When people hear that it's my job to write about videogames one of the first questions they always ask is "what's your favorite one?" I can always say without a second's hesitation that it'd have to be M.U.L.E. Which usually causes people to stare at me like a little wooden bird just popped out of my forehead on a spring. Explaining that it's a quarter-century old space colonization economic sim that was designed by a transsexual and based on a Heinlein novel where the protagonist shacks up with his daughter before going back in time to shag his mom... well, that usually doesn't clarify or improve things.
But yeah, it's the best damn game ever made. M.U.L.E. is a four way cutthroat deathmatch, harsh and vicious in a way that a shooter or fighting game never can be. Sure, these days I hear people like to throw fireballs at each other or go at it with chainsaws, but it doesn't get any more stone cold mean than setting up a monopoly on food and laughing while your friend on the couch next to you offers to trade everything he has so his family might not starve to death next month.
One of the first things I ever wrote for this site was a love letter to M.U.L.E., and for as long as I can remember I've been both hoping that someone would update it, and afraid someone would try and just plain screw it up. Well, somebody did the first and dodged the second. The graphics have been spruced up without losing a bit of the original's character, online play is reliable and easy, and they didn't change a single bit of the gameplay. I'm in a pretty good mood about that.
Download (PC, Mac, AND Linux. Seriously.):
