Having recently reviewed Two Worlds II, GameBanshee rounds out their coverage with a critique of the expansion, Pirates of the Flying Fortress:

The quests and scenarios in Pirates are also quite a bit more fun. While the original campaign had its share of entertaining adventures, Pirates is much more consistent about tone - it keeps the main story serious, and has its sillier moments relegated to optional content. From a quest to don Santa Claus' garb and deliver gifts around an island to content some lost spirits, to a pantry-raiding mimic disguised as a treasure chest, it's nice to see Reality Pump's sense of humour come into the game without it getting in the way of the main plot or pacing.

Unfortunately, not all is good. Combat is a major downside of Two Worlds II, and it's not much better in the expansion. The high point is that there are more boss fights and more varied enemies in general, like mages who summon minions. However, the combat balance is quite poor; most enemies are easy to defeat, but  you'll occasionally stumble into a dozen archers who stun-lock your character from afar, or a stray fireball that kills you in one hit. The higher-level enemies also mean that certain character builds are also even weaker, though it's still possible to respec.  And, just like the main story's final hours, Pirates features an overly long ending segment which is packed with obvious and unnecessary filler, both in combat (enemies spawning every 20 feet) and quests (like spending 30 minutes doing chores for a whiny boy). 

Two Worlds 2: Pirates of the Flying Fortress reviews aren't all that common but Gaming Trend has a new critique with a score of 86%, although it doesn't illuminate the gameplay very much:

The majority of the gameplay hasn’t really changed, although the addition of horseback combat, such as charging with polearms, is very nice and horse armor means that you can keep your mount alive much longer.  In addition to the approximately 10 to 15 hours of play time added to the single-player game, there are four new multiplayer maps, new items and monsters, and tons of areas to explore.

A site called Lo-Ping has a short review of Two Worlds II: Pirates of the Flying Fortress. There's no score but they were quite impressed:

Two Worlds II: Pirates of the Flying Fortress doesn’t just add several hours of new content to the game. It also improves on virtually every area that was lacking in the base Two Worlds II game. The graphics have been polished up, animation has been improved and even completely overhauled in conversations, giving a BioWare-esque cinematic presentation rather than watching two people stand and twitch around through a static camera. Even the voice acting, while still not great, is a huge improvement over that of the base game.

One of the things that really surprised me in Pirates of the Flying Fortress was the story. As I stated in my original review, the story and characters were pretty uninteresting and forgettable. This time around, I was actually very interested in the story and the smaller plot lines that ran within it. Even the characters were very memorable and had unique personalities. As I played, I grew very attached to some of the characters, developed negative feelings towards others, and truly felt as if these were living, breathing people I was interacting with.

Spotted at N4G.

Every few days I run a search for Pirates of the Flying Fortress reviews, because the expansion seems to have sunk without trace, and finally an English one has popped up at a site called The Controller Online. The score is 4/10 and here's a quote that sets the tone:

The exploration and boat controls are about the only redeeming qualities of PotFF. The missions are all multiple-stage fetch quests, which grow tiresome quickly. Every NPC you talk to is overly sarcastic and not as funny as they think they are. Humor has a place in games like this but when everyone, and I mean everyone, is being so obviously sarcastic it gets extremely annoying. Since the story isn’t interesting and you won’t care about the characters the only thing left is the combat and looting. PotFF doesn’t add anything in these areas but killing stuff is still fun, as it was in the main campaign. In the end, the roughly ten hour adventure won’t leave you feeling like you got your $30 worth. I’ve played a number of $10 DLC adventures that had as much or more content as this.

I'm still not clear on the retail disc situation with Pirates of the Flying Fortress (if you're reading this TopWare or Zuxxez try sending out a press release to promote your game) but the Zuxxez shop spammed me with an offer to buy a disc version, so that's one possibility.

I expected this to be delayed with the absence of any obvious promotion from TopWare but 2W2: Pirates of the Flying Fortress is now available from Steam, Gamersgate and presumably other digital vendors. I'm not sure of the retail status across the various regions, so I'll update this newsbit in due course.

As a side note, the base game is on sale on Steam for 50% off if you don't already have it.

Examiner.com has a PAX preview of Pirates of the Flying Fortress. It's a fairly short and general overview but it does reiterate the September release date and also claims Reality Pump will be moving on to a new IP after getting this out. A snip:

Pirates of the Flying Fortress continues the story from Two Worlds II, adding roughly 12-16 hours of new quests along with plenty of new items, monsters, and other goodies. Some examples include crossbows, which get their own unique weapon category, a new race called the Olorums, and armor for your horse (of course). Four new multiplayer maps will also be included.

According to Kennedy, Pirates of the Flying Fortress will serve as a vehicle for delivering content that the developers had kicking around in their heads but never made it into Two Worlds II. Expect to see a Night Club for the Undead (complete with dancers) and plenty of side quests with assorted silliness in the same tongue-in-cheek vein as some of those found in Two Worlds II.

Here are a couple of new Two Worlds 2: Pirates of the Flying Fortress items courtesy of Demonic at the official Zuxxez forums. First, a short PAX preview at Platform Nation:

Something I should mention is how absolutely annoyed I was by the first Two Worlds and its screen lag. The screen lag killed what I felt could have been a fantastic game for me. I witnessed zero screen lag, and I know I had seen it in demos of Two Worlds 2 beforehand; it was altogether missing, and I commend the team at Reality Pump for putting so much time into fine tuning the subtle details of TW2′s world.  I was shown an extensive demo, including a handful of levels. The one I was most struck by was a “Fragmented Dream” world that had beautiful Sepia tones and a slightly altered camera view. The dream world was striking visually, and I was told it was a large part of “Pirates Of the Flying Fortress’s” plot. This expansion really looks to serve TW2′s world well, as everything I was shown looked very different from the general fantasy vibe of the first and second games. That’s not to say that it doesn’t fit well into the TW2 universe, but it will do a superb job of opening up new avenues, and allowing for what feels like natural progression of the TW2 universe.

...and a trailer at Youtube.

Two Worlds Vault caught up with Joerg Schindler of Zuxxez AG and Mirek Dymek, CEO of Reality Pump, to discuss Two Worlds II: Pirates of the Flying Fortress.

TW Vault: What does the title of the add-on refer to -- Flying Fortress? In 2008 Reality Pump have shown us some great artworks depicting... floating castles and cities. Is that what it's going to be?

Joerg Schindler: Your presumptions are quite correct! [grins] Floating castles will in fact be an important part of the expansion pack “Pirates of the Flying Fortress”. We have been working on this idea for quite some time now and were thrilled to send the player on a traversable platform in the sky above Antaloor. But the journey will be a long and difficult one to access this unique gaming experience. You will have to solve a lot of interesting tasks before your personal “elevator to heaven” is available!

Five (hopefully) new Pirates of the Flying Fortress screens at VoodooExtreme:

Reality Pump has really pulled out all of the stops with Pirates of the Flying Fortress™. Revamping the engine, adding tons of new changes including dialogue animations and all new voice over talent, as well as the goodies that come naturally with an expansion like equipment and environments, a plethora of side quests and a main story arc that will shake even the most veteran of gamers to their core.

TopWare sent us a press release announcing new screens for Pirates of the Flying Fortress. I don't have the time to upload them just now, so head over to the official subsite:

Ahoy matey! There’s screenshots on the horizon!

TopWare Interactive and Reality Pump studios give fans and newcomers alike, a deeper look into the expansion for Two Worlds II; Pirates of the Flying Fortress™, with a batch of all new screenshots!

Las Vegas, Nevada – July 8th, 2011 - As the launch date closes in, Pirates of the Flying Fortress™ is showing more and more of its shine and polish. Debuted at the recent E3 in Los Angeles,the expansion has received an immense amount of positive feedback from the gaming community and the reason is obvious. An expansion that was truly made for fans, these brand newscreens are worth a thousand words, all of which circle the subject of “look how far we have come”.

Reality Pump has really pulled out all of the stops with Pirates of the Flying Fortress™. Revamping the engine, adding tons of new changes including dialogue animations and all new voice over talent, as well as the goodies that come naturally with an expansion like equipment and environments, a plethora of side quests and a main story arc that will shake even the most veteran of gamers to their core.

More previews have come up for this expansion pack for Two Worlds Two.

First up is Games Radar

The developer has been listening closely to a lot of the fan complaints and at this point it seems like they’re sparing no expense to improve the TWII experience. For example, they’re ripping out a lot of the dialogue and have re-cast some of the lead characters due to complaints. They’ve improved the combat engine, animations, and added an all-new facial animation system.

Then we have

Gaming Lives

The setting for the expansion is Kangor Bay, a cursed archipelago that your character must navigate in order to complete various quests to gain favour with the pirates and, ultimately, stay alive. The map itself looks impressive, adding another 25% to the existing single player area and is said to provide another ten hours of gameplay from beginning to end.

GamesRadar has a very short look at Two Worlds II: Pirates of the Flying Fortress from E3.

It’s okay to be surprised – we were too. But once we stopped saying “Two million? But we only know one person who played that game!” we realized we actually rather liked what we saw. The developer has been listening closely to a lot of the fan complaints and at this point it seems like they’re sparing no expense to improve the TWII experience. For example, they’re ripping out a lot of the dialogue and have re-cast some of the lead characters due to complaints. They’ve improved the combat engine, animations, and added an all-new facial animation system.

...and Worthplaying has an even shorter two-paragraph glimpse:

Coming out as an expansion for Two Worlds II, Pirates of the Flying Fortress will add a slew of new content and features. At the core of the game is the new story line that covers over 10 hours of gameplay, further bolstered by a multitude of side-quests and exploration. The plot stands alone from the original, so people who didn't finish the main story can still hop right in. In addition to the new plot content, the expansion will incorporate an all-new technology for facial animations, combat animations, lip-synching and voice-overs.

Two Worlds II: Pirates of the Flying Fortress has been previewed at RPGamer. Some of the topics covered include new voice cast, improved animations, horse riding tweaks and new islands with more than one dock. Weather is also promised - let's see if it makes an appearance this time.

Other new features include new hair styles and faces to choose from during character creation. Horse Armor has been added to the game in order to give your steeds more customization options and more of a fighting chance out in the world. I was also told that the actual mechanic of riding horses has been improved, making riding horses far less of a chore than it should be. In addition, there is a new class of ranged weapons, crossbows, which are very powerful, but reload slowly. The map has been improved with a boat and horse marker, so you will never lose your boat or horse again. In general, the game is also far more sailing friendly. All of the new islands are approachable and dockable from all sides so you no longer have to search for a suitable place to anchor your boat. The freedom you are given to move around the island chain with your boat adds a lot to the pirate theme of the game and should prove more fun than the base game.

Thanks, Inside Two Worlds.

Blue's has the first Two Worlds II: Pirates of the Flying Fortress screens we've seen in a while.

TopWare sent us news of an expansion to Two Worlds II due in September, titled Pirates of the Flying Fortress. They've joined Risen 2 with a pirate theme, though the flying fortress is different. Here's the press release:

Two Worlds II: Expansion Pack captures retail shelves

+++ „Pirates of the Flying Fortress“ Expansion Pack will arrive September 2011 +++

Las Vegas, April 15th 2011 – The RPG-spectacle continues! With "Pirates of The Flying Fortress", the creators of "Two Worlds II" clear the way for the highly anticipated upgrade for the role playing hit. More than 2.5 million games sold worldwide, numerous awards and a huge fan community are powerful arguments for yet another exciting trip to Antaloor, abducting you this time into the gloomy pirate world! The story plunges the player headlong into an adventure that is more than astonishing! The good old "Two Worlds" atmosphere waits, which is yet quite different this time around. Exotic flair, new enemies, new settings and new weapons - all fans are in for a shocking surprise!

The developers have also once again taken player feedback to heart, massively adding more in terms of game play: In addition to thunder and rain storms, gamers can look forward to dozens of new weapons, impact-oriented horse armor, totally new breeds, fresh boss opponents as well as brand spanking new animations in the cut-scene and in-game dialogs!

"Pirates of the Flying Fortress" will launch in Antaloor as a multi-platform title in September 2011! The extensive single player history as well as several brand new multiplayer maps will then be launched.