| |
| |
|
Game Information |
|
|
|
The Future of Submarine Games
In the last six months, the demise of sims has been pronounced in abundance. Print mags and sim webzines have been telling you sims are being cancelled left and right Jane's A-10: Cancelled. Wolfpack II: Cancelled. Silent Steel II: MIA. M1Tank Platoon 3: Cancelled. Fighting Steel Deluxe: Cancelled. Jane's Attack Squadron: MIA. Thunder Over Europe: MIA. The list goes on. We all know that this is a down cycle for sims and we believe there is hope that in a couple of years, things will turn around and sims will be hot stuff again. Hey, I remember in 1973 when the EPA and OPEC throttled the life out of the muscle car scene. I had a 1970 Cobra Torino that had 450 hp and ran the quarter in the high 13s. In less than three years every car out of Detroit was a smog controlled, gas economizing slug. They even started making them as ugly as they were slow! It was heartbreaking. But over time, things change. Now you can get a high performance machine that handles and has luxuries like front/rear AC. My '99 Riviera has a supercharged V-6 that would make my old Torino proud. So, keep the faith. Things will improve, even if no one knows when. Silent Hunter II and Destroyer Command are showing signs of life. Harpoon 4 is still under development. There are stirrings from the Sonalysts camp. When a new subsim does hit the shore, try to remember, the developers and game producers are our friends. They make the kind of games we like because they like them too. Why would they labor over armor thickness tables, ship model physics, and torpedo trajectories for a niche market? I know a few developers and they all love the genre. Try to keep your criticism balanced. Should you blast a sim you had trouble with or didn't enjoy with all the invective and animosity you would normally reserve for someone who stole your car or used your toothbrush? I was told by one producer that high-level executives frequently ask him about hard-core negative postings on newsgroups and forums. The industry sees us as demanding, unappreciative, and impossible to satisfy. It's much easier and more lucrative to crank out Deer Hunter and Barbie games and their users rarely flame the game company to a crisp. I work with a CPA accountant who likes computer games and is pretty good at them. He can play a mean Age of Empires warrior. I tried to interest him in learning Jane's 688(I) for some multiplay. He took one look at the hefty manual and waved it off. He assumed he would need to learn all the material to play competitive. The blessing and the curse of a good sim is its complexity. You want to command a battle fleet or do TMA on a Los Angeles class submarine? You need to learn skills and study. And this restricts the popularity of the sim. Mass market games generally do not carry the steep learning curve a sim does. So while we hard core sim players are delighting in the minutia of seven different stations and all their controls, casual gamers are passing up the sim at a 20 to 1 ratio. Sims truly are a niche market. Niche market games have limited budgets. This mean a small number of programmers and artists must concentrate on the basics. Don't expect to see everything you want and imagine in a sim. Oh yeah, I'm with you--I wish a subsim could have full motion crews and other fun stuff. But as one producer told me, "We don't have the money to design and integrate these features into the product. I wish we could, too." We should be finding out the status of Silent Hunter II soon. Either Mattel Interactive is going to sign someone to complete it or it will be canned. I went through the "we are planning to do this" stage with the fabled Jane's Ice Pack add-on for 688(I), Crusader Studios' Akula: Red Hunter, Silent Steel 2, and the interoperability between Jane's Fleet Command and 688(I). I'm not passing judgment here, just stating that when the momentum dies, so does the objective. For whatever reasons, the product champions behind those sims were unable to secure the financing to start work. To get a better feel for the whole process, read my friend John Sponauer's analysis of the life and death of a sim, M1 Tank Platoon 2, from its early development as an upgrade all the way through its last couple of weeks. Despite my previous experiences with other sim companies, I am optimistic that Carl Norman and Rick Martinez mean what they say and SSI will continue to raise the banner of the Digital Combat Series while the Jane's, NovaLogics, and Microproses around them fall like unfortunate tin soldiers. This is not to say SH2 is a done deal--that moment will come when you hold the box in your hand. We look to the next rumored subsim as our best hope for advanced underwater warfare. All we can do is stay positive, supportive, and if it's decent, buy four copies when it comes out. About The Author Neal Stevens is the editor of Subsim.com and contributing author of the coffee table book United States Submarines.
MORE RESOURCES:
Google News |
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Review: Samurai Jack -- Code of the Samurai Fans of Genndy Tartakovsky's "Samurai Jack," which wrapped last year on the Cartoon Network, enjoy the quirky storytelling and stunning visuals, also the martial arts sequences. Naturally, it was only a matter of time before the online gaming industry turned the time-traveling samurai's adventures into video games. Cloud Laser Art A new art form in the future will be CLA. Cloud Laser Art. Free Games For Your Pocket PC Admit It-You're Often BoredA pocket pc has about a million uses. But one of the most popular uses of a pocket pc is to play games on it. Rome Total War: Battle Strategy Guide A. FormationsIt's pretty much common sense to come up with a good formation foryour army but the basic idea in most situations is to have your infantry in front, ranged units behind, cavalry protecting the flanks and your general right behind the infantry. Mind Boggling Information About The Popular Bingo Game! Have you ever considered mind boggling statistics of a BINGO GAME?The bingo game is the most popular online game in the world! Bing Crosby's nickname as a child was "Bingo" Screeno, a form of the bingo game, was played in movie theaters during the Great Depression The casino game, Keno, is based on the bingo game Most online bingo players also like to play online slot machines A majority of bingo game players have a pet, most notably a cat In 1929, the bingo game reached North America, and became known as "Beano" The bingo game became popular in Australia in the early 20th century. It was known as Housie The bingo game's origin can be traced back to 1530, to an Italian lottery called "Lo Giuoco del Lotto D'Italia". Sapphire Tipped UAVs for Midair Collisions to Defeat Enemy UAV Swarm Threats Defeating enemy UAV Swarms will be a challenge for our Net-Centric Blue Force Team. When our enemy launches 1000 UAVs at our forces in the battlespace, will we be able to shoot them all down? The answer is most likely no. The Game Tester It's not easy to be a hardcore gamer. It's hard. Another Title by Atari Released on StarForce Protected DVDs "Atari has selected StarForce to protect their brand-new game called Race Driver 2", a supervisor from StarForce has stated today."Race Driver 2" is produced by Codemasters and distributed by Atari. SMS Gaming - Text Paging Games that can be Played by Anyone Using the Physical World as a Game Board: This is not a Kinky game! SMS stands for Short Message Service.Just like our last article, this can be fun for teens and adults. A Parents Guide to Online Gaming, Part 1 The internet touches every aspect of your children's lives. Where you might look up an unknown word in a dictionary, your kids are more likely to use dictionary. You Dont Have To Be Rich To Be A PC Gamer There is a common misconception that you have to take out a second mortgage on your house if you want to get a computer that will run all of the latest and greatest games. I don't know who started the rumor that you need to spend $3000 to get a gaming computer. Indie Games that Made It to the Tops of the Charts this Year 1. Platypushttp://www. The Future of Submarine Games In the last six months, the demise of sims has been pronounced in abundance. Print mags and sim webzines have been telling you sims are being cancelled left and right Jane's A-10: Cancelled. Go Digital and Groovy... and Save Trees! Have you inherited your Dad's trading card collection - ie. pieces of printed cardboard that come with a piece of gum that looks like it tastes like cardboard too? Well today's trading cards have evolved to include, wait for it. Theories Behind Magic Trinkets in Video Game and Virtual Reality In Gaming we deal between Simulation, Augmented Reality, Fantasy and Virtual Reality. The best fantasy has some reality basis behind it. Review - Sony PSP I'm fairly certain there are folks at Nintendo feeling some serious self-loathing right about now. You see, back in the mid-90's Nintendo contracted Sony to develop a CD-ROM drive for the Super Nintendo. $20 Buys a Lot of Game These Days Watching the evolution of sports games has been like watching a retarded child grow up to become a handsome and brilliant Master of the Universe. Now I'm not saying ESPN's NBA 2K5 is the pinnacle of sports gaming, but I will tell you why it comes pretty damn close - especially for all of us basketball fanatics. How To Save Time, Energy, and Money by Renting Your DVDs and Games Online As a bit of a movie buff I recently discovered that the best way to rent movies and games these days is online using one of the Online DVD and Game Rental Services.If you're into renting movies or games these services simply can't be beat for their time saving convenience and value. Increasing Rates of Climb in Fighter Aircraft Like the New Joint force Strike Fighter We know from studying aircraft like the F-8 Crusader, in which my dad had the fortunate to fly while in the US Navy stationed in Puerto Rico, that when the wind was tilted upward on the aircraft that it had a lower takeoff speed and much higher initial rates of climb. At which point the wing came back to position and it was a pencil shaped rocket with wings. Why We Play Games, Part 2 Last week we started to get into the motivation of the gamer. We discussed challenge and its ugly stepsister competition, two of the most common motivators.
|
| homegameseditor.com | site map |
| © 2007 |
