SBP - The Cost. Is it really worth it?

[Husky42]

So a simulation addict I am, just began with SH4 and love it. But I noticed there was a tank sims section and i've been looking for modern tank sim for awhile now.

I've heard of SBP before, but was un sure and i guess I forgot about it.

The cost is out of my pocket book, well i can spend the money but i do not know if its worth the cost.

I would also i beleive have to buy 2 copies. I want to network the sim with a freind I live with and work as a team.

Is this a posability if we bought two copies?

Also what are your overall impressions?

[Skybird]

You need to be aware of how the sim was created - not with gaming market on mind, but as a professional training tool for the real military. that said, it works extremely well for the gaming crowd, too. but when you wonder why this or that was included or not, and why it was done this way and not the other way, the answer always is: becasue the military customers demanded it, or did not.

If you want a sim on modern tanks, you will not find any better, and this will not chnages for years to come. It simply is the benchmark, period. That means, proper tactics and planning are the learning curve here, not so much the handling of tanks - that is easy. Which does not mean it is not realistic. It is - and very much so.

for the network thing you better ask at their mainforum, since it uses dongles, and the CD can be copied as often as you want, the procedure may be slighty different - I don't care for online and network, and thus do not know. But networking you can, certainly - it has been the major selling argument to the military. And just to put your concern abiout the money into relation: where you pay 125 $ per licence, they pay 18.000 $ per network with 8 licences.

Check the srceenhot threat, and the SBP ressources thread, both stickied at the top of this forum. there you find all links, addon info, and my review of it. It is an extremely long review, and most likely will answer all technical questions you may have on details and features. there is more stuff to read, too.

Finally I say this: in almost two yars it is out now, I still wait for the first customer complaining. the crowd is happy, simply that. You could only be disappointed if you expect an action game, or anything but a tank software.

[Heibges]

This is really the only tank sim out there now. Comparitively everything else is a tank video game.

SBP is fantastic. I am actually playing it at work right now.

[BigBadVuk]

Monopoly is a great ...IF you are not a buyer...:rotfl:

Maybe game itself is ok,but NO way any game can be THAT much good for me to pay 125$..Period!
When SB2 is out i will reconsider until that happens im stick to SB1.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by BigBadVuk

Monopoly is a great ...IF you are not a buyer...:rotfl:

Maybe game itself is ok,but NO way any game can be THAT much good for me to pay 125$..Period!
When SB2 is out i will reconsider until that happens im stick to SB1.

Seen realistically, SB2 is several years away.
Most games today get relased at prices of around 50 Euros. roughly calculated, SB2 costs two usual games. Only that many games you play for a week, maybe, if it is a story guided game, again some time later, and then - or if it was a bad game - you never play it again.

SB1 or SB2 makes people hang to it for years of frequent, constant playing. Compared to "trainers" like VBS, which would cost you all together several hundred dollars, it is cheap.

[porphy]

The cost is out of my pocket book, well i can spend the money but i do not know if its worth the cost.

You can afford the price but don't know if it will be worth it. Look at it this way. You buy SB PRO for 125$. (free shipping). If you don't think the sim is good enough to warrant the price, then you can sell it second hand on the net easily for 90 -100$. That means that you can try SB Pro and play this top notch sim for as long as you want for a netto cost of measly 25$ In short you can try SB Pro out, and use it until you had your 25-30$ of fun. If you like it enough, you keep it. If that isn't a win - win situation I don't know what is.
Push the button...

Cheers Porphy

[Husky42]

I think i'm Gonna buy it, no xmas presents from anybody this year as I'm a lonely ******* so i mayit up and give it a whirl.

Is there a full list of every vehicle that can simmed and shot?

Also, what type of scenarios are offered?

The website seems rather limited in what i can find out.

[Skybird]

[quote=Husky42]

Is there a full list of every vehicle that can simmed and shot?

In my review. Since then, one upgrade and a beta upgrade added more vehicles.

Also, what type of scenarios are offered?

Type? You scan the world while driving, and when it moves, you shoot it.

The website seems rather limited in what i can find out.

Limited? Last time I visited the download section, they had 160 single player and 130 multiplayer scenarios. Plus 330 entries in the mod section, which is skin mods and sound updates for the most.

[Sockeye]

I think if you're into modern armour simulations or atleast want to see what they're about, then there's none better than SBProPE. Myself, I took a chance on it, and because I only buy a new game maybe once a year, the pricetag only meant that it better be challenging and I better have a great time.

I can remember getting smacked in my early scenarios, and yelling "where the hell did that come from?!" Well, that still happens, but once you wrap your head around the tactics it becomes more of a "why did I do something so stupid?" moment. It was the first real tanksim I played beyond some demo on a CD years ago, and it's one of the most immersive games I've played in a very long time. The learning-curve in this one is not how to handle modern technology with button-pushing, but tactics and movement that have been employed for centuries to stay alive and win.

How will you accomplish the mission? How will the terrain affect your course of action? What will you do when maingun fire, minefields, well-placed arty strikes, or a botched river-crossing throws off your COA?

At times you'll be in the middle of some really intense gunfights. Or maybe a sneaky scout mission is more up your alley... you can do that too. Wanna command a single tank? A platoon? A company? How 'bout a battalion? No problem!

I actually had to learn something new to play the game, and that alone can be worth the price

[Castout]

You're welcome to read my review too

http://www.freewebs.com/renaldihiraw...eastsprope.htm

There. Hope it's useful. Plenty of screenshots too if you're curious on how the game looks.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Castout

You're welcome to read my review too

http://www.freewebs.com/renaldihiraw...eastsprope.htm

There. Hope it's useful. Plenty of screenshots too if you're curious on how the game looks.

Nice, and some nice pics, too. However, one subjective recommendation: I would not mix up default title and modds into one and the same original review, even when you mark the modded screenshots as such. The risk that unfamiliar readers remember it wrong, mix it up, buy the title and wonder where the glory is gone, is too great. Eventually, do the default one, and then a second review focussing on mods ("SBP Revisted", or something like that), or add the stuff on mods in an appendix, an additional closing chapter at the end in the original review, or in the middle, but a separate, greyed text box or something like that. - Don't take it queer, please - having written a long review on SBP myself, I know how easy it is to make mistakes - I did, too, and did some thing that today I would do in a different way. So it goes - reviewing isn't exactly as easy as it seems.

[Castout]

Yeah you got a point Skybird as I thought that it was only a casual review...perhaps when I found myself some free time to change the screenies....