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Pirates of the Black Cove

Thanks mate! I think I saw these over the weekend, I just got distracted with a couple of other things and never got a chance to post them. :facepalm

I gotta find time to watch The Black Pirate too, it's been a while since I watched a silent movie and this one definitely looks like a good one! I gotta figure out how to make Keith pay me so I can quite my job and take care of the important stuff around here! xD:
 
Hey all!

Sorry for the slight delay, i.e. no posts at all for the previous week. I was on vacation, so... I regret nothing :)

Anyway! Onwards with the golden oldies!
The third episode of Pirates of Black Cove Presents in its series of classic pirate movies is Captain Blood (1935). Starring Errol Flynn and directed by Michael Curtiz, Captain Blood tells the story of a gentleman, Dr. Peter Blood, who, after aiding a wounded friend turned rebel against the Crown, is captured and himself sentenced for treason! Instead of being put to death, Blood is instead sold as a slave, and bought by the lovely governor's daughter! Soon Blood escapes, turns to piracy and haunts both English and French ships, but when the dastardly French aim to attack an innocent English colony, Blood sails under English flag again in order to deal with the dastardly French! Awesomeness ensues!

”Once again the sea echoes to the thunder of history's most daring pirate! Swashbuckling leader of a desperate horde! Devil-may-care philanderer! Reckless Adventurer! Terror of the Caribbean!”

Ah, old pulp action adventures, how I love thee.

 
Welcome back mate, hope you had a good vacation! :dance

Aye now, this be a classic for certain! Not only did it skyrocket Errol Flynn from nobody to bona fide movie star, it was nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director. It undoubtedly would have won at least two if it hadn't had to go up against another nautical classic, Mutiny on the Bounty. Olivia de Havilland is absolutely gorgeous, and Basil Rathbone plays a perfect typical Frenchman! While the movie is not exactly a faithful adaptation of the classic book by Raphael Sabatini, Michael Curtiz does a good job trying to pack it all into under 2 hours.
 
Thagarr said:
Aye now, this be a classic for certain! Not only did it skyrocket Errol Flynn from nobody to bona fide movie star...
Click to expand...

Indeed! Flynn really filled Douglas Fairbank's boots of reckless adventurer and womanizing swashbuckler, and those were some pretty big boots to fill! It really is a must-see to anyone who values old action adventures - the production values of the movie were high, and it really shows in both the fight scenes and especially in the quality of the sets. This kind of movie is the epitome of what we love about romanticized pirates -- fiery passion for freedom, yet loyalty unto your brethren, and willingness to sacrifice your very own life for love. The truth about pirate life might be a tad different, but who cares, when there's Flynn on the silver screen? :)

It is no accident that Pirates of the Black Cove has a plot like this:

Do note, that this isn't an official teaser. It's a rehash made by a third party, re-editing our alpha trailer, hence the old logo and copyright mentions and so on. No matter, it still conveys the spirit of the game rather well.
 
Also, we've posted some concept art on our Facebook page. For convenience's sake, I'll link a few of them directly here. Go see the whole set if this kind of thing interests you.

183388_188779707828811_180447755328673_477954_7377311_n.jpg


182726_188781164495332_180447755328673_477961_6197698_n.jpg


184691_188781461161969_180447755328673_477969_5798203_n.jpg
 
Aaaand here we go! Nitro Games and Paradox Interactive proudly present thePirates of Black Cove demo! Full of content, the demo spans 30 minutes and three full missions from the full version! But wait! There's more! The full game will feature the Kraken, monkey shooting cannons, parrots that insult and have no respect, the Great White Whale, the Curse of Jah, more land units, more hero characters, and, of course, your Destiny as the vanquisher of the dreaded Pirates of Black Cove!

As a nifty bonus, demo players get to keep 500 pieces of eight for the full version. That's right – just by playing the demo and then switching to the full version of Pirates of Black Cove, you'll be a rich man!

The demo is available immediately from FilePlanet. Just click this link here.

And do let us know what you think :)
 
Cool stuff mate! :onya

I just got finished playing the demo and here are my first impressions :

Very smooth install, it did take a while though nothing out of the ordinary for this big of a file. The opening cut scene and tutorials are fairly quick and get you into the game and actually playing very quickly. The graphics are very well done, perhaps a bit cartoonish not that that is a bad thing, and the water looks beautiful. The voice acting is pretty good and does sound piratical, with a lot of 'yarr's' and 'Aye's' thrown in the right places. The background music has a Caribbean sound, and it isn't overpowering and suits the game quite well. The controls are standard WASD, with a bit of mouse thrown in. The game played flawlessly on my 3 year old rig, I turned the graphics detail way up just to see how it would preform and it did good, with just a hint of lag and a bit of stutter. Once I turned the graphic details back to the recommended settings it was flawless. The only real issue I noticed was while I was in port, moving the mouse around the edges of the town map caused some stutter and a bit of glitchy wierdness, but nothing to bad. Overall, I am fairly impressed, this is a much better gamer than what I was expecting from what I had seen so far. I am not to fond of the voodoo theme, mainly because Disney has way overplayed it, but the demo left me wanting to play more! :cheers
 
Thagarr said:
...the demo left me wanting to play more! :cheers
Click to expand...

\o/
It's always nice to hear comments like this. After months of hard work, you get kinda scared about what the public will think, and all you can really do is give it your best and hope the players will like it. So, it's good to hear that at least someone finds the premise promising! :)
We will keep on polishing the code -- at this point we'll add very little to the game, save for a few easter eggs and so on, and just concentrate on making the game as smooth an experience as possible.

And now for something completely different.
We all know who Blackbeard was, but how many of us have heard of Yellowbeard? Mel Damski's comedy from the early 80s doesn't hold anyone or anything sacred - it openly mocks its genre while succeeding in being an entertaining, albeit juvenile treasure hunting romp in itself.

 
The time is at hand, my fellow ruffians, to shed the secrecy concerning Pirates of Black Cove's release date! Indeed! I will soon tell you the official release date!
In fact, I'll tell it to you...

Right now!

*ahem!*


Pirates of Black Cove will be released August 2nd in Steam, Direct2Drive, Impulse, and other major direct download sites.

If you have played the demo, you will start the full version of the game with 500 extra pieces of gold, making your first steps in the Caribbean a whole lot faster!

The time is almost at hand, my brethren. Sharpen your swords, and loosen your tongues with grog! Hoist the main sails and let the Jolly Roger fly high and proud!
(And somebody finally silence that parrot! It has no respect!)
 
Thanks for the update mate, I am very much looking forward to playing the full version! :dance

Yellowbeard : "Dying's the easy way out. You won't catch me dying. They'll have to kill me before I die!" "When they stretched me on the rack for a couple of years, I didn't go around dyin' all over the place!" xD:

Yellowbeard is one of my favorite movies, the totally irreverent humor has kept me laughing for almost 30 years now, and I don't see it ending anytime soon! This one finally came out on DVD a couple of years ago, and it is well worth picking up! Graham Chapman was absolutely brilliant as Yellowbeard, Eric Idle and John Cleese also gave a couple of spot on performances. This movie may have been short a few cast members, but it was Monty Python at heart! Madeline Kahn and Marty Feldman had me rolling through the entire movie. The only real disappointment in this film in my opinion were Cheech and Chong, they just felt completely out of place, though there were a few amusing scenes.
 
The demo was fun although the game ran very laggy on my computer, I don't know why. I turned off almost everything in the advanced options except for vertical sync.

Hardware aside, the demo was longer than I expected and like I said before, it was quite fun.
 
As the latest pirate movie classic, Pirates of Black Cove presents Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003). Yes, it's not a very old movie, but its high production values and extremely good entertainment factor more than make up for its young age.

Captain "Lucky Jack" Aubrey's ship HMS Surprise is hunting a French privateer, Acheron, but is badly damaged in a surprise attack. Despite extensive damages and the objection of his officers, Aubrey doggedly refuses to give up pursuit: if let run free, Acheron would continue harassing British whaling fleet, where its speed, guns and sturdy build could very well tip the balance of naval power in Napoleon's favor. The pursuit results in a deadly cat and mouse game, where both captains, each sly as a fox, try to outthink and outmaneuver his opponent by using all means necessary, including decoys and mist.

Directed by Peter Weir, Master and Commander embodies all that is great about action, adventure, sail ships and pirates. It is not a simple action romp, but a thoughtful, complex and well written movie about courage, willpower, and the harsh conditions each ship must survive even before they get into cannon range. Even if you have seen this movie already, it's well worth seeing again.

[video=youtube;KpNhN-L9L-g]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpNhN-L9L-g[/video]
 
Heigh-ho, me hearties!

We made a neat gameplay video about Pirates of Black Cove. Enjoy! :)

[video=youtube;7TN67VcN2UA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TN67VcN2UA[/video]


We also made a second video dev diary that's being shown at Gamers Daily News. I'd embed the diary for your convenience in this post, but unfortunately GDN doesn't share its goodies, and the video isn't yet on YouTube. So, you'll just have to click this link here to see the video: this here is the link.
 
RTSguru really liked how the Pirates of Black Cove demo felt like. (And for good reason, might I add!)

"I was already looking forward to this title, and the demo has done nothing but cement it onto my must-buy list. Paradox lists the release date as 8/2/2011 and personally I can’t wait."

Read the whole article here.


In fact, Gamereactor loved the demo as well! This one's in Finnish, though, so let's recap for the benefit of those who do not speak our crazy moon language: GR found Pirates of Black Cove to be really entertaining and very promising, and gave the preview a 4/5!

Read Gamereactor's preview here.


Give the demo a spin yourself - if you like it too, the full game is out in two weeks! Yarr!
The demo can be downloaded for free here: FilePlanet
 
This week's pirate movie classic is an exceedingly hilarious and completely over-the-top The Crimson Pirate (1952).

Starring Burt Lancaster, the movie tells the story of the Crimson Pirate, a daredevil adventurer and a swashbuckler of unsurpassed skill, who gets embroiled in the Caribbean revolution in the 18th century, and simply proceeds to kick everyone's butt while romancing the rebel leader Consuelo.
The Crimson Pirate is totally tongue in cheek with its bouncing plotline and anachronistic contraptions like hot air balloons, but it is precisely this unrealistic and adventurous touch that makes the movie so amazingly entertaining. Plus, Burt Lancaster does his own stunts which adds some hair-raising factor to the battles - Lancaster used to be a circus acrobat before becoming a silver screen legend, and his dexterity is fully utilized by the director.
Pure awesomeness.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8677tT1b5rY [/video]
 
This week's movie classic doesn't cover just one movie but rather two quite different adaptations of the same story. Mutiny on the Bounty is a real event in 1789, where the crew of H.M.S. Bounty rose to mutiny. The stories of both presented movies revolves around the two men, the captain and his first mate, driven into extreme measures, but each movie takes a very different approach into how and why the famous mutiny came to be.


Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) is a faithful filmatization of the book of the same name, written by Charles Nordhoff and James Norton Hall.
In this movie, Captain William Bligh (Charles Laughton) is a clear cut villain – he is a ruthless taskmaster willing to go to any lenghts in order to keep the crew of H.M.S. Bounty in line, including flogging a dead man. The first mate Fletcher Christian (Clark Cable) despises captain Bligh and his methods, and when Bligh's cruelty inadvertedly causes the death of the ship's doctor, Christian leads the crew into mutiny and takes control of the ship.
After the mutiny, Christian and the crew take permanent anchor at Tahiti, and send Captain Bligh and those loyal to him adrift in a skiff, to navigate home as they please. Thru a combination of willpower and luck, Bligh and his loyalists navigate the seas for almost two months, reaching Dutch East Indies without losing a single hand on the tiny vessel. They return to England, report the mutiny, and set sail to Tahiti to recapture H.M.S. Bounty and bring justice to the mutineers.
When Bligh's new ship is sighted, Christian and his crew flee by setting sail with the Bounty. They eventually land on Pitcairn Island and found a colony there.
Mutiny on the Bounty takes several liberties with historical accuracy, but is, in the end, considered to be the best cinematic work inspired by the real events. It was nominated for six Oscar Awards, of which Mutiny on the Bounty won the Oscar for Best Picture. In the Best Actor category, Mutiny on the Bounty had three of its actors nomineed, which speaks volumes about how well acted this epoch is.

[video=youtube;OtmV2tpbnjA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtmV2tpbnjA[/video]



Whereas Mutiny on the Bounty is a rather black-and-white, albeit entertaining, version of the mutiny, The Bounty (1984) muddles it into shades of grey.
H.M.S. Bounty has been stranded at Tahiti for months, during which time the crew of the ship grow fond of the leisurely life and easy pleasures the island has to offer. Some crew members take wives, including first mate Fletcher (Mel Gibson). When Captain Bligh (Anthony Hopkins), portrayed as a honorable, proud and moral man, tries to return to sea and bring the crew of his ship back into discipline, he is met with resistance unfitting to men of the royal navy. Bit by bit captain Bligh's disciplinary choices grow harsher, and finally the crew mutinees, both to topple the now-tyrannous captain from his seat of power, but also out of longing to be able to return to Tahiti and continue their lives away from the command of the British flag.
Fletcher and the crew sail back to Tahiti only to find that they are no longer welcome – the Tahitians fear that the actions of the crew will bring the full wrath of King George on them, so they drive the outlanders away. Forced to find another safe harbor, the crew eventually lands on Pitcairn Island, and burn the Bounty in order to remain hidden from the British Navy.
Captain Bligh returns to England and is found not guilty for losing his ship in the mutiny.
The Bounty is a far more realistic depiction of the real mutiny, and it is both gritty and grimy, but also very intelligent – there are no bad guys in this movie, only people with strong but incompatible loyalties.
Again, the movie is full of excellent acting. In lack of proper trailer, this collage of captain Bligh's outbursts in his attempts to control his crew will do.

[video=youtube;wUlgVqSeLRk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUlgVqSeLRk [/video]
 
Out of curiosity, will the game have some modability? Nothing fancy, just stuff like perhaps swapping sound effects or some textures?

I've seen both Bounty movies, I definitely recommend both!
 
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