Sid Meier’s Pirates!

It can get repetitive, but it's just so engaging that you probably won't mind. Some people dislike the minigames such as fighting or dancing, I don't mind them. I like having to account for the wind, the tactical battles are fun, the people are fun, and for me the absolute best part is the singing after you capture a ship. It's not the most accurate pirate simulator out there but it's one of the easiest to simply have fun with and it is certainly one of the most highly polished. Similar to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. it is the attention to details and immersive atmosphere that make the game so much fun, if you'll pardon my huge cross-genre leap there. Minor spoilers: The only sad part here is that GOG missed 9/19 for the Talk Like a Pirate Day sale. Make sure to play it on 9/19/17 if you can, there is an Easter egg. I forgot it existed the other day and couldn't figure out why my sweetie sounded like she should be swilling grog. Arrr! To anyone worried about the time limit mentioned by trusteft, this can be completely avoided. Just keep your crew size small so that the coins in your coffers per pirate is high. Stick with a Sloop class, if you upgrade it enough you'll never have to leave it, and its crew requirements are small. As long as you're good at the fighting minigame and use grape shot to whittle down their crew first, you can capture any ship in the game - the sloop is good at avoiding being hit while landing shots of its own, and can quickly run in to start the capture battle. Larger ships are fine too, just make sure you have enough gold on hand to keep the crew happy. Shoot for 3000 gold pieces per pirate in late game, 500-1000 per pirate is definitely enough in early game, and you'll never have to split the loot to keep your crew happy. You can actually extend your game out past today's year if you try, as long as you never split the loot.

Still one of the best games ever!

kinda repetative but i still enjoy it

This was overall an excellent update to the classic Pirates game. The swordfighting segments are much better, and there's just plain more stuff to do. Even the dancing mini-game isn't as bad as people say. Unfortunately, there's one big snag. Eventually you reach a point where you can effortlessly win every single swordfight, and at that point only the hardest difficulty (swashbuckler) presents a challenge anymore. But the difficulty level also ties in to how much the wind affects your sailing. So when you turn it up to swashbuckler, suddenly the sailing becomes AGONIZINGLY slow. You will be at constant standstills, being forced to sail in the most roundabout zig zags taking FOREVER to get anywhere. In combat, the bulkiest of merchant ships will constantly outrun your top of the line blockade runners and frigates. It is not at all fun. This game would be such a blast if someone would come up with a mod that eliminated or drastically reduced wind strength. You'll enjoy it until you get good enough to reach max difficulty, but then you will be supremely frustrated by the wind, struggling to have fun. (I'm surprised everyone hates the dancing mini game so much. To me, the worst mini game was the stealth one used to sneak into town. It's a super slow paced, stealth version of Pac Man that gives you zero sense of direction or perspective)

PIRATE GAME