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New Review of AoP

C

Capn_Tucker

Landlubber
Well, Gamespot finally has posted a review of AoP, and it isn't pretty! AoP receives yet another broadside, with a 4.7 rating from Gamespot. The main things I took away from the review were "half-baked", and "belongs in Davey Jone's Locker". Ouch! Commercially, I'd say this one is the final nail in AoP's coffin; look for it in the bargain bins very soon.
The diehard pirate gamers have already gotten it, but aside from them and a few unsuspecting casual gamers, that will be pretty much it. I can only hope that Akella has paid attention to all the bad reviews before releasing anything else. But they really don't seem to care; it's like "we made a few bucks, and on to the next project". This uncaring attitude will one day come back and bite them in the a$$. I know that I will never buy another full-price Akella title until things change.. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/dry.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="<_<" border="0" alt="dry.gif" />
 
<!--quoteo(post=167515:date=Oct 14 2006, 09:40 AM:name=Capn_Tucker)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Capn_Tucker @ Oct 14 2006, 09:40 AM) [snapback]167515[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
". This uncaring attitude will one day come back and bite them in the a$$. I know that I will never buy another full-price Akella title until things change.. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/dry.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="<_<" border="0" alt="dry.gif" />
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I think it already has, recall plenty of Russian players posting here, flooding our forums with rants over their super buggy version. I'm only suprised they haven returned too post { ha! ha ! we told you so}
but heh! its still early yet <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="xD:" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" />
 
<!--quoteo(post=167515:date=Oct 14 2006, 08:40 AM:name=Capn_Tucker)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Capn_Tucker @ Oct 14 2006, 08:40 AM) [snapback]167515[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
Well, Gamespot finally has posted a review of AoP, and it isn't pretty! AoP receives yet another broadside, with a 4.7 rating from Gamespot. The main things I took away from the review were "half-baked", and "belongs in Davey Jone's Locker". Ouch! Commercially, I'd say this one is the final nail in AoP's coffin; look for it in the bargain bins very soon.
The diehard pirate gamers have already gotten it, but aside from them and a few unsuspecting casual gamers, that will be pretty much it. I can only hope that Akella has paid attention to all the bad reviews before releasing anything else. But they really don't seem to care; it's like "we made a few bucks, and on to the next project". This uncaring attitude will one day come back and bite them in the a$$. I know that I will never buy another full-price Akella title until things change.. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/dry.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="<_<" border="0" alt="dry.gif" />
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OMG 4.7? reading the review right now, i think the review is underrated because in my opinion AOP is a very good game with lot of bugs but its not the first game to be released with that many bugs, however the game is mod friendly ( no thanks to akella since hackers unlocked the source code ) and i dont know but for me even if the game crashes every second at least the 5 minutes worth gameplay are fun and graphics are very good.

The gamespot review says 6 at graphics? no way, graphics are very nice! and here runs very smooth with this kinda old comp.

I know other gamespot reviews and AOP in a fair review should had at least 7
 
I agree the 3rd person at sea, and land graphics are good. The on-deck graphics are so-so. I enjoyed ship to ship combat from on-deck in POTC, but it's just not the same feel in AOP, and I find myself fighting ship battles in 3rd person. Multi-deck fighting, at least when boarding larger ships, would have been nice, but overall I like the new fighting better, once I got used to the controls.

I have not had the problems a lot of people have experienced though. I do have some CTDs, but not near the problems a lot of people have reported here. I have noticed bugs here and there, but most of them are temporary irritations, and haven't significantly affected gameplay for me. I've only played the original game out of the box with no patches or mods. The only thing I did was use the SF no dvd crack.

I had plenty of reasons not to buy this game. After reading all the posts I could find on this and other forums, it looked like AOP was dead in the water. Yet, I still bought the game full price through Amazon because I got tired of checking the local stores only to find that they still didn't have it in stock.

Why? Because age of sail/pirate games are few and far between. And while I agree with most of the posters here, that AOP has not lived up to it's potential, I still think it's a pretty good game...definitely worth the thirty bucks I spent on it.

POTC had some problems too when it first came out...not as many maybe, but it did have problems. The modding community took that base and have pretty much made a different game out of POTC than what was released. I can only hope that the modders don't give up on AOP. I think it has a lot more potential, and if the great modders continue to work on it, it will also be an awesome game eventually.

Bottom line, this is not POTC! I was kinda disappointed at first playing this game, but once I accepted that this is not POTC, and started to see the game for it's own merits, and (change is difficult) learn the new controls, I really started getting into it. I really can't wait to play it with the mods, and I hope the modders continue to unlock the potential of this game.

Last, but not least "Thank you modders!" I can only guess at how much time and effort y'all put into modding, but it is much appreciated. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! I would love to help, but I don't have the first clue about any facet of it. Sure love the results though! Cheers.
 
Let me post one thing to interject here - about the "Non-Caring" attitude.

Akella only makes the game. That's it. A patch is made by the developer, but not handled by them. It's up to PlayLogic to decide what to do, as with anything in life - It costs money.
 
<!--quoteo(post=167677:date=Oct 16 2006, 01:22 AM:name=William)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(William @ Oct 16 2006, 01:22 AM) [snapback]167677[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
Let me post one thing to interject here - about the "Non-Caring" attitude.

Akella only makes the game. That's it. A patch is made by the developer, but not handled by them. It's up to PlayLogic to decide what to do, as with anything in life - It costs money.
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That's true, Akella does indeed make the game. And publishers are indeed responsible for the patches. BUT, the game a developer puts out should at least be (mostly) complete and playable out of the box. To deliver something that's missing 50% of it's content, contains hundreds of bugs, and unstable to boot is if not "non-caring", pretty darn irresponsible.
Don't get me wrong, I really want to like Akella's games; but they are getting progressively worse. It began with the Sea Dogs 2/PotC debacle, and continues with AoP. I can only imagine what Captain Blood's going to be like <shudders>...
 
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