I can understand your thoughts here. I'm like you, the game should be 100% out of the box functional. But, from my experience, SH3 is great today from the mods. So we hurry up and wait. More copies are hitting computers across the face of the earth. Let's see what they have to say.

Well said....."functional". It doesn't have to be 100% bugfree for me...that's why there are patches. But functional is the least that I expect.

Imo, it's evident, that releasing malfunctioning products puts a company's name in dishonour. But that doesn't seem a thought to the ones that share in the company's profits.

Am I allowed to say that here, btw?

Yes, releasing malfunctioning products or products that do not live up to what is claim certainly throws egg on their face. But, in my view, this is like any other game. Create a patch. If you are familiar with IL2 I think this game is on patch 15:doh: . Give it time.

Yes, I'm familiar with Il2....for around 5 years now, hehe.

Give it time? I'm sure u mean "2 weeks"?:lol:

Ughh...and we heard that same song and dance with SH3... And how many bugs were STILL left after Patch 1.4b?? Bugs that modders without a SDK fixed, which means they could have easily been fixed by the devs.

sorry.... Im sick of Ubi, EA, and other game publishers running all over us gamers with a "promise" it will be fixed in the next patch.

I was going to run out and buy SH4 tommorow.... but now after the low res issues, and the non FSAA support (hello.... 1996 has been over for 10 years now..) Im in no hurry.

Yeah, thats it...2 weeks:rotfl: :rotfl: :damn:

The version I played this afternoon after much fiddling I was able to use the sonar and radar, it just took a lot of futile button pressing and then it magically turned on, its not very clear, and the displays are so small as to be only of marginal interest, rely on the contact/map screen really, like in SH1 :)

Is everyone certain the problem with the SD radar supposedly detecting a surface contact is not due to a misunderstanding? Perhaps another sensor detected the ship (deck crew visual or sonar) and it's the way the WO reports the contact that causes confusion?

After all, when a game is new and just learning it, there are always things that are misunderstood at 1st and all the old hands are still explaining to newbies a year later. Like the non-functional sonar head that had movement keys after all.

Also, I suspect there is a minimum depth that leaves the SD exposed where passing below it momentarily would put it out of action, or a wave. Once surfaced enough to use it again, it would take a while to dry off enough to operate.

Or,
Could the devs have combined all the radars into one type only changing sensitivity as the model progresses?

It also seems to me the screens in this series are for a training run. I have seen games where scripted training sequences are more for familiarization and features than realism and a campaign patrol or mission scenario might work differently.
-Pv-

In this case, I don't think so - the report very clearly says "radar contact".

Hmmm. In SHIII I just let the AI handle the Sonar and Radar. Is that at least the same in SHIV?

I think this is a shining example of UBI's consistent performance. It seems like they're more concerned with how the screenshots and feature list look and not how the game actually plays. The same could be seen with the startling decline in the Rainbow 6 series after Raven Shield. Subsequent games had very 'pretty' engines but the gameplay and product quality went downhill. UBI even went so far as to list "New features" in sequel games that existed in previous games... not new at all.

On the upside, SH4 is a platform that can be modded. Some time from now, it's likely that the polished, feature rich game we were hoping for will be available through bug patches and community mods. That's a far cry better than what happened with Rainbow 6, which never had a mod SDK released (even though it was promised for Raven Shield).

But I certainly feel after one patrol that this game will be stuck in a drawer until UBI and the modding community can get it ready for primetime. At least I still enjoy SH3 because of the content produced by this excellent community.


As an aside... it's sad that we can't vote with our wallets on games like this since there isn't a competitor we can switch to. If you want a sub sim, you're stuck with what UBI puts out. But without giving UBI a business incentive to do better, we can't really expect that they'll change their practices.

-m

Come on. This is why companies step all over us PC gamers. We get taken advantage of with every title. If this type of QA existed on consoles the game companies would go out of business. I haven't purchased SH4 yet and I think I'm not going to until I read more threads from those of you who have.

True but they also can't fix Console games. They can PC games. PC games are little more difficult then a Console game. Consoles are all the same. PC are not. All games have bugs. Most people move on to consoles cause of this. So one day you will have your wish and wont be playing PC games any more.

Actually consoles are starting to come down with PC syndrome these days and get pushed out with bugs and then get patched via Xbox live or whatever the other two consoles use, which sucks ass if you don't have broadband or XBL subscription...

EDIT: Same thing Yak said.

Although even without XBL, you can get the game patches on the 360 with a free silver account.