Mount & Blade: With Fire & Sword test for PC

While the community of Mount & Blade, still active, offers many interesting mods for Warband, Taleworlds Entertainment continues to provide its set of extensions stand-alone official, as it takes to earn a crust. Developed by independent Sich Studios With Fire & Sword happens to us over a year and a half after its launch in Eastern Europe, which is hardly surprising given that it is based on the trilogy Ogniem i Mieczem (With Fire & Sword) by Henry Sienkiewicz. Welcome to the era of the Cossacks and the first gun!Mount & Blade: With Fire & Sword is a Stand-Alone available for download for a couple euros, or boxed in at Focus bundle  also containing Warband (potentially interesting for a purchase that had been deadlocked on the last extension). Although it was released before Warband in Eastern Europe (where it was edited by CDProjekt), we arrive in a revamped version includes many of the improvements of the latter, whether the boost graph Option multiplayer or single player additions. However, it does not Warband obsolete since it carries theater events from medieval times until the seventeenth century in Eastern Europe in flames.With Fire & Sword is therefore rooted in a historical context that applies to his solo campaign to adopt a realistic map. Unlike the utopian Caldaria, you will find cities, nations and borders real. Topography requires, the flatness of this part of the continent, which gives pride to the river valleys, making the landscape less diverse, but still likes to visit the capitals whose architecture has been faithfully reproduced (damage which they are a bit empty and littered with invisible walls). The conflict at the center of this expansion began in 1648 with a challenge for Poland threatened on all sides. Zaporozhian the Cossacks, who fought for their freedom, were forced to conclude an alliance with the Czar of Russia to cope with the Polish nobility. Meanwhile, the king of Sweden and the Crimean khan awaiting the outcome of the conflict by watching for the slightest opportunity. The ambitious leader that you has the opportunity to partner with one of the five factions (Cossacks, Poles, Russians, Swedes and Turks in the Crimea), knowing that the historical roots of background allowed the designers to propose three storylines scripted dependent nation to which you swore allegiance, and multiple endings that depend on your choice. This is an opportunity to meet the dignitaries of the era and relive some events such as the "Deluge."This extension tightly scripted nevertheless retains all its characteristics of play sandboxSince you will once again attend to the right and left an army for you and make you a name, before swearing allegiance to a flag and look to attack the enemy fortresses. Your first step may however be much more painful than in the past, and for good reason: With Fire & Sword not only allows you to train yourself in the arena or to gain fame by scouring the local tournaments, or recruit impunity in the small villages that cannon fodder that you used to turn into warlords in hunting the bandits. Now, your army is mainly composed of mercenaries that you must pay the balance each week (which greatly increases the cost of maintenance) and you can upgrade  in providing them better equipment from specialized suppliers. That gives all its importance to the new system of economy and trade, which can borrow money (with interest) to grow his nest egg, or even to send convoys of goods to destinations more interesting. This add-on also offers other additions, the most significant are related to the management of fiefdoms or the conduct of the seats (why not bribe an officer or food poisoning?).

Rango test on XBox 360

A great animated film Hollywood is often synonymous with play declined on all platforms. Nobody escapes the rule, and especially not Rango first animated feature from the director of Pirates of the Caribbean. Quite variable quality, these securities are generally aimed at a fairly young. So let's see what it is here, especially if Rango manages to hit its target.


Wild Wild West
Let us put a little context: Rango is not a member of the Beatles, but a lizard home catapulted into full Mojave. In the film, he became sheriff in the small town of Dust (Dust in original). Curiously, the game does not resume the path of the feature film but takes place after. Our hero finds his opponents Bad Bill and Jack the bite, this time in search of strange meteorite fragments. We thus find the very spirit of the western film, but which is grafted a somewhat disjointed storyline featuring zombies, alien invasion, and even a strange digital world. The question is: what has been made but what the developers to imagine all that? Not only grass visible.


Implementation side, the scenery just as the characters are particularly well modeled for a game of this magnitude, and although there is some defects or even some textures that drool, and we are far more references AAA console, it is pleasantly surprised at the attention to graphics, especially since the sets are quite varied. From the corner of the gameplay, it has to do a set of conventional platform, ultra-linear, albeit with some phases of fire or animal rides for the whole range. The possibilities are numerous enough, even too, and it will not always be easy for youngsters to navigate among the available range of motion, much can also be almost forgotten to get into the game head by pulling down anything that moves.


There's no lizard
As often happens with Hollywood licenses, life is not the strong point of the title. Four hours are ample to see the end, the whole being greater ease. The developers have still provided three levels of difficulty, which strengthen a little challenge. To provide a bit of replayability to the title, nine levels that the system can be revisited to find the essential secret, even though they are rarely well hidden. Players can also earn stars to purchase various upgrades available: more shots in the gun, more powerful attacks, bonus extended, etc..


The game has nevertheless a little rhythm problem, levels may be very long and exceed the half-hour. A defect that is already found in Wall-E for example. Difficult for young people to hang too long! In return, the path is strewn with automatic save points, and we must never again fight over a failure. This avoids the hysterics.