SH3 the best u-boat sim (for me)?

Ballast · 03-02-09, 09:32 AM

Greetings from a first time poster!

Sorry about the controversial title, but I wanted a more concrete answers than I found searching older threads.

A few words about myself : Since I was a kid I liked submarine simulations, probably has to do with my dad serving as a machinist on a T-class during the late 60's and having all those old technical manuals in the house...
Started with Silent Service II (on 5.25" floppies) and the demo version of 688 Attack Sub back in the day, forgot about it for years and then stumbled upon this site sometime around 2001/2, I guess, continued to discover CAOD which I really liked but with my studies and other interests I stopped playing. I've been a long time semi-lurker on the site/forums (I drop in once every year or so to see what's new).

Well, in the last few days my interest reignited and checking subsim.com again I realized that SH3, which was state-of-the-art and full priced back in 2005 with its 100(!) rating by Neal, can now run on almost any modern computer and be purchased dirt cheap. Which I did and am waiting for it to arrive...

What I'm looking for is the best U-boat sim in terms of immersion and atmosphere as I really like reading about and watching documentaries on the battle of the Atlantic. It's nice to have eye-candy (I understand that SHIV is the best in that regard) but as someone said, subsim is more about state of mind and imagination and, like most everyone here, I don't like sims which scarifice gaming experience for graphics. The more realistic subsims I consider a "thinking man's" games, and although I might not play with manual-TDC-no-TC-no-showering-100%-realism for a while I still want that sensation of being inside a u-boat immersed in the dark waters of the Atlantic.

So SH3 must be ideal for me, right? but searching this and Ubi forums it turns out many people criticized SH3 as being too "arcadey", with poor AI and lacking wolfpacks, radio traffic etc. and many still consider AOD to be the best in the atmoshpere dept.
True, many threads where from the 2005 era, when the game was just released and before the modder really got to work and gave us the wonders (so I hear) of GWX and co...but still...

So what I'd like is your input on this - how would you compare SH3 to the old AOD and maybe the newer, open source DftD (which is getting better, I understand) in the terms I mentioned above? Can GWX really change the behavior and feeling of the game without changing the code? Is SH3+GWX really that good? Is SH3 worth the time and learning curve or should I just stick with AOD?

I understand a lot of it is a matter of taste and I realize that asking this on the SH3 forum is probably rigging the answer but I'd like to hear people's opinion (and not just game bashing as I've seen on some other threads).

thanks!

03-02-09, 09:32 AM	#1
Ballast Swabbie Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 6 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	SH3 the best u-boat sim (for me)? Greetings from a first time poster! Sorry about the controversial title, but I wanted a more concrete answers than I found searching older threads. A few words about myself : Since I was a kid I liked submarine simulations, probably has to do with my dad serving as a machinist on a T-class during the late 60's and having all those old technical manuals in the house... Started with Silent Service II (on 5.25" floppies) and the demo version of 688 Attack Sub back in the day, forgot about it for years and then stumbled upon this site sometime around 2001/2, I guess, continued to discover CAOD which I really liked but with my studies and other interests I stopped playing. I've been a long time semi-lurker on the site/forums (I drop in once every year or so to see what's new). Well, in the last few days my interest reignited and checking subsim.com again I realized that SH3, which was state-of-the-art and full priced back in 2005 with its 100(!) rating by Neal, can now run on almost any modern computer and be purchased dirt cheap. Which I did and am waiting for it to arrive... What I'm looking for is the best U-boat sim in terms of immersion and atmosphere as I really like reading about and watching documentaries on the battle of the Atlantic. It's nice to have eye-candy (I understand that SHIV is the best in that regard) but as someone said, subsim is more about state of mind and imagination and, like most everyone here, I don't like sims which scarifice gaming experience for graphics. The more realistic subsims I consider a "thinking man's" games, and although I might not play with manual-TDC-no-TC-no-showering-100%-realism for a while I still want that sensation of being inside a u-boat immersed in the dark waters of the Atlantic. So SH3 must be ideal for me, right? but searching this and Ubi forums it turns out many people criticized SH3 as being too "arcadey", with poor AI and lacking wolfpacks, radio traffic etc. and many still consider AOD to be the best in the atmoshpere dept. True, many threads where from the 2005 era, when the game was just released and before the modder really got to work and gave us the wonders (so I hear) of GWX and co...but still... So what I'd like is your input on this - how would you compare SH3 to the old AOD and maybe the newer, open source DftD (which is getting better, I understand) in the terms I mentioned above? Can GWX really change the behavior and feeling of the game without changing the code? Is SH3+GWX really that good? Is SH3 worth the time and learning curve or should I just stick with AOD? I understand a lot of it is a matter of taste and I realize that asking this on the SH3 forum is probably rigging the answer but I'd like to hear people's opinion (and not just game bashing as I've seen on some other threads). thanks!