Pirates of the Caribbean reminds me in a lot of ways of Square's Final Fantasy VIII. It had a lot of potential and looks like a game that I should be enjoying, but I simply am not. The game left me frustrated far too many times, and then taunted me with an anticlimactic ending that failed to reward my efforts. Succumbing to Disney's bribery to release the game concurrently with the movie may have been what destroyed this vat of potential. Given about six more months of development, Pirates of the Caribbean may have been a worthy addition to any PC gamer's collection. Instead, this Disney-inspired rush job falls short of my expectations. Fans hoping to find Morrowind with pirate ships will instead discover what the movie Pirates of the Caribbean would have been without Johnny Depp: a flat and lifeless adventure lacking any real pirate charm.