Newbie ? re Subsim games

[Ferrante]

I've always enjoyed submarine movies and when I got my computer, I thought there must be a sub game out there. I did not want anything advanced, something easy with "point and shoot" through the periscope. Someone suggested Steel Tide and I am having fun with that. Which game would be best to try next? Something not much more difficult, but maybe with better graphics and still be able to "point and shoot" easily?

Thank you in advance for your help and suggestions.

[Onkel Neal]

Hi Mark, I believe that may have been me who steered you to Steel Tide (I still have your e-mail), now if you are ready for something new...

Silent Hunter III :yep:

You can select easy settings, point and shoot, and work your way up to more realistic settings if you choose.

When you master SH3, you may want to graduate to the modern subsim, Dangerous Waters. It has scalable realism settings too but by their nature, nuke subs are complex.

I have a review of SH3 here (http://www.subsim.com/ssr/sh3_rc1/sh3_review.htm)

Frank reviewed DW here (http://www.subsim.com/ssr/dangerous_waters/dangwater_review_page1.htm)

[Ferrante]

I will take your advice, but I have another question: a friend has a copy of Sub Command he no longer plays. Is that a hard game to learn or worth getting and how does it compare to Silent Hunter III? Thanks!

[Skybird]

SC is about modern subs. It neither has a dynamic campaign, nor the intense atmosphere of SH3, but it has a very good mission editor, a very good support basis by the community that created plenty of missions, andit has three subs at your command, all of them confronting you with quite complex handling of various sonar types and sensors. It is an "electronics and sensors warfare" sim in the main. If you want to have a good introduction into how a sub manages to gather information on target, target type, position, speed and course (TMA), the sim is okay. There is also a complex community mod named SCX-II which adds many new ships and masisvely alters sensor and sound level values.Since you can get it easily and propbaly very cheap, it is clearly "green lights" for you. There also is "Dangerous Waters" out there, but it is expensive. It is sub command with chnaged sonar models, and adds frigate, chopper and Orion airplane to the collection of playables. However, after close to 1,5 years the thing has some unsolved issues some of which I found to be showstoppers, so I recommend you try Sub Command first. If you do not like it, than you will have lost far less money.I am unhappy to tell you that Silent Hunter III comes with Starforce, btw.

[Skybird]

Forgot to mention that Dangerous Waters comes with a very very impressive manual, for me the best thing in the package. very thick, precise, well-written and well-structured. Best manual I have ever seen besides that of Falcon 4. - Why don't you just head over to the DW, SC and SH3 sub-sections of this board...?

[Wim Libaers]

Frank reviewed DW here
Nonfunctional link, but it's here.
http://www.subsim.com/ssr/dangerous_waters/dangwater_review_page1.htm

[Kurushio]

If you don't want "complicated"...steer clear of Dangerous Waters. It's like taking a Masters in Quantum Physics written in Swahili.