The Sea of Thieves closed beta has only been active for a handful of days, but that hasn't stopped hungry gamers from turning over every rock (in-game or otherwise) in the quest to uncover as much about the game as possible. The upcoming multiplayer seafaring experience will see pirates voyaging from island to island in search of treasure, contracts, and glory, but the closed beta only offers a sample-sized portion of the full picture. Now, Sea of Thieves fans have datamined the closed beta in order to get a better glimpse of what is to c

This isn't the first time that Rare has talked about cross-play for Sea of Thieves patch notes|https://seaofthievesfans.com/ of Thieves , however. Earlier this year, when Rare first activated the closed alpha on PC, the team decided to try out cross-play just to see how it felt. Executive Producer Joe Neate called the experience “magical,” explaining that it led him to question why any game would split player bases. But questions about balance and fairness prevented Rare from making it official straight away, however the more the studio considered cross-play, the more it realized there was no good reason not to include

Delivering sword combat for a network game, especially as part of a first person experience, is particularly challenging. We’re busy prototyping sword combat to get it into exactly the right place before we add it to a build that some lucky players in the Insider Programme will get a chance to play and provide feedback on. We’ve tried a few different approaches and we’re getting closer to a solution we feel happy with. We know where it needs it sit in terms of the overall approach to combat, but we’re still keen resolve some remaining issues before its ready for a larger audience. As always, there will be much more to share in the fut

Then there’s the workings and actual programming side of the ocean itself, particularly the many ways in which the waves crash and tumble against your ship. The textures and dynamics, the way they sway to and fro, sending a once calm voyage into potentially risky affairs; I’ve plenty to say on this feature alone, so I’ll leave it at that for the time being. In terms of gameplay, wherein (least in the beta build) you can decide to go it alone, team up with another or join a party of four, Sea of Thieves is a hands-on, labor-focused experience, stripping away all hereditary comforts with the interface such as a mini-map or objective indicators alike in favor of more communicative and team-based, working together.

Since players have to aim down sights to fire, this also means that the pace of combat is slowed right down, with players typically choosing to stand in place to fire a considered shot, much like you’d actually see in any hostile encounter in a pirate mo

After Microsoft acquired the rights to the Gears of War franchise , The Coalition (formerly known as Black Tusk Studios) quickly went to work on a fifth entry in the critically-acclaimed series. E3 2015 saw a stunning gameplay reveal of Gears of War 4 , which is looking to bring back the grimmer horror elements and 2-player co-op that helped make the original such a hit in the first pl

Other honorable mentions include the mention of mermaids being listed as enemies although they appear to be benevolent in the beta, and other fruits joining the banana as food available to players. The full list of data below also features new maps, landmark locations, NPCs and Shops that have not been seen bef

A few things found in the datamining process include the Kraken. The data has animations for a Kraken holding the player, eating them, and spitting them out, and another action called 'waterdunk'. These animations are written out, as opposed to being actually visible, but it could be a hint as to what we'll see in the fut

As our Executive Producer, @JoeNineTee said in An Important Question for Joe and Gang, we’ve been talking about how best to respond to some of the big questions that we see on the forums. Fair to say, personal combat is an area that has lots of outstanding questions around how we’re planning to approach this in terms of the variety of weaponry and how this will feel to p

What Redditor m4rx hauled in from their dive into the Sea of Thieves data was pretty interesting. While many of the assets have yet to be decrypted, it turns out some the elements found were also present in the Pirate Legend video released previously by Rare. But there's also quite a lot m

(Image: https://freestocks.org/fs/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/seagulls_floating_in_the_sea-1024x683.jpg)Perhaps a tutorial or two beforehand, randomly placed as you are amid one of the trading outposts upon booting up a new session. “SEAOFTHIEVESANDHERE’SANISLAND, GO!!” Ummmm…errrr, wait-what? Yes, it’s that sudden and without a map or instructor or any sort of indicator beforehand, the perplexing nature and seemingly deserted simplicity of your surroundings can feel as much like miscommunication as it can misunderstanding. There could very well be some manner of narrative or cinematic oversight with which the beta hasn't provided, but it goes without saying that Sea of Thieves almost expects too much for its starting players to simply just accept and tolerate.