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A new patch for Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord focuses on fixing several of the Early Access release's crash problems. Bannerlord is the long-awaiting follow-up to the 2008 RPG Mount & Blade and its 2010 standalone expansion Mount & Blade: Warband. Bannerlord was announced way back in 2012, with a Steam page existing since 2016. The game finally hit Early Access one day earlier than expected on March 30th. Mount & Blade is a realistic Medieval RPG where players lead a party of soldiers across a large map, completing quests and fighting in large-scale battles. Players can eventually become lords and even kings of certain factions, or create their own. Bannerlord takes place 210 years before the events of Warband, putting it closer on the historic timeline to the Migration Period, not long after the fall of the Roman Empire. The game is currently a PC exclusive, with console releases of Mount & Blade 2 a long way away.
Bannerlord improves on the core formula of cult-hit Warband by adding more strategy to its sieges, with destructible environments and new siege engines; improvements were also made to dialogue for both recruiting and courtship, and even allowing for children to be born that will inherit their parent's lands if the player character dies. Hype and anticipation for the prequel eight years in the making was high, and even though Doom Eternal released just ten days before, Bannerlord's Steam launch surpassed it. As with most Early Access releases, however, the launch had its bumps, and several players reported issues with game-breaking bugs and frequent crashes.
Via patch notes posted to developer TaleWorlds' website, several of those crashes and bugs have now been addressed, and Steam cloud saves were added. Many of the crashes were tied to certain quests, actions, and interactions with certain groups of NPCs such as mercenaries. The 1.02 is the second such patch since its Early Access release, following yesterday's 1.01 patch. Other fixes in the 1.01 patch included equipment changes, different default siege weapons, and the ability to make peace with minor factions through barter.
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Bannerlord's frequent delays and long development time ended up working in the game's favor, releasing at a time where concurrent Steam users are at an all-time high, which in turn has led Valve to implement new ways to limit bandwidth for its playerbase. While Bannerlord's reviews are currently "Very Positive" on Steam, many reviews note the extremely buggy nature of the game, including the frequency of its crashes that might drive away people on the fence about buying the game.
Mount & Blade: Warband retained a cult status in the decade since its release due to a lively modding community, consistent online playerbase, and unique experience of being a single soldier among dozens in battle. Its realistic medieval setting (although taking place in a fictitious continent) was unlike other RPGs of its time like Skyrim or Dragon Age, and it filled a niche that was largely lacking in releases until Kingdom Come: Deliverance came along in 2018. With Bannerlord finally delivering after a long development cycle, fans will hope that the game finds stability among its severe crashes. Two patches in two days should keep fans optimistic Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord will live up to the hype.