Recent reviews by Bannerlord 1.0.0 When?

Dream to run alongside another game in your second monitor to fully satisfy your ADHD needs.

A fun sequel to a beloved classic. Stronghold Crusader II captures the charm of the original game as well as possible in a 3d iteration and introduces some new mechanics, units and lords seamlessly.

I was a particularly big fan of the unit formations feature. This feature makes siegeing enemy castles somewhat more fluid as trebuchets and archers are able to be surgically placed to fire on fortifications. I also enjoyed the addition of healers to the mercenary camp. Being able to heal a group of high tier cavalry and reuse them again and again added a new playstyle that I adopted and thoroughly enjoyed.

The castle sim aspect of the game was fun to relearn, although I was surprised fear factor had been completely removed from the game.

While the individual animations for units were not quite as charming as the original, I still enjoyed some of the quirks, such as crossbowmen pointing off the top of towers at approaching armies.

Additionally, something I am extremely impressed by and appreciated as somebody with slow internet is the game download size being under 4GB.

For me, the weakest part of the game was the AI lords' messages. I found some to be downright cringeworthy (special mention to the pig here... what was he on about!?), if these had been made to the same standard as the original it would have significantly improved the immersion. The original had so many quotes and frankly bombastic voice acting that I remember so fondly.

Overall I enjoyed the game a lot, and felt it was well worth the £10 I paid on sale incl. all DLC. It was a fun challenge to obtain 100% of the steam achievements.

Worth picking up if you are a fan of Stronghold: Crusader!

Great, fun cinematic multiplayer.

Incredible multiplayer with well maintained community servers that are well populated. Still worth playing in 2022.

Fantastic multiplayer experience with fun historical mini campaigns. Well worth the price I paid in a steam sale.

Excellent campaign, worth picking up when on sale.

Predatory customisation and battle pass systems, but other than that the gameplay in multiplayer is solid and fun. The campaign is a fresh new take on the franchise with familiar characters and an interesting story line, and I am a big fan of the new open world design. The first decent Halo game from 343 Industries.

Update: Seemingly no end in sight to the store model. Combined with the introduction of cosmetics such as cat ears for Mk.VII and pineapple grenades for sale at the price of a third of a AAA game, I'm afraid this review's going to have to be changed to negative. There is no incentive to achieve like previous titles. Completing harder challenges like vidmaster and even legendary campaign would reward you with armour and more, but now any sort of true customisation is hidden behind a paywall. And the excuse that multiplayer is free is invalid, since the campaign is still a paid game, and historically the two have always shipped together. Having a free, standalone multiplayer was a move solely designed to introduce the battle passes and store customisation model. If this is not reversed, sadly this review will remain negative.

Simply the best collection of FPS games on Steam. An epic campaign with unrivalled replayability, and well rounded, well balanced multiplayer.

I survived to play Mountain Blade 2: Bannerlord

Rust was an exceptionally fun game to play up until the update that introduced blueprints back into the game and most recently the tool cupboard update where you must invest materials to prevent your base decaying.
Unless you have 80+ hours a week to spend playing video games then Rust really is unplayable due to large groups dominating servers and simply not having enough time to generate the resources required to progress through the blueprint system and upkeep your constructions.
Out of the 500 hours I have played, 450 were during the golden days of components where my small group of friends and I actually stood a chance against zerg clans and such.