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Sid Meier's Pirates! impressions? (Xbox)

R

Roland Hood

Member
I just saw this in today's Fry's ad for 29.99.

I know this game has a stellar reputation on PC, IGN gave it a 9.2 and any game with the balls to include an exclamation mark in the title gives me a good feeling.

Any impressions re: load times, port quality, graphics, fun-factor etc?
 
I bought it yesterday, but only had a small amount of time to spend with it. I had a lot of fun just shooting stuff, I got promoted, upgraded ships, did a mission. Then lost it all because I didn't save my game right. I couldn't find a save game option, and when I tried to quit, it said I should retire or I would lose all my progress, so I retired. I guess I'm starting fresh tonight when I get home heh.

I did find the save option though...it's just buried in a menu somewhere.
 
The only knock on it is that it is not very deep. Once you do it all, see it all .. there won't be much else to come back to.

That being said, you will get 20-25 hours of great gameplay out of it. The game has remained unchanged for almost 20 years now, and its just as addictive as ever.

When you play this game and have a great time .. remember that it existed 17 years ago! It's was truely ahead of its time. If Sid Meier only made this game, he would still be revered as a god .. but he went on to make so much more.
 
Is this game like Psygnosis' Overboard? I loved that game, if this is like it I might check it out.
party1tz.gif
 
I love it. I love it so much. It's basically an update of Pirates! Gold, to me that's not a problem since it's one of my favorite games ever. But if you're looking for a radical re-make, you might be dissapointed. It's still a hop in and play game where you try to accomplish as much as possible in the time you have. Still, your options for achievement are vast.

The graphics are simplistic but workable. There is no voice acting, just strange Sim like mumbling underneath text. The animations are fairly boring and repetitive but can be skipped. They've added some mini-games to the Xbox version that are basically there to even up some ship boarding fights, etc. I like the menu options and controls for the most part, but really the pleasure is in the gameplay not the presentation.

There are a bunch of unlockables, promised downloadable content and scoreboards.

I'm enthralled with it, but it was one of my most anticipated games and supplies the experience I want. Worth every dollar if you want a pirate sim that is easy to play whenver you have some time to throw into it.
 
I'll be picking this up fr the Xbox.. just a matter of getting to Gamerush.

Gotta figure out whats gonna come out of the rotation... probably Republic Commando
 
One of my friends worked on the actual console version, so everyone buy it!!!
:lol


but really, this is such a fun game, Its so addictive, alot of stuff to do and a huge world
 
I haven't figure out how to save either, only the 'retire' option.

It's a pretty cool game, though. I didn't realize it had real time sword fighting once you board another ship, shallow as it may be.
 
Roland Hood said:
I haven't figure out how to save either, only the 'retire' option.

It's a pretty cool game, though. I didn't realize it had real time sword fighting once you board another ship, shallow as it may be.
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You can't save in port. After you leave port, hit start, go to the last option on the right, there you go.
 
A friend of mine bought it and is really enjoying it. He says that he's completely addicted, and hasn't stopped playing for 2 days :lol
 
Tain said:
So is this pretty much the exact same game as the PC version? Any changes at all?
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It's pretty much the same. There are some mini-games to even up ship crew numbers and a few other very small things like that. Some more concept work/unlockables and supposedly downloadable content, etc.

It's very addicting.
 
Does it let you attack towns via ship, instead of land battles?

That's the only thing that I really miss from the old one.

Also, is dancing still iffy?
 
triste said:
Does it let you attack towns via ship, instead of land battles?

That's the only thing that I really miss from the old one.

Also, is dancing still iffy?
Click to expand...

No and yes :(

I very much agree with you.
 
My sister is big on the Pirates and she's been playing the Xbox version lately. Differences I've noticed from watching her:

They cut out land exploration. Instead of wandering around searching for the big X on foot you just land and it tells you if you found treasure or not.

The framerate during dancing is pretty horrible.

The map's smaller and sailing is faster. Or at least it seems that way.

Boats have ammo and health bars. Didn't seem like you can escape from ship battles, or at least not as easily as you could in the PC version.

Instead of receiving pieces of maps you get them whole. At least on one of the easier difficulties. I know she played through on a harder one but I didn't see her playing any of that.

There's a checklist of accomplishments that I don't remember the PC version having. Things like "Retire after sacking all cities", "Visit all cities", "Sink 100 ships".

I know my sister was also bitching up a storm about the map not displaying Hearts showing which towns the women you're successfully wooing live in, which seemed like an odd thing to cut. I figured it was just on another screen and she wasn't paying attention.

And some other stuff I can't recall at the moment.
 
sonarrat said:
I'm not feeling the addiction. What's the key to enjoying this game?
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I'm not even feeling a small level of interest in this game. Visiting ports is an absolute chore, as is talking to people in the taverns. The ship battles are tedious. For some reason, I thought this would be more like Rise of Nations, where your actions and decisions would help determine the progress/development of the colonial power you are supporting.
 
keeblerdrow said:
You're a freaking pirate. Go be a bastard, not a global diplomat.
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I'd love to, but I'm getting owned at every turn. First voyage out, I attacked a ship, got seriously overmatched in a fight and had to break out of prison. Second time, it happened again. My men aren't happy with me.
 
sonarrat said:
I'd love to, but I'm getting owned at every turn. First voyage out, I attacked a ship, got seriously overmatched in a fight and had to break out of prison. Second time, it happened again. My men aren't happy with me.
Click to expand...

You are without a doubt the worst pirate I've ever heard of.
 
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