Silent Hunter III

[WSUCougar]

If this puppy delivers on its promise...oh my.

*slobber*

*drool*

Silent Hunter III website

[WussGawd]

Originally Posted by WSUCougar

If this puppy delivers on its promise...oh my.

*slobber*

*drool*

Silent Hunter III website

We'll see. The DOS based original was a great, great game, one of my favorites. The sequel, on the other hand, was a festering pile of dung. It's about the only sequel I can think of that had less features than the original.

I am hopeful that this one will more closely resemble an updated version of the original in terms of gameplay.

[wahoomac]

I only wish they would make an updated version of Silent Hunter I instead of Silent Hunter II. I hate playing U-Boat kapitan instead of an American fighting in the Pacific. Of course, I wish they could combine Silent Hunter with something like Grigsby's Pacific War or Uncommon Valor, where the war was going on around you with real-life events playing out (Battle of Midway, the Marianas "Turkey Shoot", etc.) I would be in heaven...

[sachmo71]

Originally Posted by wahoomac

I only wish they would make an updated version of Silent Hunter I instead of Silent Hunter II. I hate playing U-Boat kapitan instead of an American fighting in the Pacific. Of course, I wish they could combine Silent Hunter with something like Grigsby's Pacific War or Uncommon Valor, where the war was going on around you with real-life events playing out (Battle of Midway, the Marianas "Turkey Shoot", etc.) I would be in heaven...

An updated Red Storm Rising would be great. I loved that damn game.

Cougar, I just don't have faith in games to deliver anymore. If this one does, I PROMISE to buy a new computer, buy this game, and hunt merchies with you.

[WSUCougar]

Originally Posted by sachmo71

Cougar, I just don't have faith in games to deliver anymore. If this one does, I PROMISE to buy a new computer, buy this game, and hunt merchies with you.

I hear ya. And I'll buy you the game.

[Calis]

It just gets better! This is great news imo, something I was really hoping to see in the game.

From the main site.

Dear all,
After several weeks of debate, we have decided to put more efforts into the development of dynamic campaigns. The feedback received from the community played an important role in this decision. Of course, this will affect the development planning and we are now expecting to release the game in Q1 2005.

For the SH3 dev team it's a great opportunity to improve the game and even add some new features that were not considered mainly because of time constraints.

We never answered until now your main question: "Will SH3 have a Dynamic Campaign?" The main reason was that it is very hard to define in our opinion what this means. Certainly, everybody (in the submarine simulation community has a list of "must-haves" that can define a dynamic campaign. It would have been possible to match some definitions by September but certainly not the large majority.

To be more explicit, some of you consider that SH1 has a Dynamic Campaign. Others that CAOD has THE ONLY Dynamic Campaign. From this point of view we can tell you now that SH3 campaign will contain all the features included in those reference titles and many others inspired by your suggestions.

And yes, next time someone develops a naval simulation title we hope they will be asked to have a Dynamic Campaign like in SH3.

Thank you,

The Silent Hunter III Dev Team

[WSUCougar]

Sweet!

[ice4277]

Originally Posted by sachmo71

An updated Red Storm Rising would be great. I loved that damn game.

Will you marry me?

Red Storm Rising is my all-time favorite game, PC or console. If there was a sequel to that, I would blow the biggest wad ever.

[Eaglesfan27]

I'm also a huge fan of Red Storm Rising I keep hoping they will make an updated version of that game. However, I'm not sure any game would make me blow "biggest wad ever."

[WSUCougar]

On the horizon...

[sachmo71]

Originally Posted by WSUCougar

On the horizon...

The wad, or the game? Because if it's the biggest wad ever, I would hope you could see it coming.


Sorry about the pun.

Not really.

[Calis]

Bah was hoping to hear they'd gone gold!

teases.

[Calis]

Der Noob In Das Boot

Preview of the game, pretty funny stuff.

Can't wait.

[Coffee Warlord]

"New plan:" I said, gathering the men around. The ones who were still alive, at least. "We're gonna surface. They'll never see it coming."

[WSUCougar]

Wargamer.com:

Silent Hunter III has gone gold, French publisher Ubisoft announced today. The World War II naval submarine simulation places players at the command of a German U-Boat as it operates against Allied forces in the North Atlantic. Players can do everything from take general control over the sub to man specific stations. The game features an all-new 3D engine with attractive visuals and historically-accurate U-boat models. The game will also feature an "event camera" for tracking the most important moments of a battle, such as when a torpedo strikes the an Allied ship. Both a single player campaign and four-man multiplayer co-op mode will be included in the game.

Silent Hunter III is the latest game in this submarine simulation series which has previously included 1996's Silent Hunter (review) and 2001's Silent Hunter II (review). The past two versions were developed by Ultimation and SSI, two defunct companies which have since been acquired by Ubisoft.

For more information on Silent Hunter III, visit its official web site or browse the screenshots reproduced below. The game will be on store shelves here in North America on March 15th, priced at $39.99.

[Calis]

Woohoo!

Very excited about this, and it'll hit just a couple days before my Spring Break, excellent!

First game in quite a while I'll be pre-ordering(even though I'll probably regret it).

We might have to roust up an FOFC Wolfpack.

[Calis]

It's been confirmed to be protected by Starforce.

Just a heads up.

I've never actually installed a Starforce game, but I'm getting this sucker regardless. I do realize it's a deal breaker for a lot of folks also though.

Neal Stevens from Subsim has his review of the game done and up also for anyone interested.

SUBSIM Review

EDIT: Guess I should clarify, it's been confirmed on the European release, there is rumors that the NA Release is using something different, but no clue why that's thought. So far only the Euro's have received their copies, think we'll be getting them here sometime late this week.

[WSUCougar]

Dear god, the review makes the game sound phenomenal.

Originally Posted by Calis

It's been confirmed to be protected by Starforce.

Just a heads up.

I've never actually installed a Starforce game, but I'm getting this sucker regardless. I do realize it's a deal breaker for a lot of folks also though.

Can you elaborate? I am unfamiliar with Starforce.

[scooter]

Originally Posted by WSUCougar

Can you elaborate? I am unfamiliar with Starforce.

Know thine enemy. . .

http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/~fof/for...ight=Starforce

[WSUCougar]

Originally Posted by scooter

Know thine enemy. . .

Yikes.

[Calis]

Originally Posted by WSUCougar

Dear god, the review makes the game sound phenomenal.

The one thing that dissapoints me a bunch is that there are no wolfpacks in single player, which I just took for granted would be included. Something I would've liked to seen in the 2nd, getting contact reports from other u-boats and meeting up, have them share some of the heat, just liven it up a little bit.

I'll survive though, what is there does sound fantastic. Oddly enough it's doing really well with pre-orders also, which I didn't expect.

I laughed this morning I looked at Chips & Bits, and they're closing down their orders for the next two weeks because they're moving stock. But there's another addendum after that saying that yes, Silent Hunter 3 will still be shipped during this time though.

[Calis]

It hath arrived!

Getting ready to install, not sure how much I'll be able to play today but tomorrow is set aside solely for SH3, and next week is looking pretty empty all around.

Haven't been this excited about getting a new game for quite a while, hope I'm not dissapointed.

[WSUCougar]

w00t!

I saw that it was "in stores" but haven't sought out and claimed mine yet. I am very excited as well. Please share your experience!

Is it available in non-DVD?

[Calis]

Originally Posted by WSUCougar

w00t!

I saw that it was "in stores" but haven't sought out and claimed mine yet. I am very excited as well. Please share your experience!

Is it available in non-DVD?

No Non DVD version, and apparently not for quite a while on that. They plan on releasing one late this year I think.

I had originally ordered it from GoGamer but had my first bad experience with them, and eventually I ended up with 3 different orders all at different prices. Crazy, anyway I got that sorted out but found out a local EB already had the game in stock before mine had shipped, so I ran up there this morning and nabbed one.

Came in a regular PC game cover, but is actually in a nice plastic DVD Case. Wish all games here would go that route, damn paper sleeves. Anyway, manual is about 60 pages, nothing too amazing, but it did come with a nice sheet that shows all the keys and what they do. Also came with a map of all the major trade routes, ports, and areas of major allied air coverage. Very cool actually.

I'll share experiences in game shortly, I plan on Gertbeef sailing the North Atlantic very soon.

Hopefully my PC can keep up with it, it's getting a bit long in the tooth.

[Calis]

Grrr...definitely has Starforce, and I definitely now hate Starforce.

Installed fine, but when I go to fire her up I input the CD key and then it does it authentication deal...and sits, and sits, and sits. Nothing.

[Calis]

Going to keep on yammering here.

Finally got it running, very odd though. I eventually just let it sit at the CD verification thingamaroo screen and did some errands, came back and the main menu was waiting for me!

So it runs now, although it's apparently going to take 10+ minutes to start up.

Appears to run pretty smooth even on my minimum CPU(P4 1.4 Ghz).

I've only done the very first tutorial but it was AWESOME. Just playing around with the free camera was a blast for me. Beautiful looking game. The sounds appear very good, and the Sub actually FEELS huge. The interface seems pretty intuitive, and there's a lot there. It was so nice standing on the bridge and looking around, with a whole watch up there looking around with ya. Nice that the Ghost crew is gone!

Coug- Let me know when you pick this up, we'll have to try some multi. (That goes for anyone who's going to get it!) Maybe you can teach me a thing or two on working these suckers! My interest level is in direct opposition of my skill level in these sub games.
Do you not have a DVD rom, or just curious?



Ok, I'll give a real overview later, but right now I'm just happy I got the sucker to run and having a blast using the free camera. I've yet to fire a shot and I'm already happy with the purchase.

[Calis]

Pardon my quadruple dola here, but I found this amusing.

Those crazy Germans.

[Coffee Warlord]

Heh!

I take it we've found the First Bug.

[Calis]

Yeah, I can't take the credit for that one. I saw it posted over on the SubSim forums, got a kick out of it though.

They're NOT always out there underwater, but apparently you can send your watch out while submerged. Apparently you really do rule your boat with an iron fist.

[WSUCougar]

Originally Posted by Calis

Coug- Let me know when you pick this up, we'll have to try some multi. (That goes for anyone who's going to get it!) Maybe you can teach me a thing or two on working these suckers! My interest level is in direct opposition of my skill level in these sub games.
Do you not have a DVD rom, or just curious?

I'm with ya! But I will need to add a DVD-Rom drive to my computer.

And I bet the reception on those binocs sucks. "Colossal squid off the starboard beam!"

[Eaglesfan27]

This games sounds great. The only thing that is stopping me from ordering is StarForce.

[Peregrine]

I hope this game has Tipperary in the soundtrack!

[Calis]

1.1 Patch

Patch is out, nothing too major in it, but apparently there was a pretty serious issue with nVidia cards and blocking out of the fore and aft when looking through the UZO or binocs. So a workaround for that, and some other minor tweaks.

Tipperary is unfortunatley not in the game, but you can plop in any MP3's you want into the gramophone directory and play them, I downloaded a couple huge packs of WW2 era German stuff with some English thrown in also, haven't had a good chance to check it out though.

Started up my first patrol, quite a site getting to leave the pen and hear the band playing, all the people waving on the docks at you. I then thought I'd see how the navigation AI was and set up some waypoints for my navigator to lead us through, and a few short minutes later we crashed into the docks nearly destroying the boat. Not an impressive first outing.

So I'm going to try that again, had a blast with the last tutorial though which puts you in great position to intercept a convoy and you have to sink at least 8k tons to pass. There's a couple escorts, but nothing too rough. I wanted to get a quick look at everything, so it got a bit heated, depth charges hitting the boat are great and gave me a jump the first time it happened. It seemed like the AI did a pretty decent job sticking to me, without being all knowing. The creaking noises when you start getting deep are great also.

I'm wondering if I'm going to like the crew management all that much afterall. Wish there was a way to select multiple members. Or if there was a way to set a certain watch, and have it auto-rotate through it. Just tedious to switch them all, but I won't complain too much, as I'm glad they're there.

[Calis]

I hate Starforce, or at least I blame it for everything.

Installed the patch, now I try to run the game and it sits for about 10 minutes(which is normal for me), but then pops up saying that the CD Key present doesn't match the one I inputted. So it's a no go.

Then I tried running it from the autoplay screen just for kicks and it crashed my computer, and rebooted it into the BIOS.

Extremely annoying, the sad thing is the game itself has never hung up or crashed on me yet. I just wanna sink some merchants.

[Calis]

Hate to go more than an hour without posting in this thread.

So I have no idea what the rhymore or reason is, but on the 3rd attempt to run the game after the patch it started. Who knows, and I'm not going to question it.

After finishing my first two patrols, and I might add I guess I'd never used a Type II in SH2, as it's infinitely suckier than anything I've any experience using. First patrol went very badly, we couldn't find anything, we reached a patrol zone just East of Southend and spent about 3 days patrolling back and forth with nothing. We occasionally heard something, but it was always too far away and moving away. We finally managed to have a smallish merchant drive almost right over the top of us when I was giving the boys a rest below. So we managed to nail that one easily but it was only about 2k. We never found anything else on patrol, and eventually I just headed back to port. No awards or promotions for that outing.

2nd won went better, we had a very long chase with a Coastal Merchant, and for once I actually did a decent job navigating and we eventually closed the gap after following them visually for almost a full day. A little bit later we came across a C2 Cargo ship, which was a pretty big fugger. We were luckily close to being in their path so I positioned us and just waited, as it was closing in on dusk. I unloaded two fish on him both which hit, but he was holding strong, not moving...but not really sinking. So I waited for the boys to load up our final torpedo and fired that one from about 300m. What followed was probably the most impressive explosion I've seen in a game. Was a beautiful sight, she split right into two, explosions all over the ship..and she went down shortly after. So we finished with about 10k in tonnage sunk that patrol and I picked up a couple of medals which I distrubited among the men who looked promising, and I gave out a promotion to one Seaman who looks like he could make a fine officer at some point.

So, yeah the Starforce thing sucks and annoys the hell out of me, BUT I'm willing to fight it for this game. If you're a fan of sub sims at all, you'll love this. Great immersion and a whole lot of fun.

Sadly though, I'm praying for a crack to come out ASAP for it.

[cartman]

Originally Posted by Calis

Pardon my quadruple dola here, but I found this amusing.

Those crazy Germans.

Must be the Polish conscripts....

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by Calis

Hate to go more than an hour without posting in this thread.

So I have no idea what the rhymore or reason is, but on the 3rd attempt to run the game after the patch it started. Who knows, and I'm not going to question it.

After finishing my first two patrols, and I might add I guess I'd never used a Type II in SH2, as it's infinitely suckier than anything I've any experience using. First patrol went very badly, we couldn't find anything, we reached a patrol zone just East of Southend and spent about 3 days patrolling back and forth with nothing. We occasionally heard something, but it was always too far away and moving away. We finally managed to have a smallish merchant drive almost right over the top of us when I was giving the boys a rest below. So we managed to nail that one easily but it was only about 2k. We never found anything else on patrol, and eventually I just headed back to port. No awards or promotions for that outing.

2nd won went better, we had a very long chase with a Coastal Merchant, and for once I actually did a decent job navigating and we eventually closed the gap after following them visually for almost a full day. A little bit later we came across a C2 Cargo ship, which was a pretty big fugger. We were luckily close to being in their path so I positioned us and just waited, as it was closing in on dusk. I unloaded two fish on him both which hit, but he was holding strong, not moving...but not really sinking. So I waited for the boys to load up our final torpedo and fired that one from about 300m. What followed was probably the most impressive explosion I've seen in a game. Was a beautiful sight, she split right into two, explosions all over the ship..and she went down shortly after. So we finished with about 10k in tonnage sunk that patrol and I picked up a couple of medals which I distrubited among the men who looked promising, and I gave out a promotion to one Seaman who looks like he could make a fine officer at some point.

So, yeah the Starforce thing sucks and annoys the hell out of me, BUT I'm willing to fight it for this game. If you're a fan of sub sims at all, you'll love this. Great immersion and a whole lot of fun.

Sadly though, I'm praying for a crack to come out ASAP for it.

I'm a huge fan of subsims, but I can't see anything being good enough to make me deal with Starforce with all of the evil things I've heard about it. Even your problems with this game worry me. I really wish this form of protection would go away.

[tanglewood]

As a complete subsim newbie, this game intruiges me no end. Is it friendly to first time Kreigsmariners?

[Calis]

Originally Posted by tanglewood

As a complete subsim newbie, this game intruiges me no end. Is it friendly to first time Kreigsmariners?

Yeah I think so, you can make it as realistic or unrealistic as you want...I'm very much a newbie myself, even have played a couple others. I play with the realism toned down and I think it's pretty easy to manage.

The main thing I think for subsim newbies is realizing that there are long periods of the game that are pretty boring. Getting to patrol zones and such even at 1024x speed can still take a good amount of time, and would drive some people off. It's a lot of buildup. No big deal to me though as I usually just bring a book or do homework while going long distances, but a warning.

The manual does leave something to be desired for newbies though, but if you check out Subsim.com you should find out most the info you need.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Calis

So, yeah the Starforce thing sucks and annoys the hell out of me

Make sure you report your issues to tech support. If people don't report them, no one will think there are any problems

[Calis]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

Make sure you report your issues to tech support. If people don't report them, no one will think there are any problems

Funny you should mention this, I did send it in to Tech Support and they of course told me that I need to remove everything from my startup using MSConfig and then moved the problem into the solved category. They're good, damn good. Glad to see it took them about 30 hours to come up with that gem.

[SlapBone]

Originally Posted by Calis

Funny you should mention this, I did send it in to Tech Support and they of course told me that I need to remove everything from my startup using MSConfig and then moved the problem into the solved category. They're good, damn good. Glad to see it took them about 30 hours to come up with that gem.

That is some clevermous thinking.

[Calis]

Bit amusing I thought, dealing with Ubisoft tech support was basically useless, spent quite a while and got absolutely nowhere.

So what do I do? Talk to our good buddies at Starforce. Send their support an e-mail and within about 20 minutes they've replied, and shortly after the problem is fixed and I can run the game no problem, and it seems like the 10 minute wait to check the key is gone, as it fired up almost instantly for me.

So Starforce lost a bit of hatred points there, at least they're helpful when you do have a problem.

[Eaglesfan27]

I spent my lunch hour researching Starforce problems/solutions, etc. I discovered that I already have Starforce on my computer. Apparently, Silent Storm used it! I didn't even know that. Anyway, my computer has run fine despite having Silent Storm on it, so I just bit the bullet and bought this game. I've been craving a good sub sim game for several years, and based on the dynasty on here, the excellent comments on here, I decided to purchase it. Also, I've read several good reviews at other places. After I eat dinner, I'll be crossing my fingers and attempting installation. (just not on my laptop where FM and all of my important work is located.)

[Eaglesfan27]

Dola - At least this game had a small warning about Starforce on the box. I don't remember Silent Storm having that warning.

[Desnudo]

Originally Posted by Calis

No Non DVD version, and apparently not for quite a while on that. They plan on releasing one late this year I think.

I had originally ordered it from GoGamer but had my first bad experience with them, and eventually I ended up with 3 different orders all at different prices. Crazy, anyway I got that sorted out but found out a local EB already had the game in stock before mine had shipped, so I ran up there this morning and nabbed one.

Came in a regular PC game cover, but is actually in a nice plastic DVD Case. Wish all games here would go that route, damn paper sleeves. Anyway, manual is about 60 pages, nothing too amazing, but it did come with a nice sheet that shows all the keys and what they do. Also came with a map of all the major trade routes, ports, and areas of major allied air coverage. Very cool actually.

I'll share experiences in game shortly, I plan on Gertbeef sailing the North Atlantic very soon.

Hopefully my PC can keep up with it, it's getting a bit long in the tooth.

This is probably a silly question given your first sentence, but can I install it with a CD-ROM drive or do I need a DVD drive?

[Calis]

Must have a DVD drive.

[Eaglesfan27]

FWIW, the game installed without any problems and loaded without any problems. I'm still sleep deprived, and will likely wait til tomorrow to try to get a better grip around all of the concepts. However, it certainly looks great (although it pushes my system a bit - the first game I've bought to do that on my desktop.) The system requirements for this game are high.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Calis

Bit amusing I thought, dealing with Ubisoft tech support was basically useless, spent quite a while and got absolutely nowhere.

So what do I do? Talk to our good buddies at Starforce. Send their support an e-mail and within about 20 minutes they've replied, and shortly after the problem is fixed and I can run the game no problem, and it seems like the 10 minute wait to check the key is gone, as it fired up almost instantly for me.

So Starforce lost a bit of hatred points there, at least they're helpful when you do have a problem.

So, what was the solution?

[Calis]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

So, what was the solution?

They ended up giving me another CD key, which works with no problem.


Glad you didn't have any problems EaglesFan27, was a pain in the ass for me, but now that's it situated it's all gravy.

Haven't been able to play it as much as I hoped to this week, been sick, and of course since I was sick someone had the bright idea of letting me borrow Mercenaries from them to play on the X-Box...damn addictive little game.

Sounds like there's a crack out for SH3 now, pretty quick for a Starforce game. This is one time I guarantee you I will not hesitate to install the crack if I run into one more issue.