View Full Forums : Sid Meir's Pirates!


Panamah
12-29-2004, 04:11 PM
I loved this game years and years ago on C-64. A while back it came out on PC and was bug riddled. A new version is out.... it looks good!

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=367902

Dec 29, 2004 — Shiver me timbers! Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum! Pirates, those blights of the high seas, have been ingrained on our consciousness in such broad ways.

But thanks to the E-rated "Sid Meier's Pirates!" from Atari ($49.99), for PC only, we're introduced to both the bloodshed and the nuance of piracy.

I was hoping for some quick, detailed action amid a good story line, and I got it. Once the hearty installation was complete (you'll need 1.4 gigabytes of disk space) my character walked into a tavern to choose which nationality to align with. As a newbie pirate, I could pillage in the name of the Spanish, French, English or Dutch.

I chose Spain. But a true pirate's allegiances are fleeting and I was ready to raid anyone vulnerable, given the opportunity. Away I sailed.
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At sea, an overhead angle shot depicted detailed shorelines and ports in the distance. Each time I got close to another ship, the attack option lit up in the screen's lower right-hand corner. Most of the controls during battle are done with the number pad on the keyboard.

Soon I was letting loose with a barrage of cannonballs, attempting to dunk a trade galleon.

The sound effects were quite authentic, with great attention paid to the booming explosion of the cannon shots and the crackle of destruction upon impact. My enemies' ships eerily creaked a bit before sinking once I'd administered the knockout shot.

If you lose one of these battles, you'll find yourself marooned on an island without your cash, crew or a ship. Eventually, a passing ship will pick you up. But you're broke and you'll have to rebuild your pirate reputation.

After racking up victories at sea, I was greeted at a few ports by the governor. I quickly learned that even a pirate's rep is important in this open-ended game.

Once you plunder enough gold, you can use it to upgrade or repair your battle-worn ship.

This game gets high marks for the attention to detail in each scene, and the authentic feel of doing battle with other ships at sea.

The minimum requirements suggest at least a 1 GHz processor and a good chunk of hard-drive space. I ran this game on a hot-shot Systemax PC running a 3 GHz P4 and never felt a hitch, so I'd suggest some similar power under your gaming hood.

Three and a half out of four stars.

jtoast
12-31-2004, 05:12 PM
I was in the beta test for this game and I can testify that its fun as hell :D

The new version, while having a few tweaks, stays very close to the look and feel of the original.

I strongly recommend it to anyone who was a fan of the original.

(Oh, and Atari was kind enough to print the names of all of the beta testers on the cd jacket which was very very cool.)

Fenmarel the Banisher
02-03-2005, 02:50 AM
Sid Meier is the greatest game designer ever. I have been playing Civilization3 Conquest for the last few months. Civilization is one of the few games that has kept me glued to the computer for more then 24hours in a sitting. Civilization3 is a great game but it still has yet to incorporate all the inovations of Sid Meier's Alpha Centari. Civ4 is in developement now and hopefully it will push the frontiers of Turn Based Strategy Games to new limits.

Tiane
02-03-2005, 04:43 AM
Hehe... just started playing some Pirates! (new version) yesterday on my brother's computer, it's pretty hilarious. Seems kind of repetitive to me, but perhaps it gets a little more depth with some time.

But yeah, Sid Meier is pretty much the greatest game designer ever, with a tie going to Shigeru Myamoto, imho.

Panamah
02-03-2005, 11:34 AM
Civ4?!? Ooooh! I'm a Civ fan too. Bloody game, keeps me glued to the chair for far too long. I still haven't gotten Pirates! yet. Gotta do it. I need to plunder!

Radlore
02-07-2005, 06:49 AM
If you liked the original this isn't a bad buy. The format's the same but they have removed the sea-land battles (just land-land battles and they're done much better). You can still overcome superior odds with tactics/skill which was the best part of the original for me. There's some extra bells and whistles but they haven't added a great deal so it can become repetative gameplay-wise. Of course, everything looks much better;)

In the original it was alot harder to keep the crew happy, while that's still a factor it's not as bad which means tearing around with a huge fleet for longer is much easier.

One new thing is having to dance with the governers daughters to even get to 1st base. At higher levels, dancing is damn hard - you may be a Duke of the English Crown but you stagger around the the ballroom like a lame cow if you can't master this mini game, it's pretty damn funny :)

Panamah
02-07-2005, 12:24 PM
One new thing is having to dance with the governers daughters to even get to 1st base. At higher levels, dancing is damn hard - you may be a Duke of the English Crown but you stagger around the the ballroom like a lame cow if you can't master this mini game, it's pretty damn funny

LOL! That's hilarious. God, I have to get this game.

weoden
03-05-2005, 04:54 PM
I thought civ 4 would be 3d versus the current 2d version.

Stormhaven
06-21-2005, 08:29 PM
Just wanted to bump this topic to let people know that Target has this game on Clearance for $12.50 or less in stores. My Target couldn't ring up the item (showed up as Not in System) and I got it for $9.64.

Panamah
06-21-2005, 08:34 PM
Ack! I just spent $50 on it!