View Full Version : So real it's uncanny...
I just watched a film on YouTube about the U-Boat war--Battlefront, a three part vid that has a lot of great action and commentary by the people that were there on both sides. The thing that made my jaw drop was that on every specific point that was mentioned by the real participants in the war--whether regarding strategy, history, or technology---SH3 with the GWX mod is in complete agreement. From the speed of convoys, to the best tactics for engaging them, the best tactics for evading destroyers, the behavior of convoy escorts...in every detail the game mirrors the historical reality. I cannot think of any simulation I have ever played that the same can be said of. And I've played a ton of them--tank sims, flight sims. Never played The Sims. Love sims, but don't go for The Sims.
And it was really cool to see real footage of merchant ships blowing up and being able to identify at a glance the type and approx. tonnage of the ship.
This game has a steep learning curve, but in the process, you really do learn a lot. For one thing, it's done wonders for my knowledge of geography.:rock:
GoldenRivet
12-24-09, 02:35 PM
you said it friend :up:
Hello Nodlew
check out these dvd titles
U-Boat War: http://www.amazon.co.uk/U-Boat-War-DVD-Region-NTSC/dp/B00005BGQZ/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1261684233&sr=1-12
Grey Wolves vol. 1-3
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Grey-Wolves-U-Boats-1939-1941-DVD/dp/B0009X76YG/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1261684233&sr=1-9
Grey Wolves narration is a bit dull/lacklustre, but the footage more than makes up for it. U-Boat War is a brilliant 3 part'er, 156 minutes in total with interviews from all who were involved - land, sea and air. maybe you could find a cheaper copy on e-bay though!
and this, from Nova, is a brilliant documentary, Hitlers Lost Sub
http://www.amazon.co.uk/NOVA-Hitlers-Lost-Region-NTSC/dp/B0002XVS7Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1261684711&sr=1-1
and if you have not yet, then read the book which in my opinion is un-put-downable!!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shadow-Divers-Adventure-Americans-Everything/dp/0345482476/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261684797&sr=1-3
now, get your christmas money out and treat yourself!!:woot:
Jimbuna
12-24-09, 03:57 PM
Welcome aboard nodlew http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/welcome.gif
Sh 3 with GWX is an inredibly good simulation of a period in history
I think the only other game I played that was as consistently realistic as SH3 with GWX was Falcon 4. Of course it had to be heavily modded too; the stock game wasn't all that good. However it was such an absolute pain in the ass to mod (no jgsme here!) that the whole installation/patching process could take hours and came to be known as ''the falcon dance''... I guess that says something about user un-friendliness.
Wasn't there a kind of Super Mod for that game where they completely overhauled it and tried to make everything as detailed and realistic as possible...to the point where to take off you actually had to know the proper routine?
maxextz
12-29-09, 12:18 PM
Sh 3 with GWX is an inredibly good simulation of a period in history
i agree its a fine sim.
coasterdigi
12-29-09, 01:11 PM
Wasn't there a kind of Super Mod for that game where they completely overhauled it and tried to make everything as detailed and realistic as possible...to the point where to take off you actually had to know the proper routine?
Yes, but that's not at all uncommon in any kind of hardcore flight sim (if you want to see another ridiculously detailed sim, check out DCS Black Shark). Being a pilot is all about being familiar and proficient with tons and tons of minutiae, and, unlike a sub or ship sim, the pilot is often the only person aboard the aircraft, so they've got to do everything.
When I was working on getting my license, I can remember spending hours sitting in a dry (powered down) cockpit going over flows, which are essentially procedures that should be able to be done very quickly and by muscle memory--especially in an emergency.
...although, it's a hell of a lot more difficult with a mouse. :DL
Kimmers
12-29-09, 02:09 PM
Never played The Sims.
oh you kidding me. although i've outgrown it, thats a classic :rock:
TomcatMVD
12-29-09, 05:20 PM
Wasn't there a kind of Super Mod for that game where they completely overhauled it and tried to make everything as detailed and realistic as possible...to the point where to take off you actually had to know the proper routine?
The stock game already comes with the option to do a "Ramp Start" for each mission. This requires you to "turn on" the plane. From spooling up the engine up to waiting for the inertial navigation system to align.
When I was working on getting my license, I can remember spending hours sitting in a dry (powered down) cockpit going over flows, which are essentially procedures that should be able to be done very quickly and by muscle memory--especially in an emergency.
I'm a student pilot myself! Although talking about a "powered down" cockpit sounds more like you're talking about your commercial certification. (?)
Cheers!
I had that game (Falcon 4.0). But for some reason, I just couldn't get into it. I think it was the graphics. By the time I got my hands on it, they were so outdated that I just said, "Nah.".
Il-2, on the other hand, can still make me say "Whoah!" Still a beautiful-looking game with an awesome damage model, terrific gameplay.
I think, partly, I like the WWII era better as well. Firing Sidewinders from 4 miles away and watching your enemy go "poof" in the distance is not nearly as visceral as watching him disintegrate before your eyes under a stream of .50 cal bullets. Or watching a 10,000 ton behemoth on the horizon jump out of the water and fill the sky with fire and debris.
Strange, I never tried Sub Sims, or Naval warfare sims in general before. I think I had the old game "Battleship" stuck in my head. And I guess I didn't think riding around for days in a submarine with nothing to do would be very engrossing. Wrong about that. I take log entries. Bitch about the weather. Manage my crew. Plot new courses to, hopefully, better hunting grounds. Sometimes I stop all engines and just wait for days (weeks) for the weather to clear up. Then, all of a sudden, you're being shot at by a plane, diving, taking on water, figuring out where to stow the dead crewmen, or staring at a massive convoy heading right for you, picking out the fattest targets, setting torpedoes up...all very absorbing to me.
Kimmers--if the Sims was set in WWII and my Sims were fighting the Germans, I would play it. But watching a bunch of Sims wandering around a Sim House, occasionally using the Sim Lavatory and feeding the Simdog, ain't my thang. My nieces love the game. That there is the surest clue that I myself would hate it.
Sorry have not responded until now. In general, I save money on DVD's by watching YouTube. I am afraid (translate=delighted) that the days of "buying" things seem to be becoming passe. The internet is an incredible cornucopia of free stuff. Free programs, free movies, free reading material. You might not get the best of the best. I'm sure Professor Smith's five volume history of The Battle of Jutland is far superior to Wikepedia, but Wikepedia can tell me all the essentials--in fine detail, and costs nothing compared to the $100 dollars for Smith's opus.
And I am...how to put this?...almost without financial resources of any kind.
Sailor Steve
12-30-09, 10:19 AM
Good points. But your 'Professor Smith' would love me. When it comes to the technical details I just have to have all those stupid books. Though I've had my ups and downs as well. I spent some time homeless, and I'm currently "between positions" as they say.:sunny:
TomcatMVD
12-30-09, 01:57 PM
Come to thing of it... the Falcon game that allowed you to perform a full "Ramp Start", was Falcon Allied Force, basically, the version following Falcon 4.0.
As for The Sims series... I guess is one of those games you just have to install, to see what all the fuzz is about... but that's pretty much all there is about them... install them, try them, uninstall them, and go hunting tonnage.
BTW, speaking about WWII genre... I just got my hands into Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway... it seems like a truly recommendable game for the buck.
Kimmers
12-30-09, 02:53 PM
BTW, speaking about WWII genre... I just got my hands into Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway... it seems like a truly recommendable game for the buck.
speaking of the WW2 genre AND brothers, ever watched band of brothers? best ww2 (mini?)series ever made imo.
frau kaleun
12-30-09, 03:09 PM
speaking of the WW2 genre AND brothers, ever watched band of brothers? best ww2 (mini?)series ever made imo.
You got that right.
I got the DVDs for Christmas a couple of years back - don't have HBO so I was catching what I could when the History Channel would rerun the series. Finally got to see the whole thing beginning to end and was just as knocked out as I thought I would be.
Spike TV has rights to it now and seems to run marathons on or around various holidays... they just ran the whole thing again last Saturday. Came home from the dojo, flipped on the TV, checked the channel guide - it was just coming on at the top of the hour. So, you know, there went my Saturday. :D
Although having the DVDs on hand does give me the luxury of just leaving the marathon on and wandering around the place still getting things done - doesn't matter if I miss a bit here and there.
Speaking of BIA I got the first (I think) one for Christmas this year, Road to Hill 30. Yeah I'm always a latecomer when it comes to games, lol, always running a version or so behind it seems. But it was cheap and easily obtainable from Amazon and looked like it might be worth a try. I figure there's probably something about it in the appropriate forum hereabouts so I'll have to go do a looksee once I get around to playing it.
TomcatMVD
12-30-09, 04:08 PM
speaking of the WW2 genre AND brothers, ever watched band of brothers? best ww2 (mini?)series ever made imo.
You bet I did! Watched the entire series more than four times. It honestly sends shivers down my spine everytime the music goes loud and I see dozens of C-47 in formation. Is a wonderful, beautiful and amazingly well filmed story. I bought the book too, it's everything you would expect.
HBO is now running "The Pacific", though I haven't had the chance to watch it.
Hey Steve. I was homeless for a time as well. Maybe we could trade war stories. You haven't lived until you've been shaken down by the cops simply because you don't have a picket fence to hide behind. And there are many little things to be grateful for that people without that experience may never appreciate. What luxury to plop down on the couch with a cup of coffee and watch Regis and Kelly (or anything equally mindless) after a hot shower in a fresh change of clothes. Ah. Cleanliness. Comfort. Privacy.
Band of Brothers was great. Used to have the 5? dvd set. Or, rather, my sister did, until it was stolen by her ex-husband in the inevitable 20yr marriage dissolution snafu. Now he lives in Texas in an attempt to escape his child support obligations. As Kurt Vonnegut said, "So it goes."
Kimmers
12-31-09, 04:00 AM
You bet I did! Watched the entire series more than four times.
good to know im among believers :D:salute:
I'm a believer too.
Truly outstanding series.
Must have watched it 4 or 5 times so far.
The one box set I have in my collection that I don't think I'll ever tire of.
Kimmers
12-31-09, 03:11 PM
haha yeah, i also quite enjoyed the letters from iwo jima/band of brothers movies, they were complementary to each other right? letters from iwo jima for me though, there's just something magical about foreign war films, yeah.
TomcatMVD
12-31-09, 04:21 PM
haha yeah, i also quite enjoyed the letters from iwo jima/band of brothers movies, they were complementary to each other right? letters from iwo jima for me though, there's just something magical about foreign war films, yeah.
"Letters from Iwo Jima" was filmed by Clint Eastwood along with "The Flags of our Fathers". "Band of Brothers" was a mini-series broadcasted by HBO and produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks.
Kimmers
12-31-09, 04:39 PM
OH i knew i was getting something wrong back there :oops:
they're well good though, no doubting that :P
TomcatMVD
12-31-09, 04:46 PM
OH i knew i was getting something wrong back there :oops:
they're well good though, no doubting that :P
Indeed they are!:yeah:
How about "The Thin, Red, Line"? A different sort of war movie. Very anti-war, or perhaps, just very realistic in its depiction of combat and the soldiers' mindsets and reactions to it. Has a surreal quality. Much of the dialogue is stream of consciousness. I had to watch it a couple of times before I "got" it.
Hard to derive a message from the film other than, perhaps: War is unnatural at best, and at wost insane. Or perhaps just this: War is an insane undertaking which requires its participants to become insane in order to carry it out.
Kimmers
01-01-10, 01:26 PM
ay, also a classic, any war film is my thing, actually, except for stuff like pearl harbor, that was pretty lolsome
coasterdigi
01-02-10, 02:39 PM
I'm a student pilot myself! Although talking about a "powered down" cockpit sounds more like you're talking about your commercial certification. (?)
Cheers!
Nah, I've only got my private, but I got it when I was going to school at Embry Riddle, where they strive to do all that they can to turn a 172 cockpit into the flight deck of an A320.
I didn't realize that this wasn't normal until I rented at an FBO for the first time. When I was going up for my checkout flight, I just ran through off the checklists and procedures that I was taught (leaning on the ground, verbally identifying things like the flap lever before moving it, etc). The instructor (a guy wearing flip-flops, Bermuda shorts, and some ridiculous hat) just looked at me like I'd sprouted 2 additional heads.
It was the shortest checkout flight I ever had. :)
But that was years ago. My last logbook entry is from 2003!
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