Positive preview at SIMHQ

[TarJak]

Originally Posted by Steeltrap

I'm sure a lot of us would like to see your definitive statement about DRM, especially around the fact you won't support it due to the nature of your laptop use, prominent in your final review.
Cheers

The OSP DRM scheme actively discriminates against anyone who travels frequently and plays games on their laptop.

Use of the game is restricted to times when you have internet access, which for me when travelling is usually work time, as the cost of access in most hotels and some public places is so ridiculously high, to make it laughable that any one would want to use it for gaming.

No play in any form of transport unless you are prepared to pay the stupid costs of mobile broadband. So I can't play when flying to my destination and have seen all the in flight movies and still have 3 hours to kill before landing.

No play for most armed forces personnel stationed overseas or on ships/submarines where internet access is restricted.

How many potential customers of Ubi will be hit by this. OK SHV customers may be limited, but extrapolate this over their entire catalogue and their potentual p!ss off factor increases significantly.

Sales people, business people, pilots, armed services personnel all of whom travel often and have significant down time and large enough numbers of whom use gaming to fill the void of staring at the same four walls when having a jet lag induced no sleep night.

Trust me, it's not fun waking up at 2am and being wide awake with nothing but hotel TV to entertain you.

[pythos]

A review that does not make the game look bad!!!.

Is anyone satisfied? NO!!!!

What are some people saying? "Oh this previewer doesn't know how to write a review".

OH FOR GOD'S SAKE!!!

The guy obviously has some background with SIMULATORS!!!! I have never liked how I could go from the radio room, to the bridge in the blink of an eye. I am the captain of the ship, not an omnipotent being.

I would only hope that this feature works like this. I begin in the engine room chatting with Johan, someone screams out "Ship spotted, Be... (obscured by some noise), closing!!". At this I hit the key for the bridge, and my virtual self begins walking nonchalantly toward the bridge ladder. Realizing this is to slow I hold down a key, which causes my virtual self to book it to his destination. I see the wonderfully rendered interior and crew flash past as I make my way to the control room, and hear "ALARM!!!" followed by that bell. Once in the control room I see the watch crew pile down the ladder, and the watch officer telling what he saw, as the sounds of water flooding the tanks fills the room, as the crew clamors forward, and the boat takes a downward angle. I then change my desired room with the appropriate icon or key stroke...the control room. Then order 150 or so meters, silent running. From there, possibly pass under a harmless boat, or evade a depth charge attack.

Notice, I was not able to make it to the bridge, and had to quickly change my decision as to my next actions. This is pretty darned realistic to me, making this much more a simulation than a game. Compared to SH4 where I could go from the forward part of the control room to the bridge in the blink of an eye.

Which is more realistic? Which is more a game?

[Bilge_Rat]

Originally Posted by SimHq Tom Cofield

It seems more 'realistic' to me, that is why I call it more of a simulator. IN other naval games you either are a third person directing from on high (like JUtland) or you are essentially bouncing around from station to station playing each individual role. In SHV you actually are playing the captain of the boat. It is more of an individual experience IMHO.

Tom, welcome. Since you have seen the game, are you free to comment on certain aspects:

1. what "realism" aspects can you turn on. You mentioned some of them in your preview. Is it the same as in SH4?

2. what about the campaign? does it work as in sh4? i.e., you are assigned to a patrol zone and the engine generates random ships/convoys along certain tracks.

3. what about Uplay?.....how intrusive is it?

[Sanuck]

Sorry Tom
i posted this post cause i thought it might be of use to people
it soon appeared that all they did was complain

Ill send you a flak jacket, believe me you need it in here

thanks for your preview

[SimHq Tom Cofield]

Originally Posted by Sanuck

Sorry Tom
i posted this post cause i thought it might be of use to people
it soon appeared that all they did was complain

Ill send you a flak jacket, believe me you need it in here

thanks for your preview

Don't worry, I once had a guy that blasted me because I didn't do time to alt checks with all of the planes in a CFS2 preview and then compare them to real time specs. It didn't matter that it was a preview, essentially a quick preview of coming attractions, because I didn't spend 12 hours doing all of these tests I was a worthless loser.

These guys make valid points. I wanted to really dive into the campaign. The Polish part of the campaign looks to be set up to make it a lot easier for people to figure out how to work the game. It is a lot different than SHIV and III in how the game is presented. As I said earlier it is much more mouse click driven and much less keyboard.

One guy pointed out how he would love to have an autowalk feature. I was thinking the same thing when I was walking through the boat. I would love to have that feature, something like what you saw in Das Boot when the sub crash dived. It isn't in there but hopefully a patch will be available or maybe even when the game is released. Who knows, maybe there will be a mod for this.

[martes86]

Thanks for all the info Tom, and for looking at how people at SubSim felt about SH5, and posting it in the review, it isn't something one sees every day.

Cheers

[SimHq Tom Cofield]

Originally Posted by Bilge_Rat

Tom, welcome. Since you have seen the game, are you free to comment on certain aspects:

1. what "realism" aspects can you turn on. You mentioned some of them in your preview. Is it the same as in SH4?

2. what about the campaign? does it work as in sh4? i.e., you are assigned to a patrol zone and the engine generates random ships/convoys along certain tracks.

3. what about Uplay?.....how intrusive is it?

Pretty much the same as far as realism settings. It allows you to select quick reloading, fuel, batteries, targeting exterior views and event camera views, among other things. It is somewhat similar to SHIV.

As I said before, I had limited exposure to the campaign. Part of it was simply the game dumping me twice to desktop, another issue was me 'falling' off the conning tower and getting caught between the side of the ship and the conning tower (couldn't climb the ladder to get back up). After 20 minutes of that I gave up. These are well known beta bugs and shouldn't be in the final release but when you are trying to get somewhere to torpedo something and your wife is yelling for you to come to bed, then that happens.

I gave up on the campaign at that point and dedicated myself to as many single missions as I could in one evening.

The interface is almost completely different. Throw away the SHIV keycard. Some keys are the same but some really aren't . The W, S, D and A keys are movement keys in the ship now. F1 is still help but all the rest are different. It is much more mouse driven and much less key driven. That is good and bad but that is for the review, not the preview.


UPlay? Well, if you have a constant internet conncection it is a minor irritant. If you are out of town and not connected, or if you Comcast provider decides to screw you over then it is the spawn of Satan. Personally I don't like it. I was familiar with it with Wings of Prey and I tolerate it but don't care for it. I still don't and probably will less because SHV is a game I would love to have on my laptop. I won't get it though because about 1/3 of the time I am traveling or someplace where I don't always have an internet connection. That is impossible.

[Bilge_Rat]

Originally Posted by SimHq Tom Cofield

... but when you are trying to get somewhere to torpedo something and your wife is yelling for you to come to bed, then that happens...

ah yes, "she who must be obeyed" has also ended more of my missions than enemy destroyers...

thanks for the response.

[jazman]

Originally Posted by SimHq Tom Cofield

...and your wife is yelling for you to come to bed, then that happens.

There you have it: SH5 is better than sex.

[Lord Biceps]

This preview doesn't really tell me anything I didn't already know or could deduce from the screenshots.

[Brag]

Here is what it says regarding drum and our protest:

Ubisoft's UPlay
I suppose this is as good a place as any to bring up Ubisoft's new Digital Rights Management System titled UPlay. Ubisoft has announced that UPlay will be included in all of its future releases starting with Assassins Creed II and would include Silent Hunter 5 . There is a large and quite vocal group of naval combat fans in the Subsim Forums that has stated point-blank they will not purchase the sim if it has Ubisoft's UPlay Services included.
This is my opinion on this controversial topic. I am not a fan of Ubisoft's UPlay Service as it is currently provided. It isn’t a deal killer for me, but it can be a decision maker if I am on the fence concerning the purchase of a piece of software. DRM software should make it difficult for hackers to copy and use the game, but it should be as minimally intrusive as possible for the purchaser of the software. Any DRM that prevents legitimate users from playing the game is a bad piece of software. It has to be remembered that it isn’t the hackers that pay the salaries of the executives in charge — it is the legitimate buyers of the game. Alienate them enough and there will fewer purchases. There are ways to check for legitimate users without resorting to such methods. Just look at what StormEagle Studios did with their DRM protection software. It isn’t perfect, but in my opinion it does what it should do — allow legitimate game owners to play without constantly needing to be connected to the Internet. What do you think? Discuss it further in the SimHQ Forum on the topic.