Modern sub simulators

[Nexus7]

Originally Posted by Kaye T. Bai

I agree with your post 100%.

I was hoping that Silent Hunter V would be a modern or a even Cold War-era subsim, similar in the direction that Infinity Ward took with the Call of Duty series with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

So, as you probably would've guessed, when I heard that Silent Hunter V was going to be a World War Two sub sim, my reaction was bittersweet. I was disappointed and maybe even a little upset because there are already so many World War Two naval-sim games on the market, more than I can count on both hands. While on the other hand, there are a very few modern subsims- if any.

Yet, I was excited because of all the new features that SHV was going to have, one being the ability to walk around inside a submarine and see the crew. This was a feature I had always wanted to see in any naval sim, modern or historical. Not only that, the graphical improvements look very nice.

In the 1990s, modern naval simulation games were plentiful, and they were revolutionary for their time, graphics-wise and gameplay-wise. Imagine playing Jane's 688(I) Hunter/Killer on a Windows 95 in 1997.

Dangerous Waters on the other hand, (again, one of few modern sims on the market today), while very fun and intriguing was outdated even for the mid-2000s. Almost half of the content in Dangerous Waters was ported from Sub Command and even Jane's Fleet Command. On a lighter note, I play Dangerous Waters occasionally, it is still a great game. The voice command feature in Dangerous Waters is one of my favourite features of the game, though it could use a little work, even with patches installed.

Hopefully there will be another modern subsim, revolutionary like Jane's 688(I) Hunter/Killer was for subsims, or how Grand Theft Auto 3 was for the sandbox games.

I hope it will only be a matter of time.

Some games, I like to play them VS human opponent only, I am not sure why... maybe because some games allow to go farther and allow for some freedom of thought and action. Games I like to play VS the AI do have some kind of communication thingies in it that trigger me along, else, are mentally demanding (chess or similar).

The SH series never got my addiction, because lacking one of those factors maybe.

SC did... maybe because of the complexity that represents a challenge to my mind. The core of the complexity, to me, relied in the human vs human engagement only: knowledge and reactyness decided if I win or if i die. The way to achieve can be difficult or easy, but you know exatcly what you are doing, why, and how to do it good, and how to do it better...

I like to think that Sonalyst did a masterwork with DW, even if it was a commercial failure, meaning that Sonalyst raised the pot with DW, a bet on a market where the company was maybe ready to try & risk.

I see DW as premature for the times. I like to think at it as a try to bring flight simulator players to our niche sector of sub-sims.
My opinion was always that graphics count a crap in a sub simulator (the external graphics), but if i wanted to seduce flight-sim players, this factor is very relevant (they "see"... and how...).

Now what would attract those "flight-simmers" ? A challenge as it is a war simulator...