Product Description: The King of submarine simulations returns with an all-new 3D game engine, new crew command features and more realistic action than ever before. The game includes a career campaign, patrols that have both fictional and historical missions, a mission editor and multiplayer feature. Whether it is stalking convoys or dodging depth charges, players will experience their own personal war story. The spectacular graphics, multiplayer options, and suspenseful gameplay combine to create the most impressive submarine simulation ever.
Tough Sim, But Loads of Fun What a cool Game! In the highest reality settings, it is a really tough game. I am still in training, and am having a heck of a time with the torpedos. The calculations and whatnot, are super tough!
As far as Ubisoft protection screwing up my computer? Not a single problem. It will only run on a READ ONLY DVD-ROM. It loaded and runs like a purring kitten. I can monitor my Gforce 7600 GT temp settings, and it does seem to crank the temp, by about ten degrees F., or so. I can hear my Tower fans, cranking, so make sure you have a decent video card, because it does appear to demand its' full attention.
Overall: a great game!
William's Review on Silent Hunter III Silent Hunter III is probably the best sub sim ever devised its fun once you get the hang of it and has alot of cool things you may do on it. But please note for eveery one who says the game is "too difficult" they didn't look hard enough when you are about to begin a patrol you should find something that says "Change Realism" click on that and change it to your pleasure. Then you may command a variety of U-boats such as the Type IIA and IID coastal boats, VIIB,VIIC,VIIC/41,VIIC/42 fleet boats. You can also command the IXB,IXC,IXD and I think the IXD2 and even the XII "Elektorboot". On the game you can get pretty much every single German torpedo emplyed on the U-boats and also any kind of FLAK gun or Deck Gun, you can even upgrade your engines and get radar! The game is just positively huge, you can travel across the entire Arlantic Ocean an dif you want go into the Pacific just don't expect to find anything because thats not where game is supposed to take place I don't think there is anything there unless you buy an expansion pack and play as an "American" Submarine (its actually just a dressed up IXD2) but BEWARE the expansion pack has a 50/50 chance of working. Either way whether you use the expansion pack or not its still very fun to play and has a fairly good replay value if you make it more realistic each time you go through. GREAT GAME! But beware of the expansion pack it only works on certain versions!
When combined with GWX2.1 It's a Real Winner SH III is a solid simulation game by itself. It really comes to life when the freeware mod GWX2.1 is added.
GWX2.1 was developed by an enthusiastic group of modders led by Capt.Lehman who make their online home [...]. This is a freeware mod available for download from members' signatures or from the GWX website.
This mod has a great variety of ships. The harbors are full of life and traffic.
The realism level and graphics are so improved that make GWX a completely new experience to the modded SHIII. This is not an arcade game and I highly recommend it to the mature, adult player.
Silent Hunter 3 Not since Sierra's classic Aces of the Deep have fan's of the German WW2 submarine sim genre had much to get excited about, but that all changed when Ubi Soft released SH3. While still not quite the equal of AOD (it's still the standard for the genre), SH3 comes very, very close. The graphic's are great and the game play is very solid. The game run's very stable with Vista OS and I experianced no installation problems or crashes. I run SH3 with just about all graphics and sound options maxed and suffer no framerate hits. My PC is not a gaming monster (AMD 64 2.4ghz 1gb DDR memory and Geforce 7600GT 512mb video card) *NOTE* Early presses of this game had a copyright protection program called Starforce that caused problems with some DVDRW players (SH3 is on DVD format), later copies, like I have seemed to have taken care of this problem. If you buy an early release of SH3 please check the forums at UbiSoft or SimHq or other gaming sites for what to watch for and fixes for Starforce and to patch up your game to current version, again later copies are already patched up to the current version. Now back to SH3 gameplay...Most problems with submarine sim's is the complete boredom between action. Unlike AOD, SH3 has many things you can do to help through these times like good gfx. Standing on the bridge watching the waves roll by is a visual experiance, and crew management is another important part of the game. Leave your crew on station too long and they do fatigue, which could be catastrophic in an emergency situation. Like AOD targets do appear quite regularly as do the warships and patrol planes. A recent mission I played is a good example. I was returning from my assigned patrol grid near Scapa Flow. It had been a good patrol and I had bagged several merchants. My boat only had 3 torpedos left and I was a long way from my base at La Rochelle. I was running submerged during the day and on the surface at night to avoid detection. I had a couple close calls from some patroling destroyers and a couple patrol aircraft but managed to give them the slip. While about still 2 days out I ran across a merchant and a tanker and bagged them with my last torpedos. I decided to hug the French coast my last night to avoid the main shipping lanes through the channel, by morning I would be at my base. While running on the surface at about 2:00am my boat was suddenly illuminated by a spotlight! Shell's spashed around my boat and small caliber rounds peppered the conning tower, I ordered a crash dive. After 10 minutes of slient running and evasive action, I crept up to periscope depth for a look at my attacker. Low and behold, close by was an British Elco PT boat zipping here and there spotlight scanning the waters surface trying to find me! Talk about a close call, while most people assume the destroyer and aircraft as the only threat to WW2 sub's these little wooden wonder's can send you to davey jones locker just as fast. Small and stealthy they can pounce on you quickly and fatally. While watching the PT through my scope as I slipped away, I remember how shocked and also amazed I was. In all the sub sim's I have played this was the only one that actually had something in a ship smaller then a DE that would attack you. I was most impressed. Overall the whole game does very well through sight and sound to suspend belief for a few hours and put yourself into these sailors shoes.
Slow paced sub sim I understand this is a simulation. Perhaps I am too acustomed to faster paced action found in FPS's and RTS type games. But for what its worth silent hunter III is a solid sub sim. There are parts that lag though, especially getting to and from your objective area. Stalking allied convoys loses its thrill after twenty minutes of trying to line up a torpedo shot while avoiding lightening quick destroyer escorts. Enjoyable if you prefer slow paced simulation over constant action. Overall not a bad game.
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