With the recent announcement of several mods becoming available for download through Steam, I’ve decided to (re)visit one of them, Age of Chivalry. For those who haven’t played it yet it is a game based on medieval warfare. 

The game has a surprisingly large download (for a mod) of just over 1000 megabyte, but if you download it through Steam there’s no need to install, it’s ready as soon as the download is done, plus, the Steam servers have high bandwidth allowing you to download at speeds up to 3.2 mb/sec.

Right from the start, as with most Source games, you get a loading screen which only amps up your anticipation to play. Once it’s done loading, you’re greeted by a menu with jibberish. Instead of the usual “Find servers: and “Options” you have the selections: Chicken Out, Blacksmith Workshop, Join a Crusade, Start a Campaign, and when you join a game Keep Fighting, Leave the War, and List Chivalric Players are added to the selections.

From the get-go I underestimated the graphics on this game and put all the settings at high and the resolution at 1280x1240. That was a bad idea.... When I joined a server, which, like just about all Source games, takes forever to do because the game freezes for up to 10 minutes when it’s receiving server info, my frame rate was at a measly 10FPS, but my graphics card, a Radeon x1300 PRO, isn’t the latest out there. Before I decided to change my settings, I noticed some above average graphics, the usual found on Steam games, such as full water reflections that looked realistic, and the stunningly beautiful effects of HDR (high dynamic range) lighting. All-in-all, the graphics were a heck of a lot better than I expected it to be; swords and armor reflect light in a realistic way, swinging your sword on a wall leaves the appropriate marking, which is rare on an engine programmed for first-person-shooters.