Something I've never done before...to buy or not to buy????

[Nimmo55]

I gotta be honest: I want out of SH5 a realistic submarine simulation that is atmospheric, looks great, performs even better and with AI that I MUST best if I am to survive. I want to have to plot the enemy's course on the map, estimate my own range, feed the AoB into the TDC, set the torpedo speed and depth. I want to have to think of when to dive and allow the right amount of time to achieve that. In short, I am a card-carrying member of the hard-core sim party; a curse and plague on all that takes this series away from its simulation roots!

And I have done something totally out of character with this release: I have NOT rushed to purchase it. Unlike every other release in the series, I have this time resisted the temptation. This is so out of character for me; he who rushed into the store to snap up SH3 & SH4 to very morning of release. Not this time, my friends (and Ubisoft!), not this time; my hand is stayed...and it will remain stayed while I am mightily confused.

For some say: "Buy! It's great!" in a shower of enthusiasm...and others say "Yuck, the worst ever" in a funk of despair. And some say..."I don't know; haven't decided..."

What is an honest bloke to do??? On one hand, I do not want to reward a studio and publisher that I suspect strongly of dumbing down a series which I have had years of enjoyment from...ruined the forumla with an insane push to the mass market. That may yet see their demise. And yet, on the other hand, I want support the very same studio for publishing a submarine simulation; Lord knows, we don't get many of them doing this.

So I fret and read and wait. I note the modding community, that wonderful, amazing group of talented artists, have begun to stir; if this thing IS a pig, then if anyone can save it, it will be the modders. They are like a faint glow of hope in a long, cold dark. Already some talented person has changed to UI to look more like SH4 and this begins the process which I hope will do what the developers wouldn't or couldn't do: produce a true simulation in all its glory, like they have done with SH4 and SH3. They are our salvation for this release if ever there was.

In the meantime, I will hold my money and watch and wait...and read the reviews that are coming thick and fast. Not a cent, Ubisoft, not a cent until I am convinced this ting is worthy of the Silent Hunter lineage...

I am a subsim fan.

Nimmo55 out.

[TDK1044]

I fully understand your dilema. I thought long and hard about it also, but it seems to me that the Publisher (not the Devs) made a business decision to move away from a sim to an arcade game that requires a permanent online connection.

Once they did that, I made a business decision as a simmer not to reward them for their decision.

I will wait at least six months....probably longer....to see what state this game is in at the end of the year. If our excellent modders have managed to recreate the sim feel while keeping the good things about Silent Hunter 5, then I'll happily buy it.

Intelligent and well crafted posts. So refreshing to read in light of the policy of appeasement that most have adopted here - and we all know how successful those policies have been in the past.

And now that same policy has brought us SH5