SackDestroyer

Ah, what the heck? I went ahead and picked up III and V since they're both on sale. That should keep me busy until sometime in the 2040s.

Thanks for the replies everyone. I picked up Silent Hunter IV, because I prefer the Pacific Theater. But it, and the other Silent Hunter games and Dangerous Waters are all on sale on Steam right now, so I might pick another one up as well.

Hi. I've recently gotten a hankering for a submarine simulation. I looked into it and was surprised to see several options available, like the Silent Hunter series and Dangerous Waters. It seems like Dangerous Waters has other naval vessels which is interesting, and the SH series seems to have varying levels of quality so it's been difficult to decide where to go. Any suggestions? Thanks!

One of the earlier Ace Combat games (for the PS2, I think it was the third one) got me into flight sims.

A demo is available at their website: http://www.eurotrucksimulator2.com/ Believe it or not, the game is actually a lot of fun and has been garnering a lot of good reviews from the mainstream gaming press. Aside from the nice graphics and driving simulation, the game plays something like Truck Tycoon; take out loans from banks, buy more trucks, better upgrades for them, and bigger garages. Hire new drivers to work for you and own your own trucking company. The company recently bought the website americantrucksimulator.com too, so it will be nice to drive the engine-forward design of American trucks when that hits shelves, though I imagine it won't be for some time. Anyone else tried this sim yet?

Just an update: I fixed this problem by reinstalling and clearing the /saves folder. I used fresh downloads of the modules so the problem may have been corrupted downloads.

Sweet. I was a little late for the original Elite, I've always wondered about it. Best of luck to them!

You could try rolling back to an older graphics card driver, if it's the newest one that isn't working.

This isn't really the first MMO flight sim. Aces High has been around for years. Could get some really huge, frantic furballs going in that game, it was a lot of fun. I don't have anything against the idea, although I think it should be a free download plus a couple weeks trial rather than having to purchase the game itself. $12.50 a month is pretty standard pricing for an MMO.

I got ToH with that deal. I've been having a decent amount of fun with it. The first thing you have to do in ToH is go into the control options and clear all the presets off of your joystick, throttle and rudder axis'. The game comes with the controls set up all whackadoo and it makes the choppers nearly impossible to fly. After you fix them the aircraft are much easier to control. Also be careful when setting up the controls if you have trackIR; if you move your head around while binding a control you can end up binding a head movement to your throttle! Consider turning off TrackIR (in the game options) before setting up the controls, and then turning it back on before clicking accept. Now, with that out of the way, I'd say I'm having a good time with ToH. No, it isn't on the study sim level of BS2, and the flight model is a bit on the arcadey side (only a bit, though). If that's a turn-off for you, you would probably be better off waiting for DCS Huey, or maybe going with DodoSim for FSX. But if that doesn't sound so bad, there is a lot to like about Take-On. The missions have a lot of variety, and there's good variety in the choppers. There is persistent damage in the main campaign, where you take different choppin' jobs to make money for repairs and new heli's. There's even a bit of a story in the campaign where you and your brother own a helicopter business, with voice acting that's actually pretty good for Bohemia Interactive (which is to say it's terrible). Still, a nice change from the usual 'select a mission from a list' setup that you normally see in flight sims. And the model of Seattle looks beautiful. That said, there is a problem that bothers me; it's very difficult to hover the choppers without using the 'auto-hover' button. Perhaps I don't have my axis sensitivety set properly, I'll have to continue messing around with it. But as it is, it's damned near impossible to enter the subtle control inputs needed for hovering without sending the chopper out of control. I'm not ace pilot, of course, so your mileage may vary. But what I've been doing is flying around with auto-hover off, and as soon as I have to stop to land or anything like that, I have to put auto-hover on so I can do the minute movements needed for the job. One more tip: If you get the game, and the graphics look 'blurry', go into options and makes sure that the '3d resolution' is set to the same dimensions as the screen resolution. edit: Oh, and I didn't get the Hinds expansion so I don't have an opinion on that. But I feel that if you want any of the other games on that deal it's more worth it to get one of them.

The site is owned by Eurogamer. I dint know how they handle the BS2 download since I didn't choose that game.

What Apache sim is coming?

Just an FYI: there is a two-for-$25 deal for various sims right now, including Cliffs of Dover, Take On Helicopters, as well as DCS: A10c and Black Shark 2. Wings of Prey is also available, but that is more of an arcade game; Take-On: Hinds add-on is also available but with this deal you'd be better off grabbing one of the other games. Pick any two and get them for 25 bucks. The deal is up for one more day. http://getloadedgo.com/ (What you get here is a Steam activation for the games you purchase, so you'll need Steam to DL your games.) I got Cliffs of Dover and Take-On (since I already own both DCS titles). Haven't tried Take-On yet but I've played with Cliffs of Dover a bit. So far, it seems very good: runs alright with no lag or stuttering, no glitches so far, looks nice.

I was trying it again, and it seems that it's only the Ka-50 and the P-51D that won't run. I can get the A-10 and SU-27T to work. edit: Just to clarify, I did install the newest updates for each of the modules.

Okay. I don't understand it, so I'll attach it here. dcs.log.txt

In single player, the game crashes and returns to menu whenever I attempt to start a mission in any aircraft. I just installed the new latest update and then autoupdated on start. Attached are my crash files. I believe it may have something to do with the individual .exe's not having admin permissions. DCS World's .exe has permission but I'm not sure if the individual craft's .exes need permission also, or which files are the correct .exes. My system is: Win7 64-bit Pro i5 2500k 3.3gig GTX 570HD card 8 gigs RAM Attached are a couple of the crash logs I have. DCS-20121102-015356.txt DCS-20121102-015510.txt

Does CloD have a clickable cockpit? Or is it more 'press e to start the engine' like the original?

So, is this game good when it can be run? I've got a pretty beefy computer (GTX 570, i5-2500k 3.3gig with 8 gigs of RAM), so I don't predict having any system trouble. It's too bad it's still going for 30 bucks on Steam, which is a little steep for a year old game with such bad reviews.

I played the TOH demo awhile ago. It always felt like I was flying through a hurricane, even on clear days. I suppose it's possible I didn't set my controls up properly (TM Warthog and CH pedals). The TrackIR support also felt kind of 'floaty' like it did in Arma 2.

Well, I suppose the downside is that, as a crane operator, you're in a position to royally screw something up. Not long ago, a crane operator in Newark accidentally knocked six or seven containers off the side of the ship he was working, and onto the bunkering barge that was next to the ship. Luckily, nothing exploded and no one was killed (though there were injuries) but still, one small slip-up cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages and compensation money. My current position is pretty much stress-free, even if it is physically demanding and dangerous.

Thanks for the advice. However, I've been in the industry for seven years; I know about as much as it's possible to know about crane operation without actually being a crane operator. The pay and holidays are spectacular, and even the most automated ports still have crane operators. Currently, my job at the port involves being lifted up by the crane, set down on top of the stacks of containers on the ships, and leaning over the side to open the sixth and seventh tier twistlocks, so heights don't bother me. Actually, since I'm a cargo securer (lasher), I'm the one who has to dodge the containers when a crane operator screws up, so in a sense I know it better than they do ;). What I was hoping for was a simulator that has accurate enough controls to give me a decent idea of how the machines are laid out before I head into training. Unfortunately it seems that nothing like that exists short of buying an actual, multi-thousand dollar simulation machine.

Wow! That...may be a bit much, lol.

Haha. I know it sounds like a strange request, but I ask because I work in the shipping industry. Gantry crane operator is a potential career path for me, and I was hoping there was a simulator that could show me what it's like before I push in that direction.

I'm looking for a ship to shore gantry crane simulator that I can use on my computer. The only one I've found by searching is the Vortex simulator, which seems to be a professional deal that probably costs an arm and a leg. Does anyone know of something more casual? I know there's Crane Simulator 2009, which includes container loading/unloading on ships, but from what I've seen it doesn't have an actual gantry crane; just a standard construction crane with a container spreader attachment. Thanks.

I picked up Train Simulator 2012 during the Steam summer sale a month ago (when it was going for like 2 dollars or something). It isn't exactly my cup of tea, and I wouldn't really say that it's 'fun' exactly, but I must admit that there's something very relaxing about tootin' around the tracks in the early morning. And I learned some stuff about the way trains work, like how the train will brake to a stop if the conductor doesn't respond to the signal lights in time. Very interesting.