How much “YAR!” can you handle? The Sims Medieval came out back in March and as we might have seen with other Sims games, we have a new expansion ready to roll out in Pirates and Nobles. As the title implies, it adds pirates and nobles to the mix of your kingdom where you are still the ruler and are able to influence the daily activities of all of your citizens.
The storyline to this expansion also builds on the current questing- and story-based gameplay that was newer to the Sims franchise with this title. In this expansion, there is a story of forbidden love between these two groups and your job is to either help it along or destroy any hope of them making amends for the sake of the two star-crossed lovers who are NOT Romeo and Juliet.
The Sims Medieval: Pirates and Nobles (PC)
Developer: The Sims Studio
Publisher: Electronic Arts
To be released: August 2011
In addition to the new quests, items and characters, there is a new treasure hunting system in the game that will give your pirates the choice to search the land for buried treasure using maps that you find and earn. There is quite an abundance of new items and you will have plenty of hours to spend trying to unearth all of them.
Something that has also been added to the expansion is the addition of little flying birds. The pirates will have the option to use parrots to help them out on their quests, whereas the nobles will have falcons to help them find treasure and solve puzzles. Of course, you will also be able to have cages for them to live in and at the moment there is no confirmation that they will be able to say, “Polly want a cracker.” Hopefully, it will not be confirmed since there is no way to translate anything into Simlish.
If you played the original game, one standout aspect of it was something unique called the Pit Monster. This was a monster that you could send people to who did you wrong as punishment and they would be tossed into this deep, dark pit where a giant tentacle monster would do unspeakable things to them in the blackness of the hole.
Pirates and Nobles has added a new toy for you to torture play with called the interrogation chair. In it, you will be able to extract information from your enemies/friends and will be able to complete your quests and get information, such as treasure locations. Various methods of interrogation include something as simple as tickling the informant with a feather, or you can use a chinchilla to work the prisoner over until you get the required info, if you are feeling particularly just plain weird.
When EA first showed the game during GDC, it was great to see a version of the Sims that guys can play. With all the quests, challenges, item crafting, and leveling, it’s great to see them take a great idea and build on what makes the core game interesting and playable to a larger demographic: men with addictive personalities.
The Sims Medieval will come out this August for around $29.99.
