Yep, that's the rub. Microsoft gave up on WWII flight sims and cancelled Combat Flight Sim 4, probably in part because of the roastng it got on various flight sim forums and in some reviews. It just wasn't a good product. I hope Ubisoft doesn't pull the plug on subsims in total because of the mixed reception of SH4. If only they could have commissioned Maddox's crowd at 1C to do it instead... sigh...

Cheers,

RD.

I agree on the review,I think that a manual should come out from the UbiSoft as a add-on for the sim or someone else write one that will help all of us out.
Jeffg

I think it's a pretty fair review since he seems to be reviewing from the perspective of somebody who is familiar with sims, maybe even sub sims, who is not a diehard Silent Hunter fan

Wolves of the Pacific had a chance to be a game that brought a lot of new blood into the subsim market.... it's really purty and just feels real... it also does an amazing job of giving you a personal stake in your sub and crew.

But it's a game that requires a fair bit of investment to really get into it... to even be marginally competent at it you need to have a good understanding of how subwarfare in WWII worked. Couldn't a more effective tutorial gone a long way in this? That's a fair point to penalize I think.

The interface... it works, but it doesn't strike me as very "newbie friendly"... it does most of the things that need to be done (though I needed to use a mod to get back in things like "range at this speed") but I'm not sure it's very easy to pick up. I find the 3D control access to be confusing and tempermental... a great way to let you feel like a real sub skipper in theory... but the execution falls pretty short I think.

I would say it's a pretty good, if short, review.

Thats what Subsim is for :up:

???

Sub Porn

I think he's refering to the fact that subs are long and hard and full of seamen.

:rotfl:

Im still wondering why so many have crashes....Iv yet to experience just 1...

(doesn't mean perfect, etc)

Same here. I pressed "A" when aiming for "S" and I accidentally surfaced on my desktop instead of in the Celebes Sea. This was pre-1.2. :)

I read that review and agree with it wholeheartedly. I waited 10 years for a new Pacific Theater sub sim and after seeing what was possible with SH3, I could hardly wait for SH4. I bought the game immediately when it came out and almost as quickly put it on the shelf when I realized it was still a rough draft.

I now patiently await reading from others here that patch 1.X (and maybe a few mods) has finally addressed the major issues with SH4 (and there are several to be sure). Only then will I wade in and get my feet wet.

As far as the interface is concerned, I think it comes down to how quickly people acclimate. If it continues to keep nagging you then something's wrong. I still wonder who's bright idea it was to change the keyboard mapping to be different from SH3 (what were they thinking?).

Anyway, I have no doubt SH4 will be improved eventually. I look forward to that day.

scrapser

Why does this reviewer think the campaign in SH4 is dynamic? It is not dynamic at all. Not even a little.

tater

"That's a pretty cool interactive protractor on the navigation map and those dials on the attack periscope sure do look cool. Maybe next time Ubisoft can help players use them."


Valid point. This isn't a game that's going to recruit many noobs to the genre.

My game has crashed exactly once. I'm still scratching my head at why it's been labled unstable.

I think he must have been playing with the review copy; the one I started my review with did invoke a number of crashes. Once I got 1.2, things became pretty stable. No CTDs to date.

It's pretty ironic, Ubi really wants to rope in the "casual" gamer but the substandard manual and tutorials defeat that purpose. Thankfully, the Romanian devs did not skimp on the realism and gave the game plenty of scalability. :up:

The game is better than the manual. No doubt. As far as crashes, the review copy must have been a pre 1.1. Those of us with stable OSes have been crashless.
-Pv-

"Dynamic" in this context doesn't mean "full strategic war going on in the background, with every action or event effecting everything else". It just means...well...dynamic.

If you go to the same co-ordinates on the same hour of the same day...you aren't ALWAYS going to see the same exact ships there. The convoys are 'random', air patrols are 'random', etc.

It's not "static", it changes every time you play, ergo it's "dynamic".

Which is true of both Sh3 and Sh4 (and 'Aces of the Deep', 'Silent Service', etc).