Silent Hunter 3 (DVD) review:5 stars (The Sim That Sub Enthusiasts Have Been Waiting For) - There are only a few blemishes here. Crew management is a little clumsy. The medals and promotion process for the crew could benefit from having a better variety of pictures for the crew. Saved games seem a little confused, probably because there is no way to save and exit without returning to base or CTRL-ALT-DEL and ending the game process directly...

But these are minor issues. One beef I have is that although merchants do zigzag when they spot you, they still proceed in more or less the same heading, in a predictable rhythm. Take a look at overhead recon photos of naval battles to see how desperately random and crazy captains get when trying to avoid attacks in the real world! :-) But this game is such an improvement on earlier sub sims this is forgiveable.

I've seen people complain about the limits on the time acceleration. One thing to realize here is that in the tactical views like the Conning Tower (F4) and when there is a tactical contact within about 20 kilometers, you cannot accelerate time more than x32. But in map mode (F5) so long as there are no nearby contacts, you can accelerate time up to x1024 which is plenty fast. If you are in map view and cannot accelerate past x32, there is a nearby contact you need to move away from or destroy.

Also, regarding sonar, remember that sonar was in it's infancy back then. If the boats screw is turning, it is difficult to hear anything. Set All Stop and halt your screw and drift for a minute or two and you will see that your sonar operator is able to hear much better and his contact info will be reflected on the map view (depending on the realism level you have set).

I have not tried the game at 100% realism but this is, I think, where the game will really show it's stuff, and transcend the level of a mere game to be a true simulation learning tool. Doing real target identification, distance, bearing and speed to get a firing solution "by hand" is a challenge I am looking forward to, and this offers much in the way of replayability.

My greatest excitement over this game and the reason I will be sticking with it over the next few years is that when Silent Hunter 4 comes out, I want to be ready! :-)

Take a break from the endless rehash of the first person shooter genre and spend a few afteroons with Silent Hunter 3!3 stars (good game, but legal copies often crash due to bad design of copy protection) - This is a pretty good game, however it's got severe issues with copy protection. I bought a legal new copy of the game, and the copy protection software (StarForce) often makes the game crash in the middle of play. Very frustrating. My system (Dell Dimension 4600) meets all the requirements - actually it also meets all the recommended requirements, not just minimum. So, I am now stuck with a good game that I can't truely enjoy because it crashes at random times during gameplay. I have installed the latest game patch 1.4. and I am also having problems with sound - it's initially ok, but after some minutes of gameplay the sound goes garbled with strange annoying high frequency noises. About the game itself: it's pretty good, well designed, and interesting. Romanian developing team did a good job. The glitches are minor. I've observed the following: It's difficult (impossible?) to change sound settings during gameplay. This means that if you want to make the music louder, you have to wait until your next mission. Certain confirmation boxes are redundant, such as the one asking about loading a campaign and warning that all subsequent saved campaings will be lost, when there in effect are no such saved campaigns. In my opinion, too much of the game is about assigning and reassigning crew members to different parts of the sub, but that's a matter of personal taste. At times, the game is slow on my 2.8Ghz Intel Pentium PC, to the point that it's difficult to click with the mouse on certain icons. There should have been a key shortcut to use/consult all the support officers. Also, I noticed the following one-time-bug during gameplay: after hitting a merchant ship with a torpedo, I was unable to lock onto the ship for several minutes. I could see the ship in plain view, it was not sinking, it was 800m away with good visibility, but didn't have a mark. Then, with my sub at rest, after focusing onto the ship via a periscope for several minutes, the mark suddenly reappeared and I was able to fire another torpedo to sink the ship. But none of the game problems are major... except for the copy protection that prevents legal owners from enjoying the game, which is a deal-breaker... Ubisoft... please fix these problems in your future games...4 stars (Das Boot: the Game!) - SH3 was a big step up from SH2. Its also the only sub sim that I know of the has an actual interactive crew. And, to top that off, its one of the best looking sub sims out there.

The gameplay never gets old because you can customize the difficulty to exactly what you want. You can decide how realistic and difficult you want the game to be.

I don't give this game five stars because it does take a lot to run, so the game is really choppy for me. But its still fun to play and I strongly recommend it.
Silent Hunter 3 (DVD) Features:
Military (Wargames
Computer Games
Action
Military (Tactics)
Strategy (Strategic)
Historical (historic) Recreation (Recreations)
CD
Online cooperative and competitive multiplayer modes
Submarine warfare simulator
Command a sub crew on patrols and consider their morale and fatigue when making decisions
Historically accurate subs, ships, and aircraft
3-D interface and simplified learning curve make the game more accessible to all skill levels

Silent Hunter 3 (DVD) is the DVD-ROM version. The full version can be purchased by clicking on the "CLICK HERE TO ORDER" button below for around  39.99USD.