So...who's got it? What do ya think?

[Darth_Pugwash]

Its been out in the US for afew days now, but us Euros have to wait until next week.

Love it? Hate it? Post your first impressions here!

 

[Civrules]

Well, some stores in the US still don't have it today, even though the release date was a few days ago...

 

[Smidlee]

So far so good. I like the fact I can see the ships at sea. I got the LE DVD and wanted a workable version of Pirates Gold but they didn't fit it to work on modern PCs. I wished I could use a controller instead of the keypad though.

 

[Dan Magaha FIRAXIS]

It's fairly trivial to configure a controller so that each button or D-Pad direction is mapped to a keyboard key. Most gamepad driver software includes a way to do this.

 

[imaji]

I have it, but now I have no hair.

I pre-ordered, and it came by FedEx Wednesday afternoon. I work third shift, and I didn't want to tease myself, so I read the manual and went to work.

When I got home, I installed and tried to play...but the game hangs on me every time it begins.

I get through all of the intro movies, name my pirate, choose my nation, get thru the next few movies, and bam!...as soon as the game "starts" and my ship slides into whatever port the game has started me at, nothing happens. The music plays, but no keystrokes or mouse clicks seem to do anything. I can move the cursor around, but as soon as I click on my ship, the game freezes.

I screwed around with it all day today trying to coax it into agreeability, but to none effect.

I will now go light myself on fire.

 

[Smidlee]

It's fairly trivial to configure a controller so that each button or D-Pad direction is mapped to a keyboard key. Most gamepad driver software includes a way to do this.

so maybe I got one that doesn't or I haven't figure out how to do that.

 

[handy900]

DO NOT PLAY THIS ON A SLOW PC.

The attacks on towns are painfully, slowly, animated, and therefore take way too long. I avoid attacking towns for this reason. I wish there were CRTL+P options to turn off animation. Perhaps there are, but I've not found them yet. This is a really boring feature of this game that stinks. Too bad, since capturing cities & installing governors would be alot of fun.

The ship battles are good, but can sometimes take too long. Using a Royal Sloop (rare) or War Sloop (easier to find & capture) appear to be a great attack ship for a pirate. Fast, nimble, can row for extra speed into the wind. Brig of War is a nice choice too. Many more cannon than sloops but not as fast & nimble. Use the sloop against slow moving trade ships (galleons), and the Brig against other war ships, & ships with escorts.

FWIW - I'm running this on grandma's 1.6 pentium. The min for the game is 1.0 pentium, so maybe it will play better on my faster PC at home. I hope so.

I like the game, but they really to speed up the land battles where you attack a town.

Well, some stores in the US still don't have it today, even though the release date was a few days ago...

FWIW - Target & Wal-Mart had several copies where I live.

 

[Civrules]

I just got the LE from eb Games.

 

[Hakai]

I've really enjoyed it so far, and I'm now working on my third career. The sword fighting is quite fun in my mind, and the more I play it the better I get and the more subtle hints/tricks I pick up.

I must admit that I actually enjoy the ballroom dancing, it's quite difficult on the higher levels of difficulty but if you have a musical background you can really excel at it.

The town attacks work well in my mind, I'm very happy they're turn based as it gives me time to think about what I want to do. I haven't found them or the ship battles to take to long.

The biggest problem with the game is the setting, stupid winds almost always blow east to west so it can be really hard to get back to the eastern Islands once you've hit the Spanish Main. This really isn't that big a deal once you learn how to tack properly, but can be very frustrating in the beginning.

Overall, it's a typical Sid Game. Straight to the point, everything is there for a reason, and everything is functional. I'm very happy they stuck with menus for towns instead of going full-3d and having to walk around.

At present I'm really looking forward to working my way up to the highest level of difficulty.

-Hak

 

[Smidlee]

The biggest problem with the game is the setting, stupid winds almost always blow east to west so it can be really hard to get back to the eastern Islands once you've hit the Spanish Main. This really isn't that big a deal once you learn how to tack properly, but can be very frustrating in the beginning.

I guess it no accident the wind is this way since It was the same on the Old C-64 version.

It seem to help changing my flagship to a smaller ship like sloop when traveling againest the wind. So If I planning to go toward Vera Cruz I grab me a sloop before the trip.

 

[little_cyclone]

Love it.. Kinda Disney cartoonish, but still great fun!

 

[Longasc]

It is a well designed game and yet simple it still has the overall feeling of the old Pirates. I especially love the improvements to the governors daughters, even if I suck at dancing.

But well, I would marry the barmaiden... drinking with girls is better than dancing.

Besides that, I hope that some future patches improve Gameplay on i855GM graphics cards. My notebook has some issues, the durch guy at the starting screen for example is always brown textured, and fencing is easy for me because it is superslow.

Besides that, I am glad that Pirates works even without a T&L capable integrated notebook graphics card.

 

[Smidlee]

It is a well designed game and yet simple it still has the overall feeling of the old Pirates. I especially love the improvements to the governors daughters, even if I suck at dancing.

dancing becomes easier after you learn the patterns . at the end of every pattern you always end back in the middle with the same facing you started with. here some of the patterns 6,4,6,4 ...... 4,6,4,6 ...... 3,3,3,3..... 1,1,1,1 ...... 8,1,1,8,1,1. With the shoes and slippers you can miss the first one or two keys of the pattern which makes it a lot easier.

 

[Civrules]

It is a well designed game and yet simple it still has the overall feeling of the old Pirates. I especially love the improvements to the governors daughters, even if I suck at dancing.

But well, I would marry the barmaiden... drinking with girls is better than dancing.

Besides that, I hope that some future patches improve Gameplay on i855GM graphics cards. My notebook has some issues, the durch guy at the starting screen for example is always brown textured, and fencing is easy for me because it is superslow.

Besides that, I am glad that Pirates works even without a T&L capable integrated notebook graphics card.

On another forum, Barry mentioned that they've been working closely with Intel, and that we should expect Intel to release a driver update for these graphics cards.
He didn't mention what will be fixed in that update (as only Intel knows) but I think that the infamous brown texture for some characters will also be fixed. So I don't think that Firaxis can actually fix the brown texture stuff in a patch...

*cough* Intel's fault *cough*

 

[simplybag]

It kicks ass. It's like the original we all loved, just improved. Not much nonsense put into the game, just updated the game, added bits here and there that make the game more enjoyable...also a storyline to follow if you're borred plundering If you liked the original, it is a MUST HAVE.

 

[Longasc]

There are workarounds, talk about real life adopted into pirates:

A big, fat, expensive golden ring with a big, fat gem... -> increases your "Wit and Charm", and can compensate for your lack of dancing skills.

I must agree, Smidlee, dancing can be learned. Sneaking is a bit harder, and it takes too long for my liking.

So I usually sack the town. Always the better option when you have enough men at hand!

 

[Shabbaman]

The one thing that's a bit of a pity is that you can't keep all your ships when dividing the loot. I simply don't want to choose between my royal sloop and my frigate

 

[Civrules]

The one thing that's a bit of a pity is that you can't keep all your ships when dividing the loot. I simply don't want to choose between my royal sloop and my frigate

Yeah, that's the thing for me as well...

But I guess you can't have everything you want as a pirate.

 

[handy900]

Question from the nephew.

He cannot determine when you are given the option of installing a new govenor. Has sacked towns where he snuck around the battle, and others where he made the enemy run for their lives, and some others where he only fought the captain of the guards. So far cannot see a pattern as to when the option is given to install a govenor.

Has anyone figured this out, or is it up to the RNG?

FYI - on the Pentium 1.6 we cut the resolution down all the way [still looks okay], turned off some graphic options [enhancements] as suggested in the manual and the game got faster. Strangely, some fencing duals are very slow, others are faster.

 

[zarigueya]

I got it and love it. Last night I rescued 3 family and sacked the Marquis's fort. I rescued the girl from a pirate and she married me.