BHunterSEAL
01-19-11, 02:23 AM
I can't believe it took getting Silent Hunter 5 and trying to find ways of making it at least deserving of the $40 I spent on it for me to finally make an account at the forums here. I've been using Subsim for ages as a resource for news and mods for PC submarine simulation games.
My introduction to the genre was actually my introduction to PC gaming in general. This came back in 1996 or so with my family's first computer, a really crappy Packard Bell. For Christmas that year, my grandfather (a WWII vet who served as a PO1 in the engine room aboard an LST) got me my first-ever game, Command: Aces of the Deep. Needless to say, it was a bit confusing for seven-year-old me, so I shelved it in favor of a couple of the A-10 sims that were popular at the time. I picked it up again a few years later and was immediately hooked on the level of complexity and re-playability of the nonlinear campaign. The map that came with the game was also very cool and I held onto it for a long time.
Since then, I've had a number of games in the genre, including Janes 688(i), every Silent Hunter game, and Dangerous Waters. I also enjoy naval strategy games like Enigma: Rising Tide and Age of Sail era games like Age of Pirates 1/2 (Seadogs 3/4), in addition to more involved grand strategy experiences like Hearts of Iron and Galactic Civilizations.
My favorite sub-sim so far has been Silent Hunter 4--I never really got into SH3 because I couldn't run it at the time it came out, and now that I can I'm a bit turned off by the graphics and resolutions available. It's really quite good with 1.5 and some modding (I use fewer radio contacts, the green HUD lamp, and smaller radar contacts). I like realism in my games to a point, but I'm not above selecting options that I'd assume a real captain would have assistance with--namely adding sensor contacts to the nav map and automatic torpedo targeting. I know most of you probably will scoff at the latter--working out torpedo firing solutions seems to be a big part of the experience for ya'll but it's a little too involved for me.
I also have a couple brief questions:
1) Is there a good modern or Cold War sub sim (in the vein of 688(i)) that's been released in the past few years? Watching Crimson Tide put me in the mood for hunting down boomers and Alfas.
2) I was hoping this community could help me remember a sub game I bought maybe 5 years ago. I don't remember the name or where I got it, but it was a digital download-only title I believe, back when DD games were pretty low-rent. This one definitely was--decent graphics but very arcadey, not a true "simulation" but a fun break from getting depth-charged by Japanese destroyers. It was VERY unique in that one of the positions, in addition to deck and AA guns, was sniper--you could actually see and shoot at enemy soldiers from the conning tower! I haven't seen it mentioned at Subsim, and it's definitely not on the list at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine_simulator. Then again, it's not a simulation game. Any help remembering what it is would be great--I haven't been able to figure it out after some pretty extensive Googling.
3) Any good naval strategy games come out in the past five years or so? We're seeing an explosion in Age of Sail naval war-games but I was hoping for something more modern.
My introduction to the genre was actually my introduction to PC gaming in general. This came back in 1996 or so with my family's first computer, a really crappy Packard Bell. For Christmas that year, my grandfather (a WWII vet who served as a PO1 in the engine room aboard an LST) got me my first-ever game, Command: Aces of the Deep. Needless to say, it was a bit confusing for seven-year-old me, so I shelved it in favor of a couple of the A-10 sims that were popular at the time. I picked it up again a few years later and was immediately hooked on the level of complexity and re-playability of the nonlinear campaign. The map that came with the game was also very cool and I held onto it for a long time.
Since then, I've had a number of games in the genre, including Janes 688(i), every Silent Hunter game, and Dangerous Waters. I also enjoy naval strategy games like Enigma: Rising Tide and Age of Sail era games like Age of Pirates 1/2 (Seadogs 3/4), in addition to more involved grand strategy experiences like Hearts of Iron and Galactic Civilizations.
My favorite sub-sim so far has been Silent Hunter 4--I never really got into SH3 because I couldn't run it at the time it came out, and now that I can I'm a bit turned off by the graphics and resolutions available. It's really quite good with 1.5 and some modding (I use fewer radio contacts, the green HUD lamp, and smaller radar contacts). I like realism in my games to a point, but I'm not above selecting options that I'd assume a real captain would have assistance with--namely adding sensor contacts to the nav map and automatic torpedo targeting. I know most of you probably will scoff at the latter--working out torpedo firing solutions seems to be a big part of the experience for ya'll but it's a little too involved for me.
I also have a couple brief questions:
1) Is there a good modern or Cold War sub sim (in the vein of 688(i)) that's been released in the past few years? Watching Crimson Tide put me in the mood for hunting down boomers and Alfas.
2) I was hoping this community could help me remember a sub game I bought maybe 5 years ago. I don't remember the name or where I got it, but it was a digital download-only title I believe, back when DD games were pretty low-rent. This one definitely was--decent graphics but very arcadey, not a true "simulation" but a fun break from getting depth-charged by Japanese destroyers. It was VERY unique in that one of the positions, in addition to deck and AA guns, was sniper--you could actually see and shoot at enemy soldiers from the conning tower! I haven't seen it mentioned at Subsim, and it's definitely not on the list at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine_simulator. Then again, it's not a simulation game. Any help remembering what it is would be great--I haven't been able to figure it out after some pretty extensive Googling.
3) Any good naval strategy games come out in the past five years or so? We're seeing an explosion in Age of Sail naval war-games but I was hoping for something more modern.