I've been asking myself this same question. Are they restructuring the weekend deals to begin on Saturday? Do they not have one planned this week since the Holiday Sale just ended? Wouldn't they let us know if there wasn't going to be one?

I guess it may be because of the Holiday sale, since we haven't had a Hidden Gem promo either.

The code doesn't work for Sword of the Stars 2.

DotEmu's back on weekend sale schedule.

I don't think they'll have a weekend sale this weekend due to the massive holiday sale(people having spent their money and all, and GOG not wanting to give too many sales to keep their profits up).

I think they may have a gem promo next wednesday though, but don't quote me on this.

I believe it will be a while until the weekend deals return. I went on the first page and searched back to the sale after Xmas 2010. It didn't start until the 21st of January. So, I don't believe there will be another weekend sale for a week or 2.

Now unavailable. Guess there were heaps with $5 coupons waiting to pounce :/

Starcraft 2's price on Blizzard's online store was permanently reduced to 40 EUR. Still more expensive than the 33 EUR I got it for, two months after the release.

Might not be one so soon after the major sale.

Lol you've been ninja'd like 2x already friend. ;)

I decided "I sinked 500 hours in both" doesn't do M&B any justice so here you go...

M&B is the first game by, originally 2, husband and wife, a small indie developer from Turkey.
game was in development for a few years before it was officially distributed by Paradox worldwide.
M&B, the first game in the series, is a single player, an open world, sandox, action rp game without any fantasy elements that is no magic, no hp vials, no fairies, no dragons or chosen ones. It has been called a medieval warfare simulator and it's a fair name. While the NPCs, the lore, the world, cities, villages, the map are real dull in the game, the combat is easily the best to have ever been created in a game.
The story is, well, non existant; you make up your own story. The land is war torn between different kingdoms and the game just dumps you in the middle of the map to figure out your story. Be a king, a bandit, a trader, a beggar or a slaver; whatever makes you tick you can have it. There is no evil in the game, there is no good.
Like I said, the lore is almost non existant apart from a few diagolues with your here and there, quests are repetetive and boring (deliver this letter to Lord X in Castle Y, Bring me 5 cattle, hunt down the criminal hiding in X village), graphics are dated. But combat makes up for all of those and then some.
Game takes place on 2 planes; the overall map where you can see your party along with other parties and teh settlements, combat takes place in a zoomed in map. An open map if the combat takes place on an open area, castle, city walls if it's a siege and tournament map if you join one. Also some in village, city fighting to go with some quests.
At the start of the game you are presented with a good character creation screen along with a hideous apperance customization thingy. And yes you can choose to be a female to whoop the Calradia if that's your thing but it's gonna be harder at times.
Your overall map shows Calradia, in 1257, a medieval looking land with 5 different (4 in the 1. game) factions, cultures. There are icons for cities and villages and other parties on teh map. At the start settlements are distributed equally between factions and soon someone declares war on another so the cities and castles start to change hands.
You see another little icon on the map and hover over it to see its strength and then if you decide it's favourable to fight; you engage and that is when magic happens... You get an open map for the incoming fight, as illustrated here; http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/116/1169798/mount-blade-with-fire-sword-20110520053814679.jpg and as illustrated in moving pictures format here!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERxtTtNB_4U
You can fight in 1. or 3. person perspective. http://elder-geek.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/mb_warband-2010-04-02-10-05-11-11.jpg
What's so good about the combat is the excellent melee system; based on stats the engine tracks the actions of hundreds of soldiers on the field in real time and calculate the outcome based on it. Of course the player input is the most important factor, the skill is most valuable in game. While you can get pretty skillful and powerful in the game if you are surrounded by 5 or more enemies, you are dead meat; you can never feel like an invincible hero in this game. I know :( but it's for greater justice! You can however decide the outcome of battles sometimes by being the general and not Conan the Barbarian. You can give orders to your soldiers in battles, many to choose from; stand ground, follow, charge, get on your horses, get off your horses, use blunt weapons, advance 10 paces etc etc. The individual in your army may be weaker than your enemy but through good command you can take out a much bigger force.
Melee combat plays differently from anything I have played; you have a weapon obviously and you use it to poke people with the sticky end but you do it awesomely in this game. With a sword for example you have 4 different attack sides; you can attack up, low, left or right side of the opponent. You also get to block incoming attacks with the weapon. If you want a better defence you get a shield; it will protect you from projectiles too. No, you can't deflect arrows with the sword :(
Mounted combat is where the game shines and shines on. Sure your mount won't come when you whistle, I mean you can't even whistle and it doesn't feel like your horse has a brain of his own; you can run into that brick wall time and again, mounted combat is still great. Damage is calculated by your stats, weapon and speed. That's wher a horse comes in handy; a drive by with a horse and sword is almost certainly dead for weaker foes.
You get swords, spears, maces, shields, sticks, axes, lances, sledgehammers, voulges and also bows, crossbows, throwing axes, javelins, throwing spears in the projectile department. There is no black powder so you get get even a lousy flintlock.
Aaah the siege warfare, shown here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H5r4Co4xJI
You either defend or attack. And if you attack you either use ladders or siege towers, defending on the city/castle. Ladders are already in place when the siege battle begins but you need to get the towers in position before storming the walls. Defenders are of course in an easily, well, defendable position and the attacker should accept casulties up front.
Battles can be huge as shown here; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoGWwPJsm-c Don't mind them graphics, those PCs can overcook when fueled by those many little fighters.

There is also the multiplayer part of Warband. Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Conquest, Battle, and Siege. Up to 64 players officially but 222 players in community servers.


Overall map, well part of it http://eceplayground.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/mb_warband-2010-08-03-14-13-19-46.jpg

Your little guy on the map http://www.bucketbros.com/text/5-reasons-i-bought-mount-and-blade-map-large.jpg

Poor caravan gonna get whooped http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/92/M%26B_worldmap.jpg


Oh well, I have managed to say nothing after all these I guess. What I am trying to say it; do yourself a favour and play this game. Now.

I SAID NOW!

Ah yes.
M&B is the first game, Warband is the 2. game. With Fire and Sword is the 3. game in the series.
Warband builds up on M&B with some more features, an extra faction, a different map and some shinies for the eye.
With Fire and Sword is the Polish/Russian spinoff with flintlock pistols and shit; I ain't played it yet.

If you are not into mods big time then skip the first game, Warband has all it has with some more extras. Yet the best mode for the game yet, The Last Days has just been ported to M&B latest version. I did play it; it's awesome. If you are into Middle Earth and shit, do play it.

Mount & Blade also has the one of the biggest and most active modding communities. 1000s of mods avaliable for all entries in series.

taleworlds.com for all your M&B needs!

If M&b had some better RPG elements in it and some storyline(even if in an unofficial mod) i'd get into it. As is it seems like just another war simulator. Good for some but sadly not for me.

I present you The Last Days of the Third Age, best mod avaliable for M&B family yet.
Get your shit together for the Last Battle to decide the fate of Middle Earth!
http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php?topic=199243.0

Other than that the story, lore, quests are there only to justify the combat in M&B. Players wanted, for years now, a story in M&B. They wanted the offspring of M&B and Oblivion back then, no doubt now they ask for M&B to wed Skyrim. Like I said, small studio, 12 by now I guess and never intended to make a story driven game. M&B is just a big, open world; quite the sandbox. Also not another war simulator but the war simulator as no game could match its combat yet.

There is a demo on the developer's site, do try it if you haven't before.

I know they have a small team but how come the community can't make some good story driven gameplay for M&B(if they haven't already)?

And by another war simulator you know what I meant. :P..;)

(Micromanagement and such galore, lots of windows with data in them, etc.)

No story because the game is not meant to have a story; what little you get in terms of quest and lore is just to get you to fighting. That's it.
Game doesn't really work well with scripted events required to make a story, big map, all those other parties and huge armies roaming the land etc.
There must be some story mods over in the forums but I have never been interested in those to know any of them.

There is no micromanagement in the game. None whatsoever. Just the usual buy/sell/update stats/change equipment. You haven't played the game it seems; do play first.