Sid Meier’s Pirates! is the 2004 remake of a game by the same name originally released in 1987 for the Commodore 64 during Sid Meier’s tenure at MicroProse. Arriving first on PC, this Firaxis-developed remake of Pirates! was later ported to the Xbox, the PSP and Mac OS X.

Sid Meier’s Pirates! is a genre bender of a game featuring aspects of real time strategy, turn based strategy, simulation, stealth, exploration, adventure, and even some even light role-playing elements. Though Pirates! could be described as an amalgam of “mini-games”, that would be selling it short. There’s more depth to it than that, and everything is tied together nicely by the main character’s objective which is tracking down the evil Marquis de la Montalban who has enslaved his family. Activities such as sword fights, ship-to-ship naval battles, upgrading ships, turn-based land battles, trading with port merchants, capturing cities, and earning fame and fortune surpassing that of nine historical pirates are the locus to reaching this goal.
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I’ve had this song stuck in my head for a couple of days (thanks, Rocketboom) and I had to do something to squash it. Here it is:

All indie games are 33% off on Steam this weekend, many of which have been featured here at DoSu. Pro tip: buy AudioSurf!

Wonderful video here, an obvious homage to “Where The Hell Is Matt?“. It’s hard to believe that it has been ten years since I first played EverQuest. I spent about four years in that game before moving on, but it’s still the most memorable gaming time I’ve had, and I came out of it with many friends with whom I still play games to this day.

Lots of new info and some in-game footage of Alpha Protocol in this episode. It’s sounding like everything I hoped it would be: like Mass Effect, but with spies!

Speaking of Mass Effect, it looks like PC will be getting the sequel at the same time as the Xbox 360 this time around. In 2010.

Dude, yes!

Earlier this week, Valve announced that their digital distribution platform Steam would now be offering the ability to push “DLC” (Downloadable Content – a marketing term made to refer to microtransactions on consoles) to those who publish their games on Steam. This news has so far been met with reactions ranging from “good for you, PC” to customer outrage on the Steam forums. I am finding myself to be somewhere in between, but I’m leaning towards the belief that “DLC” on the PC is a bad thing for everyone involved. I’ll share with you my reactions as a consumer, as a business student, and also as a person who writes about games.

The Problem With The Maw

With The Maw’s “DLC” (two “bonus” levels), I went from thinking “that’s neat” to realizing the implications. I knew the maps were available and ready by the time the PC version released because they were available for purchase on my Xbox 360 before the game even came out. That means they were held back with the intent to sell them later as “bonus content”. This immediately diminished the value of the product that I had already purchased. I felt like I was not getting the full experience out of The Maw if I didn’t pay $2.50 for these extra levels. But I hadn’t even launched the game yet despite having pre-purchased it, knowing that if it’s good I’d be writing about it here at DoSu as a Cheap Game. But I hadn’t played it yet, so I was not attached to it. I found myself with no desire to play it. So I requested a refund. After jumping through some hoops, I received my refund. I no longer own The Maw — I probably never will again. Since that means I’ll never get to play it, The Maw will not be recommended by me here as a Cheap Game.
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Firebreather is an on-going comic co-created by writer Phil Hester and artist Andy Kuhn. Published by Image Comics, the story of Firebreather began with a four-issue mini-series in 2003 and continued in a 2004 one-shot. The on-going series began in 2008 and serves a fine jumping-on point for new readers.

Firebreather is about a high school student named Duncan Rosenblatt who is the son of a centuries-old dragon and a human woman. [Before you ask, no! I don't know how it's possible that Duncan has a dragon father and a human mother. Word is that the biology of it all will be explained somewhere around issue #10 in the on-going series.] Being a teenager with divorced parents has made life tough for Duncan. His mom wants him to do human things like going to school, getting good grades and going to college. His father, on the other hand, would rather he embrace his dragon heritage. Eager to appease both, Duncan attends high school every day as a social outcast and also trains to be a better dragon in the wilderness with his father.

Firebreather has a lot of qualities in common with books like Invincible and Ultimate Spider-Man. The characters have a school life, family life, and a superhero life. It’s a classic formula. They’re just very good comic books. They’re comic books that every fan of superheroes should read because they’re just about as good as superhero books get.

Also, Robert Kirkman commands it.

I didn’t see this news bit get much circulation, but it seems Capcom has spilled the beans about when the PC versions of several upcoming games will be coming out relative to their console versions. Most notably, it seems that Dead Rising 2 may not be coming to PC at the same time as Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, as I had feared.

Depending who you ask, Rage is coming out this year… but it’s really not. There was some confusion over this interview that Geoff Keighley conducted with Todd Hollenshead during D.I.C.E. last week. Many people thought that Todd said “No, we’ll be out this year” when questioned about their targeted release window for Rage. In fact, he said “No, we won’t be out this year”. I happened to hear right the first time, but had to double check myself when several items in my RSS reader reported the contrary.

The finest trailer I’ve seen in a very long time came out this week. It’s up there with “that Gears of War trailer” and Grand Theft Auto IV Trailer 2.