Damn it, now I have the Lazy Town Lil Jon remix stuck in my head. :/
That song and We are number one were the gene of my existence when my kids were little and once again when they became memes. The gifts that keep on giving…
So tomorrow is the big day, closed beta starts up at 4pm GMT. Which I think is morning my time, so I won’t be online until later.
Just a clarification I got from an email, this beta allows play on the Xbox One and PC versions. You can play either or both, and both sets of players will be able to interact. I haven’t seen the PC version in action so I may take it for a test drive too.
That time seems to run counter to the info I got.
‘the Sea of Thieves Closed Beta will run from 12 p.m. GMT on January 24 to 8 a.m. GMT on January 29 (4 a.m. PST on January 24 to 12 a.m. PST on January 29)’
I saw this high up on twitch. The water/wave physics are amazing O.o
Saw a running battle through a storm with crazy waves, lightning, rain, etc with (the streamer playing?) the song from Last of the Mohicans playing.
EDIT: Followed by both damaged ships involved mutually sinking to the Gladiator afterlife(?) song and being eaten by sharks.
Remember, if you’re in the beta playing on PC you can play with those of us on Xbox. Let’s get to pillaging!
Wow, just checked it out on twitch… it looks way better than I was expecting.
I went from zero to ‘I should get this’.
I played tonight and have been having a blast. I went with the crew of 4 option and our crew set off, following treasure maps, digging up chests and exploring islands. It looks gorgeous.
I love the sunsets in the crow’s nest on the ship.
And the sunrises. This one on an island.
There are also the heartbreaking moments where your ship leaves without you because you spent too long collecting more canonballs. The ingrates!
And then, all is forgiven as the crew settles to play a quiet tune while the helmsman takes us away.
Gameplay wise, I believe the game would be even if the crew was on voice. This one wasn’t. But the game has clever little tricks to compensate. If you are holding a spy glass, the quick emote sentences are all about what you can see on land or sea. If you are manning a canon, it’s all about the battle, and so on.
It was so atmospheric and enjoyable regardles though.
Even playing with strangers, I loved the fact we had to work together to sail the ship, to explore and keep watch, to maneuver and fight. Or to repair the ship when we met the suicidal sloop that kept trying to ram us while dodging our canon fire.,
The 2 on that ship were on voice. And once they got within boarding distance, I heard their voices. Really fun.
It was a blast.
I can’t wait to play more.
So many people complaining about a lack of progression but the gameplay is simply fun and that’s why I play games anyway :)
I’ll be playing and streaming until Monster Hunter comes out. I do enjoy this and the water and sound are some of the best I’ve ever seen.
Gamertag is Harkonis, just make sure you let me know you are from here since I get a lot of random friend requests too.
I’m Wendelius. I’d love to sail with you if our schedules mesh in the next few days.
EDIT: Not bad. A game in beta is more popular than League and PUBG on Twitch right now.
Rare is probably throwing a bit of shade at the other (just released) nautical adventure. Pity as both deserve their share of spottlight.
Wendy
While Mixer doesn’t have nearly the numbers as Twitch which is to be expected, it’s still cool to see co-streaming in action for a game like this:
Major Nelson from the Xbox team co-streaming this right now with Jeff Rubenstein from Xbox PR.
Been watching streams of this at work and it looks like a blast, especially with a small group of friends.
How does it look for lone wolves (people with no friends 😢)?
It’s awful. Pretty water in a giant world with nothing to do and apparently sometimes the sun goes down, the water turns red and your boat just sinks. Maybe I hit the end of the world? Hard to say since the map is in a different room from the wheel.
Played for about 90 minutes and never saw another player. Only enemy I saw was some skeletons that randomly spawn. There’s nothing to collect but wood planks, bananas and cannon balls. If you manage to find a chest there’s nothing to do with it but sell it to the last of 6 merchants you try bringing it to. I think this game probably caps out at about 45 minutes of fun if you’re playing with friends and then there’s no reason to touch it again.
Okay, good info, thanks. I tried watching a few streams, but the ones I watched were all pre-made teams of existing friends or streamers+viewers.
Bought it on the MS store and didn’t receive a code for the beta. :(
But what do I do? :)
No, seriously, what do i do. I started the game, but there is no tutorial or any obvious guidance.
Yeah, they’ve definitely added some things since I last played the technical alpha and I’m a bit lost myself. May have also landed with a bad crew. But the idea is that you should have a ship and crew to join, and you all man positions, like steering, crow’s nest, hoisting and reefing sails, so that you’re a functioning pirate ship. Reality seems to be a bit trickier. I may need to go watch some of these streamers to get an idea how this all works together.
I’m finding the transitions are odd and don’t make much sense, too. I’ve been in the whole “ship sinks/end up on ghost ship until portal opens/end up on pirate island/find ship/start over” loop, but this time I ended up in some kind of brig belowdecks, and I could not figure out how to get out for the life of me. At some point the ship I was on got in a big fight and the lower deck filled with water and I drowned. Then I went to the ghost ship afterlife for a bit, came back to life, but I was back in the same brig! No idea why I was there or how to get out. Kind of funny.
You can get your own one pirate ship. It’s much smaller and meant to be manageable by one person. But you’ll be running along trying to fulfill all the functions and will obviously be outgunned and outnumbered when you meet other players. Also, you won’t get to cooperate with your crew to solve the puzzles.
I think I’ll probably join a random crew more often than play alone.