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Sea of Thieves


hogso

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Upcoming pirate themed multiplayer from Rare, on Windows and XBONE. Could be a return to form for them, after the Kinect stuff. Considering I'll probably never play it, unless it comes to PS4 (doubtful), I'm very curious about how it turns out.

There's an insightful interview here which is worth a read, even if you're not interested in the concept of the game, then there's some insight in to the workings of the modern day Rare.

I recall some discussion about a proper pirate game on here some time ago, and if anyone still has a hankering for one, well, I don't think you could do worse than anticipate this.

In essence, you team up with 3 others and control a galleon. You'll have to do jobs, such as raise anchor, then have a look out, raise sails, steer, etc. but the suggestion is there isn't any hand holding. You need to communicate to get things done, and that goes for simply sailing the seas, to combat, to exploring islands for plunder and such.

The linked intereview makes reference to a 'post No Man's Sky world' wherein the consumer is now more wary of dev's promises. Rare have a proven track record of course, so I'm hoping the myriad features 'promised' are indeed in the final game.

There's also an interesting story about when Phil Spencer and some other MS bods played a very early version of the game at E3 (a video of which is not available to the public), in which they played the game in the opposite way Rare were hoping - basically the 4 players teamed up to get some treasure and get it back to the docks to sell, but on the route home, they dump one of their mates over the side of the ship so as to split the booty between less of them :D Rare hope most people will work together and only do battle with other ships...

It's not procedurally generated, but the question has been asked of what you actually do in the game. At the moment, there doesn't seem to be much of an answer, although apparently there will be quests and a story line. They mention 'emergent gameplay' in the linked interview a few times, which the cynical side of me means you are expected to make up things as you go yourself...but at least the gameplay should be fun, at least in the short term.

No release date yet, expected sometime next year. 

Edited by hogso
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I remember this at E3 and I thought it looked interesting, but the demo I saw was completely ruined by OTT players finding the smallest things hilarious iirc. 

Tempted by it, will probably wait for reviews before purchasing. Day 4 for me probably :P 

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I'll have to link some more recent gameplay videos or something to give a better idea of it, the trailer I linked has a lot of things they haven't put in to even the latest build yet, but there's plenty they want to put in. Basically anything Pirate-y. The demo at Gamescom recently was the same as the E3 one. It's exactly the kind of game I'd like to play, it seems fun, in regards to gameplay there's plenty that could go right and be exciting, but there's plenty that could go wrong and be hilarious.

It's not the proper 'Pirate RDR' of my dreams, though.

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Rare have been shit since the early 360 days and especially bad during the Kinect phase (I should know, that's when I worked there). I have no faith that they can pull this off and it's a shame as I think I was the one who mentioned a pirate-centric game.

Of course when I last worked there was a few years now so things could have changed, but I wasn't convinced by the E3 demo either. Can't see it being any good.

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I am refusing to get excited for this and not because Rare's output has been lackluster for over a decade, but because this has shades of a game that will never play like it is shown in trailers. The trailers so far have shown over-stylised friends-in-party-online gameplay and it looks rad, but it looks rad in the same way that UbiSoft trailers look rad. You watch trailers for The Division or Ghost Recon Wildlands and you see a game portrayed with friend cooperation that doesn't exist in reality, at least not in my pool of friends. My main issue though is that while UbiSoft play up how badass it is to play online there is still a substantiated game there, I have a feeling that this is more exploration and wankery with friends and less an actual game with story and quests. So until I see that side of the game if it exists I won't even contemplate the idea of getting excited for this..

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Good idea on paper but it'll never work en masse the way they want it to. Co-op shooters have never caught on quite as much as the more individual ones have, but a co-op pirate ship game? Nobody is going to play it.

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  • 1 year later...

There was a press event at the top secret Rare HQ (on Watery Lane, just off the A444 between Nuneaton and Burton, near to Twycross Zoo and Turpins) so there's a lot of previews out there at the moment. 

Two things strike me with this. The timing could not be better. Xbone needs a game people are talking about, and what are people talking about? Mmo co-op, competitive games, yeah mostly shooters, but I absolutely think this could build on that. 

What's more is the gameplay seems solid, it puts emphasis on being a properly social game, there's no grind, and...it simply looks fun! 

Out next month. 

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2 minutes ago, Chindie said:

I maintain this will struggle, particularly long term. Despite Microsoft making sure most of Twitch was playing it for a fortnight.

Jesus. It looks fun, isn’t a tired sequel to another beige AAA title and could be the first step to getting back some kind of the old Rare. Give it a chance?

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11 minutes ago, Ingram85 said:

Jesus. It looks fun, isn’t a tired sequel to another beige AAA title and could be the first step to getting back some kind of the old Rare. Give it a chance?

It looks fun for a few days if you have a full squad of mates around to play with it. It doesn't have much depth from what has been shown.

It's a good idea on paper that will fizzle.

I won't be playing it so I don't give a ****, I hope people enjoy it.

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1 hour ago, Chindie said:

I maintain this will struggle, particularly long term. Despite Microsoft making sure most of Twitch was playing it for a fortnight.

being free with xbox game pass from day 1 will help boost player numbers, many people will give it a try that otherwise would not have shelled out full price for it

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Sure is & it's a play anywhere title so can switch between xbox & pc as you wish.

@aarongreenberg Replying to @VH_Villains @majornelson Yes if the title is Xbox Play Anywhere you can play the PC version too if you are a Game Pass member.

https://twitter.com/aarongreenberg/status/955924123816927232

one thing to bear in ming with this game is motion sickness, The water bobbing, The ship bobbing & the slightly off FOV can make for some vomit inducing fun.

They have designed it to run on some fairly crappy spec pc's including laptops with onboard graphics & iris CPU (it will only run at 540p & 30fps) to ensure as many people can play it as possible but if you want it 4k 60fps you will need a bit of a beast.

sea-of-thieves-pc-requirements.png

Edited by LakotaDakota
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I'm definitely looking forward to playing Sea of Thieves at 4K 60FPS. I played the closed beta at 1080p 120FPS as my 4K monitor wasn't in my office at the time, but very excited to see the game in 4K. 

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1 hour ago, villarule123 said:

The FAQ for the Xbox game pass says its for the console only. Hmm... 

There is no specific game pass for PC but all of the play anywhere titles are playable on PC if you buy the xbox game pass (there are trials & deals on for a cheap month or two at the moment).

If you have the pass now you can download the PC versions of Gears of War4, Recore Definitive edition, Zoo Tycoon & i think there is also another one (Halo Wars?)

Edited by LakotaDakota
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I do love the look of this, but it certainly needs more content.  It has a bit of a No Mans Sea feel to it at the moment (but with proper multi player).  Put some proper missions in there, some dungeon crawls, some monsters, a half decent pervading story across it all and you have a winner.  Some mega treasure like the plot from Ready Player One, with clues around the world that only one crew can get would be awesome.  They could drop one of them in a day or a week or a year or whatever really.  The basics of the sea battles are already really fun and have great variation thanks to the size and speed of ships, the weather, rocks and islands.  Once you are watching two crews that are not clueless, maneuver for position using the wind direction, sail angles, anchor based hard turns and then having to aim cannons on a deck that is rolling with the waves it is brilliant and really quite tactical.

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Anybody read the stuff about the 'end game'. There's basically a cave for 'Legends', ie. players who have got to a certain point in the game, who will have access to exclusive, and the hardest, quests. Plus the best loot and ships, etc. They'll be able to take non-Legendary players on their ship though. I'm curious to see how that will all work in practice, and how quickly the first player will get there.

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5 hours ago, Straggler said:

I do love the look of this, but it certainly needs more content.  It has a bit of a No Mans Sea feel to it at the moment (but with proper multi player).  Put some proper missions in there, some dungeon crawls, some monsters, a half decent pervading story across it all and you have a winner.  

That's where I'm at too

ive no doubt that this game will be loved by a fair few and might even review well but for me it just seems a bit aimless and the demos they keep showing are a waste of time because people will inevitably end up just **** about on it, it's going to be too community based for me

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