So many great indie deals, offers and sales this weekend it simply won’t let us slack off and not tell you about all of ‘em. Everyone is getting in the mix today, a couple of developers are taking the initiative themselves along with all four major digital distributors offering something for the indie connoisseur. Let’s take a look around.

Also remember that MMO Love and multiplayer shooter Altitude are free for anyone to play this weekend only.

Use the coupon code”PUZZLEPAX” and get 50% off Wadjet’s Puzzle Bots in celebration of the adventure game earning a PAX 10 Finalist spot.

Use the coupon code “INDIEPOWER” when pre-ordering Frozen Synapse and save $6.50, bringing the price down to $19.50. Remember they’re giving an extra copy to give to a friend seeing as its a head-to-head multiplayer title.

GamersGate is offering all of the Penumbra titles and bundles at 70% off (PC/Mac). Air racing sim Ikaro is 75% off and goes for just $7.50 instead of the $30 standard.

Over on Steam, Altitude is half off and goes for just $5 (PC/Mac). Railworks is $20 off with two pieces of DLC discounted as well. King Arthur is $18 cheaper and King Arthur – The Saxons goes for $6 off. Puzzle Dimension sale is supposedly expired but it’s still going for 33% off its $10 tag.

Impulse is still offering the Gratuitous Space Battles Complete bundle (Game + All Available DLC) for $15 off.

Direct2Drive has a couple of deals on top of the same discount as GamersGate with the Penumbra Collection. They also offer Defense Grid for $6 instead of $10 and have slashed the Mount & Blade: Warband Bundle down to just $18 from $60.

NeoCore Games has announced the release of “The Saxons” sandbox expansion for its strategy RPG King Arthur – The Role-Playing Wargame, now available for purchase and download.

I throw the phrase ‘game changer’ around in the title due to the new 30 hour campaign included. No longer are you in the shoes of the legendary leader, instead swapping for a role as the head of the proud Saxons of Norfolk.

Previously, King Arthur only ran on “compulsory elements that lead you through the background story.” Now with the new freeroam sandbox mode, objectives are only strategic goals that can be completed in any order the player deems worthy. The add-on also brings five new unique heroes, three new unique unit types, 10 new hero skills and more.

“The Saxons” runs $18, and can be had now on Steam. NeoCore released a new trailer today for the expansion, have a looksee:

NeoCore Games has announced that one of the upcoming King Arthur — The Role Playing Wargame expansions ‘The Saxons’ will release Thursday, July 8.

The Saxons expansion will allow players to take on the role of the Saxon king in an all new single player campaign that takes place aloof from the core game’s storyline. The dev promises 30 additional hours of gameplay in all with new hero units, a sandbox gameplay mode, a new diplomacy feature and more.

The expansion will arrive for PC as a digital download next week with pricing yet to be announced. The base King Arthur game is currently being offered at 33% off on Steam through July 4 as well.

This week we had to scour every corner of the web to dig up enough sales, but as it turns out, those discounts we did find are heavy. Starting from 50% off and up to a name your price option, were in the high rollers room tonight.

Most of the offers end before the weekend so we’ll be back then to update on the new offerings on Friday.

Sales

The Lunar Pack almost ‘pay what you want’ sale offers up Boss Baddie title’s Wake and Lunnye Devitsy for any price you want as long as it’s at least £1 GBP (around $1.20), Geoff touches on it in more detail.

Both of Neocore’s titles Crusaders: Thy Kingdom Come and King Arthur – The Role-Playing Wargame (plus all DLC) are 66% off on Steam through Thursday at 4 PM PT. Plenty of RailWorks DLC still discounted as well.

Both PC and Mac versions of Emberwind are 50% off on GamersGate through the week. The same for Bob Came in Pieces and as a bonus the distributor bundles both PC and Mac copies together at no extra cost. Strategy title Imperii is just $2.50 as well.

Pre-Order Discounts

Team 17′s Alien Breed: Impact has been listed on Steam at 10% off its $15 price, you can check out the demo on the Steam page as well. The title releases this Thursday, June 3 though so hurry if you want to grab the game for a bit cheaper.

Almost everybody in the western world knows of the legendary tales of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round table. To some it’s practically the herald to all fantasy novels, games, works, etc. As such the tale has been adapted to almost every entertainment medium imaginable, including video games. King Arther The Role-playing Wargame is another addition to games that borrow heavily from the lore of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table.

King Arthur The Role-playing Wargame is a bit different than most other games based on the legend of King Arthur. While the tale seems to be most appropriate for an action-adventure game or an RPG, developers Neocore Games decided to put a strategic twist on the franchise. What this means, in bare-blunt gamer terms, is that the game plays almost exactly like a Total War (Rome, Medieval, etc.) game does. Neocore Games took the tried and true formula that Creative Assembly bred and adapted it to a world where war is rampant, kingdoms are plentiful, and glory is ripe for the picking.

While, on paper, the game sounds delectable for strategy game enthusiasts, does it play out in the end? Let’s find out:

Gameplay

As mentioned above, King Arthur plays very similarly to that of the Total War games. This works in favor and against the game for a number of reasons. First, the game relies on a formula that has been tested and has been loved by gamers for nearly a decade. This means that gamers will instantly understand the “feel” of the game as well as the general system of the game. Unfortunately, this can also work against King Arthur in a number of ways. Because the game follows the Total War games so closely it’s left itself open to looking like a dumbed-down, or knock-off if it doesn’t match up to the most recent Total War releases. Keep in mind that, while King Arthur, is a Total War-like game it’s not a 1:1 match, which means there are some differences, both good and bad.

While King Arthur may be more strategy game than anything else, the game does actually employ quite a few RPG-like qualities. Chiefly the questing and leveling system.

Leveling in King Arthur isn’t as advanced as you may think, but it’s nice that the options are still there. It’s a fairly simple process; upon completion of battles your army units gain experience — provided they don’t die — once winter comes along you can train these units and give them an increase in melee, defense, archery, etc. Like I said before, it’s a fairly simple process but it works.

Questing, on the other hand, feels much more RPG-like than the leveling system. At various times during the game you’ll get offers to quest. This can consist of choosing a side in a battle, looking for something important, or other quest-like things of the sort. What makes this questing system so unique is that depending on which side you choose in, let’s say a war quest, it will affect future quests and what you can or can’t do. In other words every action has an equal reaction.

The battle system in King Arthur works almost exactly the same as the battles in Total War. Basically, it’s a real-time battle situation where you must order your troops into place, and charge at the appropriate times. While the battle system seems adept at mimicking the Total War games I can’t say that I honestly enjoy them. They feel too “cookie cutter” and each time I go into a battle I feel as though I’ve already done this exact same battle before. Luckily for me, and others like me, the game does employ an auto-battle system with a nice touch added. When using auto-battle there are always risks involved like losing some of your newly leveled up troops.  King Arthur allows you to offset the damage in auto-battle by selecting up to 1/3rd of your army to be “protected”. This means that, if you win the battle, the “protected” units will take less damage and have a higher survival rate. The flip side of this, however, is that any unprotected unit will suffer more damage. It’s a give and take, but definitely a nice option to have if you’re a stressful auto-battler like myself.

One thing that King Arthur does to differentiate itself from the Total War games is add magic-use and morality into the game:

Morality is an interesting proposition for a strategy game. It’s usually not included in most, but with the addition of a nice questing mode — where choices abound –  it’s nice that your questing has a direct affect on the type of King you are. For example, one quest requires that you either help a King who is being invaded, or help the opposing King invade, the invading King is clearly a “Tyrant”. Whichever side you choose, once the quest in complete you’ll gain either “Rightful” or “Tyrant” points. Depending on which side you lean also depends on what magic you can use in future battles.

Which leads me directly into King Arthur’s next big revelation; Magic. As most Total War gamers know, there’s no such thing as magic seeing as how those games rely heavily on actual historical data. King Arthur, however, has the liberty of existing within a realm where magic does, in fact, exist. As such, during battles, you have the ability to use various spells to help you win the battle. Spells range anywhere from a fog that helps you conceal your troop movements to powerful and devastating attacks. It’s definitely an interesting dynamic that puts a nice spin on the classic formula.

The one thing that really, really bugs me about King Arthur is that I can’t seem to find the “charge” button anywhere. I’ve scoured the battle screen a few times now and I’ve come up with nothing. This may be due to my own fault and not looking in the right places, but, as it stands now, all my troops currently walk towards their enemies. Which can be very frustrating, especially when those pesky archers turn tale and run.

Style

King Arthur looks pretty damn good. I haven’t played the latest Total War game — Empire — but I’d say the graphics are at least as good as, if not better than, Medieval: Total War 2. Even zooming all the way into the massive battles displays some fairly good detail. Not perfect, by any stretch, but acceptable by most standards.

Additionally, the voice acting in King Arthur is pretty good. I’d say it can be a bit dull at times, but at least the acting isn’t necessarily bad. I wasn’t openly cringing at the sound of a new voice and that, in the indie world, is actually a fairly nice thing.

Story

The story is basically King Arthur but with a strategic twist. What I mean by this is that you aren’t going to get all the intricacies involved with a traditional story, but it loosely follows around the same series of events with Merlin, the lady in the lake, Excalibur, etc. I will add, however, that this story is a much darker take on the traditional tale. This isn’t a happy-go-lucky kid version of the story. War is rampant and people are dying.

Everything Else

King Arthur is a very polished game. In my entire time playing that game I didn’t suffer a single crash or game-breaking glitch. Hell, I had trouble finding a single glitch at all. So for those worried about bugs ruining your good times, then rest assured that Neocore has eliminated most of them.

Additionally, King Arthur ships with a multiplayer component. I was unable to play this portion of the game as of yet, but for those interested there is an option. Whether its good or bad, however, lies with you.

In the end, King Arthur is a great game for strategy enthusiasts. It’s different enough from the Total War games that it doesn’t feel like a direct rip-off, but it also shares enough game traits that anybody who enjoys the Total War games will have no problem diving right into the King Arthur universe. The only caveat I have is that the game is currently $40, which may be a deterrent for those who could easily pick up either Mediaval: Total War games for a fraction of the price.

[Buy from Steam]

[The developer of King Arthur, Neocore Games, has provided DIYgamer.com with a copy of the game for reviewing purposes. This, in no way, affected the outcome of the review.]

Neocore Games just released the free demo for King Arthur: The Role-Playing Wargame.

You can find it on Steam, FilePlanet and GamersGate right now!

The game released last month, but with the free demo, it should bring a new player base into the game who wouldn’t otherwise get a chance to test it out.  It looks to hold some epic battles, so medieval warfare fans are in for a treat. The demo lands you in the middle of the campaign, with a tutorial to bring you up to speed.

DIYgamer is currently in the middle of reviewing the game, so keep an eye out for our official word early next week.