I'm not ready to dedicate a new thread to impressions, as I've only been at the game for a few hours.
Early verdict: Yowza! This game is freakin' great so far!
I was mainly drawn to this title based on the similarities to Morrowind, and the novel Pirates theme. So far, it's delivering on both counts.
-The graphics are better than Morrowind easily. A lush, beautiful world so far. The camera is smoother (set CAMERA to DIRECTIONAL mode!...NOT default), the character movement more fluid & natural...Everything seems to have more polys than Morrowind. Excellent lighting too.
-Menu screens are great. Inventory, Stat...even NPC dialog screes all are bright & inviting with a good use of stylish borders. Item pics are colorful & detailed.
-There's loads of custimization for your character stats.
-Music is done well.
-Good tutorial island where your first officer gives you the basics on fighting, leveling up, commerce, etc.
-Depth! Depth! Depth! It's almost like 2 games in one between the land and sea portions. There's a LOT of details involved in ship/crew/inventory management. I'm not even sure what half of it is, but I can't wait to find out.
-Great LOG BOOK system. Unlike Morrowind, where you had to flip all around your diary to figure out what you need to do and have done, the log book in PotC has a consise bullet-point quest log. Highlight the goal for a detailed description...In game, you'll hear a bell and get a message when you've completed a goal. When you go into your quest log, the goal is check marked and greyed out...No more guesswork.
I'm pleasantly suprised so far. My girlfriend kicked my off the TV so she could watch some shows, and I'm already itching to dive back in to the game. It feels like Morrowind gameplay wise, but just more polished and user-friendly...Now I just need to "get sick" so I can spend some serious time with the game.
Oh yeah, and I got a FREE ticket to the movie included with the game!
"So Aaron, how do you feel about PotC so far?"........ HELL FRIGGIN' YEAH!
Quick Note: The first half-hour of the game is sluggish (camera/framerate). It's already been adressed by the developers on the official website forum. Apparently, it takes about 20-30 minutes of gameplay for PotC to fully load onto the Xbox's HD Cashe (first time played). Don't judge the engine based on the first 5 minutes...It runs just fine after the inital cashe load.