Pirates of the Burning Sea
Pirates of the Burning Sea is a unique MMORPG that includes both ship-to-ship and character / land based combat. If you loved the Sid Meier Pirates games, then this may be your dream MMO, the ship combat is stunning.
Official Website: burningsea.com
Be a Pirate over the holidays
Pirates of the Burning Sea is worth a try over the holidays. I recommend going through the long download, install, download updates, patch, play process. I'd say it's worth it for a free peek (Open Beta) at the game.
I'm not going to give a full review, that wouldn't be appropriate with a Beta even though the game is very complete at this point, but I will point out a few notable things.
- Sea battles are a great change of pace from typical MMORPG combat. It's inherently more strategic, especially when groups of players are involved.
- I personally love the look and style of the animation, especially the NPCs who can be seen swaggering, stumbling, walking with limps, etc..
- The economic portion of the game is a good contrast to the usual crafting 'professions'. It's a bit complex, but professions should be intended for the micro-managers among us.
- You can sail past battles in progress and not feel like you've artificially avoided danger / combat. This is a subtle element that other MMORPG designers have struggled with (and failed) since the beginning of the genre. Kill-stealing is avoided by battles being "locked" unless the players cry for help. It looks like it will hold up well for PvE and PvP alike and will probably integrate player-chosen PvP more seamlessly than other games.
That last point could be a full article unto itself, but I've only just brushed the surface with the game so far.
It's a good thing Pirates of the Burning Sea is coming out before the next wave of big MMOs, although a few months sooner would have been even better. The extra lead time could keep them from drowning when Age of Conan and Warhammer Online hit the shelves.
PotBS Open Beta
The Pirates of the Burning Sea Open Beta has begun, with the release date on the horizon (Jan 22nd). I'll probably hop into it sometime this week and see how it is, but at the same time while a Pirate setting for an MMORPG seems fascinating, I'm also not certain how long it can hold interest.
From what I've seen though, the sailing and ship-to-ship combat looks excellent and this is probably the home for true sailing fans.
Launch date for PotBS
I almost missed this, but Flying Lab Software have announced a release date for Pirates of the Burning Sea: January 22nd.
It's good to see it come so soon. Considering the rumours towards Warhammer's potential delay, perhaps spring 2008 won't be so crowded for MMO releases after all and we'll see more staggered releases than expected.
Congrats to the Pirates of the Burning Sea crew, after 6 years of development I'm sure they're very excited to see their launch on the horizon. Shouting out a hearty Arrrrr!
Talk like a Pirate? Be one!
Today is Talk like a Pirate Day, a day I've never quite understood because I think it's appropriate to talk like a pirate all year long. As you might have expected though, it's a big day for Pirates of the Burning Sea. They're hosting a special event at the Seattle Aquarium, among other activities.
While you're in pirate mode, checkout the gorgeous parchment map created for PotBS. They have a contest running for a signed copy, but parchment prints can also be pre-order purchased for $19.95 before Oct 1st. I'm a big fan of game maps (my walls are covered in them, ask my friends) and that's a stunning piece of artwork.
The thumbnail here really doesn't do the map justice, click on it to see a larger size:
SOE to publish Pirates of the Burning Sea
Sony Online Entertainment has agreed to publish Pirates of the Burning Sea. This doesn't come as a deep surprise, since we know Flying Labs was shopping around for a publisher while maintaining full development control. while at the same time SOE has shown a strategy of publishing as many A/B-list MMO titles as they can get their hands on.
I am not a fan of SOE's own development properties, but this is a relationship that seems a lot healthier to me than say Star Wars Galaxies or Vanguard. PotBS will be in the same loving developer hands that it has been carried so far, but they'll be able to reach a wider audience with some mainstream publishing.
As a game, it won't meet all of my "home" needs of an MMO, but I am looking forward to it. The ship-to-ship combat looks amazing.
No word yet on the promised expansion of their Beta.
More Beta Pirate
In my previous article on Pirates of the Burning Sea, I made a mistake and indicated a lack of enthusiasm, but I'm taking that back. My first glance intrigued me enough to post, but I admit that my heart has been set on Age of Conan lately. I didn't jump up and down at the game's concept, Pirates have become a clichéd interest the past couple of years, surpassing even Ninjas.
The screenshots made me take a second look, they've much improved since the first time I looked, when the game was probably still early in development. While it doesn't have all the spit and polish of some of the mass-market games, it does have a strong sense of quality to it. Uh-oh, they hooked me, I started reading more details. The ship-to-ship combat stuff reeled me in.
I read this Overview of PotBS and it covers a lot of great reasons to play this game. Damn them. So I signed up for the beta. I hope the full release is out soon, I'd love to give it a whirl in the coming months.
I like enough features of this game to give it a category here on MMOROG.
Beta Pirate
More Beta goodness on the horizon, sorta like a 'Land Ho!'. As mentioned in Flying Lab's developer log notes, Pirates of the Burning Sea "will be expanding the beta dramatically at the end of June".
Insert cheesy piratey references and lots of Arrrrr here. You would think I'd be more thrilled about this game, considering my penchant for all things pirate, but doesn't everyone share that since Johnny Depp donned the skull and crossbones? I had my characters First Matey and Deck Hand in City of Heroes, perhaps I could do some backstory for those. Hmmm.
