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Pirates of the Caribbean Online sets sail today
Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean Online launched today for PC and Mac. The game is apparently free to download from PiratesOnline.com. The basic game is free, but for full access there will be a $10 monthly fee. As we learned during our hands-on time with the title months ago, the game is designed for the casual audience. The game is based off the Toontown Online engine, so the graphics will look dated, but the requirements on your computer of choice are low.Players can create their own pirate from scratch, get a ship, quest for treasure and do various other piratey things. Although we'd recommend Sid Meier's Pirates! (which from a graphics perspective still looks better) before we'd say to try this, if you're really itching for a simple MMO you may want to check out Pirates of the Caribbean Online.%Gallery-1491%
Joystiq hands-on: Pirates of the Caribbean Online
Last week, at the Bay Area Fencing Center, I got a chance to play Disney Online's Pirates of the Caribbean Online. With its variety of activities, the MMO is targeted at a more intermediate, casual audience than World of Warcraft and other online games. Beyond level grinding players can engage ship battles, venture through quests from characters in the Pirates movies, play card games, and try other pirate-based objectives.Pirates Online is based on the Toontown Online engine, meaning that a fairly old PC can still play. (Final requirements are still uncertain, but a P3 800 with 256MB RAM is the target.) But because of the low entry, the graphics are far from current standard; I saw a lot of blocky shapes and simple gradients. While good graphics would be ideal, I thought the visuals sufficiently conveyed the world.The Toontown engine's recent Mac conversion will also benefit Apple's gamers; Pirates Online will be released for OS X. The developers were excited about Mac prospects and hope to get the game out at the same time as the PC launch in the Spring, but Disney Interactive's official stance is that a Mac game is coming, but without any timeline.I had fun exploring Pirates of the Caribbean Online, taking the helm of ships, shouting arcane seafaring phrases, and swashbuckling. Keep reading to learn about pirate garb, fluid fighting, and massive ship battles.%Gallery-1491%
