SH3 goes gold is it just me

[DeepSix]

The DVD drive arrives tomorrow; the game map and manual are sitting in front of me right now even though I can't start playing quite yet.[:D] I think I got the last copy the local EB Games had.

[wodin]

The forum over at SimHQ is buzzing with reports about how immersive this game is. It looks like a real classic and expect it to pick up all the awards this year.

Very,very rarely do classic games appear. We have one here.

[Brady]

Hmm, I will have to go and get it[:)] I loved Silentent huntert 1 and II did disapoint, but this looks to be prety cool indead[:)]

[freeboy]

ALARM

crash dive...

level out at 175meters

reduce speed to 1/3

anything Hans?

nothing sire.. but I might have missed the splashes while we where diving Sir

Thunderous explosions surrond my head.. all ahead flank

damage reports shot little damage to my mighty boat

[Charles2222]

I guess this shouldn't turn too much into a SHIII lovefest, but for those who can't get their damage parties to fix the boat, I know why. I think you can fix anything fixable while on the surface, but while underwater it seems you cannot fix anything at times. This happens because you are trying to fix things that just got damaged from depth charges being dropped, which, a lot of times means you're running silent. When you are running silent, this would create additional noise so it is not permitted. You have to come off silent mode and they will start fixing.

[freeboy]

the dev team stated at the ubi for that things may not work in 1.1, untill players save and reload the save under 1.1.. then if you are not in silent run mode you may see damaage parties work... love fest.. sounds good .. unless you are a fraid someone might actually call you, me, a fanboy... [:-]

[Sarge]

ORIGINAL: wodin

The forum over at SimHQ is buzzing with reports about how immersive this game is. It looks like a real classic and expect it to pick up all the awards this year.

Very,very rarely do classic games appear. We have one here.

Agreed [;)]

I have not spent a lot of time with the game yet, but I did start the tutorial/Naval Academy.
Passed the Navigation and Artiliery courses with flying colors. The Graphics,game play, and how immersive the game is in just the tutorial is just amazing. I have not been this impressed with a game since CMBO was loaded up the first time, and im not a Naval sim fan by no means. I am already looking foward to the Strat guide.

PS: You need a pretty fast rig to enjoy this one [X(]

[DeepSix]

Yeah, the min. specs sound a little optimistic (256 RAM, 1.4 Pentium or Athlon, 64MB card) and at odds with the DVD-ROM requirement. They of course do recommend that you have twice the RAM and a 128MB card and a 2.0 processor. ...As with just about everything else computer-related, faster is better.[:)]

Something else for those considering buying -- and it may have changed since the info I have was printed -- is that currently the only chipsets that will run the game are Nvidia GeForce 3/4/FX series (not MX) and the ATI 85 and 9500. "Additional chipsets may be supported after release." (That's off the back of the box.)

There's a work around for those without DVD drives, though -- you can download the game from UbiSoft. I don't know if you still get a manual shipped separately or if there's a .pdf or what, but you don't have to have a DVD. Nice to find that out after I shelled out for one.[;)]

First patch is already out, too.

Regarding repairs -- silent run will suspend repairs; besides that, the print manual says you have to have enough crew assigned to the damaged compartment in order to perform them.

There is a lot of depth (no pun) to this game, even down to the individuals in the AI crew. You assign, promote, and reward individual members and it's all part of a fairly sophisticated process of earning renown (which you need to do in order to accomplish some things in the game). A lot of what I said I wanted from tactical games (in the thread about that other new game that's out[;)]) appears to be here, so I don't mind the lovefest.[:D]

I wonder if subsim.com is aware of the growing faction of SH3 fans over at the Matrix forums?[;)]

[Hertston]

ORIGINAL: DeepSix

Yeah, the min. specs sound a little optimistic (256 RAM, 1.4 Pentium or Athlon, 64MB card) and at odds with the DVD-ROM requirement. They of course do recommend that you have twice the RAM and a 128MB card and a 2.0 processor. ...As with just about everything else computer-related, faster is better.[:)]

The UK box gives 512MB as the RAM minimum. I only have that and it shows the usual characteristics of RAM shortage, long loading times and pauses - although the latter have only occured so far when first starting (leaving port, there's a fair bit going on on the dockside). I doubt its playable with 256 meg. Other than that, no probs at all with an Athlon 2200+ and GeForce Ti 4600.

Its not a 100% game as I said earlier (to my "annoyances" add "bugs") but SH3 is still easily the best subsim ever and one of the best games I have ever played. An essential buy for anyone with even the remotest interest in the subject matter.

The only concern I have is, with SH4 already announced, it will get the developer support that it really needs and deserves... or whether that will be left to users again. I was happy to contribute a little to Messerwetzer but have no real wish to do it again.

[gunny]

Dropped in to my local EB today. Its a quiet monday. I usually drop in to check out the used games as they're such a bargain. Chatted with the EB guy about SH3. He said they too got only 2 copies. And they sold right off the bat. He's been gettin calls steady for reservations since. He figures its a marketing ploy to hype up demand. Its possible I say, but it could be just initial production woes. You figure every EB sold out 2 games adds up to alot of sales in the first week.

[DeepSix]

ORIGINAL: Hertston
The UK box gives 512MB as the RAM minimum.

Quite right -- I double checked and that's what my box says, too. Don't know how I got 256 in my head, but sorry for my mistake.[:o]

I have a 4600, too, so glad to hear it runs well on that. If they devote as much attention to supporting it as they did to getting it right in development, we'll be in good shape. No guarantees, though, of course.[;)]

@Gunny - Sending out only 2 copies doesn't make sense (to me), but the SH3 page at ubisoft.com does say they have sold out of it at the 'UbiStore'. How you exhaust the stock of a download product, I don't know, but that's what they say.... I don't know for sure that I got the last copy at EB here, but it seemed that way. It came from under the counter and there were no copies displayed anywhere else in the store. Now they can claim it's a runaway bestseller.[:D]

[Hertston]

I doubt its a marketing ploy... subsims have traditionally been average sellers at best, and I don't think anybody was expecting a huge demand. I suspect only the Silent Service games have ever sold particularly well. Subsims havn't helped themselves much in the past either.. SH2 you all know about and Sub Command was "blessed" with box art that made it look like a $10 budget game.

I think Ubi themselves are surprised at the buzz about this game, which has got well beyond the usual simulation crowd. The fact they themselves sold out of the boxed game (to many peoples annoyance, who had pre-ordered direct) and the announcement of SH4 already suggests the game will be a lot bigger than they thought.

Interestingly, exposure in the UK seems to have been a lot bigger than you guys suggest is the case in the States. The "new releases" rack in my local "Game" store had plenty (and more or less equal numbers) of copies of both SH3 and Brothers in Arms PC, which was released on the same day here.

[Gen.Hoepner]

I was really looking forward to this game, but i'm still very concerned about the hardware demands.
I looked around the official site but haven't seen anything about this:

I have only a laptop ( ATI Radeon mobile 9700-64mb ; P.Centrino 1.5 MhZ and 512 DDR ram)....i know many games have problems with laptops.....

Any advice?

Thanks in advance

[Charles2222]

ORIGINAL: freeboy

the dev team stated at the ubi for that things may not work in 1.1, untill players save and reload the save under 1.1.. then if you are not in silent run mode you may see damaage parties work... love fest.. sounds good .. unless you are a fraid someone might actually call you, me, a fanboy... [:-]

I did all of that. As I explained I believe it's a realistic feature. It's debateable whether running silent should stay on when someone (usually foolishly) tries internal repairs. I like it better that way than to have the repairs automatically cancel out the running silent. There's some symbols that come up, which are crossed out when running silent occurs. I'm not sure what the symbols mean, but I'm sure one of them means repair (so some things not being able to work while running silent was intentional by the designers). Another obvious one is that your torpedo loading teams will halt (everything pretty much halted for silence).

[DeepSix]

ORIGINAL: Gen.Hoepner

I was really looking forward to this game, but i'm still very concerned about the hardware demands.
I looked around the official site but haven't seen anything about this:

I have only a laptop ( ATI Radeon mobile 9700-64mb ; P.Centrino 1.5 MhZ and 512 DDR ram)....i know many games have problems with laptops.....

Any advice?

Thanks in advance

No laptop support as of yet, sorry to say.[:(]

*Supported Cards at Time of Release
NVIDIA GeForce 3/4/FX series (except MX series cards)
ATI RADEON 8500/9500 family cards or newer
Laptop models of these cards not supported. These chipsets are the only ones that will run this game. Additional chipsets may be supported after release. For an up-to-date list of supported chipsets, please visit the FAQ for this game on our support website at http://support.ubi.com. -User Manual, p. 4

[Charles2222]

ORIGINAL: Hertston

I doubt its a marketing ploy... subsims have traditionally been average sellers at best, and I don't think anybody was expecting a huge demand. I suspect only the Silent Service games have ever sold particularly well. Subsims havn't helped themselves much in the past either.. SH2 you all know about and Sub Command was "blessed" with box art that made it look like a $10 budget game.

I think Ubi themselves are surprised at the buzz about this game, which has got well beyond the usual simulation crowd. The fact they themselves sold out of the boxed game (to many peoples annoyance, who had pre-ordered direct) and the announcement of SH4 already suggests the game will be a lot bigger than they thought.

Interestingly, exposure in the UK seems to have been a lot bigger than you guys suggest is the case in the States. The "new releases" rack in my local "Game" store had plenty (and more or less equal numbers) of copies of both SH3 and Brothers in Arms PC, which was released on the same day here.

I have glanced at the ubi SHIII forum every now and then, but had not ran into any mention of SHIV. Would that be a USA subsim?

[DeepSix]

ORIGINAL: Hertston

Interestingly, exposure in the UK seems to have been a lot bigger than you guys suggest is the case in the States. The "new releases" rack in my local "Game" store had plenty (and more or less equal numbers) of copies of both SH3 and Brothers in Arms PC, which was released on the same day here.

EB Games had lots of copies of BIA, which has been out here for several -- weeks? -- now, but no copies of SH3. When I asked the clerk if they had it, she first said "No," and paused and said, "Oh, wait, you mean this?" and reached down under the counter and pulled it out. I don't know if it was the last or the only copy -- but I didn't waste time asking questions at that point.[:D]

[Edit -- maybe the fact that it's an UbiSoftUK release added to the greater exposure there?]

[wodin]

nevermind

[DeepSix]

ORIGINAL: Charles_22

I have glanced at the ubi SHIII forum every now and then, but had not ran into any mention of SHIV. Would that be a USA subsim?

I haven't heard about 4 either, at subsim or anywhere else... be interesting if it really is in the works (wouldn't surprise me).

[KG Erwin]

Well, I've made up my mind on SH III--I gotta have it. First, though, I have to add a DVD-ROM external drive to my 2400.

The other night I got some new mods for SH II, but each time I tried starting a game I got the dreaded screen blanker. That was the last straw--I just deleted it from my HD. I may as well use the CD as a coaster, now. It is time to move on. So, with luck, I should have the new hardware and game before the end of the week.

It just so happens that my wife & daughter are making a trip to visit the in-laws on Friday--they will be gone for a week. As for me, well, hopefully I'll be making an excursion to the North Atlantic. [:D]