Naturally, then, gamers have been eager to find out exactly what the online component of Sea of Thieves ‘ multiplayer would entail. Unfortunately, those expecting that the title would be free-to-play once initially purchased are going to be sorely disappointed. Sea of Thieves design director Gregg Mayles shot down the idea of a free multiplayer experience in an interview with Eurogamer at E3 2016 yester

As is the case with Quantum Break , one of the biggest Xbox One exclusives coming next year is from a third-party studio. Platinum Games is developing a new action RPG called Scalebound , which will allow gamers to take the skies on the backs of dragons, and battle enemies with the help of friends in 4-player co-op. Scalebound ‘s Gamescom 2015 trailer impressed many, and hopefully Platinum Games can stick the landing when the game releases next y

The most important element to call out in terms of our general approach to combat is that Sea of Thieves is a game with guns and swords in it, but it’s not a game all about guns and swords. We want Sea of Thieves to support different motivations and playstyles, but when combat does occur, it should feel right for the pirate experience we’re creating, while fully supporting the kinds of emergent encounters that can occur while out on a voy

As these five games illustrate, 2016 is shaping up to be another banner year for the Xbox One. While the system definitely had a rocky start thanks to a very misguided E3 2013 presentation, it now has a fairly extensive library of quality games, and many more are on the way. If the five games listed here all manage to avoid delay and live up to the hype, then 2016 could possibly be the best year for Xbox One to d

Of course, the abundance of open water does inevitably lend itself to islands to stop by and pillage — hearkening, of course, to the more casual affairs of Wind Waker and the game does indeed share many similarities — obvious or otherwise, good and bad. But if anything, Sea of Thieves reminds me more so of Jalopy — a rather unexciting-yet-ironically-stimulating simulation of driving one’s car down a highway. And just like that game, there’s an uncanny loft of satisfaction to be had in the mundane and the repetitive. Particularly when you’re lucky enough to land yourself with a crew equally as focused as yourself…and not just there to troll or ruin the fun for everyone’s sake, which sadly me and a friend got paired up with on our venturing for treasure. Disappointing as it is for some to play mutiny (albeit unintentionally) and ride your ship away from the island you’re stuck on, perhaps that’s just part of the general risk. After all, this is a game about pirates; just like the Souls games, the anarchy and unruliness of the real world bleed fittingly into the context of the premise.

Azario: There’s a possibility that some players might have trouble with finding things to do, but in the case of our adventure, I thought we made a fine crew of rookie pirates on our first voyage with many more plan

Tomas: Fortunately I stopped and Azario was able to get back on the ship after about a minute of swimming, and we continued our voyage to the island. It was smooth sailing (pun intended) from there. Once we reached the island, I had someone shoot me out of a cannon onto the isl

But perhaps it’s this deliberate restriction that lends itself to some interesting interactions between players and novel use of player skills as a means at working better together. While the skill at merely turning a map around to show others sounds ridiculously basic, it’s a clever move in context. A means to build bridges between similarly-plucked team-mates and better incentivises Sea of Thieves’ core, principle lesson in working together. Granted the perk is proven moot when, upon agreeing on a particular voyage, you simply get handed the same maps in your inventory, but the physicality of such interactivity in-game is welcome regardless. When it comes to your ship, though, all hands are most certainly on deck. There are sails to align and angle; potential hazards to flag and shout out to the player steering the ship (whom, if the sails are set at full length can’t see where they’re steering, again a nice nudging toward better relationships)…and if worse comes to worse, leaks to repair should you collide. Or even worse, cries of “FRAME-RATE!” — as I had to do when a teammate is barking compass directions but I have no means to control the stuttering performance — when the game (on PC) decides to nose-dive from relatively stable 60FPS to, at its worst, the high-teens — the most notable drops occurring mostly at Sea of Thieves ships|https://seaofthievesfans.com/, relatively afar from shore.

We’ve also gone a step further compared to most other experiences that have aim down sights, in that the default position when carrying a gun around is not held in an aiming stance from the hip. Instead, guns that are not being actively aimed have their barrels pointing upwards or close to the player’s body. The reason for this is that players have to take a specific action to aim the gun (and be seen to aim the gun), which makes it much clearer to determine the intent of other players: if you see them aiming at you, you know they are trying to line up a shot. Conversely, if you come across another crew in the world who seems more friendly and their guns are raised, the situation can feel less hostile. Ordinarily, in a typical shooter, even with aim down sights, the gun is held outwards and from the hip and other players automatically look more dea