What’s more fun than watching Pirates of the Caribbean? How about playing it? Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean Online, which will be launched in May, fills the Pirate MMORPG niche finally. Originally scheduled to be released at the same time as the Dead Man’s Chest, POTC Online was moved forward a year. It is supposed to be released around the same time as Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World’s End. Excited? Being a beta tester for the game, I can fill you in a bit.

In POTC Online, you create a character by dragging sliders to set your build, height, skin tone, clothes, eye color, nose size, and dozens of other settings. Your avatar is very customizable. Having created your character, you and Jack Sparrow break out of prison. Jack vanishes and directs you to an inn. The innkeeper teaches you a bit of how to get around, and then tells you to go to Port Royale with Captain Bo Beck. You get on the Captain’s ship as he’s about to shove off. Cpt. Beck teaches you the basics of firing canons…just before Jolly Roger shows up. (more…)

Bored? Do you have enough time for one or more 5-minute rounds of flash-based fun? Try Stick Arena. I recommend registering so you can save your scores and for other reasons. You don’t have to though. If you don’t have much time, you can have a random temporary name assigned to you (you’ll also go into a random game. NOT recommended!). You should signup, login, and pick/create a game.

In Stick Arena there are swords, sledgehammers, 3 types of guns, and baseball bats. You move around with the Arrow keys and attack by clicking the mouse. You collect the weapon power-ups to change your weapon. The easiest level is called “XGen HQ”. That’s pretty much all you need to know to get started. But if you want to win…. (more…)

The trailer for the 5th Harry Potter game is now available. You can watch it here. The game will be available for XBox, PC, Playstation, Wii, GBA, PSP(?), and Aspyr will probably port it to Mac eventually. On the Wii version you use the Wiimote as a wand, doing various motions to cast different spells. There will be 13 spells which will be used for dueling and interacting with your environment (you can levitate and blast nearly anything). For screenshots of the game, you may want to look at the Site of Requirement Gallery.

From what I’ve heard so far, this game will be far better than any of the previous games. You will be able to play the basic storyline, but there’s also an “Endless Day” function where you can explore Hogwarts and do things for a long time. Electronic Arts claims that mode may entertain you for weeks. We’ll see about that.