Amazing Retail Pre-Order Benefits!

• Pre-Boarding Party! – Players will be granted access to the Pre-Boarding Party program with the opportunity to experience the game, level-up their characters and hone their pirating skills up to 15 days prior to the commercial release of the game. Additionally,they can bring their leveled-up characters, including equipment and skills, into the commercial release of the game.
• Original Game Soundtrack – 60 minutes of pirate-flavored music.

Every Retail Pre-Order Account that purchases the full game software and converts into an active, entitled, paid subscription will receive access to these pre-order items:
• Captain’s Best Friend – Known for its strong beak and fierce loyalty to its master, a Macaw is a captain’s best friend.
• Mighty Blades – Depending upon your selected fighting style, you’ll receive one of these fine weapons: Swedish Rapier, Old World Steel or Musketeer’s Matching Blades.

Pirates of the Burning Sea Preliminary Pre-Order Box Insert

Minimum System Specs
Windows® XP/Vista, Pentium® IV 1.5 Ghz or greater, 512MB RAM, DirectX® 9.0 compatible video card. NVidia® GeForce FX 5700, ATI® Radeon® 9600, or equivalent with 128MB of texture memory, DirectSound compatible audio hardware, broadband Internet connection, 16x DVD-ROM, 4GB hard drive space.

Recommended System Specs
Windows® XP/Vista, Core Duo 2.0 Ghz or greater, 1024MB RAM, DirectX® 9.0 compatible video card. NVIDIA® GeForce 6600, ATI® X850, or equivalent with 256MB of texture memory, DirectSound compatible audio hardware, broadband Internet connection, 16x DVD-ROM, 4GB hard drive space.

Russel said he never believed in the concept of an open beta, and pirates will not see one. He does tell us that they are always looking to improve, however, and will take on beta testers whenever they can. He believes that the testers prove two markets, one in making that game better and another in telling friends about how cool the beta was.

Originally Posted by Rusty
What I don't believe in is unrestricted open beta. There will be a way to play in the game before it ships, and in large numbers.

What's the coolest thing in Pirates? I asked Drew. "Oh, it has to be throwing sand in someone's eyes. It's a stun of course," was his reply. Unfortunately, the demo character I had was of the Fencing school, so I could not see that action. "In combat, you're always involved. Reacting and engaging. The three on one is always the best. You're Errol Flynn and taking on three guys at a time. It can be done in Pirates!"

WarCry: So, it's near the end of the show, how was PAX this year?

John Tynes: This year was great! This is the third year we had a booth at PAX, it's always a lot of fun. Our booth has stayed very busy this year.

So, things are coming along, but I know people are wondering exactly when the game is going to show up! We’ve been working towards an internal release date for a while, but haven’t been announcing it because we didn’t want to get people excited and then have to move it. It’s one thing to move your date when it’s a year away, it’s quite another when it’s just a few months. But this turned out to be a good idea, because the date has been changing somewhat, mostly due to Europe.

TTH: Can you tell us a little about the high level content that you're involved in testing?

Theresa: Sure. Right now we're working on missions that are mostly ship-based and boarding based. We want you to be able to board an enormous hundred and four gun ship with a small ship, so the boarding happens in waves-- we don't want everyone on the ship at once.

I have to say, the sailing part of the game looks absolutely amazing. The water is jaw-droppingly beautiful and your ship rocks gently on the waves as you sail. You can tell a lot of time and effort went into designing a visually appealing world to sail around in, and the ships have very distinct looks to them. I was also told that players will be able to import their own designs for sails into the game at the time of release. Movement in this section gave me a little bit of trouble at first, because you don't actually move your boat. You turn your sales and let the wind move you. Fortunately, there's a handy ring around your boat that shows you which directions you should and shouldn't sail in if you want to catch the wind.