the PS5 either I'd think.

Check out the trailer for a game called Crimson Dessert. Not sure if it can be played offline, but it is definitely single player with multiplayer options rolled in. Looks impressive ....? but maybe looks can be deceiving!
_________________
If you've ever wondered how you would have behaved in one of the great developments of historical oppression of the twentieth century - now you know.

....and the glory of the world becomes less than it was....
'Have we not served you well'
'Of course - you know you have.'
'Then let it end.'

We are the Bloodguard

[Avatar]

Ok...

Cyberpunk is made by a Polish studio called CD Projekt Red (CDPR), the studio made famous by the Witcher games. It has no relation to Sony at all, other than the game was for sale in the Sony store.

(It owns GOG.com which started out as Good Old Games, a project to bring abandoned old games back and playable on modern machines, and what gave them their niche was their opposition to DRM (Digital Rights Management).

They make a point of saying that when you buy a game from them, it's yours. You can download the installation files and keep them, and install that game anywhere, at any time, without having to be connected etc.

Unlike Steam for example, where you are only buying a license to the game, and technically they can revoke that license at any time and remove the game from your account.)

The issue has been that the game, specifically made in a version for the PS4, runs terribly on PS4. Like, in some cases, so terrible as to be unplayable.

As a result, Sony has pulled it from their store. (And is offering full refunds for people who bought it, and who (fairly) assumed that the fact that it was a PS4 version meant it would work on PS4. )

It runs fine on PS5, (apart from the bugs and glitches which are standard for a major release these days), and the only people who look bad in this are CDPR.

At least partly because of all the hype, the company went from the darling of the gamers to being widely derided, pretty much overnight.

(I'm sure they will fix it, they are well known for post-release support etc. (See Witcher 3 for example.) )

(Oh, that Crimson Desert is an MMO, online multiplayer only it looks like.)

--A
_________________
It's easy to judge. It's more difficult to understand.

[peter]

Good synopsis of the situation Av. I was thinking that Sony had some production input into the game.

I know two people playing it on the higher end ps4's who seem to be getting on just fine (and are both in fact praising the game to the hilt). Keanu has (I'm told) received some flak but again, both tell me that he's just fine - essentially doing what Keanu does best, being a bit of wood that does action with a few lines chucked in.

My step son was telling me that Skyrim was much worse when it first hit the ps...3? Virtually unplayable in fact, it was so bad. It apparently took years of patching to get it to where it is now. I guess the complexity of these things is such that the bugs will only manifest themselves over the course of time, so like it or not they have to be released in what is effectively an unfinished state.

Better to have them this way than not at all.


_________________
If you've ever wondered how you would have behaved in one of the great developments of historical oppression of the twentieth century - now you know.

....and the glory of the world becomes less than it was....
'Have we not served you well'
'Of course - you know you have.'
'Then let it end.'

We are the Bloodguard

[Avatar]

Well, it's certainly a big reason why it's rarely wise to pre-order games or buy them on release day.

Even though I pre-ordered X4: Foundations, it was a year before I actually played a proper game in it, because I knew going in that it would take at least that long to resolve the major issues etc.

(I see Cyberpunk is being called the Crysis of 2020. ) (Uh, a game that was considered the standard for determining how powerful your computer was, depending on how well you could run it. )

--A
_________________
It's easy to judge. It's more difficult to understand.