Why's the PC Edition so... inferior?

[Space Coward]

I remember this game from Xbox and finally decided to buy it on PC. Well... I'm disappointed.

Several things seem to be different that add up to be quite annoying:

• Start menu screen... on Xbox, it had a loop of a pirate swinging a sword and played the theme music. Here? It's pretty much blank.
  
• Sneaking - Completely top-down and out of scale. On Xbox, it was in third person.
  
• Controls - Everything's numpad here. No options whatsoever for controls.
  
• Interface - The xbox one looked nicer... the progress in fencing was a rope marked with a sliding tie, it seemed more aligned, and all around was cleaner and better.
  
• Map - I have to pause the game for the map... just pause entirely. On xbox, you could toggle a semi-transparent map that covered the screen. Jokes about travelling by map aside, it's way better than pausing the game for it.

This is among many other things that kind of annoy me. Why is the PC edition such a downgrade? Is there a reason they didn't give it any of the stuff the Xbox version had?

[yareally]

Never played it on a console. However, to try to answer some of your questions:

- Sneaking - Completely top-down and out of scale. On Xbox, it was in third person.

Most aspects of the game let you adjust the view. Not sure about sneaking, since I haven't done that in a while.

- Controls - Everything's numpad here. No options whatsoever for controls.

You can actually use the mouse to control or the arrow keys, but that leaves out a few controls only found on the numpad. However, there is a file in the game directory that lets you remap the keys.


Pausing for the map I think is kind of preference. I don't mind pausing, because the game is so action/quick paced that it gives me a little time to think about what to plan next.

[Space Coward]

Originally posted by yareally:

Never played it on a console. However, to try to answer some of your questions:

- Sneaking - Completely top-down and out of scale. On Xbox, it was in third person.

Most aspects of the game let you adjust the view. Not sure about sneaking, since I haven't done that in a while.

- Controls - Everything's numpad here. No options whatsoever for controls.

You can actually use the mouse to control or the arrow keys, but that leaves out a few controls only found on the numpad. However, there is a file in the game directory that lets you remap the keys.


Pausing for the map I think is kind of preference. I don't mind pausing, because the game is so action/quick paced that it gives me a little time to think about what to plan next.

Yes, but in sailing open-world I liked the semitransparent map. The full map was there too I think, I just never used it. However, it's not an option at all here. It's full map or nothing.

[Space Coward]

Originally posted by MontyMinion:

Originally posted by Kill-Cam Celebrity:

I remember this game from Xbox and finally decided to buy it on PC. Well... I'm disappointed.

Several things seem to be different that add up to be quite annoying:

• Start menu screen... on Xbox, it had a loop of a pirate swinging a sword and played the theme music. Here? It's pretty much blank.
  
• Sneaking - Completely top-down and out of scale. On Xbox, it was in third person.
  
• Controls - Everything's numpad here. No options whatsoever for controls.
  
• Interface - The xbox one looked nicer... the progress in fencing was a rope marked with a sliding tie, it seemed more aligned, and all around was cleaner and better.
  
• Map - I have to pause the game for the map... just pause entirely. On xbox, you could toggle a semi-transparent map that covered the screen. Jokes about travelling by map aside, it's way better than pausing the game for it.

This is among many other things that kind of annoy me. Why is the PC edition such a downgrade? Is there a reason they didn't give it any of the stuff the Xbox version had?

Listen idiot, Steam only sells the ORIGINAL sid meier's pirates game, not remasters! Suck it up and deal with it!!

No need to be a prick about it.

[Monty]

You should be prefering this one though!

[Space Coward]

Originally posted by MontyMinion:

You should be prefering this one though!

Why? It's got less features and it doesn't look as nice. I think I like the xbox version more, but sadly it's no longer an option with microsoft's zero compatibility support.

[Monty]

You should appreciate the original work of art!

[Space Coward]

Originally posted by MontyMinion:

You should appreciate the original work of art!

So according to you, a highly unpolished game that was later polished is better than the polished reworking because it's more 'original?'

No. The xbox version had better content, therefore it's the better version. I was really hoping to see all the features from there.

[cashcat]

Yeah, Xbox seems better.

[BiggusD]

Originally posted by Kill-Cam Celebrity:

Originally posted by MontyMinion:

You should appreciate the original work of art!

So according to you, a highly unpolished game that was later polished is better than the polished reworking because it's more 'original?'

No. The xbox version had better content, therefore it's the better version. I was really hoping to see all the features from there.

Actually im pretty sure that they made this game more like the origianl pirates game. You know the Dos game? even down to certain parts of the control scheme. Also im not sure you can claim that the Console version has better content... The reason the Xbox version has a transparent map is to compensate for the fact that you couldnt zoom out as far when in the world. The xbox actually lacks some of the other gameplay elements as well. And it also had framerate issues, they removed the treasure hunt mingame. But hey if you want you could always go out and purchase an orignal xbox and a copy of pirates.

[cashcat]

Originally posted by ☂ MacchuS ™ ☂:

snip.

They got rid of the treasure hunting minigame!? D: That's one of the finer points of being a pirate.

[BiggusD]

Originally posted by Sir Biscuit:

Originally posted by ☂ MacchuS ™ ☂:

snip.

They got rid of the treasure hunting minigame!? D: That's one of the finer points of being a pirate.

But xbox had dat 3rd person stealthing... so pro...

[Space Coward]

I still want the semi-transparent map. I saw the treasure hunting, and I agree that it's a nice feature. It's a lot better than doing it automatically. Still, the semitransparent map means you can look at it while you're sailing, and I'd like to see it get added. Hell, I'll look into modding if necessary.

The reason I liked third-person stealthing is because it 1) means you don't have pirates literally surrounding the city going "hey, come on, get out of there, come here," and 2) your character wasn't scaled to be the size of a building

[Finnway]

I believe PC version came out first. They updated some things for the console release. The PSP release even had multiplayer ship battles :(

[Space Coward]

Originally posted by Finnway:

I believe PC version came out first. They updated some things for the console release. The PSP release even had multiplayer ship battles :(

So did Xbox. It was 4 players local. I never really cared for it, since we had Halo 2.

[RossDBrown]

As someone who has both (and the iOS version... and the PSP version) I prefer PC over all of them. Mainly for the land battles, which are of larger scope on the PC.

I tend to find the mid-to-late game is mostly about land battles, so that's important. Also, it;s been a while, but I don't believe you could walk your crew around on land on the Xbox version, which restricts your strategic planning when you plan to attack a settlement.

As for the sneaking mini-game. I hated the Xbox's restricted view. You would regularly end up in jail through no fault of your own, because you had no chance to see the guards until it was too late. I found it too difficult and just plain avoided sneaking into cities. The risk vs reward is more balanced on PC.

However, I totally agree that the transparent map was a nice addition - but hey, each version is subtely different and that's in no way a bad thing.