Hey dudes.

[nodlew]

Just wanted to say Hi to all you guys. Haven't posted in a while, reason=Silent Hunter 4. SH3 GWX etc. crashed on me wiping out my career just once too often. It was ridiculous. I think the game crashed when a convoy came close. Ain't that perfect? You spend two hours getting into position, plotting your courses, getting everything just right, then, just when it is all about to happen: Crash. Denied. Didn't save? Doesnt matter. Can't save when you're underwater anyway.
It reached a point of absurdity that made me say. I give up! Wait a minute, what about Silent Hunter 4?
So I've been playing SH4, and I have to say, I like it. I've only tried two real mods yet--RFB2.0 and OM etc. etc., wait, also RSRDC for 1.5. And this game kicks ass. The basic game was cool. Different. Better graphics. But, as always, the mods revolutionize the whole deal. It looked good. OMEGU makes it look fantastic. The new mission types were a neat idea--RSRDC takes that idea and realizes it.
Not a bad game at all. And it's nice to play as the Americans. You always hear about the German U-Boats (Das Boot) but little is still known about the Silent Service. I knew next to nothing about it and I'm a war nut. So, I'm learning again. It turns out that while the Carriers were holding center stage in the Pacific, there were all of these little Fleet Boats around that more than decimated Japanese shipping: they destroyed it. And it turns out that, Das Boot taken, the best U-Boot was not a U-Boot at all, but a Fleet Boat. Odd that the Americans, while disdaining submarines and submarine tactics, would have developed such awesome submarines ready for deployment in war before we were even attacked. This was not our modus operandi in that era. We didn't plan for the next war. Maybe WWI taught someone something that began to alter that passive stance.
Anyway, I don't know if this "Hey there" is even welcome here at the SH3 section. Especially one that speaks so glowingly of the competition.
Don't get me wrong. SH3 GWX Gold was a total revelation to me. I love SH3. I loved SH3 so much, I despised SH4, thinking it could only be a pale shadow. I was cruelly forced by software issues beyond my control to resort to SH4, and I found the game to be....AWESOME.
Silent Hunter 5, I have no idea how great it will have to be. It will probably come with it's own mini-submarine and an acre of ocean-front property.