|
Post by Kapitänleutnant Erwin on Jul 6, 2007 10:31:41 GMT 1
www.harpoonhq.com/Harpoon is a series of the world’s most accurate unclassified simulators of modern air and naval warfare. The simulators enables you to control all elements of a modern naval task force and explore the intricacies of 21st century combat. The Harpoon series is, in fact, considered to be close enough to the real thing that it has been in use for years by various military branches around the world as a training and what-if simulation tool. For a more intense battle experience, you have to be in the navy.
|
|
|
Post by Kapitänleutnant Erwin on Jul 6, 2007 10:30:00 GMT 1
|
|
|
Post by Kapitänleutnant Erwin on Jul 6, 2007 10:27:05 GMT 1
Silent Steel is not your average submarine simulation; it is an interactive video based on a submarine scenario. Basically the premise is similar to most of the nuclear attack boat sims; third world countries are generating trouble, free world in jeapordy, and your sub has been assigned custodial duty. Here you are the captain, as usual, of the most powerful weapons platform in the world. But in this sim you really are the captain. www.subsim.com/ssr/steel.html
|
|
|
Post by Kapitänleutnant Erwin on Jul 6, 2007 10:16:23 GMT 1
Very few extant game titles can trace their lineage as far back into the Bronze Age of digital entertainment as Carriers at War. The first version reached American stores in late 1986, in MAC and Commodore format, but reached the height of its popularity in 1987, when the PC version came out. Carriers at War II—with much improved art, but basically unchanged game-play, was published in 1993 (I’m looking at a review from an old issue of PC Gamer, in which the game’s “Basic Requirements” are given as a “486” processor, 2 MB of memory, and 5 MB of “free disc space”—Oooooh! Hot stuff in those days!). Instead of trying to milk the same cow, by hurriedly throwing together CAW III, SSG took its own sweet time polishing a hugely popular utility program (somewhat quaintly described as a “construction kit”), which enabled CAW addicts to get their hands on the code and create their own scenarios, thus helping to kick off a little phenomenon now known as “modding”. The success of this off-shoot product surprised many of the bigger, less agile companies in the industry, and that commercial success helped put SSG on such a solid financial foundation that the Australian company was able to ride out the tsunamis caused by expensive new technologies, predatory vulture…oops, I meant to say venture capitalists and ruthless hostile take-overs, all of which traumatized the American gaming community during the Nineties. SSG resisted the siren song of mindless expansion (usually coupled with crushing debts); the company was as big as it wanted to be, and with no international conglomerate dictating its agenda, it was able to develop the games it really cared about. SSG survived, and in its own quiet, understated way, it continued to enjoy robust financial health while numerous other smallish, independent developers (one thinks immediately of SSI, which had played such a critical role in the maturation of digital wargames) were suffering the Death of a Thousand Cuts. When the blood-letting finally stopped, SSG was serenely still there, still producing excellent games, unfettered by crushing corporate debt, and still doing its Own Thing, publishing exactly the games it wanted to publish, in exactly the manner it wanted to publish them. Although I have seen SSG described as a “marginal player” in the digital entertainment industry, it should rather be studied as a paradigm of good business practices and solid, trustworthy, creativity. The number of game developers who have survived since the mid-Eighties can be counted on the fingers of one maimed hand—Ian Trout, Roger Keating, and their close-knit team of colleagues, must be doing something right! Even so, many veteran gamers (myself among them) were very much surprised when they learned, late in 2006, that a THIRD iteration of Carriers at War was in development. Fans of the older editions wondered what sort of enhancements and/or expansions SSG would incorporate with all the new technology at its disposal. As one who played many a game of the earlier editions, I was both hopeful and a wee bit apprehensive when I read the press releases – would SSG pull out all the stops and incorporate animated, controllable battle scenes? Would they give us so many new bells and whistles that the addictive playability of their earlier classics might be swamped by an over-abundance of speed-freak “shooter” conventions and elaborate cinematics? After all, the world of PC gaming had undergone near-millennial changes during the long years since CAW II made its debut—would SSG be able to retain the freshness, vitality, and tense, addictive game-play that had made their earlier designs so compelling? After three very intense weeks of deep immersion in the new Carriers at War, I can answer those questions thusly: “sort of;” no; and definitely yes. Prepare to Launch Aircraft! CAW aims at reproducing the scope, the intensity, and the sudden, dramatic reversals-of-fortune that characterized the major carrier battles of the Pacific War. There’s no need to over-dramatize that last-named factor (recall that until the very last hour of battle, the U.S. Navy was taking a bitter, costly shellacking at Midway, and if the Japanese hadn’t been distracted by slaughtering our torpedo bombers, that last, forlorn-hope, strike by Dauntless dive bombers wouldn’t have gotten through and, in the space of perhaps fifteen minutes, turned the looming Japanese victory into a stunning upset catastrophe. The scenarios in CAW are very successful at capturing that edge-of-the-sword drama—as your strikes head for the enemy, you’ll find yourself biting your nails as the suspense mounts. If, while you sweating-out the results of your own strikes, a few waves of Japanese planes suddenly launch an attack of their own, you’ll do more than bite your nails—you’ll probably howl in anguish as you watch the sizzling white tracks of devastating “Long Lance” torpedoes unerringly carve their white furrows straight at your flattops. Carriers at War is played in “pausible real-time” (with overall game speed fully adjustable); if memory serves, SSG was the first game developer to utilize this system (for many years, the company’s in-house magazine was entitled “Run 5”, and when we neophyte PC reviewers first saw that, we assumed it was some kind of inscrutable Macintosh term!). It’s the perfect mode for simulating carrier battles, because it lets you “speed-shift” to a lower gear for watching the action, then compress the flow of time during the hours of darkness or during long periods when the opposing fleets are maneuvering and not likely to encounter any sign of each other (the game clock will, of course, pause as soon as any form of enemy contact occurs, even a remote and very iffy reconnaissance sighting). www.wargamer.com/reviews/carriersatwar/
|
|
|
Post by Kapitänleutnant Erwin on Jul 6, 2007 10:12:59 GMT 1
Thumbs up. Way up. Strap-it-on-a-Tomahawk, plot-five-waypoints, and send it waaay up! 688(I) Hunter/Killer is a triumph, a powerful blend of realism and gameplay with enough visual concessions to keep it stimulating. If you want to immerse yourself in a billion-dollar, state-of-the-art nuclear attack submarine, and experience the tension, drama, and exhilaration of relentless world-in-the-balance naval warfare; this subsim is your ticket. www.subsim.com/ssr/688.html
|
|
|
Post by Kapitänleutnant Erwin on Jul 6, 2007 10:06:55 GMT 1
This game boasts seven playable platforms that include air, surface, and subsurface units! The familiar units from Sub Command return: the SSN-21 Seawolf class, the 688i Los Angeles class, and the Russian Akula class. The new platforms include the Oliver Hazard Perry class frigate, the P-3 maritime air patrol craft, and the MH-60 multi-mission helicopter. The graphics of each have really improved since Sub Command. The sub models have been upgraded and the hull curves are dramatically smoother. www.subsim.com/ssr/dangerous_waters/dangwater_review_page1.htm
|
|
|
Post by Kapitänleutnant Erwin on Jul 6, 2007 10:05:36 GMT 1
www.subsim.com/ssr/navy_field/review_navy_field.phpThe ‘fireworks’ really start flying with a lot of planes and ships around, and as the sprites are rendered fairly smoothly, the big engagements can really look good – with massive splashes of battleship guns ranging in, light and heavy flak shooting in all directions, fans of torpedo trails launched by cruisers in the water and burning planes falling through the sky. I’m sure most players will be at least a little impressed when they first see a big battle!
|
|
|
Post by Kapitänleutnant Erwin on Jul 6, 2007 10:03:40 GMT 1
To call Silent War a game is akin to calling the priesthood a hobby. Prepare to undergo some serious indoctrination--this game really tries to replicate every aspect of the entire war. There are provisions for aircraft attacks, surface gun attacks, repairs, circular running torpedoes, special missions, Ultra intercepts, wolfpacks... just about any situation you can imagine that is historically based. www.subsim.com/ssr/silent_war/review_silent_war.php
|
|
|
Post by Kapitänleutnant Erwin on Jul 6, 2007 10:01:40 GMT 1
There are two types of campaign modes, one that starts pre-1941 and the other starts at the beginning of the war. In the pre-war mode, you have until late 1941 to have your country ready for war. One vital aspect to the game is to maintain your supply lines. As in the real world, your ships only have a limited sailing distance, so you need to build refueling points (and defend them). Building a base is more than just capturing a point on the map--you need to build barracks, warehouses, fuel storage facilities, base defenses, and an airfield. www.subsim.com/ssr/pacific_storm/review_pacific_storm.php
|
|
|
Post by Kapitänleutnant Erwin on Jul 21, 2006 11:02:23 GMT 1
|
|
|
Post by Kapitänleutnant Erwin on Jul 6, 2007 9:59:40 GMT 1
www.subsim.com/ssr/battlestations_midway/review_battlestations_midway.phpA key feature of Battlestations: Midway is the ability to play as a first person shooter, where you are onboard a battleship or plane, directly controlling the unit; and the ability to direct the entire fleet from a map. At any time during the game the player may hit the TAB key from the map and assume first person control of the unit he has selected. The most notable thing is the other units will carry on their orders with competent AI. It is a standout feature that works very smoothly and adds a great deal to the appeal of the game.
|
|