SUBSIM: Silent Hunter 5 review (17/03/10)

[Iron Budokan]

Thank you for the review.

I think he was way too easy on them honestly. A "76" is too high a rating IMHO! I'd be more inclined to give them a "60". The game is still a failure at the present time for most people and needs some critical patches to address significant issues. I feel that the subsim review is giving UBI the benefit of the doubt that these issues will be addressed - eventually. But until it's done, the game is still a broken mess.

[Sabre]

Good review! Thank you for that (ex 6th flotilla Hundius here)

[edjcox]

I've bought every one of them up till now.

I like to play offline and on the road for relaxation and diversion.

There scheme doesn't allow this as I can't get internet in my cab on the side of the interstate.. Well IO can in some places but not many...

I like what I hear but again its a dumbed down game lsoing not building on it's predecesors. I don't want to have to start all over agin, I want to build on my exisiting skill set and discover new things in a game.

Your review is fair. Your critigue points a little generous.

Do they really expect the mod community to mod in new subs, and overall controls that they should have provided.

Whats with the false colors. We all know the NAZI flags especially what was painted on the bow and stern of the Bismark... I undertand the need in some countries where it is outlawed still.

I think this a major slip back and will wait to buy downstream. UBI my shares of your stock are sold the minute it regains my basis cost... Might be along time though...

[Shrimp]

A good review! Thanks a lot for it. Please give UB a Golden Banana for cheating customers...

[Der Teddy Bar]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

Of course, I disagree with the view that "Ubi execs see SH3 scores 100% and of course that means nothing needs to be done as this game is perfect". That's just an assumption on your part, unless you know more about Ubi's executives than the rest of us. I don't know how they see that, we can guess all day.

It is not an assumption and is based upon my experience with SH3, SH4, the SH4 add-on and from my reading of the forums for SH5.

SH3 broke new ground and was a revolution for the u-boat/submarine genre and I cannot speak highly enough of the underlying product and vision. But, SH3 got a mere 4 patches which did not address most of the major issues before being let go, and let’s be honest it had some big ones like the 8k horizon and the Tiger Tank U-boat© too many more to mention here.

SH4 was a full priced expansion that did not address a lot of underlying issues like the 8K horizon (yes patched out but...) & and the Tiger Tank Submarine© and went on to introduce a lot more as well as breaking some of what worked in SH3 or SH3+mods and was followed by an add-on that really should have been free DLC.

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

I could argue that Ubi execs see SH3 scores 100 and they say, "make another game as good as SH3!"

And there is the problem; we have been getting games as good as SH3 instead of games that are better. SH3 when it was released for all it ground breaking features and revolutionising of the genre was only a 65% and with GWX or NYGM an 85%. We are still only getting the 65%.

Neither SH4 and the SH4 add-on raised the bar as far as being complete and have taken steps backwards by breaking what worked in SH3 or SH3+mods.

As we saw with SH3, SH4 & the SH4 add-on, more often than not most new items are never complete or working as advertised and more importantly they were never fixed by Ubi. In SH5 this is the case as well, I mean you need to power up and ‘keep the man happy’ just to be able to pre-heat a torpedo, FFS!!

Who is responsible for the above? The Ubi executives.

Firstly we all know how dedicated, passionate and focused the Dev team is, but they can only do what they are allowed to by management and the Ubi executive. The Ubi executive are not at arm’s length and are given demo’s and updates in person in their French HQ all through the development process. They know, or should, what state their product is in when it is released.

Secondly it is the Ubi executives who are ultimately responsible for the end product as they set the policy and procedures that their business operates on.

In relation to SH this has always encompassed an unrealistic development schedule repeatedly discarding the advice from the Dev team. One can only conclude by what is delivered and how it is not supported that the Ubi executive are only interested in milking this franchise till it is bled dry and people like myself stop buying into half backed releases.

I also agree that you were neglectful in not focusing more on the DRM. While you have had a good run it is obvious that many have not, so while you can acknowledge that you have had little to no issues you should have acknowledged that many do have not shared your experience.

If the game crashed every second or third time you would not find this acceptable, but for some reason think this is OK when it is ‘I cannot play every second or third time’ because of the DRM policy forced on the buying public.

It is time that game publishers started to realise they are in a service industry and they now have far more competition for the consumer dollar than ever before and they need to engage the consumer and show them respect. This will in the long run make them more money than the continual useless DRM they force upon those who respect the publishers enough to buy the game and restricting the resale of the game they purchased.

Would you accept the same restrictions on a book? Because I do not see how it is that different.

Now that we have 90% more sales and shyte loads of money because of the, uhm, unbreakable DRM, I would expect that Ubi will now support SH5 by fixing everything that is incomplete or non functional and that when it comes to SH6 they will finally release a FINISHED product for the 1st time this century?

If I was a betting man, I think that has as much chance of happening as my penis enlarger has of changing my nick name from Peewee to Horse

Cheers,

Teddy Bär

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by Der Teddy Bar

It is not an assumption and is based upon my experience with SH3, SH4, the SH4 add-on and from my reading of the forums for SH5.

Ah, so it is based on your assumptions. I've heard that theory many times, it's still just a theory.

I also agree that you were neglectful in not focusing more on the DRM. While you have had a good run it is obvious that many have not, so while you can acknowledge that you have had little to no issues you should have acknowledged that many do have not shared your experience.

You want me to critique something I haven't seen? I said, "It's a big problem for people who travel or do not have reliable internet."



I'd rather not hear about your penis enlarger.

[Gatt]

Well, this nice review comes too late.
The preview told too little about DRM, bugs and game deficiensies.
Now that UBI already did the most part of sales its easier to shoot at the piano player.
Now that I already bought this ridiculous u-boat sim.
Bhà ...

[tater]

I think DTB makes good points.

Face it, the devs are very much in the position of the officers of public companies. Such officers feel their primary role is to increase GROWTH of the company, or more specifically the stock. At a certain point you hit a wall—how can a coffee shop sell more than X cups per capita, per day, lol? Add food! Then when everyone is eating and drinking, then how do they grow? Sell toilet access?

The devs are in a similar position with new releases in the same "family."

The execs want to see something NEW. Old bugs? Who cares, didn't stop sales before, and they can have someone in the team dribble out a patch or two while they work on the next, unfinished game with NEW stuff that is obvious.

OSes have the same thing. A new Windows has to LOOK DIFFERENT. Never mind that they don't fix old bugs that are deep under the hood—in order to score a sale it has to add NEW FEATURES, even as they add new bugs.

A couple years ago I was doing some remodeling downstairs. At the same time, I needed to do the roof. Turned out that the roof needed a total replacement—along with my HVAC which is up there. I ended up spending more on the roof than my downstairs Library-media room/guest bedroom/bathroom (total maybe 800 ft^2). More on the roof, and guess what, it's 100% invisible. HVAC works as before, roof works properly, but no one but me (and now you all ) will ever know. HAD to be done, but if I was a software company, I'd just have done the pretty downstairs remodel and left the roof for the next guy.

A SH4 example. The paid add-on. It added u-boats instead of useful PTO content, and into the bargain it didn't fix any bugs to speak of, or primary errors in the initial game.

[cyllan]

more like 40%, nice review but the score is hugely over scored with all the problems it has and basic design issues, 76 means a good game with a few issues, this is a badly designed game with a lot of game design issues/bugs and DRM


the marks show far too loyalty to the franchise IMHO

[McHub532]

I have ordered SH5 (yesterday evening) but don't have it here yet. I'm hanging on every word (good and bad) here on the forum while I wait for my copy. I've been reading about a week and downloading mods in anticipation for it's arrival. I had to wait for payday to squeeze it into the family budget.

So far the 'bugs' I have been reading about run to about 200 separate issues. Some are small and trivial that will be taken care of in time as the game is polished by modders, some are HUGE issues that almost kept me from buying the game at all.

Since it's release Patch 1.1 came out.

What did it fix?

What critical issues (that modders can not fix) do we hope are fixed in Patch 1.2?

Neal.. you seem to be on the cutting edge of this (with your review).. what major issues do you expect/hope to see in the next Patch?

Historically, how much time separates their patches?

[Onkel Neal]

You should be hearing something about the new patch very soon. And I take patch #2 as a good sign Ubisoft will support the game.

[Winders]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

You should be hearing something about the new patch very soon. And I take patch #2 as a good sign Ubisoft will support the game.

Thanks for the update Neal - I went ahead today and bought SHIV and SHV to add to my SHIII....which I admit I only started playing recently despite buying it when it came out.

Its quite cool!

Ta

WM
OBD Software

[Rip]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

You should be hearing something about the new patch very soon. And I take patch #2 as a good sign Ubisoft will support the game.

Very good news. I would really like to play with the morale working right. I have great hopes that this part of the game can be modded to be awesome.

[McHub532]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

You should be hearing something about the new patch very soon. And I take patch #2 as a good sign Ubisoft will support the game.

The SH5 I ordered last Friday is in the mail "Priority Mail"... I'm hoping to have it in 2 days.
I have about 20 mods downloaded already. I just hope my nerves hold out because of the anticipation.

Disclaimer: As much as I detest the DRM and the predictable condition of the 'stock' code.... I begged for a 'walk through' submarine. I am willing to pay the $32 for the game just to walk through the sub alone.
This does not mean I won't whine very much if/when the game crashes. Though from what I am reading it doesn't have nearly as many issues as SH4 did when I started playing it Stock. I found this website when SH4 crashed all the time and I hit Google searching for a fix. That was my introduction to mods for the first time ever and the great people here.
At the time I was in Baghdad with a terrible connection and couldn't download TMO but awesome people not only burned copies of mods on a CD and mailed it to me; but they mailed me a Subsim.com calendar also.

You people here on this forum are amazing.