Silent Hunter 5

[freeboy]

speaking of trashingthis title.. granted drm's likethis suck.. did anyone ever redo Aces ofthe DEEP! I loved thatgame!

[E]

ORIGINAL: Arctic Blast

The claim seems to be that the game needs to access the missions via the server. So if it's cracked, and doesn't access the server, there's no way to access the missions.

It seems this isn't a game then. It's a LSORPG (tm)! (Limited Single Player Online Role Playing Game)... back to my massively-modded, completely sufficient Silent Hunter III, while my 6hr version of Das Boot plays on my DVD player. Wake me when all the patching is done, all the mods are unified and the online requirement has been "fixed" ...THEN I'll buy it (and probably out of a bargain bin by that point, to boot!).

[Obsolete]

It's a LSORPG (tm)! (Limited Single Player Online Role Playing Game)

LOL, I did some thinking about that quote, and it pretty much sums it up.  The sh*t that people will pay for today...

[Peter Fisla]

ORIGINAL: Obsolete

It's a LSORPG (tm)! (Limited Single Player Online Role Playing Game)

LOL, I did some thinking about that quote, and it pretty much sums it up.  The sh*t that people will pay for today...

Exactly, one day it will end up on gog.com and without DRM and then assuming it's actually working and all patched up I can buy it. I don't feel like beta testing that thing for someone like Ubisoft. I got plenty of other games to play...

[Greybriar]

Since all future Ubisoft games will have this copy protection, I won't be buying any games from them in the future.

[Scott_WAR]

ORIGINAL: Greybriar

Since all future Ubisoft games will have this copy protection, I won't be buying any games from them in the future.

Same. I dont mind having to be connected to the internet once to install a game or verify a game,..but to make you be connected 100% of the time in order to be able to play single player,....or to even save a game,....thats way too far.

[Torplexed]

ORIGINAL: freeboy

speaking of trashingthis title.. granted drm's likethis suck.. did anyone ever redo Aces ofthe DEEP! I loved thatgame!

Sadly, no one ever did. The U-Boat simulator Aces of the Deep was an old Sierra/Dynamix title. After 1999, Sierra almost entirely ceased to be a developer of games, and since then the company has been bought, sold and re-organized so many times, it bears no resemblance to it's former self anymore other than in name.

[Zakhal]

But there is no other company that makes games like this. To be honest do not buy it now. SH4 is now on its best with operation monsun and everything. You could play it and wait sh5 to get better.

Still this might be the last of the sub-simulators. Ubi must be crazy to spend AA money on us core players of sims. They were desperate this time.

[NefariousKoel]

ORIGINAL: Zakhal

Still this might be the last of the sub-simulators. Ubi must be crazy to spend AA money on us core players of sims. They were desperate this time.

If it's the last of the genre it's because Ubi took a huge DRM dump on their customers and the customers didn't put up with it, as noted by an overwhelming majority of responses here and throughout the web.

They have only themselves to blame for lost sales now. The same with all the other DRM crazy companies.

[Obsolete]

Well I don't know what to say about that.  Ubi sure knew when to punish its loyal customers.  They dumped this fiasco onto the public with such great timing... while they own both a flag-ship title and didn't have to worry about any competition at the moment.  Let's see... what if E.A. Games had just decided to release a competing sub-sim right at the same time.... BUT WITHOUT DRM? 

I suspect that would have Ubi quite worried, AND RIGHTFULLY SO!

Their timing could not be better for STICKING-IT to the paying customer.  But alas, I for one will join the Boycott movement, not that I think it will really do anything, but I have my own ethics.

[JudgeDredd]

It's like ANY monopoly...the company with the monopoly thinks they can do what they want.

Don't you worry. They've made enough sales from the people who don't care about the DRM and the people who believed this wouldn't be the pos it's apparently turned out to be. Dumping on your customers sure pays off when there's no competition around![:D]

That said, they could drop the series like old boots. In fact, I'm surprised it's taking companies so long to come round to idea of "if you don't like the way we're going, tough" and dropping PC altogether.

More and more companies are thinking listening to your customer base is a bad idea!!! Crazy, I know...Infinity Ward have done it with Modern Warfare 2, Ubi are doing it with their flagship games...others will follow.

It's the future gents, so you better get comfortable in your little wargaming seats, 'cause it'll be a loooooooooooooooong storm to weather out and somne great games will come and go. Some of us will break because it's the game we were looking for, others will be more resilient.

It's wait and see time.

[kirk23_MatrixForum]

Well I was stupid enough to buy this game,I was so busy modding War Plan Orange & War In The Pacific Admirals Edition,that I did not even know about the DRM problem,only found out when game arrived,ah well we live and learn don't we,well the problem has now been solved,I have written off the cost of the game snapped the dvd in bits and bucketed the ******** lot,I will never buy from UBI SOFT again,thats one life time customer down![:@]

[NefariousKoel]

ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd

That said, they could drop the series like old boots. In fact, I'm surprised it's taking companies so long to come round to idea of "if you don't like the way we're going, tough" and dropping PC altogether.

I've been hearing this "DOOOM!" theory about PC gaming for a good decade. As with many other end-of-the-world predictions, it's been bunk.

[JudgeDredd]

I'm not saying it's doom for the PC - I'm saying it's looking like it's their way or the highway. More and more are turning to downloadable content. More and more are turning to online activation, required internet connection, limited installs, pay monthly mmorpgs blah, blah, blah. If they release games like this, and we don't buy them, then it's fair to say if they're not making the money, they'll drop it.

Sometimes I wonder why they bother. I mean, there are such headaches for programming for the PC with all the different hardware and software configurations, they just get slapped in the face when things don't work...rightly or wrongly. Conversely, they can throw together games for a PS3 or XBox with none of the hassles of different OS versions, different hardware configurations, annoying software incompatabilities! I mean - seriously - why bother?

Ok - I don't think the PC will be dropped altogether - however, I think pickings will become slim over the next decade.

[TonyAAA]

If Ubisoft wanted to diminish piracy of a subsim, all they would need to do is include a printed manual of a few hundred pages with the game. 

You know, like all sims used to do.

IMO, making a retail copy better in a way that the pirated versions can't give you, is the best way to fight piracy. (Intrusive DRM does the EXACT opposite.)

Heck, I'd pay $20 over retail to get that "feature" in almost any simulation.

[Titanwarrior89]

This is why I still board game/along with pc wargaming. They can't DRM my board wargames.[:D][&o][:-][:o]

ORIGINAL: hellfirejet

All you gamers who like the Silent Hunter series of games,I would suggest you ignore this new installment,Silent Hunter 5 Battle of the Atlantic will sink like a stone it sucks! The worst part is if you don't have an internet connection then you can't play the game.[:@][:@][:@]

[Hertston]

Having spent some time reviewing both official and subsim.com forums, it seems the DRM is the least of SH5's problems; the game seems to be a complete pile of cr*p on release. Granted, both 3 and 4 were hugely improved by modders and the particular problems with 4 particularly largely resolved but with the stink about the DRM are enough people going to buy this to make significant modding worth the effort?

[JudgeDredd]

I read a post by a dev (it was a reposted post - quoted over at SimHQ but apparently posted elsewhere by a developer) and the worrying thing was the way it mentioned modders - as if that's what was being relied on!

Silent Hunter III is an awesome game, made all the better by patches, modders and Grey Wolf(?) addon...but I remember when it was released...the torpedo speeds were not correct (or something like that) making it almost impossible to hit anything! There were loads of other little things, but that one stuck in my head!

Silent Hunter IV is also a great game, now....I wonder how long developers are able to rely on modders!? Didn't I read somewhere that the compass is missing from one of the map pages? I've been reading alot about it too and came to the same conclusion as Hertston - it in no way resembles a purchasable game at the moment.

I'm confused as other people though...how the hell have they managed to screw it up so bad? A tweak to the graphics, same workings as previous titles (I mean...once you've worked out the algorithm for firing a torpedo, it's right isn't it?)...so many things should've stayed the same...so all I would expect is bugs in the new stuff, but it appears the bugs are not confined to the new stuff? [&:]

Pity. As someone pointed out, they have a flagship sim here and seem to be screwing it up at every release!

[Obsolete]

You are correct on the compass issue.  As I understand it, Ubi was already planning to dump the sim aspect, and was catering towards the ARCADE style of fans.  I assume this is where their studies may have shown where the money was to be made.  Of course, with a Flagship title, they were sure to still get the loyal fans to tag on (who wanted a great sim).  So that came out as a win/win for them.

However, the game currently fails even as an aracade.  So we have a flop/flop, or a double flop to put it exactly.

Now, throw in their latest KGB/Guestappo/CIA gimmick of a DRM, and the public is stuck with a FLOP-FLOP-FLOP, or a tirple flop to be blunt.

If this is indeed the end of this genre, then so be it.  At least it went out with a bang (depending how you look at things).  Maybe other developers will see a good lesson learned in this.  Just... maybe.

[Lützow]

ORIGINAL: Hertston

Having spent some time reviewing both official and subsim.com forums, it seems the DRM is the least of SH5's problems; the game seems to be a complete pile of cr*p on release.

Exactly my point. Unfortunately subsim.com removed public access from SH5 board for unregistered lurkers.

Anyway, given that this crap is modable again, there is light at the end of the tunnel. I expect to see SH5 in the bargain bin pretty soon and Ubisoft removing DRM with a later patch, as they did with Starforce for SH3. So like two years from now, when some dedicated modder created a decent UI and hopefully a GWX 5, we can rejoice in a nice subsim with awesome graphics.