Pirates of the caribbean

[Pukko 0]

In january 2001 I got my hands on the original Seadogs. I was sceptical at first, but once I started playing it I was glued to it for weeks. Actually it was so bad that when I finally got to bed at 9 a clock in the morning after the first night playing - I could not sleep. I got up after 10 miniutes again to continue playing for about 3 days with almost no rest....     Thats the worst gaming dedication i have ever had (and then the OFP demo came when I finally got enough of seadogs, but the OFP addiction is of a less perverse and more lasting kind).

When I finally got a Man-o-war from an attack with a battleship against the Spanish treasure fleet, I could at last let go of Seadogs. But ever since I have been waiting for the sequel: Seadogs II. Unfortionally Disney bought it this spring to make it the official game to their movie "Pirates of the Caribbean". But rest assured that their involvement has not completely ruined the game, even if features like slave trading and the female character have been removed (well, one can still play as Danielle by editing a textfile).

It seems like the most stunning games these days comes from the east. Akella who has made this game is from Russia. And one of the most wonderful things with the original Seadogs was that the music was made by Russia's National Philharmonical Orchestra! Pirates of the Caribbean has on the other hand real crappy music (drums, synths and bassguitars dont fit in so good ). I have however dealt with that by converting 22 music pieces from Seadogs to 19 MB of ogg files in the new game. It really makes a big differance.

For the ones unfamiliar with these games I'll tell you about them shortly:

You start out with a small ship in an English harbour. From there you can either play the campaign game and serve different people in the arcipelagio, or sail between islands trading goods or just go out pirating to eventually get that stunning Man-o-war. You can have up to 4 ships simultaniously, and a big number of officers specialized at different skills. You can load your guns with 4 types of ammunition, sink ships or take prizeships (woth alot if sold at a shipyard). One can also attack forts and probably take over/plunder cities (havent tried this in the new game). You can run around on the Islands - exploring or doing missions with up to 3 officers at your side. Character development is based on experience points, and there are a great number of skills to train (you can also steer the officers development, and the at the moment selected 3 officers skillpoints are added to yours in most cases). Well, that's at least some of the game features.

The gratest thing with the game is that it is so stunningly beautiful (at least with good music) that I just fire it up and relax sailing around while drinking coffe   And when you got a Man-o-war with a broadside of ~40 cannons you can scare the shit out of your neighbours by firing a salvo; it really sound like a terrible thunder.

So why am I promoting this game like this? I'm sure that Disney will be able all on their own, but I'm also sure that they will not attract 'state of the art' gamers from the OFP community  And the original Seadogs obviously did not get very famous. This is really a wonderful piece of software that I wish everyone had the cahnce to experience. And its not a scripted 'prison' like many games, but rather like OFP - you do it your way...

Just a warning: Make sure you got some days free to spend playing, coz the risk is big that you will be glued to it. The around 10 other persons (20-35 yrs old) I know who played the original Seadogs got just as addicted to it as I did. I have heared of the most perverse solutions to keep the game running while being away from the computer

The official site:

http://pirates.bethsoft.com/main.html

The old Seadogs forum (there dont seems to be a new forum to this game, so everyone discuss it here - the Bethsoft sever seems to be down quite often though):

http://seadogs.bethsoft.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php

And here are some screenshots I took of my current ships - a Fleut and a Corvette:

[FSPilot 0]

did they fix the lag? i seem to remember tons of lag when i first played it

[Pukko 0]

did they fix the lag?  i seem to remember tons of lag when i first played it

lag? you mean lag as in multiplayer lag (none of the games feature mulitplayer) or performance lag - copyness, low framerate? I dont know about such a problem anyway..

BTW, Pirates of the carribian came out just weeks ago, so they probaly have'nt fixe much yet

[PitViper 0]

I loved SeaDogs. Haven't got around to getting this yet.

[Die Alive 0]

did they fix the lag?  i seem to remember tons of lag when i first played it

Are you thinking about that BF42 pirate mod?

-=Die Alive=-

[FSPilot 0]

D'oh! Yeah I got confused with the BF1942 mod.

[Winters 1]

This game is really cool and i would love to tell you all more about but my helmsman has just spotted the Black Pearl and i am off to chase it down.

[FSPilot 0]

This does look like a fun game. I think I'll wait for a demo though, money's tight and I've only got a month before I'm off to college.

[Tex -USMC- 0]

This game is really cool and i would love to tell you all more about but my helmsman has just spotted the Black Pearl and i am off to chase it down.

Arrrrrrr.

[Pukko 0]

This game is really cool and i would love to tell you all more about but my helmsman has just spotted the Black Pearl and i am off to chase it down.

Please let us know how it goes!

There are rumors on the high sea that she is a real bitch  

[FSPilot 0]

So it's basically a giant ocean with ships you can take over and islands you can run amuck on?

[kegetys 2]

It could have been a good game, but seems like Disney really scewed it up... It was originally promised to have multiplayer, but no sign of that now. And its filled with bugs, crashes all the time and when it does that it also screws up the latest savegame. Duh. I also really really really hate the controls and especially the menus and dialogs, they all are _huge_ which is propably because the xbox players need to be able to use and read them from their TV's... Dunno why they couldnt have made them smaller in the pc version.

[Pukko 0]

It could have been a good game, but seems like Disney really scewed it up... It was originally promised to have multiplayer, but no sign of that now. And its filled with bugs, crashes all the time and when it does that it also screws up the latest savegame. Duh. I also really really really hate the controls and especially the menus and dialogs, they all are _huge_ which is propably because the xbox players need to be able to use and read them from their TV's... Dunno why they couldnt have made them smaller in the pc version.

jaa, jaa. Parts of it suck indeed. I think I have only got one savegame corupted though - while having serveral crashes back to windows. And some parts of hte bugs are just features   - like being able to get all officers for 0 gold, or even have them pay to join.

I'm quite sure a patch is on its way soon though, "but its still a bloody beautiful game, anyway... you with all your negative waves" (Oddball, Kelly's Heroes, scene 45  )

Fspilot

Its a quite big ocean, containing ~10 islands and 5 nations + pirates. You can sail across the map in sailing mode (probably a bug, since it does not take any 'real' time), or use the world map to sail around in 2d with icons where one day is around 10 seconds long. You can mock upon islands, but make sure that you got some heavyduty guns and ships before you do - or the guarding fortress will sink you in no time  

[hovmand 0]

A pirate walks into a bar with a ships steering wheel in his pants. The bartender says "Whats that doin there?" the pirate says "ARGH, its drivin

me nuts!"

[Winters 1]

It could have been a good game, but seems like Disney really scewed it up... It was originally promised to have multiplayer, but no sign of that now. And its filled with bugs, crashes all the time and when it does that it also screws up the latest savegame. Duh. I also really really really hate the controls and especially the menus and dialogs, they all are _huge_ which is propably because the xbox players need to be able to use and read them from their TV's... Dunno why they couldnt have made them smaller in the pc version.

I have not crashed at all, and i have been playing for a while now. also, you can re-map the controls, i made mine more like ofp and that makes and incredibly big difference. It does have a steep learning curve and its not as good as it was being made to be (aka: before disney) but its still quite fun too play.

@Pukko

I was not able to get close enough, it was in a storm and my ship was sunk from the beating it took trying to catch it, i still have only the starting ship, i am taking some side quests to beef up the gold reserve.

[Koolkid101 0]

Are those pics part of the seadogs or pirates of the carribean.

[Winters 1]

pirates of the caribbean

[Pukko 0]

I was not able to get close enough, it was in a storm and my ship was sunk from the beating it took trying to catch it, i still have only the starting ship, i am taking some side quests to beef up the gold reserve.

I am not entirely sure which ship that is - but I rocon its the ghosty one.. In that case you should probably be happy for not geting closer - probably better to die torn to pieces than engaging that ship with a sloop (or whatever the starting ship is).

And boarding+ taking prize ships is probably the quickest way to get some shiny gold..

[mr burns 131]

The Pics are really cool!

I remember the C´64 times. Playing "Pirates", searching for the Silver fleet, or weak harbours to conquer...that was a great game (that infected both my dad and me), i hope Sid Meier does an appropriate sequel to this classic, sometime.

[FatNinjaKid 0]

I played "pirates!" on a c64 emulator about month ago ...ARRG! no fun at all! Everything now looked so incredibly dull  Made me really wonder why I was that fascintated by it as kid.

[mr burns 131]

I played "pirates!" on a c64 emulator about month ago ...ARRG! no fun at all! Everything now looked so incredibly dull  Made me really wonder why I was that fascintated by it as kid.

Probably because the Gameplay was innovative (like OFP is now) and you could´nt get any better games (except of Elite, Turrican, M.U.L.E.) at that time?

[toadeater 0]

i hope Sid Meier does an appropriate sequel to this classic, sometime.

He is working on a remake/sequel right now.

Quote[/b] ]

The New Sid Meier's Pirates!

Now it's time for Sid Meier and Firaxis Games to bring this exquisitely rich, action-adventure game into the 21st century. An entirely new game engine will deliver updated gameplay, stunning new features, spectacular 3D graphics and enhanced surround sound, so players can fully experience the intrigue, adventure and danger of life as a pirate on the Spanish Main.

New Pirates! Announcement

[Pukko 0]

i hope Sid Meier does an appropriate sequel to this classic, sometime.

He is working on a remake/sequel right now.

Quote[/b] ]

The New Sid Meier's Pirates!

Now it's time for Sid Meier and Firaxis Games to bring this exquisitely rich, action-adventure game into the 21st century. An entirely new game engine will deliver updated gameplay, stunning new features, spectacular 3D graphics and enhanced surround sound, so players can fully experience the intrigue, adventure and danger of life as a pirate on the Spanish Main.

New Pirates! Announcement

No SHIT captain!  

I guess there are some good gaming stuff still coming from the states after all  

There are no dates around, but do you know for how long it has been in development? Or for how long it has been announced?

I have played some pirate games on C64 and/or Atari - but I'm not sure what they were called. I know that one very populat title was Pirates Gold though...

Damn it, this is great news!  

[Longinius 1]

"It could have been a good game, but seems like Disney really scewed it up... It was originally promised to have multiplayer, but no sign of that now. And its filled with bugs, crashes all the time and when it does that it also screws up the latest savegame. Duh. I also really really really hate the controls and especially the menus and dialogs, they all are _huge_ which is propably because the xbox players need to be able to use and read them from their TV's... Dunno why they couldnt have made them smaller in the pc version."

Disney had nothing to do with this game, except the license. Its a Bethesda game, through and through.

[Mister 5 0]

I loved SeaDogs.  Haven't got around to getting this yet.

Same here.