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 Jutland
The campaign aspect of Jutland has been done quite well
and is without a doubt the core of the game. U-boats and Zeppelins are at
your disposal to assist in scouting out the enemy if you
prefer to command the German task forces or divisions. There
is a lot more to this game than simply managing battleships.
Plan your task forces and make them ready to put to sea.
Have the ships lay mines or sortie to the enemy's port.
Beware, there are coastal batteries and are quite accurate
when they get a bead on your ships. The player must be aware
of fuel capacity and distance needing to be covered.
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 Shells
of Fury
In gaming terms WWI is a bit of a black hole. It
has very limited street cred, being overshadowed by its bigger more
mainstream brother, World War 2. Shells
of Fury (SOF) has to be one of the strangest subsims released in quite a
while. It takes on a neglected era (WWI), looks very retro, and appears to
have been almost dumped on the market with no real pretensions. Having said
all of that I believe it’s a little gem that’ll pay back its rather modest
price with a lot of replay value and in a very fresh setting. |
 Silent
Hunter 4: Wolves of the Pacific
The game itself has been touted by Ubisoft as
the subsim with "Hollywood blockbuster experience" in an attempt to appeal
to action game buyers and non-simulation players. While this is a smart goal
(ensures greater sales, brings new subsim skippers into the fold), it is
only laudable by Subsim if it does not come at the expense of
historical and simulation accuracy. You can breathe a sigh of relief, Silent
Hunter 4 is as hardcore simulation as they come. In fact, many elements are
taken a step further than SH3. Silent
Hunter 4 is a must-have for intrepid subsim skippers everywhere. |
 Battlestations:
Midway
A key feature of
Battlestations: Midway is the ability to play as a first person shooter,
where you are onboard a battleship or plane, directly controlling the unit; and the
ability to direct the entire fleet from a map. At any time during the game
the player may hit the TAB key from the map and assume first person control of the
unit he has selected. The most notable thing is the other units will carry
on their orders with competent AI. It is a standout feature
that works very smoothly and adds a great deal to the
appeal of the game. |
Pacific
Storm
There
are two types of campaign modes, one that starts pre-1941
and the other starts at the beginning of the war. In the
pre-war mode, you have until late 1941 to have your country
ready for war. One vital aspect to the game is to maintain
your supply lines. As in the real world, your ships only
have a limited sailing distance, so you need to build
refueling points (and defend them). Building a base is more
than just capturing a point on the map--you need to build
barracks, warehouses, fuel storage facilities, base
defenses, and an airfield.
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 The
Legend of Jack Sparrow
The
quest begins as Sparrow and Turner search for a rare
artifact. Their adventures cross some of the storylines from the
original movie with new locales in villages, forts, caves, mines, and jungles. Each episode involves a lot of
swordfighting with a steady flood of AI ghouls, enemy pirates, incontinent
Spaniards, and redcoats.
But other than some cutscenes and a few swordfights on the
deck, no there are sailing ships in this game, savvy? |
 Tokyo
Express
Victory
Games' 1988 Classic Revisited!
Tokyo Express is a dedicated
solitary player experience that additionally offers rules
for two-player-games. And Tokyo Express presents the lonely
player a challenging artificial opponent that keeps
surprising him in an elegant way that is far from the
unwieldy text paragraph books and dozens of
paragraph-selection-slider-cards that were to be found for
example in many solitary games. |
 Silent
War
To
call Silent War a game is akin to calling the priesthood a
hobby. Prepare to undergo some serious indoctrination--this
game really tries to replicate every aspect of the entire
war. There
are provisions for aircraft attacks, surface gun attacks,
repairs, circular running torpedoes, special missions, Ultra
intercepts, wolfpacks... just about any situation you can
imagine that is historically based. |
 Warship
Gunner 2
Successful
mission and objective
completion is key to upgrading your ships, adding more ships, and bolstering
your crew. There's no denying that the game developers put a lot of thought
into the numerous systems and upgrades. The missions get harder as you go
along so you definitely want to get the best gear to stay in synch. Ok, so
when the lighting bolt generators and laser cannons come along, it does get
a bit weird. At least it's entertaining, ripping through whole fleets of enemy
vessels with unimaginable firepower. |
 Navy
Field
The
‘fireworks’ really start flying with a lot of planes and
ships around, and as the sprites are rendered fairly
smoothly, the big engagements can really look good – with
massive splashes of battleship guns ranging in, light and
heavy flak shooting in all directions, fans of torpedo
trails launched by cruisers in the water and burning planes
falling through the sky. I’m sure most players will be at
least a little impressed when they first see a big battle!
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 Salvo!
Sailing, gunnery and boarding depends on a very innovative
aspect of Salvo!: crew management. Right-clicking on a ship
and selecting the crew icon opens a display showing the six
positions crews are assigned to: idlers, both batteries,
sailing, damage control and boarding party. The display also
shows the level that each position is manned. Players must decide how
many crew to allocate to what positions during which phase. |
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 Silent
Hunter III
As soon as the game starts
every old Ace of the Deep vet will notice one huge enhancement right
away: Silent Hunter III has a 3D control room you can move
about in, a bridge you can man, and a fully interactive 3D crew. No
more "ghost subs", no more 2D pictures of a control room that
require imagination to create the experience you are aboard a sub.
This is better on a bicycle-to-space shuttle improvement scale. |
 Battlefield
2
The most significant innovations
BF2 brings to the series are the Team Commander mode and
Squads. Forming a squad increase objective awareness and
cooperation. The Squad leader serves as a mobile spawn
point, greatly increasing the ability for the squad to pour
it on by quick and close respawning. At the outset of a
battle, a player can apply for the Commander role for his
side. The Commander has real-time map info that can be
zoomed down to see individual players. It's like being God,
or a CIA operative somewhere covert. |
 Battleship
Chess
Battleship Chess, like chess, even though the rules are
fairly straight-forward, has a great deal of depth. How the
player deploys his fleet, as in real-life, is often crucial
to the outcome of the battle. For example, the would-be
admiral should always seek to keep his ships together
throughout the battle. Why? When friendly warships are
adjacent to each other, all neighboring vessels may fire
their guns along with the ship that had just moved. |
 Dangerous
Waters
This game boasts seven playable
platforms that include air, surface, and subsurface units! The
familiar units from Sub Command return: the SSN-21 Seawolf class, the 688i Los
Angeles class, and the Russian Akula class. The new platforms include
the Oliver Hazard Perry class frigate, the P-3 maritime air patrol
craft, and the MH-60 multi-mission helicopter. The graphics of each
have really improved since Sub Command. The sub models have
been upgraded and the hull curves are dramatically smoother. |
 Pirates!
When Pirates! debuted on the Commodore
64 in 1987, it became one of the most critically acclaimed games
of all time and was the benchmark for swashbuckling adventure. It was
so good that 17 years later people were still hanging on to their old
C64’s or using various software emulators just to play the original
game. For years fans have asked--even begged--for a new update to this
true gaming classic. Well, it’s the year 2004 and Sid Meier’s
Pirates! (the remake) has finally set sail. |
 Pacific
Aces
Pacific
Aces is a
total conversion from WWII U-boats in the Atlantic to US Silent
Service in the Pacific. Each sub class has its own diving
and sailing characteristics and weapons loadouts. To top it
off, the PA conversion includes the rain and water mod and
the Pacific Aces Campaign Generator--the closest thing to a
dynamic campaign since Aces of the Deep! |
 Jane's
688(I)
Thumbs
up. Way up. Strap-it-on-a-Tomahawk, plot-five-waypoints, and
send it waaay up! 688(I) Hunter/Killer is a triumph, a
powerful blend of realism and gameplay with enough visual
concessions to keep it stimulating. If you want to immerse
yourself in a billion-dollar, state-of-the-art nuclear
attack submarine, and experience the tension, drama, and
exhilaration of relentless world-in-the-balance naval
warfare; this subsim is your ticket. |
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 Silent
Hunter
Silent
Hunter lets you walk in the shoes of such famous American
sub skippers as Dudley "Mushmouth" Morton, Richard O'Kane,
Sam Dealey, Bud Gruner, Freddie Warder, and George Grider,
to name only a scant few. You wear the skipper’s cap and
command an American submarine in search of ships of the
Japanese Empire. Like the successful Aces of the Deep
series, Silent Hunter takes the familiar elements of
submarine warfare and brings you even closer to the
experience. |
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 Command
Aces of the Deep
Command
Aces of the Deep was the first really good submarine
simulation I ever came across. You have the whole Atlantic,
North Sea, and Gulf of Mexico to hunt. It forced a paradigm
shift of my ratings of all previous subsims. Command Aces
was leagues ahead of the competition at the time of its
release, holds its ground years later, and is a shining
example of a subsim done right. |
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 Seawolf
SSN-21
Seawolf
involves a "world crisis" scenario where you are ordered to
hunt and kill Russian boomers, Alfas, Oscars, frigates,
landing craft, and whatever else they put in your way. You
command a Seawolf class nuclear submarine, capable of
astonishing underwater speeds. You utilize a waterfall
display to isolate and classify the surrounding vessels. It
always seems like the ocean is well-stocked with porpoises
and whales. But somewhere, you can bet, there’s an Akula sub
looking for you as well. |
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 Silent
Service II
The
graphics in Silent Service II are pre-Pentium, but the ship
renderings aren't too bad, to be honest. An aircraft carrier
looks, by God, like an aircraft carrier. Same with the
tankers and cruisers. The enemy AI is moderate, depending on
what skill level you are playing at. Going deep and running
away from the escorts is not very difficult, but they get
you occasionally.
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