Avast, ye scurvy dogz! Here there be Sid Meier's Pirates!, first impressions... aargh

[Coffee Warlord]

Finally bought it a couple days ago.

The only thing that irritates me, is I was courting a lovely english lady in Margarita. However, while I was off plundering the Main, France invaded the town, and since it kept my status with the 'new' governors daughter, I wound up married to a Frenchy.

Apparently, once you have a wife, you can't install a new governor in the town either. I launched like a dozen raids in a row on the town to try and turn it back to England. No luck.

Henry Morgan's souped-up Frigate rocks. Cap'n CW took him down in his Brig of War 'Pontifex Maximus', and transfered his flag to that lovely piece of work. Now, my rocking prize, aptly renamed 'Centurion', dominates any who dare oppose him.

[Galaril]

i have read over on the gonegold well now they call it Octopuss Overlords or something like that about Pirates of the Caribbean. Which is basically Sea Dogs 2, is more realistic of a pirate sim now with the Mod 12 that is out for it .That mod fixes nearly all the crap that peopel complained about.

[Buccaneer]

I took a couple nights off to watch a movie but when I stopped, it was an interesting turn of events.

I had just divided the plunder for the 4th time (in my 12th year). After a loooong layover, I talked to the governor again and he told me that we are not at war with the Spanish Dons anymore but the Dutch (my previous trading partner)! Playing with an English LoM in the 1660s era, that presents some choice scenarios. I could actually wipe out the Dutch off the whole map, and then obtain tremendous profits by trading in some of the very rich Spanish cities that were previously off-limits. I wonder how long that will last though.

[Coffee Warlord]

I'm always at war with the Spanish Dons, whether or not they are at war with any nation.

I didn't take up piracy to listen to some damned noblemen thousands of miles away. If you want to heap titles and land on me while I'm raking in my fortunes, fine by me. If not, I'm still getting my fortunes!

[Calis]

Finally grabbed this today against my better judgement. I had gone quite a while without picking up any games, and now have bought like 4 in the last month! Ughh, not enough time!

Only got a chance to play for a few hours, but it feels like Pirates! I didn't see an option to pick a skill(ala fencing) when I started or a time period, does that only come about after you finish your first game?

I've mostly been trucking around in my Royal Sloop and attacking any Spanish ship I can find. I thought about trying out a Brig, but wasn't sure how much of a drop off in speed I'd take, sounds like it's not too bad?

Just out of curiousity as well, how long are you guys going between splitting up plunder? I went about 2 years before mine and I'm wondering if that's good/bad. Hate to waste any precious months!

As for the dancing..not sure what I think on it. I actually succeded on my 3rd try sorta. It can get annoying when the moves start flying, but I picked up some item that helped with dancing from a tavern and I think it really made a difference. Not something I really enjoyed, but I don't see it being TOO annoying.

I'm a bit confused also as I found the first main quest guy, Baron Ramondo or whatever and dealt with him. Now everyone is telling me where he's at and to find him. Is this a glitch or do you have to hunt him down multiple times?

[EagleFan]

Yeah, I've noticed that too about Baron Raymondo. He's like the freaking Energizer bunny, he just won't go away.

I'm loving the game, really takes me back to the days of the original.

One thing is that I still can't figure out the benefit of gettnig a bigger ship. I've had much better success with my original Sloop, souped up to the max, than I've had with larger ships. The key is keeping the wind in your favor and just maneuvering the hell out of your opponent while getting in round shot to take out his guns and a few chain shots to rip those sails down and render them helpless.



I still have to find some time to finish Half Life 2 though and my 4 year old daughter loves it when we play RCT3 and build the roller coasters and firework displays. This has been one great period for PC gaming.

[Buccaneer]

Calis, your first game automatically starts at a default setting - a tutorial in a way. To make your own game settings, quit that game and start a new one. Then you will have all of the options available.

As far as dividing, just watch your crew morale. If nothing you can do brings them more than content, then you need to count down the months. The minute you take on more crew or do something stupid, then you will see it go down to Unhappy and I would be looking for a nearby bank. However, the tactic that I typically use one my crew stays around content is to fight a land battle (in attacking a big city). That will get your number of crew down significantly and with the smaller number, that means more share of the loot - and a Happy crew once again. With a smaller crew, say 40-60, you can trade for quite a while or beat up on some smaller ships. In my current career, the last 3 times I lasted for 34, 47 and 33 months.

As far as Raymondo, yes you have to chase him. You will likely not find him in port but if you get lucky, you will be right near a city that he just left from. All you have to do is to find his ship (it's clearly labeled) and take it on. I got lucky early on (in year 5) and got his War Galleon. The common tactic I use with a small ship (like a Brigantine) is to do what someone said earlier - just keep pivoting behind him, raking him with grape until his numbers equal yours.

[Buccaneer]

EagleFan, the advantages are two-fold: 1) more guns to fire from a side at once and 2) the ability to carry a large crew to take on big cities and large fleets. Whenever I want to do so, I load up my Brig of War to the max (200 men) and take them on. However, there will come a time that I would need 300-500 men and the choices are 1) get a bigger boat or 2) drag along multiple boats. The first is preferable because you don't want to lose any of your trailing boats to those blasted Pirate Hunters.

[Franklinnoble]

I agree with CW... the Spanish are too rich a target to remain peaceful with. I generally leave the British alone, and pick off the occassional Dutch or French ship... but mostly, I hover around the numerous Spanish ports along the north coast of South America and feast off the Spanish ships coming and going.

[Buccaneer]

Seeing all of those Trade Galleons off of the Main is like scooping up fish in a net.

[Franklinnoble]

I have the largest warship possible as my flagship, because I want superior numbers every time I board a ship or get boarded. I find the loss in speed/maneuverability to be an added challenge.

Right now, I have a Flag Galleon (I think that's what it's called) - Max crew with triple hammocks is something like 375. That means that my 32+ guns get reloaded real quick.

I typically only fire one solid salvo of round shot at an opponent. Even just this can sometimes accidentally sink the ship. After that, I move in for a burst of chain to shred the sails, and then grape shot to cut the crew down. Nine times out of ten, they strike their colors when I get close enough to board.

I keep two large warships in my fleet - in case I fare poorly in a battle, and need a fresh ship for anything I encounter before I can make repairs. I also have a large merchant ship or two in tow to haul the goods I plunder - I rarely have the patience anymore to take a damaged ship I've captured back to port for sale - it cuts down my available crew for the trip, and slows me down too much.

With a fleet of 3-4 ships, fully outfitted, I'm a match for any ship or settlement. The only challenge is keeping the crew happy - which gets more and more difficult as the crew gets larger, unless I'm cashing in a ton of plunder. This makes long trips very impractical at most times - I generally reserve specific pirate hunting, treasure hunting, or family member hunting for right after I've divided plunder, and I only have my flagship to worry about.

I don't bother with any of the diplomatic missions any longer. Escorting a new governor or a mail ship is a waste of time - I suppose if you wanted to play as a trader and exploit the economic engine within the game more, it would be worthwhile - but being an escort just means fending off pesky pirates that aren't as richly loaded as Spanish treasure galleons.

I still don't dance (laptop makes it impossible), so I don't know when I'll explore that side of the game.

[Swaggs]

Is there any way to bury your treasure or "stash" your gold, so you don't have to share it when you begin your next journey?

[Franklinnoble]

Originally Posted by Swaggs

Is there any way to bury your treasure or "stash" your gold, so you don't have to share it when you begin your next journey?

That's a good question...

[Coffee Warlord]

Better question: Why does every evil nobleman prefer staying in freaking Vera Cruz or Campeche? They get free beer there or some shit?

Such a damn huge pain in the ass to get all the way up there.

[Franklinnoble]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

Better question: Why does every evil nobleman prefer staying in freaking Vera Cruz or Campeche? They get free beer there or some shit?

Such a damn huge pain in the ass to get all the way up there.

I've noticed they always end up on the exact opposite side of the Caribbean from where I'm currently at. It's annoying. That's probably why I didn't bother to rescue my sister for about 5 years after I found out her location... it was just too far outta my way.

[Coffee Warlord]

I've found the best thing to do if someone you're looking for winds up in the middle of nowhere is wait till they move. Talk to every tavernkeeper/barwench when you hit port, and sooner or later, you'll find out they've changed locations.

Usually what's happened for me is they start in Campeche, and wind up sailing to Cuba, which is not as huge of pain in the ass to get to. Besides, my relatives were waiting what, 10 years or so to begin with. They can wait awhile longer till I'm good and ready to rescue their dumb asses.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Since the game is installed on my wife's laptop, I'm not in a position to try this yet, but can someone try adding "fullscreen = 0" to the game's config.ini file and see if that puts it into windowed mode? I'm very curious.

[chinaski]

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

Since the game is installed on my wife's laptop, I'm not in a position to try this yet, but can someone try adding "fullscreen = 0" to the game's config.ini file and see if that puts it into windowed mode? I'm very curious.

haha, well done. it works!

[Abe Sargent]

I think my next campaign will see me as the defender of the Spanish against all other European powers.

-Anxiety

[Barkeep49]

What do you have to do in order to attack a city? I sail at cities and all it does is let me in. What do I have to do in order to take one over?

[Buccaneer]

You anchor your ship outside of the city, like on the coast a couple of inches in either direction, then it will ask you if you want continue sailing or form a landing party. Take your landing party and walk towards the city. It will ask you if you want to return to your ship, sneak into city or attack city (assuming you have enough men to make that feasible). Then you fight the clever and challenging land battle. The first time, esp. if it's a large city, you will end up sacking it. Once done, if you turn around and go back to the city, you can fight again with the left over men. Usually the second or third time, depending how many of an advantage you might have, you will have the option to install a new governor. This scenario is typical for me since I usually have about 160-180 men to attack a city of 200-260. If you significantly outnumber them, all you have to do is to win a duel with guard on the gate (just like in the original) and then you likely take over that town. Also not there is at last one city that you cannot get to from land (St. Eust) because there are no anchor points. There maybe others, I don't know.

[Honolulu Blue]

Originally Posted by Barkeep49

What do you have to do in order to attack a city? I sail at cities and all it does is let me in. What do I have to do in order to take one over?

Bucc's advice above is good, but I hate marching on land and avoid it as much as possible.

So, I would suggest angering your target country - taking a ship or two should do it, especially if it's right outside the city. Then sail in and you should get the option to leave, sneak in, or attack.

[Pumpy Tudors]

If you sail up close to a town, you can hit the space bar to send cannon fire at it. Do it repeatedly, and the town will get pretty pissed off, so then you'll get the option to attack when you sail in.

[Barkeep49]

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

If you sail up close to a town, you can hit the space bar to send cannon fire at it. Do it repeatedly, and the town will get pretty pissed off, so then you'll get the option to attack when you sail in.

Does the cannon fire have any sort of effect? That is a great piece of advice. I think part of the problem was as Honolulu mentioned I hadn't angered the country enough to give me the option to attack or else was looking at settlements versuses cities.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Honestly, I'm not sure if the cannon fire has any effect on the number of soldiers remaining in the town. It might just cause them to get angry with you. It's worth finding out for sure, though.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

Honestly, I'm not sure if the cannon fire has any effect on the number of soldiers remaining in the town. It might just cause them to get angry with you. It's worth finding out for sure, though.

I'm not so confident it reduces the number of men defending the town directly, but it will often piss off the town enough that they send out a pirate hunter to get you, and when they do that I believe the troops in the town get reduced by 20 men.

[Franklinnoble]

Stupid question... how do you get to Panama?

[Buccaneer]

You walk, just like Henry Morgan in his famous sack of that town.

[Buccaneer]

I just finished my first career, playing more than half of it at the Rogue level. I retired at age 40 in failing health (too many swordfights despite all of the medicine). I accumulated about 70,000 in personal wealth with nearly 6000 acres. I am ranked as the 4th most notorious pirate and retired as a Fencing Master (ranked #6). I did finally get the hang of dancing and married a gorgeous girl from St Kitts who kept supplying me with endless goodies (dancing with your wife, as I found out, is very easy). Found all of the treasures plus one of the Lost Cities (I only had a sliver of a map so I stumbled upon it as I spent a year exploring all of Mexico). I am most proud of the fact that I installed about 6-7 governors.

Overall this game exceeded my expectations in that I am still surprised at how much of the original they kept. There are a lot of little elements that they improved upon but kept the game simple yet deep to make a career quite fun and interesting.

Next time I will play at the Rogue level but in an earlier era where there are very few non-Spanish ports and the Dons are more powerful.

[Godzilla Blitz]

(Long) Final Thoughts on Pirates…

(I wrote this a couple of weeks ago, and wanted to see if my feelings about the game changed before I posted it)

My second pirate’s career is drawing to a close, and I have tallied about 40 hours on the game so far. I thought this would be a good time to make some more conclusive observations on the game…

There are a lot of things to like about this game. In a sense, the game is a hodge-podge of mini-games that are all wrapped up in the career of your pirate. Ship-to-ship combat is engaging, fun, and filled with subtle tactical considerations. Dueling and dancing are reflex-oriented reaction games: learning to duel well at the highest difficulty can take quite a bit of practice, and is fun. I found the dancing enjoyable, if not somewhat easy. Hunting for treasure, family members, and lost cities is challenging in a puzzle-like way. Land combat presents some interesting tactical wargaming. Sneaking into cities seemed tedious, and I couldn’t stick to it: I’d always storm the city instead. The economic diversion of trading goods can also add to the game’s enjoyment.

With all of these things to do, and each of them affecting the “score” of your pirate, you’ve got the foundation of a tremendously addictive and fun game. And addicted is what happened to me. This game pulled me into its world in a way that no other game has done in a long time. For a string of six straight days until this Thursday, my earliest bedtime was 4AM. Considering that I get up at 7AM every day of the week with little kids in the house, you can imagine what kind of shape I was in by the end of this week. I’d start playing “for a half hour” at 11PM and play non-stop for five or six hours. For the first time in my life, I took a day off from work because of game exhuastion. I needed the sleep that badly. And instead of sleeping, I played the damn game.

Given all this, you’d expect me to say that this game is one of the greatest games ever made, but unfortunately that is not so. Midway through Thursday’s gaming session, the game went from fun to absolute drudgery. I was nearing the back end of my second pirate’s career, and all his major goals were accomplished except for finding lost cities, rescuing some family members, getting revenge on Count Montalban who enslaved his family, and making some (unattainable in my current game) promotions. It was right then, with a handful of years left to go before retirement, that the entire game went from entertainment to repetitive tedium. I think this happened for two reasons.

First, while each of the mini-games is fun, they are in themselves not deep enough to engage a gamer for more than 5 or 6 hours. For me, all the mini-games ran out of steam at about the same time. Instead of thinking, “Great, another duel!” I felt myself groaning, “Ugh! Another duel!” Same with all the other mini-games as well: there just isn’t enough variation to make them interesting over the long-term.

Second, the game is infused with unnecessary similarity. To find your lost family members, you have to catch the evil Raymondo. Once you catch Raymondo, he gives you a quarter of a map to one of your relative’s locations, and then, guess what! You get to hunt him down again! At which time he gives you yet another quarter of the map. This goes on and on with each family member. In order to find your four lost family members, it appears that you have to hunt Raymondo down 16 times. Yikes. And this happens in every career, with no variation. Not only that, but Raymondo has the annoying habit of reappearing at the opposite end of the Caribbean from where you are. In Barbados? Pop! Raymondo appears in Vera Cruz, at the other end of the damn sea. In the Florida Keys? Pop! Raymondo is spotted in Trinidad.

Getting revenge against the Count Montalban is similar in that you hunt him down and he gives you a quarter of a map to his hideout. Do this four times, then go to his hideout, beat him in yet another duel, and apparently he becomes your retainer. This isn’t the same degree of repetition as Raymondo, but still, why do we duel the same guy five times?

The lost cities quests are similarly uninspired. If you dance well with your wife, she’ll give you a quarter of a lost city map. Dance well again and she’ll give you another quarter of the map. Although you don’t have to hunt your wife down, it is painfully boring to get these pieces of the map. You dance well, leave port, return to port, dance well, leave port, return to port, dance well, etc. You get the idea. At least four consecutive identical sequences to get the four map sections, then off you go to find the lost city, which generates a beautiful cut scene when you find it. However, whether you find the Aztecs or the Incas lost city, the cut scene is exactly the same. Now, you could argue that you don’t have to do the four dances in a row, but often you could be years before you’ll get back to the port your wife is in, and it is simply more efficient to do it all at once. In essence, the search for the lost cities becomes the same quest repeated four times, and each quest requires you to dance successfully with your wife four times. Sigh.

Also, there are many elements of the game where things are simply too similar. Regardless of the port you’re in, nearly all of the visual information is identical. Uniforms change and some of the characters change, but essential elements and backgrounds for the most part stay the same. Although prices and the occasional shipmaking specialty are different, there is an uninspired sameness to all the game’s ports. Pirate havens, Indian towns, and religious missions are likewise identical. Cut scenes are painfully repetitive. Once you’ve seen your opponent jump into the sea with a burning arm for the 50th time, you’re almost ready to jump into the sea after him. Sure, you can easily skip the cut scenes, and it would be impossible to create extensive variation, but it seems like there could easily have been a bit more done to add some spice to this area of the game. The one exception, I should note, and which serves to highlight my point, is dueling itself. There are numerous times where an opponent will swing from a rope, kick a bucket at an enemy, or jump back to dodge a blow. This added variation gives dueling a cinematic flourish that brings the event to life. The rest of the game could use such variety and nuance.

The bottom line of all this is that you’re left with a game that is incredibly addicting for about 40 hours, then falls off the chart almost immediately after that. The sad part of all this is that with a little more effort, this game could have easily added another 60 hours worth of gaming. Why on earth must we hunt down Raymundo 16 times in each and every game we play? How hard would it have been to add some variation and randomization to this, both in terms of the tasks needed to find our family members and the characters that come into play?

I feel the same way in regards to the world development in the game. At first, I felt like I was playing a part in the history of the Caribbean when I could take over a port and change its governor. However, the AI appears to only half-heartedly counter these moves, and for the most part, the game world appears dead historically. Occasionally, when two countries are at war, one will take the port of another, but for the most part things stay the way you make them: if you take San Juan from the Spanish and install a British governor, San Juan will most likely stay British for the entire game. So much more could have been done with this. For example, how much fun would as a British privateer, to see Spanish fleets actively bearing down on English settlements, basically trying to drive your nation out of the Caribbean? That would add an entirely new “wargame” element to the action. Sure, ports can change hands in the current game, but the effort is lackluster, and I’ve never felt any sense of urgency to sink a transport full of troops.

In conclusion, I’m really happy I bought and played this game, and feel that I more than got my money’s worth in 40 hours of furious gameplay. However, I’m disappointed that I feel in many ways “finished” with the game: I thought for sure it would have more legs than this. I may be wrong yet: I’ve yet to try the Swashbuckler level, and maybe the increased difficulty will make the game more challenging and more compelling, but at this point I’m not sure I really care; the point of the duels and combat is to advance your career and tell your story, but there is so much similarity in Pirates with regard to story and career that I don’t think the increased difficulty will motivate me to play: I don’t think I can take the repetition.

[Flasch186]

so you agree with me!! ha!!

[Franklinnoble]

Good points, GB.

I hate wandering around on land looking for hideouts and lost cities. I can't ever navigate properly... no map use makes it a bitch.

[Buccaneer]

Believe it or not, I think GB's review is dead on. Only after two days from release, there was a rather lengthy thread in at piratesahoy (I believe) that said something like, "Do you feel like you have done everything in the game?". I have not started my second career and probably won't for a while - unless they release an update (not a patch mind you, just updating some things). The game is not that deep but it is deep enough for about 30-40 hours, as GB said. But I really don't know - beyond adding variety on the villians - what they could do to update the game to make it more deep. I'd still give this game a hearty recommendation but it won't be one of those you'll play for months on end, I don't think.

[Franklinnoble]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

Believe it or not, I think GB's review is dead on. Only after two days from release, there was a rather lengthy thread in at piratesahoy (I believe) that said something like, "Do you feel like you have done everything in the game?". I have not started my second career and probably won't for a while - unless they release an update (not a patch mind you, just updating some things). The game is not that deep but it is deep enough for about 30-40 hours, as GB said. But I really don't know - beyond adding variety on the villians - what they could do to update the game to make it more deep. I'd still give this game a hearty recommendation but it won't be one of those you'll play for months on end, I don't think.

Did the original game have the same problem?

[Buccaneer]

Yes, esp. since trading was so lucrative that you kept doing that endlessly. But despite the criticism, bear in mind that we are talking about a game that would give you 30-40 hours of addictive fun - it's just a career can drag on a little at the end. There is a difference between playing Pirates! (or Pirates!Gold) back then and playing the new version. Now we have other, more complex strategy/hybrid games to compare it to while 10-15 years ago, we didn't have as much.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

There is a difference between playing Pirates! (or Pirates!Gold) back then and playing the new version. Now we have other, more complex strategy/hybrid games to compare it to while 10-15 years ago, we didn't have as much.

I think this is where they failed with the new version of Pirates. They didn't upgrade the variety and volume of play to match the expectations of today's gamers and the capabilities of today's computers. 15 years ago 40 hours of playing time from one game would have been great mileage, and even now that's got to be considered decent mileage from a game.

However, Pirates could have been so much more by simply adding more content and more variety to the game. They could have stayed perfectly in line with the spirit of the original Pirates and beefed up their gameworld in the new version to make the game more compelling to play a second and third time. The repetition in hunting down Raymondo sixteen times in every game is so "1980's" that it struck me initially as being an obvious bug; it took me a couple of days to believe that someone had intentionally made the game that way. The game engine is excellent, and this game could have been a booming hit had they expanded the variety of potential lives that your pirate could live. As it stands, every game plays roughly the same. It strikes me as playing out like a linear RPG from the 80's like Might & Magic I rather than an expansive, free-form RPG like Morrowind or Gothic.

Perhaps I wouldn't feel this way if I had started the game at the Swashbuckler level so that I wouldn't have achieved all the possible goals so quickly. I felt like I saw everything that the game offered the first time through, and the second time through felt like I was just playing the first game again, with slightly more difficult fencing (until I got the hang of it). A lot of my drive in my second game came from wanting to see what the second lost city looked like, and the final blow of tedium hit right after I found it. I realized that all four of the lost city quests were the exact same quest, with the only variation being the randomly generated location of the city. I just finished dancing with my wife four times, sailing all the way across the Caribbean, and searching for the city. You want me to do the exact same thing again? And then again? You're kidding, right? Where's the fun in that? The Raymondo quests are even sillier: 16 times in every game? With the capabilities of today's computers, this is an unfathomable design decision.

[sterlingice]

If it's fairly successful saleswise (I haven't seen any numbers), there's no reason a sequel won't be coming and I'm sure they realize that they'll have to refine a lot of things in it to keep people coming back. I think this was just a "let's see if we just remake it and improve on a few things, is there even a market for this genre of game" and if it proves to be so, it's time to start full blown development on a series.

SI

[Franklinnoble]

I think there's probably room for an expansion pack... in fact, the game's shortcomings might have been by design (sadly), in order to package and sell the expansion in six months.

I'm such a cynic...

[sabotai]

Sid Meier isn't the kind of developer to rush sequals out. Expansions (as we saw with Civ 3, yes, but not sequals). I suspect it could be quite awhile before we see the next installment of Pirates. However, I wouldn't rule out an expansion coming out sometime next year.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Originally Posted by Franklinnoble

I think there's probably room for an expansion pack... in fact, the game's shortcomings might have been by design (sadly), in order to package and sell the expansion in six months.

I hadn't thought of that, but it makes a lot of sense. Be interesting to see where this goes.

I'm ok with that, however. I'm satisfied with my purchase of Pirates and would happily buy a decent expansion pack, once it dropped down to about $20. I think the game has a lot of potential.

[Franklinnoble]

Originally Posted by Godzilla Blitz

I hadn't thought of that, but it makes a lot of sense. Be interesting to see where this goes.

I'm ok with that, however. I'm satisfied with my purchase of Pirates and would happily buy a decent expansion pack, once it dropped down to about $20. I think the game has a lot of potential.

I agree - I'd probably buy the expansion, just because I did in fact enjoy the game, and would like to see it with a little more meat on its bones.

However, it disappoints me that we have to do this. What ever happened to pride in workmanship? What ever happened to delivering a solid, superb product in the first place? I mean, I love Civ3, but it wasn't "finished" until the 1.29 patch (seems like many months after the release, if I recall...), and the game didn't really get fleshed out completely until the second expansion pack - in fact, while the first expansion pack included multiplayer, it really left a lot to be desired, and felt like another rush job. I think Pirates! will probably have a similar fate.

On an unrelated note, I'm surprised more hasn't been done with the SimGolf game... such wasted potential... but I digress.

Thank God we have Jim Gindin. FOF2K4 is significantly improved now over its initial release, and he didn't ask for a dime for it. Is it any wonder that many of us are practically throwing money at him at this point? At this point, Jim could make Front Office Ballerina his next project, and I'd buy it - just on principle.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Originally Posted by Franklinnoble

On an unrelated note, I'm surprised more hasn't been done with the SimGolf game... such wasted potential... but I digress.

I'd just like to say that I wholeheartedly agree with this.

[Sharpieman]

This is a great game, but I've been too occupied with FOF and FM2005 to have any time with this title.

[gi]

Originally Posted by Godzilla Blitz

I think this is where they failed with the new version of Pirates. They didn't upgrade the variety and volume of play to match the expectations of today's gamers and the capabilities of today's computers. 15 years ago 40 hours of playing time from one game would have been great mileage, and even now that's got to be considered decent mileage from a game.

I think the point was to recreate this game without changing too much. I am so happy with this game because of the very fact that it is not overburdened with extras. Simple addictive game play that makes the money I spent on it worth it because I had fun last night. I long for the quality of 1980's gameplay sooo much since today's games mostly fall well short of the bar set by gaming's golden age (1980's). In comparison, most first person shooters only have around 20 hours of gameplay, but that is 20 hours of intense GOOD gameplay. I for one do not think more hours equal better, I want quality over quanity. I actually was able to recreate an experience that I've missed with this game. I stayed up WAY too long because I just had to plunder one more ship....then it was 3am....

[sachmo71]

So, anyone still playing?

Lasting impressions?

It's on sale a gogamer.com, so I'm lookin' for input!

[cartman]

Originally Posted by sachmo71

So, anyone still playing?

Lasting impressions?

It's on sale a gogamer.com, so I'm lookin' for input!

Yep, I'm still playing it. But like the others, not nearly as much as when it first came out, but I'll still boot it up a couple of times each week.

[sachmo71]

Originally Posted by cartman

Yep, I'm still playing it. But like the others, not nearly as much as when it first came out, but I'll still boot it up a couple of times each week.

Good to hear. Any annoyances?

[WSUCougar]

The game is a kick, but redundancy was my biggest issue. I think Godzilla Blitz pegged it.

[sachmo71]

Thanks for pointing me to that, Coug. For some reason, I blew right past that.

[Franklinnoble]

It's screaming for an expansion pack. I hope they have plans for one.