Gamespot's SH4 Review

[Zero Niner]

Gamespot gave SH4 a score of 8.3/10

The Good: Highly scalable gameplay that lets you be a submariner in the Pacific; single-player career mode offers tons of challenging and changing gameplay; multiplayer support lets you team up with others or play as the escort; excellent production values make it seem as if you're really at sea.


The Bad: Stability issues and other bugs, though an initial patch has addressed some of these issues; artificial intelligence is a bit uneven.


Link: http://www.gamespot.com/pc/sim/silenthunter4/review.html

[P_Funk]

Lower than the 8.9 that SH3 got.

[Iron Budokan]

Thanks for the link! :)

[Syxx_Killer]

I feel sorry for the Yamato. Every skipper under the sun has to slug a few torpedoes into her gut. :ping::lol:

[EdwardTivrusky]

It's her own fault, you just look at her and think "I've *GOT* to have a pop at that!" :o

[cdrsubron7]

I feel sorry for the Yamato. Every skipper under the sun has to slug a few torpedoes into her gut. :ping::lol:


I got of them last night. :smug:




cdrsubron7 :up:

[1mPHUNit0]

Again?
They ave played sh4?
How many missions
How many times.
Naaaa...folks Folks folks
They see only the grafic aspect ...and ok
quite correct.....if you dont see 2D dials, instruments, and controls.

[bishop]

Lower than the 8.9 that SH3 got.

But they are both in the 'Great' category...

[bruschi sauro]

I have istalled the game on 23 03 2007........:D
I have played some scenarios.............:x
I have disistalled the game on 25 03 2007.......:nope:
For me the correct name of the game is:
SILENT HUNTER IV: BUGS OF THE PACIFIC.............:o
Where is Mister Florin Boitor ? :|\\ :ping: :ping:

[Der Graf Von Rudklide]

I have istalled the game on 23 03 2007........:D
I have played some scenarios.............:x
I have disistalled the game on 25 03 2007.......:nope:
For me the correct name of the game is:
SILENT HUNTER IV: BUGS OF THE PACIFIC.............:o
Where is Mister Florin Boitor ? :|\\ :ping: :ping:


The game is fully playable and the best submarine simulator until this date.
Any new game has bugs and get patched nothing new there.

We can make a poll ! asking who wants the game now or in 2 months time ? Guess what i know the answer allready :hmm:

[Sailor Steve]

Nice to see that the reviews are uniformly good. Maybe by the time the casual gamers are buying it some of the bugs will be fixed. I'm optimistic.

[SteamWake]

Famed designer Sid Meier established and defined the submarine simulation 22 years ago with the classic Silent Service

Well Ill be dammed !

[Front Runner]

I have istalled the game on 23 03 2007........:D
I have played some scenarios.............:x
I have disistalled the game on 25 03 2007.......:nope:
For me the correct name of the game is:
SILENT HUNTER IV: BUGS OF THE PACIFIC.............:o
Where is Mister Florin Boitor ? :|\\ :ping: :ping:


The game is fully playable and the best submarine simulator until this date.
Any new game has bugs and get patched nothing new there.

We can make a poll ! asking who wants the game now or in 2 months time ? Guess what i know the answer allready :hmm:

While I am still playing SH4 for the time being..I would vote to wait the 2 months for a finished version instead of the buggy version we have now. I'd rather continue to get the interest on my $$ in the bank rather than give it to UBI to get interest on while they finish the product.

[Schemer]

[
The game is fully playable and the best submarine simulator until this date.
Any new game has bugs and get patched nothing new there.


I respectfully disagree. IMHO SH3+GWX is the best submarine simulator to date. By what criteria are you judging SH4 as best?

[bruschi sauro]

I have istalled the game on 23 03 2007........:D
I have played some scenarios.............:x
I have disistalled the game on 25 03 2007.......:nope:
For me the correct name of the game is:
SILENT HUNTER IV: BUGS OF THE PACIFIC.............:o
Where is Mister Florin Boitor ? :|\\ :ping: :ping:


The game is fully playable and the best submarine simulator until this date.
Any new game has bugs and get patched nothing new there.

We can make a poll ! asking who wants the game now or in 2 months time ? Guess what i know the answer allready :hmm:
The sonar work well? No:down:
The stopwatch work well? No:down:
For me the game is fully playable yes. but vith the fantasy.:rotfl: .... the best simulation of submarine warfare is Silent Hunter 3.:rock:

[bruschi sauro]

I have istalled the game on 23 03 2007........:D
I have played some scenarios.............:x
I have disistalled the game on 25 03 2007.......:nope:
For me the correct name of the game is:
SILENT HUNTER IV: BUGS OF THE PACIFIC.............:o
Where is Mister Florin Boitor ? :|\\ :ping: :ping:


The game is fully playable and the best submarine simulator until this date.
Any new game has bugs and get patched nothing new there.

We can make a poll ! asking who wants the game now or in 2 months time ? Guess what i know the answer allready :hmm:

While I am still playing SH4 for the time being..I would vote to wait the 2 months for a finished version instead of the buggy version we have now. I'd rather continue to get the interest on my $$ in the bank rather than give it to UBI to get interest on while they finish the product.Yes you are right.

[Safe-Keeper]

Any new game has bugs and get patched nothing new there.You're thinking in black and white.

Some games are far more bugged than others - some are nearly without bugs, while others are so bogged down in glitches, crashes, exploits and bugs that they practically - or litterally - can't be played.

And yes, it is certainly a new thing that games are unfinished upon release. In the old days, when there was no such thing as a "patch" and developers couldn't get away with not finishing games, titles were finished upon release. X-Com UFO Defense was free of bugs, nearly all SNES games were 100% free of bugs (I've played about a dozen and discovered one bug)... I could go on and on.

I recently downloaded the free adventure game Out of Order from Hungry Software (http://www.hungrysoftware.com), and found it free of bugs (OK, there was one truly miniscule bug, but it was more funny than anything else and didn't do anything to game-play). I recommend it to anyone who want to experience something as alien and perversely groundbreaking as a bug-free game.

[1mPHUNit0]

It's not a bug question.
It's about selling incomplete and unplayabile games

[Kumando]

Sh3 is best, in Sh4 you cant even proper interact with your crew or the equipment on the sub, i love to adjust the tdc setings in the conning tower and then look to the attack scope and go back to adjust if needed in the tdc again, it really feels like you are inside the sub in Sh4 ist to arcade like just pressing interface buttons.

[XanderF]

Sh3 is best, in Sh4 you cant even proper interact with your crew or the equipment on the sub, i love to adjust the tdc setings in the conning tower and then look to the attack scope and go back to adjust if needed in the tdc again, it really feels like you are inside the sub in Sh4 ist to arcade like just pressing interface buttons.

Eh? Is the scope slaved to the TDC in Sh3? I didn't think it was? I may be wrong, but I was PRETTY sure there was no real way to check your solution in Sh3...??? Am I off base?

[jeff lackey]

Any new game has bugs and get patched nothing new there.You're thinking in black and white.

Some games are far more bugged than others - some are nearly without bugs, while others are so bogged down in glitches, crashes, exploits and bugs that they practically - or litterally - can't be played.

And yes, it is certainly a new thing that games are unfinished upon release. In the old days, when there was no such thing as a "patch" and developers couldn't get away with not finishing games, titles were finished upon release. X-Com UFO Defense was free of bugs, nearly all SNES games were 100% free of bugs (I've played about a dozen and discovered one bug)... I could go on and on.

I recently downloaded the free adventure game Out of Order from Hungry Software (http://www.hungrysoftware.com), and found it free of bugs (OK, there was one truly miniscule bug, but it was more funny than anything else and didn't do anything to game-play). I recommend it to anyone who want to experience something as alien and perversely groundbreaking as a bug-free game.

As an old fart who's been computer gaming since games literally came in Zip-Loc bags, I can say that one thing that has changed radically is the expectations of gamers. "In the old days" games DID have bugs, problems, etc. but we just accepted them as part of the shortcomings of the game and used our imaginations to work around them, or just put up with them. We just felt like it was very cool to be able to pretend we were a tank commander or a combat pilot or fighting aliens, etc. on a computer. Computer Ambush, for example, from SSI took FOREVER to process a turn, the enemy AI only set up in one of three predetermined positions on each map (which kind of took the surprise factor out of a game based on "ambushes") and had a couple of problems with wounds, etc. But we played the heck out of it. XCom:UFO had numerous bugs, which is why there are user mods/patches out, but the game is good enough we accepted them. We kknew that a fix was pretty much out of the question (although once BBS systems became common, occasional patches started showing up.)

The expectations today are so high that people can feel the graphics in a game like SH4 are unacceptable. Now, there's no doubt that SH4 was pushed out the door unfinished - hence the rapid release of 1.1. There's another factor in play that didn't use to be there: the Big Coporate Publisher who makes the calls and has a Board of Directors to whom they have to answer. And there are some problems in 1.1, obviously. But I'm still playing and enjoying the heck out of playing cat and mouse (and sometimes that mouse turns out to be a tiger!) with the IJN, and working around the problems, hopeful that they'll be fixed. SH4, even with its problems, is a pretty amazing piece of software for what it DOES do. I can't wait to see it live up to its potential.

[bruschi sauro]

For me in this moment this game is unplayabile.:damn:

[bruschi sauro]

Lower than the 8.9 that SH3 got.

But they are both in the 'Great' category...they are blind..........:|\\

[Onkel Neal]

As an old fart who's been computer gaming since games literally came in Zip-Loc bags, I can say that one thing that has changed radically is the expectations of gamers. "In the old days" games DID have bugs, problems, etc. but we just accepted them as part of the shortcomings of the game and used our imaginations to work around them, or just put up with them. We just felt like it was very cool to be able to pretend we were a tank commander or a combat pilot or fighting aliens, etc. on a computer. Computer Ambush, for example, from SSI took FOREVER to process a turn, the enemy AI only set up in one of three predetermined positions on each map (which kind of took the surprise factor out of a game based on "ambushes") and had a couple of problems with wounds, etc. But we played the heck out of it. XCom:UFO had numerous bugs, which is why there are user mods/patches out, but the game is good enough we accepted them. We kknew that a fix was pretty much out of the question (although once BBS systems became common, occasional patches started showing up.)

The expectations today are so high that people can feel the graphics in a game like SH4 are unacceptable. Now, there's no doubt that SH4 was pushed out the door unfinished - hence the rapid release of 1.1. There's another factor in play that didn't use to be there: the Big Coporate Publisher who makes the calls and has a Board of Directors to whom they have to answer. And there are some problems in 1.1, obviously. But I'm still playing and enjoying the heck out of playing cat and mouse (and sometimes that mouse turns out to be a tiger!) with the IJN, and working around the problems, hopeful that they'll be fixed. SH4, even with its problems, is a pretty amazing piece of software for what it DOES do. I can't wait to see it live up to its potential.
Best post evah :up:

...there's no doubt that SH4 was pushed out the door unfinished...

...but I'm still playing and enjoying the heck out of playing cat and mouse...
Exactly. The two are not mutually exclusive.

Neal

[1mPHUNit0]

The heck out of playing cat and mouse...when you can...i suppose

[madmike81]

Long time SH3 and now SH4 player here. Nice review but i would have to agree that the stability issues are a game killer. I havent gone as far as to uninstall the game, but after CTD every single time the second mission of my careers start im back to playing SH3.

A few patches down the road i might come back to SH4...but right now its just to glitchy for me.

[NefariousKoel]

Hmmm... 8.3 even with the bugs. That says something right there.:rock:

[HMS-Warspite]

Hi to All
i'm new in this forum,i'm an italian player and this is my first sub-simulator game...i'm enjoying the game very much,i'm new with this kind of games.
But i prefear the atlantic scenario with U-boot and american/english convoy,despite that i love Japanese battleship like Yamato/Musashi and Carriers.
You all say that SH3 is better than this one and you drive me curious :hmm:
By the way i think that next patches will solve lot of bugs/problems of the actual game.
Thanks very much for the forum and all the guides topped :up:


P.s i hope to see a chapter of silent hunter with mediterranean sea and Mediterranean fleet ,British fllet and Italian fleet like vittorio Veneto,Cesare,Doria :arrgh!:


:ahoy:

[bruschi sauro]

Hi to All
i'm new in this forum,i'm an italian player and this is my first sub-simulator game...i'm enjoying the game very much,i'm new with this kind of games.
But i prefear the atlantic scenario with U-boot and american/english convoy,despite that i love Japanese battleship like Yamato/Musashi and Carriers.
You all say that SH3 is better than this one and you drive me curious :hmm:
By the way i think that next patches will solve lot of bugs/problems of the actual game.
Thanks very much for the forum and all the guides topped :up:


P.s i hope to see a chapter of silent hunter with mediterranean sea and Mediterranean fleet ,British fllet and Italian fleet like vittorio Veneto,Cesare,Doria :arrgh!:



:ahoy:Ciao sono Sauro da Firenze e ti rispondo in italiano, a proposito io spicco english very bad, cosi' se vuoi puoi dirlo tu sul forum quello che scrivo.
per me SH4 e' ingiocabile per questi motivi:
sonar che non funziona .. DD in corsa d'attacco e il il sonar risponde "nessun contatto"
cronometro che sta fermo
finisce la batteria e l'equipaggio ti dice"bisogna emergere e' finita l'aria"
non riesco ha far funzionare il sistema di riparazioni del sommergibile
e tante altre amenita' del genere.
Per me SH3 e' e rimane in assoluto la miglior simulazione di guerra sottomarina.
Ti consiglio di scaricare il supermod GWX e le patch ed avrai un gioco
bello ed interessante oltreche difficile se giocato con livello di realismo alto.
Ciao amico e Buona Caccia

[HMS-Warspite]

Hi to All
i'm new in this forum,i'm an italian player and this is my first sub-simulator game...i'm enjoying the game very much,i'm new with this kind of games.
But i prefear the atlantic scenario with U-boot and american/english convoy,despite that i love Japanese battleship like Yamato/Musashi and Carriers.
You all say that SH3 is better than this one and you drive me curious :hmm:
By the way i think that next patches will solve lot of bugs/problems of the actual game.
Thanks very much for the forum and all the guides topped :up:


P.s i hope to see a chapter of silent hunter with mediterranean sea and Mediterranean fleet ,British fllet and Italian fleet like vittorio Veneto,Cesare,Doria :arrgh!:



:ahoy:Ciao sono Sauro da Firenze e ti rispondo in italiano, a proposito io spicco english very bad, cosi' se vuoi puoi dirlo tu sul forum quello che scrivo.
per me SH4 e' ingiocabile per questi motivi:
sonar che non funziona .. DD in corsa d'attacco e il il sonar risponde "nessun contatto"
cronometro che sta fermo
finisce la batteria e l'equipaggio ti dice"bisogna emergere e' finita l'aria"
non riesco ha far funzionare il sistema di riparazioni del sommergibile
e tante altre amenita' del genere.
Per me SH3 e' e rimane in assoluto la miglior simulazione di guerra sottomarina.
Ti consiglio di scaricare il supermod GWX e le patch ed avrai un gioco
bello ed interessante oltreche difficile se giocato con livello di realismo alto.
Ciao amico e Buona Caccia

I send you a private message in Italian so we don't ruin this topic with italian language :up:

[FesterShinetop]

As an old fart who's been computer gaming since games literally came in Zip-Loc bags, I can say that one thing that has changed radically is the expectations of gamers. "In the old days" games DID have bugs, problems, etc. but we just accepted them as part of the shortcomings of the game and used our imaginations to work around them, or just put up with them. We just felt like it was very cool to be able to pretend we were a tank commander or a combat pilot or fighting aliens, etc. on a computer. Computer Ambush, for example, from SSI took FOREVER to process a turn, the enemy AI only set up in one of three predetermined positions on each map (which kind of took the surprise factor out of a game based on "ambushes") and had a couple of problems with wounds, etc. But we played the heck out of it. XCom:UFO had numerous bugs, which is why there are user mods/patches out, but the game is good enough we accepted them. We kknew that a fix was pretty much out of the question (although once BBS systems became common, occasional patches started showing up.)

The expectations today are so high that people can feel the graphics in a game like SH4 are unacceptable. Now, there's no doubt that SH4 was pushed out the door unfinished - hence the rapid release of 1.1. There's another factor in play that didn't use to be there: the Big Coporate Publisher who makes the calls and has a Board of Directors to whom they have to answer. And there are some problems in 1.1, obviously. But I'm still playing and enjoying the heck out of playing cat and mouse (and sometimes that mouse turns out to be a tiger!) with the IJN, and working around the problems, hopeful that they'll be fixed. SH4, even with its problems, is a pretty amazing piece of software for what it DOES do. I can't wait to see it live up to its potential.

Very well put!!! :up:

[AVGWarhawk]

As an old fart who's been computer gaming since games literally came in Zip-Loc bags, I can say that one thing that has changed radically is the expectations of gamers. "In the old days" games DID have bugs, problems, etc. but we just accepted them as part of the shortcomings of the game and used our imaginations to work around them, or just put up with them. We just felt like it was very cool to be able to pretend we were a tank commander or a combat pilot or fighting aliens, etc. on a computer. Computer Ambush, for example, from SSI took FOREVER to process a turn, the enemy AI only set up in one of three predetermined positions on each map (which kind of took the surprise factor out of a game based on "ambushes") and had a couple of problems with wounds, etc. But we played the heck out of it. XCom:UFO had numerous bugs, which is why there are user mods/patches out, but the game is good enough we accepted them. We kknew that a fix was pretty much out of the question (although once BBS systems became common, occasional patches started showing up.)

The expectations today are so high that people can feel the graphics in a game like SH4 are unacceptable. Now, there's no doubt that SH4 was pushed out the door unfinished - hence the rapid release of 1.1. There's another factor in play that didn't use to be there: the Big Coporate Publisher who makes the calls and has a Board of Directors to whom they have to answer. And there are some problems in 1.1, obviously. But I'm still playing and enjoying the heck out of playing cat and mouse (and sometimes that mouse turns out to be a tiger!) with the IJN, and working around the problems, hopeful that they'll be fixed. SH4, even with its problems, is a pretty amazing piece of software for what it DOES do. I can't wait to see it live up to its potential.
Best post evah :up:

...there's no doubt that SH4 was pushed out the door unfinished...

...but I'm still playing and enjoying the heck out of playing cat and mouse...
Exactly. The two are not mutually exclusive.

Neal


Jeff,

Welcome to the 'I want, I want, I want and I want it now!' era. This game is splendid compared to the original games that came out years ago. I'm enjoying the heck out it. Sure, it was unfinished but today I grabbed two mods that just made it a wee bit better. I will keep doing that until it is a great game:yep:

Nice post man:rock:

[Fat Bhoy Tim]

Any new game has bugs and get patched nothing new there.You're thinking in black and white.

Some games are far more bugged than others - some are nearly without bugs, while others are so bogged down in glitches, crashes, exploits and bugs that they practically - or litterally - can't be played.

And yes, it is certainly a new thing that games are unfinished upon release. In the old days, when there was no such thing as a "patch" and developers couldn't get away with not finishing games, titles were finished upon release. X-Com UFO Defense was free of bugs, nearly all SNES games were 100% free of bugs (I've played about a dozen and discovered one bug)... I could go on and on.

I recently downloaded the free adventure game Out of Order from Hungry Software (http://www.hungrysoftware.com), and found it free of bugs (OK, there was one truly miniscule bug, but it was more funny than anything else and didn't do anything to game-play). I recommend it to anyone who want to experience something as alien and perversely groundbreaking as a bug-free game.
As an old fart who's been computer gaming since games literally came in Zip-Loc bags, I can say that one thing that has changed radically is the expectations of gamers. "In the old days" games DID have bugs, problems, etc. but we just accepted them as part of the shortcomings of the game and used our imaginations to work around them, or just put up with them. We just felt like it was very cool to be able to pretend we were a tank commander or a combat pilot or fighting aliens, etc. on a computer. Computer Ambush, for example, from SSI took FOREVER to process a turn, the enemy AI only set up in one of three predetermined positions on each map (which kind of took the surprise factor out of a game based on "ambushes") and had a couple of problems with wounds, etc. But we played the heck out of it. XCom:UFO had numerous bugs, which is why there are user mods/patches out, but the game is good enough we accepted them. We kknew that a fix was pretty much out of the question (although once BBS systems became common, occasional patches started showing up.)

The expectations today are so high that people can feel the graphics in a game like SH4 are unacceptable. Now, there's no doubt that SH4 was pushed out the door unfinished - hence the rapid release of 1.1. There's another factor in play that didn't use to be there: the Big Coporate Publisher who makes the calls and has a Board of Directors to whom they have to answer. And there are some problems in 1.1, obviously. But I'm still playing and enjoying the heck out of playing cat and mouse (and sometimes that mouse turns out to be a tiger!) with the IJN, and working around the problems, hopeful that they'll be fixed. SH4, even with its problems, is a pretty amazing piece of software for what it DOES do. I can't wait to see it live up to its potential.

Can I touch you? :88)
In a totally heterosexual way though I assure you

[boatfull]

Any new game has bugs and get patched nothing new there.You're thinking in black and white.

Some games are far more bugged than others - some are nearly without bugs, while others are so bogged down in glitches, crashes, exploits and bugs that they practically - or litterally - can't be played.

And yes, it is certainly a new thing that games are unfinished upon release. In the old days, when there was no such thing as a "patch" and developers couldn't get away with not finishing games, titles were finished upon release. X-Com UFO Defense was free of bugs, nearly all SNES games were 100% free of bugs (I've played about a dozen and discovered one bug)... I could go on and on.

I recently downloaded the free adventure game Out of Order from Hungry Software (http://www.hungrysoftware.com), and found it free of bugs (OK, there was one truly miniscule bug, but it was more funny than anything else and didn't do anything to game-play). I recommend it to anyone who want to experience something as alien and perversely groundbreaking as a bug-free game.
As an old fart who's been computer gaming since games literally came in Zip-Loc bags, I can say that one thing that has changed radically is the expectations of gamers. "In the old days" games DID have bugs, problems, etc. but we just accepted them as part of the shortcomings of the game and used our imaginations to work around them, or just put up with them. We just felt like it was very cool to be able to pretend we were a tank commander or a combat pilot or fighting aliens, etc. on a computer. Computer Ambush, for example, from SSI took FOREVER to process a turn, the enemy AI only set up in one of three predetermined positions on each map (which kind of took the surprise factor out of a game based on "ambushes") and had a couple of problems with wounds, etc. But we played the heck out of it. XCom:UFO had numerous bugs, which is why there are user mods/patches out, but the game is good enough we accepted them. We kknew that a fix was pretty much out of the question (although once BBS systems became common, occasional patches started showing up.)

The expectations today are so high that people can feel the graphics in a game like SH4 are unacceptable. Now, there's no doubt that SH4 was pushed out the door unfinished - hence the rapid release of 1.1. There's another factor in play that didn't use to be there: the Big Coporate Publisher who makes the calls and has a Board of Directors to whom they have to answer. And there are some problems in 1.1, obviously. But I'm still playing and enjoying the heck out of playing cat and mouse (and sometimes that mouse turns out to be a tiger!) with the IJN, and working around the problems, hopeful that they'll be fixed. SH4, even with its problems, is a pretty amazing piece of software for what it DOES do. I can't wait to see it live up to its potential.

Great post!! Those were the days when you get a full size manual
and you would count the 5.25 Floppies,the more the better.:up:

[TheSatyr]

You think PC games are the only ones that ever had bugs?

I've been playing board games since 74' and I can't count the number of times I've seen misprints,wrong data on counters,complete omissions in the rule books where you have to make your own house rules to cover what rule books left out. And sometimes sections in the rule books would be flat out wrong...and unlike pc games,we didn't get patches or mods. We played them as they were.

Maybe that's why I have a more relaxed attitude towards bugs in games than most of you seem to have. PC games can be fixed...board games can't.

I think what we are seeing these days is a lack of patience in the younger generation. They don't want things tomorrow...or even now...they want things yesterday. And I think some games have been released too early because of that. Let's face it,too many gamers have short attention spans and if you take too long to release a game alot of players will forget about it and go on to something else.

When dealing with PC Games the one thing you need to have is patience. Not every dev is Sid Meier.

[corvette k225]

Just think if it was made right and no bugs, it would have got a 10 !:up:

[XanderF]

You think PC games are the only ones that ever had bugs?

I've been playing board games since 74' and I can't count the number of times I've seen misprints,wrong data on counters,complete omissions in the rule books where you have to make your own house rules to cover what rule books left out. And sometimes sections in the rule books would be flat out wrong...and unlike pc games,we didn't get patches or mods. We played them as they were.

Maybe that's why I have a more relaxed attitude towards bugs in games than most of you seem to have. PC games can be fixed...board games can't.

I think what we are seeing these days is a lack of patience in the younger generation. They don't want things tomorrow...or even now...they want things yesterday. And I think some games have been released too early because of that. Let's face it,too many gamers have short attention spans and if you take too long to release a game alot of players will forget about it and go on to something else.

When dealing with PC Games the one thing you need to have is patience. Not every dev is Sid Meier.

Oh, I'm certainly familiar with the boardgame 'issues'. Although younger than most on this board, I'd wager, I still am very much into them. See sig - LOL!

To play devil's advocate, though...

...you would defend degrading, or at least stagnating, quality control?

So there were "bugs" in boardames decades ago. Hell, there were regular misprintings in newspapers and books CENTURIES before that. So we shouldn't ever expect better? Humanity once fell short in this area, so we should always expect to fall short?

I mean, really, is it a BAD thing that our expectations are rising? That we expect more productivity, higher quality, better standards?

Personally, I think not. A perfect product is the goal, and it doesn't matter that we've been failing to hit it, making WHATEVER we've ever made, for 10 million years running - it doesn't ever mean we should stop trying, or cite previous failures to dismiss current shortcomings.

A failure to deliver is a failure to deliver, and it should ALWAYS be called out.

[Aimbot]

I feel sorry for the Yamato. Every skipper under the sun has to slug a few torpedoes into her gut. :ping::lol:
Join the movement!

[NefariousKoel]

I feel sorry for the Yamato. Every skipper under the sun has to slug a few torpedoes into her gut. :ping::lol: Join the movement!

If we do not save the Yamato, who will? The poor endangered beasts. :cry:

(See Sig)

[CCIP]

Once again my respects to Jeff, I dare say I "grew up" on your sim reviews from CGW and I'm glad it's still as clear to you as ever :yep:

Personally the reviews so far I've been pleased with. IGN has been generous but hit good points; gamealmighty was a bit harsh but (possible crack issues aside) mostly justified; gamespot hits pretty close for me so far. I've already said that my own score for the game would be 8/10; I'd tick off a point if you're impatient and another point if you take issue with hardware issues re AA and resolution. Otherwise I'm glad most of the reviewers aren't sparing both praise and criticism when they're due.

I look forward to Neal's and Jeff's reviews, but from their posts on the forums I already have an idea of what I might expect to see from them :)

[skullman86]

I think it's a fun game don't get me wrong and I have high hopes for it but I don't think it is an 8.3 out of the box :nope:.If they rated it based off of the 1.1 then the review is skewed because 1.1 is not how it shipped and if they rated every game off of a patch then a lot of games would be getting damn good reviews :P.The whole point is to show the quality of the game and it's developers, you cant give them a freebie by patching it because that means that a lot of the issues in the stock version go overlooked.Then again 1.1 isn't exactly 100% perfect either.Whether it was 1.0 or 1.1 I still disagree with the final score even though the game is fun.Didn't read the review so I don't know the details (they mentioned the patch so I dont know what version they reviewed), the 8.3 was all I needed to see.IGN gave it an 8.8, another review I didn't need/want to read :shifty:.

[bruschi sauro]

Nice to see that the reviews are uniformly good. Maybe by the time the casual gamers are buying it some of the bugs will be fixed. I'm optimistic.I have played with Silent Hunter 1, Silent Hunter 2; Silent Hunter 3 (the best for me), and now Silent Hunter 4, I'm not a casual gamers, I only play with warfare submarine simulation, For me SH 4 is not good.:cry:

[bruschi sauro]

Hi to All
i'm new in this forum,i'm an italian player and this is my first sub-simulator game...i'm enjoying the game very much,i'm new with this kind of games.
But i prefear the atlantic scenario with U-boot and american/english convoy,despite that i love Japanese battleship like Yamato/Musashi and Carriers.
You all say that SH3 is better than this one and you drive me curious :hmm:
By the way i think that next patches will solve lot of bugs/problems of the actual game.
Thanks very much for the forum and all the guides topped :up:


P.s i hope to see a chapter of silent hunter with mediterranean sea and Mediterranean fleet ,British fllet and Italian fleet like vittorio Veneto,Cesare,Doria :arrgh!:



:ahoy:Ciao sono Sauro da Firenze e ti rispondo in italiano, a proposito io spicco english very bad, cosi' se vuoi puoi dirlo tu sul forum quello che scrivo.
per me SH4 e' ingiocabile per questi motivi:
sonar che non funziona .. DD in corsa d'attacco e il il sonar risponde "nessun contatto"
cronometro che sta fermo
finisce la batteria e l'equipaggio ti dice"bisogna emergere e' finita l'aria"
non riesco ha far funzionare il sistema di riparazioni del sommergibile
e tante altre amenita' del genere.
Per me SH3 e' e rimane in assoluto la miglior simulazione di guerra sottomarina.
Ti consiglio di scaricare il supermod GWX e le patch ed avrai un gioco
bello ed interessante oltreche difficile se giocato con livello di realismo alto.
Ciao amico e Buona Caccia

I send you a private message in Italian so we don't ruin this topic with italian language :up: grazie sai il mio indirizzo e-mail?

[It762]

I think in general reviews are by far to high. I mean every second title gets 70%++ - But everything thats 60%++ is rated as crap already.

Imho, Best way to do it would be to compare against a generic categories as well as categories that depend on the genre.
These should be only non-biased requirements. E.g. For graphics this would be very accurate settings. These requirements would be valid for a year or so so games can be compared to each other.

Some examples for a simulation would be: (Historical) Accuracy/Realismn, Graphics, Game requirements (yes high minimum game requirements should have negative impact), could think of some more ;))

Bugs should really reduce the final rating, especially showstoppers and critical issues.

In the end you have (as done usually now) the fun rating which relates to the reviewer's own opinion.

Ah well....

[madmike81]

Im sure we are all familiar with game bugs. But im sorry. For all the hype and 50 dollars invested im pretty angry about the playability of this game. Im kinda hoping someone in the mod community raids sh4 for some ideas and produces a nice graphics touch up for sh3. sh4 is about 4-5 patches from playable for me.

[bruschi sauro]

Im sure we are all familiar with game bugs. But im sorry. For all the hype and 50 dollars invested im pretty angry about the playability of this game. Im kinda hoping someone in the mod community raids sh4 for some ideas and produces a nice graphics touch up for sh3. sh4 is about 4-5 patches from playable for me.SH3 4 patch....

[smoothvirus]

[quote]titles were finished upon release. X-Com UFO Defense was free of bugs,

/somewhat off topic

X-COM UFO Defense is one of my favorite games of all time. But if we're talking about the PC version it was pretty far from bug free! We found workarounds for the bugs but I don't know that all of them were ever fixed. For instance, if you start a ground mission while the intercept window is still open, the rest of your game is hosed. Everytime you start another ground mission after that you'll go back to the one you were on when you had an intercept window open. AFAIK they never fixed that.

[William516]

You have got to be kidding me on that review. Do they work for UBI? Or maybe they just played for five minutes. I wrote a review already of what I thought and though a fan of all the SH series i have to say this is the worst possible release of any sim. Even SH3 did not have this many problems and even if it did have problems SH3 was a NEW game from SH2. Completly redesigned and so on. SH4 should have been the least of the problems becuase it is built on solid coding of SH3 and they even used most of the same CFG files. All the bugs that were fixed in the SH3 1.4b patch are present again in SH4 even with patch 1.1. Not sure how but people are telling me this game was originaly supposed to be an addon. Well even the addon i have bought for games have performed better then this and only cost 20 dollars Vs 50. Sh4 is not a new game at all.

While i agree that SH4 has a TON of potential to become one of the best sub sims out there, in its current state i would give it maybe a 5 out of 10. 5 only for grpahics.

Seems like UBI is starting to get like every other software company and make the modders fix all the problems. Sad because unlike the developers and managment the MOD teams are not being paid for anything they do. Problem with SH4 is that there are so many problems that even simply modding files may not fix it.

Surely NOT a good sign when a day after the release, at least around me, there was already a 100 Mb patch. God forbid you had to use 56K to get that patch.

8.3 is a joke honestly for a score, i have seen these guys tear up games that far exceed SH4 in completness and they gave this so called "NEW GAME" that score.

Lets Get Real

UBI Get back to work and fix this game, modders cant do it all


William

[Onkel Neal]

though a fan of all the SH series i have to say this is the worst possible release of any sim.


Really? You remember SH2? Scripted campaign?

What about SH1? Can you list off the top of your head the bugs and unfinished parts of that game? Which parts were listed in the manual but not included in the game?

[Max Theisen]

As an old fart who's been computer gaming since games literally came in Zip-Loc bags, I can say that one thing that has changed radically is the expectations of gamers. "In the old days" games DID have bugs, problems, etc. but we just accepted them as part of the shortcomings of the game and used our imaginations to work around them, or just put up with them. We just felt like it was very cool to be able to pretend we were a tank commander or a combat pilot or fighting aliens, etc. on a computer. Computer Ambush, for example, from SSI took FOREVER to process a turn, the enemy AI only set up in one of three predetermined positions on each map (which kind of took the surprise factor out of a game based on "ambushes") and had a couple of problems with wounds, etc. But we played the heck out of it. XCom:UFO had numerous bugs, which is why there are user mods/patches out, but the game is good enough we accepted them. We kknew that a fix was pretty much out of the question (although once BBS systems became common, occasional patches started showing up.)

The expectations today are so high that people can feel the graphics in a game like SH4 are unacceptable. Now, there's no doubt that SH4 was pushed out the door unfinished - hence the rapid release of 1.1. There's another factor in play that didn't use to be there: the Big Coporate Publisher who makes the calls and has a Board of Directors to whom they have to answer. And there are some problems in 1.1, obviously. But I'm still playing and enjoying the heck out of playing cat and mouse (and sometimes that mouse turns out to be a tiger!) with the IJN, and working around the problems, hopeful that they'll be fixed. SH4, even with its problems, is a pretty amazing piece of software for what it DOES do. I can't wait to see it live up to its potential.[/quote]

This post is speaking to my heart, thanks!:)

[SUBMAN1]

And yes, it is certainly a new thing that games are unfinished upon release....

I have a comment on that - the games you are describing lack the complexity of modern games. X-Com came on floppies if you wanted it like that, and its code base was only a fraction of something released today, like SHIV for example. So I think the comparrison being made is more of an apples and oranges thing.

I think the problem could be best described as all games now days will have bugs - no way around it, but that some games are pushed out the door with their developers knowing all too well that it has some major hole in it. That is the real problem! That is the problem that needs to be addressed.

-S

[SUBMAN1]

Really? You remember SH2? Scripted campaign?

What about SH1? Can you list off the top of your head the bugs and unfinished parts of that game? Which parts were listed in the manual but not included in the game?

I still liked SH2. I only wish a DC linked to SHIV, then I would be happy! I miss Destroyer Command.

-S

[Ayari]

I think in general reviews are by far to high. I mean every second title gets 70%++ - But everything thats 60%++ is rated as crap already.

Imho, Best way to do it would be to compare against a generic categories as well as categories that depend on the genre.
These should be only non-biased requirements. E.g. For graphics this would be very accurate settings. These requirements would be valid for a year or so so games can be compared to each other.

Some examples for a simulation would be: (Historical) Accuracy/Realismn, Graphics, Game requirements (yes high minimum game requirements should have negative impact), could think of some more ;))

Bugs should really reduce the final rating, especially showstoppers and critical issues.

In the end you have (as done usually now) the fun rating which relates to the reviewer's own opinion.

Ah well....

I agree.

Many game reviews are skewed toward one category/criteria: like graphics. If a game has nice eye-candy, it most likely will get a higher review rating than it should. For me, eye-candy is nice, but for a simulation I would take historical accuracy, dynamics, and immersion level over graphics that are "cutting edge".

With most computer gamers having access to the internet, I think all gaming corporations have adopted a " get it out the door and patch the problems later" attitude. Which from a business standpoint makes sense, but from a hobbiest/entertainment POV does not. I think the companies need to find a good balance between the bottom line ($) and putting out a quality product.

I just am glad the modders do it for the love and not the money;)