Is this game really superior? - Page 2

scott_c2911 · 02-15-20, 03:14 PM

Ive just returned from a 4 year spell of silent running. I own Silent Hunter, Silent Hunter II, Silent Hunter III, Silent Hunter IV, Silent Hunter V and the Android Game "Crash Dive" so I can only comment regarding those titles.

My first foray into Subsims was Silent Hunter on a Windows 95 PC over 20 years ago. It was superb and had me hooked ever since. I believe it was released even earlier than Windows 95 running on MS-DOS. I still play it on a Windows 8.1 Laptop and it took alot of computer wizardry 5 years ago to do it which I have unfortunately forgotten. I think it involves an MS-DOS emulator..... Anyway the game is realistic and immersive but the graphics (cutting edge at the time) make me cringe now.

I had a serious spell on Silent Hunter II during my University days on an Acer Laptop. The graphics were also cutting edge for the time and it took till the early noughties for me to get a PC powerful enough to run it. A massive improvement on the first Silent Hunter where the water looked realistic and ships AOB actually reflected what you saw on screen. The mission based campaign let it down though. Then SH3 came out in 2005. I also had it alongside SH2 at Uni but there was not a chance in hell I could run it. It actually took until 2014 for me to build a custom built machine that would run it reliably. Imagine having a game you wanted to get stuck into for 9 years but only managing a few sporadic careers due to graphics crashes and then the resulting corrupt game files, hence the custom built computer. But my God it was worth it!

The vanilla graphics on SH3 in my opinion now look dated but the mods you can apply bring it bang up to date. I have it on a high resolution in 16:9 perspective. Its still pleasing on the eye. I use GWX amongst a few other minor mods and other tweaks Ive done myself. Theres an environmental mod called MEP which seriously makes it visually stunning Im yet to try. This was the first Subsim I owned where you could go anywhere in the world in the career mode, it had single missions aswell as other features. Its now 2020 and Ive started another career. My previous career I managed to get through the whole war in 2016 on 73% difficulty. A career lasting 2 years starting in 2014. No mean feat! Where do I start with this simulator.....it just has everything, apart from getting wet, smelling diesel, sweat and burning freighters. You genuinely feel like the Commander of the real thing. I have it to the point where it runs extremely reliably aswell, but no longer on the custom PC but on the aforementioned Windows 8.1 Laptop hooked up to a wallmounted widescreen TV.

Expecting massive things of Silent Hunter IV, I got a copy of that in 2015 aswell as a copy of Silent Hunter V (not sure when I got that). The custom PC ran SH4 well but there was something about the vanilla game I just couldnt pin down, that I didnt like. I like the open, uncluttered map of SH3 and in SH4 the tools are plastered over about a third of it. I managed to change it so they were smaller but then I get onto the game crashing bugs. The reliabilty made it unplayable for me. It wasnt the hardware and was most certainly the software. After spending 10 years getting SH3 right, I just didnt have the inclination to start the same battle with SH4.

So I installed SH5. It stayed on for about 5 minutes and crashed. It never managed to load again. The hardware wasn't up to it. This game also required an internet connection and some sort of licence verification to run, I believe it was via Steam. What I saw in that 5 minutes didnt impress me and again, it was a battle I was unwilling to fight regarding hardware and bugs.

SH3 released in 2005 is most certainly the best one from the titles I own. When it was released, it was designed ahead of its time regarding hardware. At the time the required graphics capability was just out of reach for me. But thanks to this forum making the GWX mods, other mods, hardcode and patch fixes available and also finally getting computers powerful enough to play it, it is the one I will always play with regularity.

DDBait · 02-15-20, 04:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scott_c2911

< great stuff snipped >

Scott, thanks for taking the time to detail your experiences with the SH series.

02-15-20, 03:14 PM	#16
scott_c2911 Engineer Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: West Midlands, Uk Posts: 203 Downloads: 71 Uploads: 0	Ive just returned from a 4 year spell of silent running. I own Silent Hunter, Silent Hunter II, Silent Hunter III, Silent Hunter IV, Silent Hunter V and the Android Game "Crash Dive" so I can only comment regarding those titles. My first foray into Subsims was Silent Hunter on a Windows 95 PC over 20 years ago. It was superb and had me hooked ever since. I believe it was released even earlier than Windows 95 running on MS-DOS. I still play it on a Windows 8.1 Laptop and it took alot of computer wizardry 5 years ago to do it which I have unfortunately forgotten. I think it involves an MS-DOS emulator..... Anyway the game is realistic and immersive but the graphics (cutting edge at the time) make me cringe now. I had a serious spell on Silent Hunter II during my University days on an Acer Laptop. The graphics were also cutting edge for the time and it took till the early noughties for me to get a PC powerful enough to run it. A massive improvement on the first Silent Hunter where the water looked realistic and ships AOB actually reflected what you saw on screen. The mission based campaign let it down though. Then SH3 came out in 2005. I also had it alongside SH2 at Uni but there was not a chance in hell I could run it. It actually took until 2014 for me to build a custom built machine that would run it reliably. Imagine having a game you wanted to get stuck into for 9 years but only managing a few sporadic careers due to graphics crashes and then the resulting corrupt game files, hence the custom built computer. But my God it was worth it! The vanilla graphics on SH3 in my opinion now look dated but the mods you can apply bring it bang up to date. I have it on a high resolution in 16:9 perspective. Its still pleasing on the eye. I use GWX amongst a few other minor mods and other tweaks Ive done myself. Theres an environmental mod called MEP which seriously makes it visually stunning Im yet to try. This was the first Subsim I owned where you could go anywhere in the world in the career mode, it had single missions aswell as other features. Its now 2020 and Ive started another career. My previous career I managed to get through the whole war in 2016 on 73% difficulty. A career lasting 2 years starting in 2014. No mean feat! Where do I start with this simulator.....it just has everything, apart from getting wet, smelling diesel, sweat and burning freighters. You genuinely feel like the Commander of the real thing. I have it to the point where it runs extremely reliably aswell, but no longer on the custom PC but on the aforementioned Windows 8.1 Laptop hooked up to a wallmounted widescreen TV. Expecting massive things of Silent Hunter IV, I got a copy of that in 2015 aswell as a copy of Silent Hunter V (not sure when I got that). The custom PC ran SH4 well but there was something about the vanilla game I just couldnt pin down, that I didnt like. I like the open, uncluttered map of SH3 and in SH4 the tools are plastered over about a third of it. I managed to change it so they were smaller but then I get onto the game crashing bugs. The reliabilty made it unplayable for me. It wasnt the hardware and was most certainly the software. After spending 10 years getting SH3 right, I just didnt have the inclination to start the same battle with SH4. So I installed SH5. It stayed on for about 5 minutes and crashed. It never managed to load again. The hardware wasn't up to it. This game also required an internet connection and some sort of licence verification to run, I believe it was via Steam. What I saw in that 5 minutes didnt impress me and again, it was a battle I was unwilling to fight regarding hardware and bugs. SH3 released in 2005 is most certainly the best one from the titles I own. When it was released, it was designed ahead of its time regarding hardware. At the time the required graphics capability was just out of reach for me. But thanks to this forum making the GWX mods, other mods, hardcode and patch fixes available and also finally getting computers powerful enough to play it, it is the one I will always play with regularity. __________________ KLt S. Cooksey commanding U-2528 ... .. -. -.- / - .... . -- / .- .-.. .-..