Front Runner
03-26-07, 09:24 AM
I am very dissapointed in SH4 and I am sad about that.
I have been watching the developement about this product since it was announced.
I have been playing SH3 and SH3 with the GWX mod (Bravo! to the GWX mod developing team, Bravo!)
My expectations for SH4 were to have the immersion and feeling of submarine operations in the Pacific Theater in WW2.
I mean no disrespect to the DEV team, I know that they are continuing to work on making SH4 "releaseable."
My first impressions:
1. Graphics are weird. Some are good, especially the underwater viewpoint distortion, others are very bad. The lack of FSAA stuck out like a sore thumb. I want to repeat that for the DEV team. The lack of FSAA stuck out like a sore thumb!
During the day, the underwater view looks pretty good with all the graphics features on, but at night with all the yellow boogers floating around, it looks terrible.
2. What is that stuff falling out of the sky at night? Are they supposed to be clouds? fog? aurora borealis? What is that stuff falling out of the sky at night?
It gives me a creepy feeling being on the bridge at night and not knowing what that stuff is falling out of the sky at night. So I am driven into the control room where I encounter....
3. My Exec, or OOD, is speaking to me, but somehow he has found the stash of helium.
4...And this is MAJOR! I was approaching Midway for a refit and encountered an Elco PT Boat. I am playing in real time (1X) and the PT crosses my bow. Once he is on a relative bearing of about 350 degrees, he slams the boat into reverse, sounds his collision alarm and backs right across my bow again. I alter course to avoid collision and it appears that I am clear. Just then, Ensign Pulver, who is obviously in command of the PT, slams it into forward and rams right into me. The PT explodes and sinks and I have just sighted PT, sank same.
It would seem to me that the same type of collision is occurring during time compression resulting in damage and sinking to the sub. You can't even avoid your friendly forces in 1X.
5. The lack of a usable manual. I read the manual through and either important information is presented in such a way as it doesn't sink in or it's not included in the first place. There are so many undocumented "features" that I am still discovering them.
6. Why are the ships of the United States Navy in such a sad state of disrepair? Why would any sailor go to sea on the RUST BUCKETS Navy? In SH3, at least the KM had their crew chipping rust and painting... turn to you swabbies and clean up those rust buckets.
7. Lots of minor inaccuracies and other "picky" things going on, the misspelling of "Thresher", the dates going from Dec. 9th, 10th, 1rst, 12th... what happened to the 11th? The starting dates of some submarines such as Grampus which didn't arrive in Pearl until Feb 1942, yet shows up Dec. 9th. Yes, I know these little things can all be fixed but aren't those little things supposed to be fixed before going gold? There are just too many little things adding up and weighing down on SH4.
IGN really missed the mark giving SH4 an 8.8. In this case it should have been a 4.0 and I don't mean "Four - Oh"!
That's all for now....
I'll keep looking for the silver lining but so far I am sadly dissapointed.
UbiSoft releases are now on my "don't buy until Service Pack 2" list, along with Microsoft Vista.
I have been watching the developement about this product since it was announced.
I have been playing SH3 and SH3 with the GWX mod (Bravo! to the GWX mod developing team, Bravo!)
My expectations for SH4 were to have the immersion and feeling of submarine operations in the Pacific Theater in WW2.
I mean no disrespect to the DEV team, I know that they are continuing to work on making SH4 "releaseable."
My first impressions:
1. Graphics are weird. Some are good, especially the underwater viewpoint distortion, others are very bad. The lack of FSAA stuck out like a sore thumb. I want to repeat that for the DEV team. The lack of FSAA stuck out like a sore thumb!
During the day, the underwater view looks pretty good with all the graphics features on, but at night with all the yellow boogers floating around, it looks terrible.
2. What is that stuff falling out of the sky at night? Are they supposed to be clouds? fog? aurora borealis? What is that stuff falling out of the sky at night?
It gives me a creepy feeling being on the bridge at night and not knowing what that stuff is falling out of the sky at night. So I am driven into the control room where I encounter....
3. My Exec, or OOD, is speaking to me, but somehow he has found the stash of helium.
4...And this is MAJOR! I was approaching Midway for a refit and encountered an Elco PT Boat. I am playing in real time (1X) and the PT crosses my bow. Once he is on a relative bearing of about 350 degrees, he slams the boat into reverse, sounds his collision alarm and backs right across my bow again. I alter course to avoid collision and it appears that I am clear. Just then, Ensign Pulver, who is obviously in command of the PT, slams it into forward and rams right into me. The PT explodes and sinks and I have just sighted PT, sank same.
It would seem to me that the same type of collision is occurring during time compression resulting in damage and sinking to the sub. You can't even avoid your friendly forces in 1X.
5. The lack of a usable manual. I read the manual through and either important information is presented in such a way as it doesn't sink in or it's not included in the first place. There are so many undocumented "features" that I am still discovering them.
6. Why are the ships of the United States Navy in such a sad state of disrepair? Why would any sailor go to sea on the RUST BUCKETS Navy? In SH3, at least the KM had their crew chipping rust and painting... turn to you swabbies and clean up those rust buckets.
7. Lots of minor inaccuracies and other "picky" things going on, the misspelling of "Thresher", the dates going from Dec. 9th, 10th, 1rst, 12th... what happened to the 11th? The starting dates of some submarines such as Grampus which didn't arrive in Pearl until Feb 1942, yet shows up Dec. 9th. Yes, I know these little things can all be fixed but aren't those little things supposed to be fixed before going gold? There are just too many little things adding up and weighing down on SH4.
IGN really missed the mark giving SH4 an 8.8. In this case it should have been a 4.0 and I don't mean "Four - Oh"!
That's all for now....
I'll keep looking for the silver lining but so far I am sadly dissapointed.
UbiSoft releases are now on my "don't buy until Service Pack 2" list, along with Microsoft Vista.