biteho.com

Microsoft’s anticipated pirate game, Sea of Thieves, finally embarked on its maiden voyage last week, and it’s one of the year’s most important releases for Xbox One and PC. Not only is it the first new title from famed developer Rare in quite some time, it’s the first game to launch simultaneously on Xbox Game Pass as part of Microsoft’s new initiative to bring its first-party releases day and date to the service.

Sea of Thieves is also one of the most ambitious games of the year so far. It casts players in the role of an aspiring pirate and lets them live out the full pirate experience, sailing across the wide-open sea, working together with friends to locate hidden treasure, and even raiding other players’ ships and pilfering their haul.

In GameSpot’s Sea of Thieves review, critic Peter Brown said “sailing across the open ocean in a creaky vessel can make you fall in love with its impressive presentation” but criticized the game for its shallow gameplay and lack of variety.

Now that other critics have also had a chance to delve into the live game, final reviews for Sea of Thieves have begun appearing online. We’ve collected a sample of them below to give you an idea of what critics have to say about Rare’s ambitious pirate game. For a broader look at the game’s reception, be sure to visit GameSpot sister site Metacritic.

• Game: Sea of Thieves
• Developer: Rare
• Platforms: Xbox One, PC
• Release date: March 20
• Price: $60 / £50

GameSpot — 6/10

“There may come a time when Sea of Thieves is able to entice me back, and I imagine that will be with a mix of new mission types and hopefully the promise of rewards that allow for new types of interactions, if not improve my character’s capabilities. For now, it’s a somewhat hollow game that can be fun for a handful of hours when played with friends, and something worth trying out if you happen to be an Xbox Game Pass subscriber. Even though it’s hard to wholeheartedly recommend, I like enough of what I see to hold out hope that things will eventually improve as the game continues to be patched and updated with new content.” — Peter Brown [Full review]

Polygon — 6.5/10

“Sea of Thieves has the foundation of an incredible experience. It is a true pirate game that simulates the experience of piracy perfectly. And yet, after those first few jaw-dropping hours, you’re going to start feeling less like Blackbeard and more like Blackbeard’s accountant.” — Russ Frushtick [Full review]

Game Informer — 7/10

“Sea of Thieves’ highs are high. Hearing the clank of your shovel against a chest as you dig feels great, and physically carrying it to the goal is emotionally rewarding (even if it isn’t monetarily rewarding). Exploring the ocean while playing music together with co-op partners on your boat is silly and fun, and watching the sun rise from the bow of your ship as you carry your spoils home is a novel experience. The core mechanics of an innovative co-op journey can be found here, but the carrot being held out in front your ship is unfortunately small and unappetizing.” — Kyle Hilliard [Full review]

US Gamer — 3/5

“I’d just like it to be a more consistent experience and one with more chances to show off player personality. I’m not done with the game, but I’m not completely rushing back to it each night either. There’s the niggling feeling that there should be more here. More islands, more factions, more customization. Maybe in a few years, there will be. Rainbow Six Siege is king of the castle two years after a disappointing launch. Sea of Thieves is also a service game and Rare wants to add to it for years to come; I hope the studio gets that chance.” — Mike Williams [Full review]

GamesRadar+ — 3.5/5

“[J]okes about giant faces aside, even when you throw in the Skeleton Forts, which act like MMO raids symbolised by skull clouds in the sky, all Sea of Thieves has bar fetch quests is its stories. I’ve still only seen one Kraken in the many, many hours I’ve sunk into Sea of Thieves, and there are plenty of odd design choices that make the missions a little irksome–from issues with chicken coops to bugs preventing entire islands from loading. That’s not to say that the stories you create aren’t brilliantly hilarious, but stories can only last you so long before the thinness of the actual content is exposed. Rare has plans to expand the map and add more content to the game as the months go on, but in its current shape, Sea of Thieves doesn’t have the (sea)legs for longevity or a sustained player base.” — Sam Loveridge [Full review]

EGM Now — 6/10

“On a superficial level, the world of Sea of Thieves promises hours of open-ended multiplayer adventures with its expansive horizons and sunken treasures. But, after a couple of hours, it felt like those promises were empty–literally. Sea of Thieves has potential, and it can be fun depending on who else is in your crew, but as far as what the game offers in is current state, there is just too little to do and too much repetition in what there is to do. I wanted to like Sea of Thieves, because sailing its vistas is an experience unlike any I’ve had in a video game, but once I got to where I was going, it too often felt like I’d gone nowhere at all.” — Michael Goroff [Full review]

It’s hard to pin down exactly what makes Far Cry so appealing. Is it the gunplay? The open-world sandbox? Perhaps the compelling villains? Or maybe it’s a combination of the three.

As a series, Far Cry has stood out for the ways it combines so many elements. So before we dive headlong into the latest in the series, Far Cry 5, let’s look back at its predecessors and examine how Far Cry’s unlikely formula has evolved in unexpected ways.

For more on the latest game meanwhile, check out our Far Cry 5 review-in-progress, the game’s weirdest mission, or some footage of Far Cry 5 running at max settings on PC. You can also watch our video feature on the history of Far Cry.

A new patch is now available for PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. Following a round of server maintenance, developer PUBG Corp. has deployed Update #8 for the PC version, adding new weapon customization options and a few other features to the popular battle royale game.

The centerpiece of the update is the new weapon skin system, which gives players the ability to customize their guns’ appearance with a variety of new skins. These can be acquired from loot boxes and applied to weapons from the Customization menu. You can take a look at some of the skins we’ve gotten in our gallery.

Players can find weapon skins in two new types of loot boxes: Triumph and Raider. Triumph is a type of random, weekly crate that requires a real-money key to open; Raider, meanwhile, is a non-random loot box that can be unlocked without a key. PUBG Corp. has outlined the drop rates for each crate and the skins they contain on the Steam forums.

To commemorate the one-year anniversary of PUBG’s Early Access release, PUBG Corp. is offering players a free anniversary weapon skin. Everyone who logs in to the game from now until May 1 will receive the Year One – SCAR-L skin, which you can see above.

In addition to that, the new patch addresses a handful of bugs, including one that would cause a player who is exiting a slow-moving vehicle to be treated as if they were hit by it. PUBG Corp. has also said it is “considering” implementing region-locking to “provide a better gameplay experience.” You can find the full patch notes on Steam.

Sea of Thieves‘ first week of availability hasn’t been entirely smooth, with the game suffering from a variety of server problems and other technical issues. A new update–the first since launch–has now been released to alleviate some of the problems that players continue to deal with.

Following a batch of server maintenance, the update is now available on Xbox One and PC. As detailed on the game’s official website, this “contains a wide array of fixes across our services, stability, and game experience.” It’s a sizable download, ranging from 10 GB on Xbox One to nearly 20 GB for the Xbox One X and PC versions. Rare explained that it opted to go for a full game update because it was the fastest way to get the fixes into players’ hands. “If we’d wanted it to be a smaller client update we would have had to delay by a number of days, and felt the priority here was releasing the improvements to our player base,” the company said.

Rare also shared full patch notes for the update (version 1.01) on its forums. These detail the long list of bugs that have been addressed, which range from Black Dog pack items not showing up and snakes facing the wrong direction to lost cosmetic changes and chests that can’t be picked up. There are also improvements to performance, and screen tearing should be less common. You can see the full patch notes below.

Much as it did after the launch issues, Rare also shared another developer update video, which you can watch above. It’s noted that demand for the game has been “off the charts” and the current priority is to get it working as intended. Several known issues remain even with this update installed, and those are discussed in the video. Those include delayed gold and reputation rewards, delayed Achievements, and Bounty quest skeletons being impossible to find.

Rare also said it’s listening to fans’ requests for improvements to the game and that it’s discussing those and will talk about them in a future video. One change it has already confirmed in response to feedback is the cancelation of the proposed death cost penalty. You can read more about the game in our Sea of Thieves review and check out some beginner’s tips to help you get started.

Sea Of Thieves Update 1.01 Patch Notes

Fixed Issues

• Players who have redeemed their Black Dog Pack pre-order code will now correctly see these items in their in-game chests. Not received your code? Check your Xbox Live messages over the next couple of days.
• Characters should no longer lose details such as hair colour and scars.
• When digging up a chest, there is no longer a chance that it will be impossible to pick up
• Players should no longer intermittently be missing items and weapons when loading into the game
• Weapon, clothing and ship cosmetic changes made after migrating server will now persist across sessions
• Players will now correctly see other players titles
• Snakes will now behave correctly, turning to face the player when agitated
• Animal and skeleton movement around slopes has been improved
• The game will no longer enter an unresponsive state after accepting a game invitation whilst matchmaking
• Merchant Alliance notifications for handing in various items have been corrected
• Lighting has been tweaked in order to improve performance on multiple islands and outposts
• Fixed tinnitus sound which persists after being killed by multiple explosive barrels.
• Seagulls now fly over floating barrels.
• Players can no longer be held by a seemingly invisible Kraken tentacle.
• Fixed a range of potential game crashes.

Performance Improvements

Significant performance optimisations across all platforms, specifically targeting the 4K native resolution of Xbox One X.

• Drastically reduced the likelihood of tearing when using the small ship.
• Reduced the likelihood of tearing when inside the Taverns.
• Sizeable framerate improvements when traversing large islands.
• Reduced likelihood of framerate hitches when navigating outposts.
• Optimised Foliage for smoother experience in overgrown jungle areas.

Further improvements and optimisations for all platforms are ongoing.

Known Issues

• Player gold and reputation can be delayed when cashing in a reward.
• Player achievements can be delayed.
  • For an update on both of these issues, please read our Launch Update written by Executive Producer, Joe Neate.
• Bounty quest skeletons sometimes do not spawn or cannot be found.
  • If you encounter this bug, a potential work around is to sail away from the island until it’s out of range, and then sail back in to trigger the Island Name banners.
• Joining a player whose ship is parked at an active skeleton fort will prevent the joining player’s radial menus being opened.
• Rare Lore Items throughout the world will read in English, regardless of current language settings.
• “Hunter of Cursed Crews,” Commendation is not updating.
• Players may become comically smaller after fighting the Kraken.