Silent Hunter 4

[lupi]

Wasn't planning on playing much last night I was mostly watching tv. So decided to finally install SH4 and read the manual/play around with the controls a bit during commercials and such.

Wow, did I stay up way to late playing. It's been awhile since I last played 1/2/3, but this was just so much fun. Don't think I'll ever turn off the torp computer assist though as I know how it's done, just would hate to do it on the fly.

Did my the training scenarios and then my first war patrol. Out for about 20 days and bagged 2 destroyers and 7 merchants for about 58000 tons under and left another 3-4 ships under heavy fires as I was running out of ammo.

Warpatrol 2 is supposed to be a supply run for the bataan defenders, should be fun.

 

[brandonb]

I never bought this game but it has interested me. The main reason I didnt try it out is supposedly it has hard coded resolutions? Like you are forced to play in 1024x768 mode? Is that true or was it patched to let you choose? I'd like to check it out but that is a deal breaker for me (I have a 1920x1200 27" monitor, I'd hate to be stuck in a non widescreen low rez)

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Out of the box, the game engine will only render at a maximum resolution of 1024 x 768. Selecting a higher resolution in the Graphics Settings will change the resolution of the UI, but not the game engine.

I have no idea if mods are available to change that...

PS. Silent Hunter 5 is out, so you may want to look at that.

Edit:

http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/sim/silenthunter5/review.html

hmmm... crappy DRM.

 

[lupi]

I'm on a 24 at 19*12 and like the graphics enough.

As for 5, since that uses the ubi bend you over drm I'd rather lay in manure than buy that.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

^ Yes the edit says that... shame since it looks really pretty.

But between the Bugs and DRM, no thanks.

Wonder if they have them ironed out? (bugs)

 

[Sulaco]

I've been with the SH series since SH 2.

Sh 4 was buggy, like all of them but quite good once patched, and definitely addictive. I've spent a little over 150 hours with the game since 2006.
It also helps that there's really nothing else like them on the market to compete with.
There are many, MANY mods for the game that add quite a bit, especially graphically.

Check out Subsim.com for some.

SH 5, which I also own, is a total POS. Completely ignoring the intrusive and overbearing DRM, it's an absolute buggy mess that is almost unplayable. And IMO, is quite a step back from the previous games because of more focus on narration (which fails, IMO), and less sandbox play, which is what the series is best at.

 

[Nintendesert]

I like SH3 the best. I think it still looks decent enough and I liked the North Atlantic. I never really got into SH4 as much as I did SH3.

In fact I went and bought another copy of SH3 when STEAM had a sale on it just to have a soft copy of it. Great game.

 

[ayabe]

SH5 is an abomination. The controls were dumbed down to an amazing degree. There's no rudder control, there's no ping for depth to keel, it's just a complete joke in every way. Supposedly there are some mods that re-enable the old controls but I gave up on it a long time ago and won't bother with that. The engine looks good and....that's it, everything else is a complete disaster.

In my opinion if SH3/4 are too complicated for some people, they just need to stop playing simulations. It was certainly customizable so you could dial the realism up or down, that should be enough for anyone. There's really no rhyme or reason for what they did, other than to piss off what little remains of the hardcore sim community.

 

[lupi]

did find this



One of the worst bugs was so called "fixed resolution bug" (it needs to be mentioned because readers may still run into reviews that mention this very annoying bug, even though it belongs to past). The game allows the player to set any resolution supported by the PC graphic card – even the widescreen ones as long as they are suported by player's LCD monitor – but in the release version the screen was just scaled up or down from the basic resolution of 1024 x 768, making the game appear jaggy on higher resolutions. Also, antialiasing wasn't working, not even if it was forced through graphic card drivers. Both of these problems were solved in patch 1.2, and the game is now among the best looking sims ever seen.

 

[Jadow]

SH 4 is great, I love going into the sea of Japan and ambushing convoys.

I HATE having to go from Hawaii to Japan though, that is a LONG FUCKING HAUL

 

[mizzou]

SH 4 is great, I love going into the sea of Japan and ambushing convoys.

I HATE having to go from Hawaii to Japan though, that is a LONG FUCKING HAUL

I like to play and leave it on time compression while I do laundry or dished lol

 

[Sulaco]

In my opinion if SH3/4 are too complicated for some people, they just need to stop playing simulations. It was certainly customizable so you could dial the realism up or down, that should be enough for anyone. There's really no rhyme or reason for what they did, other than to piss off what little remains of the hardcore sim community.

This.

I am so tired of the dumbing down of games that still have a shred of depth to them.

The whole time I was playing SH5, I kept feeling like I was playing a console port. And that's just how the game feels...like it was intended to be ported to the 360 and PS3.

 

[Nintendesert]

On SH4, was there a way to get the little cam to follow the torpedo and watch it hit the ship? It was one of the things that put me off about the game, I loved that torpedo cam in SH3 and loved watching the impact.

It made lining up a shot and scoring a hit so satisfying.

 

[Canun]

I love SH3. Great game. I do have a question for you guys though. What mods are a must have for SH3? I don't really want to ramp up the difficulty that much, I would just like to see greater variety of ships and such.

 

[videopho]

SH3=good
SH4=bad
SH5=worst
I swear I played perhaps one or two sequences of SH5 then I just gave up.
SH5 is a POS. It's so buggy and it should have never been ported to PC.
I do not think I will ever buy another game from this series.

 

[Arclight615]

Sub-Sim Radio Room

 

[BladeVenom]

In my opinion if SH3/4 are too complicated for some people...

Let them play Polaris.

 

[ayabe]

On SH4, was there a way to get the little cam to follow the torpedo and watch it hit the ship? It was one of the things that put me off about the game, I loved that torpedo cam in SH3 and loved watching the impact.

It made lining up a shot and scoring a hit so satisfying.

IIRC there's a way to enable that in the realism settings where you adjust everything else.

You guys have made me want to fire up SH4 when I get back from this business trip from hell.

Sorry obligatory opening movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffe1exg-WNs

Pure win.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

did find this



One of the worst bugs was so called "fixed resolution bug" (it needs to be mentioned because readers may still run into reviews that mention this very annoying bug, even though it belongs to past). The game allows the player to set any resolution supported by the PC graphic card – even the widescreen ones as long as they are suported by player's LCD monitor – but in the release version the screen was just scaled up or down from the basic resolution of 1024 x 768, making the game appear jaggy on higher resolutions. Also, antialiasing wasn't working, not even if it was forced through graphic card drivers. Both of these problems were solved in patch 1.2, and the game is now among the best looking sims ever seen.

Good to know thanks :thumbsup:

 

[PlasmaBomb]

On SH4, was there a way to get the little cam to follow the torpedo and watch it hit the ship? It was one of the things that put me off about the game, I loved that torpedo cam in SH3 and loved watching the impact.

It made lining up a shot and scoring a hit so satisfying.

Looks like there is from the video posted by ayabe :thumbsup:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffe1exg-WNs

 

[heat901]

anyone know of a fix in SH3 so I do not have to set my res to 1400x900 or is that the way it is?

 

[lupi]

Can't help you there, haven't played those in some time. Although I do still have my copy of destroyer command or whatever it was called if someone wants to break out the old SH and go dueling.

 

[Nintendesert]

Oh sweet! I'll have to fire up SH4 again I suppose and see what I need to do to make that happen.