Mount & Blade

Mount & Blade is a medieval action role-playing game for Microsoft Windows, developed by the Turkish company TaleWorlds, and published by the Swedish company Paradox Interactive. Its retail version was released on September 16, 2007, in North America, and three days later in Europe.

Reception on Mount & Blade has overall been positive. Reviewers praised the game for its innovative combat mechanics, complex character skill system, and large modding community, but also criticized it for its repetitive quests, dialogues, and locations, as well as low graphics quality.

A sequel, Mount & Blade: Warband, was released in March 2010, and a spin-off stand-alone expansion, Mount & Blade: With Fire & Sword, based on the historical novel With Fire and Sword, was released in May 2011.

Gameplay

Mount & Blade is a single-player, action-oriented role-playing game without any fantasy elements, which takes place in a medieval land named Calradia. The game features a sandbox gameplay style, in which there is no storyline present. The player is able to join one of the five battling factions, fight as a mercenary, assume the role of an outlaw, or take a neutral side.

Mount & Blade: Warband

Mount & Blade: Warband is the first sequel to the action role-playing video game Mount & Blade. First announced in January 2009, the game was developed by the Turkish company TaleWorlds Entertainment and was published by Paradox Interactive on March 30, 2010. The game is available as a direct download from the TaleWorlds website or through the Steam digital distribution software, or as a DVD with required online activation. Mac OSX and Linux versions were released on July 10, 2014 through Steam.

Warband expands on the original game by introducing a sixth faction, The Sarranid Sultanate, increasing the political options, allowing players to start their own faction, and incorporating multiplayer modes. Reviews of the game were generally favourable, with the addition of multiplayer the most highly praised element. This anticipated game won many awards, such as a nomination for the "Best Multiplayer Indie Game of the Year". The game places a focus on being mounted on a horse (as the player) and giving orders to one's warband in the field, such as telling archers to hold a position or infantry to use blunt weapons.

Patrick Bruel

Patrick Bruel (French: [patʁik bʁyɛl]; born Patrick Benguigui [bɛnɡiɡi] on 14 May 1959) is a French singer, actor, and professional poker player of Jewish descent.

Life and career

Patrick is the son of Pierre Benguigui and Augusta Kammoun, daughter of Elie and Céline ben Sidoun. His family became French in 1870 when the Crémieux Decree granted full French citizenship to the indigenous Jews of Algeria.

Although Bruel aspired to be a football star in his youth, he decided to pursue singing after seeing Michel Sardou in 1975. His first success came as an actor, however, in 1979's Le Coup de sirocco. He continued acting in films, on television and in the theater while pursuing his singing career. His first single, "Vide" ("Empty"), released in 1982, was not a success, but the follow-up, "Marre de cette nana-là" ("Fed up with that chick"), was a hit.

In 2003, he had his last name officially changed to Bruel-Benguigui, his stage name with his birthname, before his partner, the writer and playwright Amanda Sthers, gave birth to his first child, Oscar, on 19 August. On 21 September 2004, he wed the 24-year-old Sthers; it is his first marriage. His second child, Léon was born on 28 September 2005. The couple separated in 2007.