Sea of Thieves is primarily about social interaction between the players in the shared world experience. Whether playing with real life friends, regular online gaming partners, or complete strangers, the goal is to interact and work together as a crew. In game ice breakers will be included to help strangers loosen up and bond with each other, an analogy that was given was it is like going to a pub to have a drink and meet new friends.

Specific examples of visual effects cited within Sea of Thieves ' trailer include cannon explosions and how cannon balls crash into ship hulls, as well as the spray of water as a ship parts the sea. Andreas Oberg, the VFX Lead at Rare, describes these effects in detail regarding how they're used to create a more visceral and engaging experience for players. Andreas describes it thusly within the trai

Sea of Thieves is meant to capture the spirit of adventure children have when they play. There is no convoluted tutorial that spans many hours, being that the theme of the game is pirates it is assumed most people have a general idea of what it is pirates do so you can hop into the game, raise the anchor, lower the sails, and set off looking for booty to plunder. Whether the quest involves fighting, treasure hunting, exploration, or just drunken hedonism, the goal is to hang out with people and have a good time. This looks like a great way for you and some friends to get together and live out the fantasy of going on a pirate adventure without getting seasick or losing a hand to a crocodile.

Even though Rare Replay was one of the most pleasant surprises of 2015, it's been far too long since Rare has made a game that feels truly aligned with its original development vision. Yes, the masterminds of yesteryear have moved on from the heralded development studio, but when we got a glimpse of Rare's next project, it's hard not to feel that awesome blend of nostalgia and novelty that this UK-based developer seemed to capture so well.

There are definitely some major questions about Sea of Thieves, especially when you consider that Rare is not a studio that has ever put together an online game that feels truly cutting edge, but if everything hits, Microsoft's investment in this legendary studio could be totally worth it. The real goal here should be to find a way to make a charming, deep online version of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag , considering that may be the best pirate game we've ever received.

It is extremely important for us that sword combat feels right for the Sea of Thieves world. We don’t want to use excessive UI elements, we want to maintain first person, and it needs work neatly alongside the numerous other game mechanics. It’s also critical for sword combat to work all kinds of emergent scenarios. it won’t always be 1v1, it might be 3v3 or 5v1,

Today Sea of Thieves Lead Designer Mike Chapman posted on the game's forums to give more details on how personal combat with flintlocks, blunderbusses and swords will actually work on Rare's upcoming shared world adventure g

Azario: There’s a possibility that some players might have trouble with finding things to do, but in the case of our adventure, I thought we made a fine crew of rookie pirates on our first voyage with many more plan

Ah yes, 2016 is here. We've finally gotten to the point in our planet's history where the current year almost sounds fictitious. Bad quips about how the number of years that have passed aside, 2016 is set to be a downright fascinating 366 days when it comes to video games (that's right, it's a leap year - here's to hoping you found this out from a gaming article). If there's one thing that there isn't enough of on the Internet every year, it's articles hoping for certain aspects of a new year to be wonderful. In honor of this, we're bringing you three wonderful wishes for each major gaming entity (PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo and PC) over the next four days that, if true, might just make 2016 the best year for gaming yet. While the Xbox One is very much in second place, Microsoft's heavy consumer focus over the past year definitely has put the Xbox One in prime position to be a downright awesome console.

[pullquote]You need each crew member to be controlling a different part of the ship. Someone needs to steer, another needs to watch for land from the crow’s nest, someone can man the cannons, and someone has to patch up the inevitable holes in the ship.[/pullqu

From the trailers and listening to the developers, click this over here now does not seem like a typical MMO. There will be some lore in the world as well as predesigned quests to embark on, but this appears to be a more player character driven experience. There are no legendary heroes such as Captain Blackbeard, nor is there one single campaign that will play the same for everyone. The players will become the legendary heroes based on their individual exploits, and the continued involvement will help the game world's lore evolve. Everyone is meant to have a unique and different experience that is more shaped by the scallywags on their crew than by scripted in game events or AI bots. If another pirate ship is seen on the horizon, that is another crew controlled by other players coming into your world. This can be an opportunity to bond with your crew members by unloading your cannons on them, or if you are a friendly group of pirates perhaps meet up with the new crew to consume barrels of rum together.