Bethesda: Sea Dogs II info

After playing Morrowind, Bethesda is one of my favorite developers.  I never played Sea Dogs 1 but I know it\'s going to be a good RPG.

http://www.dailygame.net/Articles/commentary/seadogs.html

Having thrown dozens of hours into Sea Dogs for the PC, I would be amiss if I didn’t admit a bit of giddiness at the prospect of playing the sequel to the pirate RPG. Sea Dogs II is tentatively scheduled to release in spring 2003 for both the Xbox and PC, and it’s virtually assured to follow in the acclaimed footsteps of its predecessor, which was hands down the best pirate game since Sid Meier’s classic, Pirates!.

To help tide us over until Sea Dogs II hits store shelves, Pete Hines, a member of both Sea Dogs teams and the director of marketing for Bethesda Softworks (which also published a little game we like to call The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind), graciously updated DailyGame.net readers on the game’s progress, storyline and graphics engine.

How soon after Sea Dogs was released for the PC did Bethesda decide to work on a PC sequel and an Xbox version?

Akella [developer of the original Sea Dogs] began work on Sea Dogs II immediately after completing Sea Dogs. Sea Dogs II was built with the Xbox in mind. So in the early stages things like control schemes and interface and memory requirements were all incorporated into the design.



Does Sea Dogs II offer multiple campaigns, as in the original?

You play the game as one of two characters – Danielle or Blaze – and the campaign is slightly different depending on the character you choose. We felt that the different storylines in the original Sea Dogs provided a lot of gameplay options, but it confused some folks as they switched between sides, and it was difficult to tell which areas were “roped off” to the character or which quests were no longer available.

So in Sea Dogs II we still have different forces fighting for control, but the storyline is the same. Much like in Morrowind, these groups perhaps change your perspective on the main quest and how you go about completing it, but they don’t change the quest itself.

The way we handle it in Sea Dogs II is to provide you with a structured main quest that is easy to follow. This provides the “greased rails” for people who are interested in sitting down with a game and finishing it over a defined period of time. In addition, Sea Dogs II provides a lot of off-the-beaten-path quests and randomly generated quests (based on the stats of your character and ship at the time), which provide endless amounts of open-ended gameplay. In that sense, it’s a lot like Morrowind in that you can go where you want and just have fun doing things and living in the world. At the same time, the main story is very structured and streamlined for the gamer who doesn’t want to play for 200 hours ... they just want to play, have fun and finish.

Has the Sea Dogs II graphics engine been enhanced to reflect the more powerful hardware of current PCs and the Xbox?

Sea Dogs II uses the next version of Akella’s engine, Storm 2. It takes full advantage of the capabilities on Xbox, as well as today’s more powerful video cards. I’m really, really happy with the way it looks on Xbox. It looks fantastic, even better than Morrowind I’d have to say.


Will the PC and Xbox versions of Sea Dogs II differ in any way?

As with Morrowind, there will be some differences in the interface and controls, but the two versions will be identical in terms of gameplay.

How has having a pre-defined system changed the development cycle for the Xbox version of Sea Dogs II?

Any developer will tell you that developing for a console where you write directly to the hardware, and knowing that every single Xbox owner will have the same hardware, is much easier than putting something out for PC and having to test the game on a small farm of PCs with combinations of different video cards, sound cards, operating systems, etc. Testing for a PC game is a nightmare compared to a console. There are simply far too many things out of your control.

Many thanks to Pete Hines and the development team at Bethesda Softworks for updating DailyGame.net readers on the progress of Sea Dogs II. Look to DailyGame.net in the months ahead for more information on this anticipated title.

I want this game. Loved the first one.
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LIVE SEX WEBSHOWS