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| Pirates of the Burning Sea | 
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| From: Sony Online Entertainment
Category: Video Games
List Price: $29.99
Buy New: $8.49
You Save: $21.50 (72%)
New (37) Used (17) from $0.93
Avg. Customer Rating:  20 reviews
Sales Rank: 5685
Format: Cd
Platform: Windows Xp
ESRB: Teen
Media: Video Game
Batteries Included: No
Age: 12 - 20 years
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 0.1 x 0.1 x 0
MPN: 41312
UPC: 814582413123
EAN: 0814582413123
ASIN: B000VSEC14
Release Date: January 22, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: MINT condition with absolutely NO flaws. Free delivery confirmation provided. SUPER FAST shipper! Contact me for EXPEDITED international shipment option.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Mixed feelings, technical nightmare, beautiful, easy, fun, game January 30, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
This game is great! So far that I have only been able to play it for 20 minutes. I loved the tutorial and the graphics are amazing. So far I actually really enjoy the interface... though I question... was "Age of Pirates" a pre-liminary release of this game??? The symbols, the graphics, the key-board controls, pretty much everything is identical in the UI. Voices are pretty good, I was actually disappointed in the ship-ship combat graphics, and if I can ever get back in, i might play with the preferences to make that nicer. The background graphics are phenom and I can't wait to go sailing around.
Early "learning" quests are semi-guided and it seems it is easy to get what you want when you go places as there are always many options when talking to a "store" or "quest" npc. Makes the learning curve not so bad. I am ready to start figuring out what I need to set sail or start some business ventures before I go.
However, before you even install it, you should go to AEGIS and download their PhysX software drivers (free). If you don't you likely won't be able to run the game anyway.
Plan on downloading updates for at least 45 minutes after you install as well. I have wireless-n with 75k/s actual throughput.
Now that it's installed, it ran, once. Now I can't get it to run again. In fact, I can't end the process either once it freezes. I have to soft-boot. There is almost no information on their support site.
C2D 2.33ghz CPU, 4x1gb 800mhz gskills RAM, pny 8800gts 640mb GPU, encore wireless-n WIFI, EVGA 680i-LT mobo, cooler7pro CPUfan, 3xDVD r/rw, 4x160gb HD, Antec 650w SLI PSU. Windows XPsp2-32bit.
 Avast! January 28, 2008
25 out of 30 found this review helpful
(update)
Frankly, this is the best PvP game I've seen in years. If you are looking for a good PvP game, just buy this now. If you want a fun game to play alone and sail ships around the map by yourself, get Sea Dogs instead. Not that this game can't be fun solo, but the meat and potatoes comes from fleet vs fleet action and you're not going to be a fleet of 1. Join up, bring some friends / find some friends and you'll have a blast.
I'll stand by my 4-star rating as opposed to 5-star because frankly the first 10 levels are a bore and the avatar combat (swashbuckling) needs serious technical work before it will be any good, but the ship-to-ship combat is great fun and makes for the best player vs player action you can get today in an MMO, and I've played everything from UO to EVE to WW2O to Planetside to WOW and a bunch in between.
Also, don't think, "Meh, I'd be joining it too long after release. I don't want to have to grind XP in the newbie zones before I can have fun." This game isn't like that. At level 43 I have no problem inviting level 7 guildmates to my groups, both for PvP and PvE. They get a lot of XP by helping me sink level 40 opponents, I don't lose that much XP per ship and they're actually quite helpful, allowing me to kill faster and ultimately level faster and safer myself. Even a level 7 in a small ship can damage sails, distract the enemy and, if ignored, do some nasty stuff like sailing up to rake the enemy decks with grapeshot. A level 7 isn't going to take down a level 40 player in PvP but he's far from useless in battle.
There are 4 factions: Pirate, English, French and Spanish. They are involved in a 4-way war for control of the Caribbean. The game may be called "Pirates of the Burning Sea" but more accurate might be "International War in the Caribbean (Also Has Pirates)". The three major nations are all worth playing and actually have some completely different game mechanics than the pirates, so if you wanted to be a pirate OR if you wanted to be a British fleet officer facing pirates, this game is for you.
The game basically has 3 distinct sections:
* Open Sea
In the open sea, you basically have a toy ship which you drive around over the ocean between ports and look for other ships to attack. This is a simple but nice looking part of the game for navigating on the open sea without actually taking 4 real-time months to get places.
* Sea Combat
This is the real meat and potatoes for this game and I think they've done well with it. It's not a total "sea battle simulator" as Sea Dogs was. You don't have to manually aim your guns or time your firing with the sea swells, but you do have to deal with wind direction as well as managing your sails, maneuvering to keep targets within the general firing arc of your guns, the type of ammo you want to use (cannon balls vs armor, chains vs sails, grape vs crew, etc) and bleeding ship speed during hard turns. There are various skills and expendable items you can use during combat to help repair emergency damage to sails, hull, etc. There are also skills for increasing ship speed or weapon reload time at the expense of something else. You'll have plenty of things to manage without worrying about the sea swells.
Ramming works -- although it does no damage, you can block an enemy ship, force him to turn by ramming him and generally set him up to be boarded. You can also protect an ally by getting between him and whoever is shooting at him. Really, this is some impressive ship to ship combat. If you played EVE, I can tell you that POTBS ship combat is better than EVE ship combat.
* On foot
There is a "you" in this game. You aren't just a ship. You can dock with ports and run around but there's also a melee component to the game.
Hand to hand battles come into play during some missions given to you by the NPCs but it's also part of ship to ship boarding. If you pull alongside an enemy ship, you can attempt to board it and fight the enemy captain and NPC crew using your character and your own NPC crew.
This part of the game is not overly well fleshed out. You will be disappointed if you come expecting a full blown World of Warcraft type battle experience. It's more like a fun little meta-game they threw in, and it's not bad. It reminds me a lot of combat in City of Heroes, actually.
Back to ports, though -- ports are where you'll find another large aspect of the game: crafting. I was surprised with the depth and thought they've put into crafting, but I suppose it makes sense. What good is a ship if you don't have something to carry? Because what good is being a pirate if other people aren't carrying things you can steal from them? So even if you're a full blown PvP pirate, you have to appreciate the crafting game simply because it gives you something to take from other people. (Arrr, booty.)
To get started with crafting, you go to a port and create a Warehouse. Once you have a warehouse you can create resource structures depending on what resources are available at the port. If there's "Fertile Soil" you can grow crops (such a hemp, used in making rope, or maize, used in making cheese or growing livestock). If there's "Oak", you can set up a lumber yard for farming oak. Etc. These farms supply resources based on a real-time clock. So the person who plays 16 hours a day is not able to bring in more resources from a farm than someone who plays 1 hour a day because the farm is basically working 24 hours a day whether you're there or not. You just need to swing by periodically and collect your resources.
From this, you have the basis for an overwhelmingly player-driven economy. From the start, the game encourages you to use the auction house to look for player-made goods rather than the NPC store, which sells only very basic things and sells them at much higher prices than players are likely to charge for the same things. Don't buy your ammo from the NPC "Fence" until you've checked the Auction House for player-made ammo which is cheaper.
I do think they can do a bit more with NPC AI, melee battles and PvP, but I think they picked a good time to release and the game is pretty good once you get into the swing of things. Give it a day or two to get used to the interface and get yourself to level 10 or so and don't be afraid to group up with others and I think you'll be surprised at how much fun this game is.
Pirates, ships, guns and swords....what more could you want? January 26, 2008
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Reading the above comments, I can pretty clearly see that the majority of reviewers likely come from a world of warcraft or everquest experience. This game is meant to be different from the get go. The economy has more depth than the two combined and you get to start it from lvl 1 if you so choose. Which other game does that (aside from maybe EVE online)?
Ship combat is very cool, its beautiful, fun, and full of danger. Most games with PvP are kind of care bare, in that if you die, you only lose a small amount of experience, or maybe damage your armor. In this game, you have a reason to try as hard as you can to not be sunk. In PotBS, you actually care about your gear.
There are 4 nations to choose from, and quite a few classes to choose from. Many of the skills have overlap, but this helps for player balance. The swashbuckling combat is kind of odd. The players do move too quickly and it quickly becomes a big cluster of similar looking characters, though I'm sure this will all change in time.
This game has more depth by FAR than most MMO's out there, is certainly less care bare, and has a much cooler PvP system. All in all, I feel its quite good and can only get better with time! Try to remember, most MMOs ,even the ones people consider "perfect", were far from it at launch!
Good luck on the Burning Seas!
 Not much new here, needs a LOT of polish. January 26, 2008
10 out of 17 found this review helpful
Seems to be a clone of Sid Meier's 2005 Pirates except with online play. But it lacks the things that make online play fun.
Pros:
-Colorful world, sounds are nicely done and sound authentic.
-Player toons look great, large selection of cool colorful period outfits.
-Sunsets over the ocean look great.
Cons:
-World has a cartoony look. Everything looks a bit too clean for an 18th century pirate world.
-Steep learning curve.
-The quests are nearly identical. Same jungle maze layout you loadscreen to.
-You can't explore the world. Can't walk or swim in the ocean, jump off the dock or even cross the rivers except via one bridge. Cannot see your ship from the seaport and walk onto it, must wait through load screen to get on. Very gamey feel. Seaports all look the same.
-LOTS of load screens throughout.
-I have a recently built system (C2D 2.67, 680i mb, 8800gt 512mb gpu, 4gb ram, updated drivers) but the ocean artifacted so badly, flickering between green and blue, could not play more that 30 min without getting a headache. E-mailed customer support, no reply.
-Games years older, like 2005 Pirates! and Sea Dogs are more fun than this.
Conclusion:
Really wanted to like this, pre-ordered and all. Still awaiting a good pirate mmo.
 Really great January 26, 2008
7 out of 12 found this review helpful
In a world full of orcs and elves, Pirates of the Burning Sea is a breath of fresh air. The game shines on Ship Combat. It's taking a lot of criticism for it's avatar combat, but I think it's really different from other MMO's. You have to think. You have to be intelligent. Flying Lab has added "balance" to typical MMO combat and the difference doesn't really show through until you are past level 10. Knocking your opponent off balance and gaining initiative are really important here. PLUS!!!!! there are no rats to kill. No inferior rat pelts, and semi inferior rat pelts or ratty warthog pelts. Give it a try. I defy you to not get hooked!! Vive Le France!
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