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[Wario64]

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/sidpirates/review.html

9.2

"Nevertheless, this is still a completely engrossing strategy game that will easily consume countless hours. While the average pirate career might last only about 5 to 10 hours, there's tons of replay value here, as you can play on harder difficulty levels, try out different approaches, and check out different sailing eras. With its engrossing gameplay, impeccable pacing, and charming presentation, Sid Meier's Pirates! is quite simply one of the most enjoyable games to come out in years."

 

[Redlink]

Incredible score..

Esp. for GS.
Geez.
I initially had put this on my "pick up later" list, but I might have to reconsider.

 

[mumu]

Reviewers are giving out 9s this season like if there's no tomorrow.

 

[bitwise]

roll on, xbox version

 

[bishoptl]

When Sid Meier says "frog", y'all better jump! Pirates is indeed the bees knees and we should have multiple threads proclaiming this to the heavens.

 

[AstroLad]

Why oh why can't the X-Box version come out sooner?

 

[Gorey]

My only gripe is the dancing. Everything else is golden. And even with the dancing, it's more that I suck and less that the game is flawed

Nothing quite like taking on a war galleon with a pumped up sloop. Satisfaction +100

 

[Lemurnator]

Gamespot PC Game of the YARRRRRRR -2004-

 

[Stryder]

I like how when your crew become unhappy the little crew icon frowns and looks like MAF's avatar

 

[Gorey]

I have zero artistic skills, but somebody should come up with a sail and flag set with the MAF icon. There are instructions in the readme, I think... It'd be hiliarious to sail around the caribbean with that little red face on your flag and mainsail.

 

[truesayian]

 

[MrAngryFace]

PIRATES RULES!

 

[Mike Works]

What makes the game fun? I've downloaded some videos on IGN, and all I can see when it comes to gameplay is moving your ship as it fires and reloads when you're in battle. What's the game's hook (aside from IT'S SID MEIER, which is a good excuse when referencing Sim Golf).

 

[Azih]

For one thing the ship combat is fun fun fun, since you have to take the weather into account and have to aim your broadside towards the ship to get your cannons to connect. one time there was absolutely NO wind and so the ship I was chasing and I were practically dead in the water, it really felt like Master and Commander when I ever so slowly gained on the fleeing coward and all you could hear was the creak of the ships. Since the speed was so slow I couldn't even afford to turn my side to the quarry to fire my guns otherwise it might have gotten away

Plus the enemy ships are pretty intelligent. If you're fighting a ship that you outgun but it has a larger crew it straight up tries to ram you to get boarding action going (where ship guns don't matter but size of crew does), in the opposite situation the enemy ship tires it's best to stay away while pounding the crap out of you. Plus since the reload is slow it *really* hurts if you miss with a volley of guns.

Other then that there's a ton of crap to do. You can hunt down other pirates, find treasure, raise your rank with one of the five factions, raid towns, take over towns, find your missing family, romance the ladies or just hang around jumping every ship you see.

The controls are perfect in all aspects of the game (dueling with swords is fun as is the land combat) except for the sneaking into town mini game, but you barely ever do that anyway.

 

[Mike Works]

How do you duel anyway? The videos I watched had what looked like a keypad on the top right of the screen, and some... energy bar?

 

[Azih]

on the lower difficulty levels anyway you have three defensive moves and three offensive moves, the defensive moves are a hop, a duck and a standard parry. Basically if your opponent slashes high and you duck to avoid it then the guy is wide open for an attack. Vice versa also (you just have to see his wind up animation to see how he's going to attack). On harder difficulty levels you have less time to react and the opponent is smarter on defense.

It sounds dull but it works really well in practice, I think mostly because of the great animation and the fact that it's just a small part of the game and so it just needs it to be fun in spurts and not be very sophisticated..

 

[segasonic]

what's the release date for the xbox version?

 

[AstroLad]

what's the release date for the xbox version?

5/3/2005

 

[Mike Works]

Fuck it, I'm buying it tomorrow.

DAMN YOU SID MEIER

 

[bjork]

Picked this up on Saturday and finally got time to install and play it a bit tonight, and it's official:

It took 17 years to get a proper remake, but it was well worth the wait.

The only things I haven't checked out so far is the stealth portion (because real pirates don't GET captured to begin with) and the land battles, but everything else seems intact and improved.

I like the upgrades to the boats and your character, and I like that the maps actually offer more than a 1/4 map bit with some trees... it made treasure hunting much more fun, especially with the cool landmarks (the guy hanging from the tree is scary).The boat upgrades are cool, and the way that your character is decorated accordingly at the dances (like if he's a captain or a major or whatever, the costume reflects that) is a cool touch.

My only gripes are performance related, but I have a GeForce 4 MX 420, so I know that's what's causing those problems. It would stutter badly at the dance, I'm assuming due to the number of characters onscreen all at once. It was also doing it in swordfights, but sliding the detail level down smoothed that out quite a bit. I'm definitely going to look into a new graphics card, just so I can experience this in all its glory.

As much as I liked GTA SA and Dog's Life (try it, it's fun), this is my GOTY.

 

[Mengy]

I bought this on Saturday morning, and proceeded to play it all weekend long for the most part. This may be the best remake ever, I think it may even be better than the original, and that is a BIG statement seeing how much I played the original. The only thing I don't like so far is that the silver train seems to have been removed, other than that I love every aspect of it.

Ship battles are better, dueling is better, dancing is awesome and fun, the graphics are incredible, the animation is even better, I just love this game. It's plays exactly like the original but with little improvements here and there. Sid did a damn fine job putting this game together.




Now if someone would just remake Airborne Rangers in the same vein as this was done.

 

[MacGuffin]

This game related to (or similiar at all to) Pirates Gold on the Genesis. I have that game and it is one of the best on the system, hands down.

 

[Unison]

This game related to (or similiar at all to) Pirates Gold on the Genesis. I have that game and it is one of the best on the system, hands down.

Yeah, it's a remake / update.

 

[Gattsu25]

Incredible score..

Esp. for GS.
Geez.

Really?

 

[Joe]

ok, so im killing the spanish for the english but now the spanish want me to kill the english. will i be able to do that or will the english start attacking me?

also, the english governor gave me a house and im up to 350 acres of land, where the hell is it?

the game rocks hard, and i just got done watching master and commander and now im into the game so much more :lol