Recycling was taken to its finest level with Pirates of the Carribean, formerly known as the defunct title Sea Dogs II. One of the main developers of the game from Bethesda sat myself and several other people down for a 10-minute demo of the Xbox version.

After seeing the early version of Sea Dogs II at E3 2002, it's nice to see that the game is more or less ready for release.Players will have the ability to side with a total of six different factions (or, five European countries and the pirates). Gameplay is extremely open-ended. Players have the ability to lead peaceful trading expeditions under the protection of one of the colonial powers, or they can go freelance and cause havoc to any country they wish as one of the various pirate organizations.

Like any saavy marketing outfit, Bethesda is coinciding the release of Pirates with the summer movie of the same name by Jerry Bruckenheimer. In fact, advertising for the game has appeared in select preview trailers, and other promotions hawking the movie will be mentioning the game as well. Anyone who remembers Sid Meier's pirate simulations in the late 80s and early 90s will enjoy taking a look at this game.