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A lovely meal and another convert to Mount and Blade

We had friends around for dinner this evening. Fair dues to my lovely other half - she cooked us a knockout meal. I can bask in some reflected glory though because I did the shopping! Our guests are a family just like us and the father a PC gamer who like me should be old enough to know better. We spent a couple of hours lingering over a lovely meal and then the gentlemen retired to the games room while the kids ran riot around the house and the ladies stayed at table and chatted. Kind of like Victorian times only the ladies and gents have reversed roles.

It is funny being an older gamer. It is not something I can normally discuss among my peers. Most of my friends (particularly female friends) seem to think it is bizarre that a man in his forties actually plays games!!! You can imagine how refreshing it is to talk with someone my own age who actually shares my hobby.

My friend is into shooters and strategy games so I showed him Guild Wars for a change. Amazingly he had never played a computer role playing game either online or offline so he was rightly impressed with Guild Wars. This is even more amazing considering this individual actually played real life Dungeons and Dragons quite seriously when he was younger. That is a level of nerdiness that I never even reached so I do hope I haven't started something he will grow to regret. I warned him solemnly never ever to start playing World of Warcraft. I don't want to have the break-up of a family on my conscience.

Then I showed him Mount and Blade and that really hooked him. His wife had to drag him away from the keyboard at going home time. For those who have never played it Mount and Blade is an as yet unfinished game being produced by a Turkish Husband and Wife team. The best way to describe the game in its current state is that it is a paper thin first person role playing game tacked on to the most sublimely awesome combat experience of any game around today. The thrill of riding around like a knight of old cleaving heads from shoulders is tremenduous. You can actually run enemies through with a couched lance - how cool is that?

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