Topic: Anyone playing Silent Hunter III?

[CaptStumpy]

Picked it up a couple of days ago. Has its problems but still enjoying it. The visuals are fun.

Screenies...

http://forums.ubi.com/eve/ubb.x?a=tpc&s=400102&f=857101043&m=4931020692

[J. Carney]

Been a long time since i really ENJOYED a subsim... probably since Aces of the Deep.

I'll have to check this one out, I guess... can you be a bit more detailed on the actual gameplay? IS it like SH2 or have they changed it up a lot. I thought SH2 was OK, but I never got into it like I did AoD.

[Commander La'ra]

I'm wondering what the problems you referred to are, myself.  I'd planned on buying this one next payday largely because I heard the campaign was the same open-ended 'go to these coordinates and hunt' set-up as Aces of the Deep.

The crew management features caught my eye, too.

[Dracho]

I want a game that stops screwing around in U-Boats and turns you loose in the Pacific in a S-Boat or a Gato class.  Silent Service is still my favorite Sub Sim.

[CaptStumpy]

Well, for one I think it could of used a little more polish on some aspects. There are the inevitable bugs...like the time that I returned to a saved game to find my submerged submarine with my watch crew still on deck at 12 meters, dutifully scanning the horizon! LOL! I've lost one campaign to an unfixable bug glitch that kept on crashing my machine.

On the positive side the open ended campaign is a joy (I despised the scripted campaign of SHII). The external camera is great and you now get to control the crew (assigning stations, medals promotions, relieving exhausted crew). The 3D crew members and improved graphics and effects are great. When you are depth charged the control room moves, springs leaks, lights flicker and go out. Birds soar overhead when you leave port. Ships explode, burn and sink in spectacular fashion. The water effects (spray, waves, bubbles) are the best I've seen in any naval sim. Bring your slickers for the storms.

There is already one patch and I had to update video and sound cards. Check out the boards for more feedback on the current condition of the game.

http://forums.ubi.com/eve/ubb.x?a=frm&s=400102&f=857101043

[Commander La'ra]

I want a game that stops screwing around in U-Boats and turns you loose in the Pacific in a S-Boat or a Gato class.  Silent Service is still my favorite Sub Sim.

Ever play the original Silent Hunter?

This was actually a question people were asking on the game website.  Apparently, the biggest reason they picked the European theater again was because, from start to finish, it saw a lot more technological advances in submarine warfare than the Pacific, the tide turned more often, etc.  They have talked about a Pacific expansion if the sales of Silent Hunter III are good.

[J. Carney]

On the positive side the open ended campaign is a joy (I despised the scripted campaign of SHII). The external camera is great and you now get to control the crew (assigning stations, medals promotions, relieving exhausted crew).

You told me a great deal of what I wanted to know there.

I missed the 'go anywhere, do anything' aspect of Aces of the Deep greatly. Nice to know that a game like that is back. And the fact that there is an RPG element to the crew management is a very welcome development.

I might justhave to free up some space on the HD for this one.

[IAF Lyrkiller]

Tries to give a serious thought.

Aces of the Deep is still my favorite subsim. nearly sunk a Battleship in one mission.

[J. Carney]

Tries to give a serious thought.

Aces of the Deep is still my favorite subsim. nearly sunk a Battleship in one mission.

I hade one career on max reaism where I got a pair of 'jeep carriers' and a Malaysia-class BB. I'm still proud of that. If you had the realism on it cranked up on it, it was almost as hard as real life.

[Sirgod]

you know the last Sub game I played was Tom Clancy's SSN. I did enjoy the heck out of that game then. How does It compare to SH3?

Stephen

[Commander La'ra]

I hade one career on max reaism where I got a pair of 'jeep carriers' and a Malaysia-class BB. I'm still proud of that. If you had the realism on it cranked up on it, it was almost as hard as real life.

The only time I ran into a battleship, it was smack dab in the middle of an early-war convoy (guarding against the Panzerschiffs like they did in 39 I guess).  I was in a dinky little Type II.  All five of my torpedos went into that big bastard.  Only two detonated, and I had to watch her sail off into the sunset.

Most disheartening, and yet...it felt so real...

[J. Carney]

I hade one career on max reaism where I got a pair of 'jeep carriers' and a Malaysia-class BB. I'm still proud of that. If you had the realism on it cranked up on it, it was almost as hard as real life.

The only time I ran into a battleship, it was smack dab in the middle of an early-war convoy (guarding against the Panzerschiffs like they did in 39 I guess).  I was in a dinky little Type II.  All five of my torpedos went into that big bastard.  Only two detonated, and I had to watch her sail off into the sunset.

Most disheartening, and yet...it felt so real...

My 'eels' had the nastiest habit of dudding on the bows of the tin cans that were bearing down on me for a depth charge attack. I REALLY hated the Flower and Black Swan classes of sloop... those damn things NEVER ran out of DC's! I would INTENTIONALLY go gunning for them, especially if I was part of a mid-war wolfpack. Go in and help a brother out while the computer wasted the merchies.

[Commander La'ra]

Corvettes and Sloops both irritated the hell out of me.  JUST fast enough to catch you on the surface but so much smaller and harder to hit than a destroyer.  I invariably fired a pair of fish only to have the little [censored] turn out of the way...I think their turning circle was less than the length of the damned ship.

My favorite way to get away from 'em was to tear ass through the convoy.  They at least had to worry about ramming their own ships then.

[Rat Boy]

I want a game that stops screwing around in U-Boats and turns you loose in the Pacific in a S-Boat or a Gato class.

Prime reason I'm avoiding this one.  While the crew features and dynamic campaign sounded interested, I'm turned off by the Nazi bit.  Hopefully, the rumored SH4 will focus on the American submarine force of World War II.

[J. Carney]

I want a game that stops screwing around in U-Boats and turns you loose in the Pacific in a S-Boat or a Gato class.

Prime reason I'm avoiding this one.  While the crew features and dynamic campaign sounded interested, I'm turned off by the Nazi bit.  Hopefully, the rumored SH4 will focus on the American submarine force of World War II.

You don't have to believe the ideology to enjoy the game, Rat Boy. I don't like the idea of murder, rape, and wanton violence that real piracy in the 1600's represented, but that doesn't deminish the addictive nature of Sid Meier's Pirates for me.

A good game is just that sometimes... a game.

[Rat Boy]

If it's that enjoyable and well-made, why not set it on American or any non-Axis submarine and avoid all the politcal trouble?  The U-Boat war against Allied and civilian shipping isn't something that really needs to be glorified, in my view, especially when every game following the original Silent Hunter has been nothing but U-Boat sims.  Enough, already!


Edit: And likening it to Pirates! isn't that fair.  Pirates! is practically a cartoon game, one or two talking skull jokes from being another Monkey Island game.

[Commander La'ra]

If it's that enjoyable and well-made, why not set it on American or any non-Axis submarine and avoid all the politcal trouble?  The U-Boat war against Allied and civilian shipping isn't something that really needs to be glorified, in my view, especially when every game following the original Silent Hunter has been nothing but U-Boat sims.  Enough, already!

One of the best things about simulation type games, to me, is the way they can sort of put you in someone else's shoes for awhile.  No, I don't agree with the Nazi philosophy, but the guys who went out in the U-Boats suffered horribly for their country and portraying things from their angle allows us to see things from that perspective, if only for a little while.

Besides, our own campaign against Japanese merchant shipping was just as ugly and brutal as their campaign against us.  We sank ships without warning, machine-gunned survivors more often than the evil Nazis, etc etc.  Sure, you can argue that the cause is better, but our actions, while neccesary for our survival, are no prettier than the Kriegsmarine's.  If you're gonna argue that we shouldn't glorify such things, then there shouldn't be ANY war-oriented sims.

[Rat Boy]

but our actions, while neccesary for our survival,

And necessary for the survival of the world.  Do you honestly think that the ultimate goal of the U-boat war was as noble or "survival-motivated" as the war against Japanese military shipping in the Pacific?

[Commander La'ra]

Of course not. However, ask someone who served on the U-Boats in the 40's and you might very well get a different answer.

I'll admit have a less than idealistic view of the Pacific War.  Yes, we were attacked, but when you get right down to it, our conflict with Japan was based mostly on the desire to be the biggest fish in that particular pond.

[Rat Boy]

our conflict with Japan was based mostly on the desire to be the biggest fish in that particular pond.

Nonsense.  If the war was motivated by strategic domination, why did we wait to be attacked before intervening militarily?  Why did we not attempt to annex or colonize the territories we re-took from the Japanese?  Sounds like your views on the war aren't just "less than idealistic."