I'm one of the lucky ones that has a friend who works in a video game place at the mall, and was able to bring home a copy early. I only got to play for about a half hour at his place, but so far here are my likes and dislikes:
Pros:
1. Beautiful graphics! Usually this doesnt mean a lot to me, but guys.... WOW. Thats all I can say. It looks better than the screen shots in my opinion. Not only that but it runs very smoothly. His comp is a nice computer but not a great one. And he had graphics options almost all the way up and it plays as smoothly as SH3 does, but looks way better. Torpedo damage looks awesome, fire and smoke effects look great, but my favorite thing is the water. Being able to see your sub from the surface at periscope depth looks so sweet, I love it.
2. The sea battles are intense. Fighter squadrons everywhere, pilots ejecting left and right, ships everywhere firing back and forth, etc. It is really intense.
3. Missions are way better. Dropping off a spy on the beaches of Japan, patroling an area with a background story as to why you are going there (not just a random patrol grid), etc. A really nice touch.
4. The american subs are really cool, I like them more than I thought I would. Very different than the U-boats, but that's a good thing because it shows the devs did their research and made the American subs feel really different.
5. I didnt see any obvious bugs, and my friend tells me after hours of play he has not had one crash or bug, so hopefully it will stay that way
6. Sound effects are sweet, especially the change of the watch sound which I thought was a nice touch.
7. The feel of the game is pretty much like GWX for the most part, which is a very good thing. I was afraid they would make this game a bit too "arcade" and not "sim" enough, but I was wrong, it is a hard core simulation through and through if you play on that difficulty.00.
Cons
1. I think firing a torpedo manually isnt quite as easy as it is in GWX. The biggest difference being that in the map there are only the most basic tools, and the ruler doesnt give a very accurate measurement of distance. You pretty much have to use statometer (or whatever its called) to get a good distance calculation.
2. No option for weapon officer assitance. From what I can tell you either have full auto targeting or you have full manual targeting without WO assistance. Kind of a shame, I used to like manual targeting with WO assistance, but I'll get used to it.
3. The targeting map does not show a torpedo path line like SH3 does, which will take getting used to for me because I would use that line to make a "best guess" torpedo shot in emergencies, now its much more of a guessing game (which is more realistic I guess)
4. From what I can tell, you cant enter the bearing into the torpedo computer manually, it is automatically taken from the periscope when you are locked on the target. Not that big of a deal, but I usually enter everything manually so it will take a bit of getting used to.
5. This is a big one (but keep in mind I only played for like a half hour so I may have just missed it). I couldnt figure out any way to fire a salvo of 2 or more torpedos. It looked like you had to fire one at a time. I hope I just missed it somewhere
6. Personally I think the interface left a bit to be desired, just the way the icons are set up I thought it took a bit longer to get to where you want to go than it did in SH3, which had a streamlined interface that was really easy to navigate.
7. Lastly I think the enemy AI is a bit too easy, even on 100% realism it seemed like I was getting away after attacking convoy's sooooo easy. I even got pinged once at pretty close range at periscope depth and they just kept on going, passed me at about 200 meters. Definitly nothing like GWX.
It have about the same number of pros and cons listed here, but dont take that the wrong way, I loved what I saw of this game, and I cant wait to get my own copy. The cons I listed are mostly cosmetic and none of them are a deal breaker, plus I'm sure our wonderful modding community will clear them up in no time
So in closing, all of you anxiously awaiting the game feel free to be excited, I dont think you will be disappointed at all