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Bethesda Software Makes CRAP

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 11 / 13
Date: June 25, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Ok...I liked Morrowind. I really did, until it started crashing...a lot. I mean if I didn't save every 10 minutes, it would crash. I got SOOO far and then it became UNPLAYABLE! (...). SO I should have known better when I picked up Pirates of the Caribbean. Admitedly, it started off being a fun game, but it started crashing right from the start. At first it was a minor hassle as I always save as often as possible. But then, with increasing frequency, it would either freeze or I would get a white screen and it would reboot the X-BOX.

WHY IS IT that the only X-BOX games I have that crash are from Bethesda? Disney should be ashamed for letting this piece (...) software company make their product. The graphics are not even good! Hitman 2 has awesome graphics and uses a better engine. Also, the directional controls are terrible! Morrowind had better controls.

I know I am coming across as just angry, but I just finished trying to win ONE sea battle and every time I get close to the finish, it freezes and/or crashes me. I am taking this piece of junk back to the store for store credit. And if they won't take it, I'll eat the $19.99 and flame Bethesda to anyone who listens.

Don't get me wrong, I really like the idea for this game. I like Pirates and it has SO much potential. But they just jury rigged this game. To many inconsistencies. Too many poor graphics. TOO MANY F*&#ING CRASHES!!! WHYYYY?! NO OTHER GAME I HAVE CRASHES AT ALL!!

If you are a serious gamer, don't bother with this slapped-together piece of junk. If you are a casual player with a lot of patience and don't mind doing the same thing over and over and over, then buy it. But as for me, I think someone should go to Bethesda, find their quality control person and their testers and kick them in the junk. I will give you a shiny nickel if you do!

Suffice to say, I will never, ever purchase another title from Bethesda and I recommend you save yourself the aggravation and avoid them like the plague. Microsoft should void their license to create games. And yes, I did file an official grievance with Microsoft over Bethesda.

Ahhhh, the suckiness...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 7 / 10
Date: July 28, 2004
Author: Amazon User

The ride was awesome, the movie was awesome, this game is honestly the worst Xbox game I've ever played. It doesn't even have anything to do with the movie or the ride, they just took an old russian computer game that nobody knew about and renamed it. A cheap attempt to earn an extra buck by fooling people with the movie's success. Some people seem to have liked it, but I have no idea why. You do whatever you want though, just don't say I didn't warn you.

Pirates of the Carribean

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: July 03, 2003
Author: Amazon User

The XBOX version of this game is completely unplayable. It freezes approximately every eight minutes. The manual is full of typos which indicate a rushed release. The game looks like it would be a fantastic RPG; but only if it worked. Hopefully the PC version is functional.

Do not under any circumstances purchase this from a source that you can't return it to.

**WARNING*** Do not buy this game!!!!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: August 11, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I have never written a review before and I was so enraged at the quality of this game that I am writing my first ever review to try and prevent at least one poor schmo from buying it! Jerky character movement, glitches & nonexistent panning aside, the menus are so difficult even a phd such as yours truly cannot understand them, and the ship is both too complicated and cumbersome to move. The game begins with little or no narrative....in short, let me just say that 'rushed into production' is the kindest thing I can say. And, I loved Morrowind, so I speak as a diehard rpg fan. If you must--rent this, do NOT encourage bad behavior on the part of bethesda and purchase this game!!!!!!!

the game that could have been

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: September 12, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game could have been a great game had bethesda finished it. I am sure that they were pressed for time but to release a defective product there is no excuse! they should have recalled the game. insted ,all they did was issue an e-mail to stores to expect returns. and even if you follow the step by step instructions from the bethesda site on how to keep the game from freezing or reseting it does not work, believe me I tried many times! the game is rather fun when it's not malfunctioning however it becomes quiet irritating when you have been at sea for an hour sinking ships only to see your game freeze!!! arggghhh!!! so i could not take it any more and returned the game back to the store for a full refund. DO NOT BUY THIS GAME ALL OF THEM ARE DEFECTIVE!!!! SHAME ON YOU BETHESDA SOFTWORKS!!!

Nice graphics.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 7
Date: December 31, 2003
Author: Amazon User

(PC Version)

I've played a lot of video games in my lifetime and I can assure you that this is by far one of the worst games I have ever played. This RPG/adventure game has unbelievably complicated controls and no way to switch to a gamepad. Learning to walk is hard enough, much less learning to fight and sail too. Add to that actually having to interact with townspeople and manage your ship's cargo and condition...it's not worth my time. These games are supposed to fun.

(A tip for future programmers at Bethesda: use arrow keys to walk, enter or space to pick up and use things. And let me use my gamepad, amateurs.)

Not what I expected!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 4
Date: August 22, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Like so many, I thoroughly enjoyed the pace and excitement of the movie and was therefore very disappointed to find a game with the same name but nothing in common. Sure, there are pirates, swordfights and sea battles, but I expected something following or and extension of the theatrical release. This game doesn't have any of the characters and is hard to manipulate. Not only do you need to collect a tremendous amount of objects to move from level to level, but there is so much you must master for simple tasks. Very disappointing!

Forget it

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: December 17, 2003
Author: Amazon User

The land-based adventuring is awkward and really simple. The sea-based adventuring is unbelievably difficult.

It's very cool that it's almost a sailing simulator, but the game throws you against tough opponents right away without enough time to get the hang of just normal, non-combat sailing, much less the hang of cannon-ball flying nautical mayhem. If you manage to defeat or evade an opponent, you're almost immediately thrown into another fight. Getting sunk a dozen times in a row is really tedious, and waiting for the long re-load time to take another try just killed the game for me.

I was really looking forward to the sea battling, but it was so frustrating I returned it to the store for credit towards something else.

Low playability

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 8 / 10
Date: January 04, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Good idea for a game but badly executed when it comes to ease of control.

Firstly, the character is hard to move around. The developers have put so much thought into the different parts of the game but have totally missed it when it comes to moving the character about. The camera angle does not change in synchrony with the character. This would not be such a big problem by itself but we are not given a way of manually changing the camera angle ourselves. Your character moves about erratically so it's not possible to make him move where you want with the shortest path. This is especially frustrating when in a sword fight and you get stabbed in teh back for not facing the right direction while you fumble around with the controls (so make sure you save frequently if you end up buying teh game).

Secondly, the ship sailing controls are simply bad. There is an intial tutorial within the game where they show you the controls for the chatracter and sword fighting but there is no equivalent tutorial for sailing the ship or aiming your canons. Firing bombs/canonballs accurately are frustratingly difficult to get right. i must have lost 9-10 times in a sea batttle before finally being able to sink another ship due to the unintuitive sailing controls.

The game has a fun stroy line and lots to do, you can develop your character as you level up and you also develop your officer (sidekick) too. BUT the playability of the game is so low that I do not recommend it. Bottom line is as a big fan of the pirates game from the mid 80's i was dissapointed at not being able to have fun with this game of huge potential.

5 star idea for a game, 5 stars for the customizability of the character and flexibility in the storyline, but zero stars for ease of game play.

Potentially great game ruined by bugs (Xbox ver)

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 8 / 10
Date: February 16, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This could have been a great game. Unfortunately, the bugs keep it from being a great experience. The graphics are beautiful, the gameplay is addictive, which includes some sea battles with other ships, some tiffs on land (I find the fights on land a bit awkward), and some good old fashioned questing.

But I can't believe how much trouble I've had playing this game. The first time I put the disc in the XBox, the game stuttered through the tutorial part. I later learned that Bethesda Software recommends that players put the disc in and start a game, but then just let it sit there for 45 minutes, while the machine's memory cache is filled with the relevant data from the disc. Thankfully, that only happens the first time you put it in.

The graphics are beautiful. The water effects are amazing, the plants/trees blowing in the wind are awesome. The default view is third person, which took some getting used to. The creative decision to look at the character face on, then swerve the camera up and around the character as he moves forward, was a poor one. It's disorienting, and gives me a sense of nausea every time. Zero points for that design element.

Much worse, however, is the save game situation. As with any RPG, saving often is required, yet this game has so many problems with corrupted save game files it makes it an absolute chore - "save game file management" is one of the many strategies you'll have to learn to complete this game successfully.

So: Gameplay 5, graphics 4, sound/music 4, bugs 1.

Disappointing.

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