In other news, I picked up a little 'medieval' RPG-style game called 'Mount & Blade' on steam some weeks ago. This project started out as a man & wife team editing a 3D demo. Several years later (with a few more members added) this small team, unconstrained by publishers and commercial needs, has created something that IMO surpasses some commercial games in parts (the brilliant combat system being the main one).
At first I was disappointed that there was no continuous world 'map', but after a while this really didn't matter to me. It actually reminds me of Lords of Midnight mixed with Elite on horseback - simple on the surface but quite deep too.
I'm from the school that regards complex games like Total War etc as superior, and yet I've played this little gem for much longer than those already (hey, I need *some* time off C2 hackage). Helping that, it feels like you can dip in & out of the game for a short play and still make meaningful progress. I just hope I can emulate this kind of approachable gameplay in Carrier...
Anyway I recommend you give the demo a try if you value gameplay and want to support a small indie dev team.
