Simple Answer.

If your the Conservitive type : Wait for patch and posts. :yep:

If your a Devil may care type : Buy it and jump in and enjoy. :D

Whether it's better or worse than SH-3 is imaterial.
It's just another choice that's all.

It seems to me it's easier to play both then decide.
Then to always wonder what if.

Worth every penny.

First Install of SH4 - it is a flawed masterpeice, nothing works right !
Reinstall out of frustration - WOW, the game like it was meant to be.
80% of the bug posts here I have NEVER experienced with the reinstall.
I had about all of them with the first install. The moral to my story here is:
Installing the game or patches seems to flawed somewhere and my experience
seems to dictate that it was the install wizard that sets up the game files to
be loaded onto your HD....

JIM

Thanks for your insights and replies to my question.

I'll get me a copy later this week (time, time it's all about finding time :doh: ) Given your answers and the fact i've survived SH3 aswell i think i can take the shot at it. Besides i like this kinda of thing too much anyway... but really, what i had read about it before did worry me a bit.

But what still gets me though is, the game just seems to get so much bad publicity from what i've seen myself. I can't help but feel that it's gonna hurt UBI when trying to get to those people that aren't already familiar with the SH series.

I bought the game the day it came out and I've never once regretted the decision.

I felt SH3 hurt as well. I bought SH3 and played for about 3 months. I got bored with it and shelved it. It had its bugs and game play was not what I call enticing. After two years I decided to load it again and stumbled upon GWX. That is all she wrote...hooked, lock, stock and barrel. My sneaking suspicions for SH4 look to much the same as SH3 developed. Only this time I will be around to watch our wonderful modders develop this game. Beery and Ducimus have circled the wagons already and are making splendid mod packages :rock: Others have made single mods that have greatly inhanced the game. We just need the Devs to clean up the serious bugs. I'm looking at years of fun to come with SH4

Personally I'd say that it is playable now if you use mods and are prepared to ignore some really quite serious bugs - ie if you have nothing better to do and have some money you really want to get rid of.

I'd wait for the next patch, I expect it will be quite some time off as there is still a fair bit to do.

Put it this way, SHIV was launched so early, that, if it was a Gato class, it would have sunk straight off the slipway - the devs have now raised it to the surface and have pumped it out, but there is still a pretty major refurb and refit to do before it is fit for a war patrol.

It really is a shame the bean counters rushed this product to the shelves.

Yes it got a lot of bad press, deserved it if you review on the out of the box experience. In the long run it will probably negatively impact sales. You hear me bean counters ? If the dev crew had been given another month or two your corperate pockets would be that much fatter. But hey... you got it to market in Q2 so thats all the really matters ... right ?

Reminds me of a saying in my line of work "Theres never time to do it right, but theres always time to do it again".