Pirates of the Burning Sea
Developed by Flying Lab Software, Pirates of the Burning Sea is an MMORPG that, surprisingly enough, takes on a heavy pirate theme with plenty of battles on the high seas. The game takes place in the 18th century, during which time various nations are trying to take control of the Caribbean. When you first start out, you select your character’s gender, fighting style (Fencing, Florentine, or Dirty Fighting), and allegiance (England, France, Spain, Pirate). The goal is work together with your fellow countrymen.
In addition to your character, you also take control of a ship to sail between the over 80 ports. In fact, you have an opportunity to captain a fleet of up to 30 ships, sailing around, plundering, swashbuckling, and doing all those other things that pirates (and their opponents) had a tendency to do in the 18th century. There is a full player-driven economy in the game, wherein participants manufacture and sell all the goods found in the game. And you need that money to buy upgrades and equipment.
With other MMORPGs, the upgrading of equipment and armor affects the look of your character. With Pirate of the Burning Sea, when you decide to upgrade something, it doesn’t affect the appearance of your character, but instead just ups their skill level.
While the hand-to-hand combat and exploration of the ports serve as a large portion of the game, you also get involved in ship battles on the high seas. You have to take factors like wind, speed, cannon alignment, and so on into effect. You can target the sails, the hull, or the crew, and if you manage to slow down your opponent, you can attempt to board their ship and take it over, including the looting of all their, well, loot. Pirates is available now.
Legends of Norrath
I never really did understand the craze behind trading card games. I’m sure you’ve seen these types of games in real life — Yu-Gi-Oh, Pokemon, Magic: The Gathering, etc. — and you’ve probably seen the electronic versions of these titles as well. Legends of Norrath follows in the same tradition, except you get to partake in an entire online community dedicated to their version of the card battle game.
You build your deck and challenge people from all across the world. What’s cool is the only real cost involved is when you have to purchase the booster packs. There are no monthly fees to stay involved in the online gaming world, but the booster packs — which contain 15 semi-random cards. There is also the option to play against the computer or a human opponent, as well as online marketplace where you can trade cards with other gamers.
Sony has integrated Legends of Norrath — the Forsworn expansion pack was released on December 19th — into Everquest II, meaning that you can play the card-trading game within the Everquest universe. What’s more, certain bonus cards can unlock content for Everquest. Sony also plans to host free monthly tournaments with a $5000 prize pool. They mention free entry into the world championships too.
Sony Online Entertainment Is All About Gaming Online
It’s obvious where this is going, because it’s right there in their name. All three of these games have a very heavy online element. In fact, by and large, you can’t even play these titles without an Internet connection. It’s like they’re telling you to game on… line.
For more pictures and screenshots from all these new titles, please check out our SONY Online Entertainment CES 2008 Photogallery!
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