Feuerfalke

ROFLOL! But to be honest, nothing beats the 4-wheel A-10:

IMHO NASA just had the problem of most larger organizations: The head grows larger than the rest of the body. To many thoughts about prestige and to little about what is really needed. Considering how east and west have become friends, they should increase their teamwork. Instead of following their own alternatives USA, Europe and Russia should coordinate their efforts better than before. They have similar approaches anyway, considering systems like the Hermes-glider for example and Russias renown space-city-facilities. Let's face it: To overcome todays challenges, we have to unite our efforts. As to China, well, I'm not convinced they will reach their advanced space-age shortly. They have the manpower and the technology, but they think even more territorial than the former east and west rivals and they're sinking deeper into depts, surpassing all other countries in this years financial plans by far already. They can't go on with this forever.

Agreed. Though I got to admit that the Cougar in it's original setup was not worth that price.

The stick was not even officially announced, so no, no price set. All we have is an animated add, that's all - and IMHO you've still got a lot paydays until it's going to be released. AFAIK the X-65F is 399 USD. I doubt that TM will go much higher. Even hardcore simmers have a pain threshold.

If it really was for the bad, bad hackers. Of course it IS possible, but if a multinational software with years of experience in hosting websites, online-accounts, webshops and forums is that simply disabled and then the bosses turn out to have no idea why there is nobody to work on the servers right away, you really wonder if it's really just hackers or something else that went wrong. Doesn't mean I regret buying the game, but compared to how easily this protection could be disabled, they'd better spend the money for the code and defective servers to increase the dev-staff and finish the product.

Ah, your crystal ball again, Viper! :D You know you shouldn't use it - you never know, who owns the others. Don't you watch any movies? ;) Rumors say dark forces like EA and UBI hold one.

Early 2010 means in the first few months of 2010. As there is basically early, mid and late, considering a 12 months basis, early means until May 1st. On the other hand, early also is subjective, so even if it's december, it may still feel "early" to some people. In other words: Whenever it's officially released, you will most surely find plenty of information here.

Yep. Looking forward for their new excuse. Apparently it's the bad hackers attacking their systems. Yeah, sure.

Authentication Servers are down again - this is really getting ridiculous.

While your statement is true, the dying MFD has nothing to do with lack of power-supply. The first production line seems to be faulty. I had one of those sets as well. They were both connected directly to the PC, yet one MFD died after 24 hrs. The replacements worked fine.

Interesting. I like the approach of actually walking around instead of clicking through GUIs, but I wonder how this will work out in a simulation for mission planning, armament and stuff like that.

Nice screenshot. It may have its flaws, but the graphics are gorgeous. :)

It has something to do with UBI, but not with UBI-MP-Service ;)

That has nothing to do with UBI-Online or playing multiplayer. ;) Unless you own a cracked version of SH5 you need to be online while playing and the game will repeatedly contact the UBI authorization-server. But that server was down most of the weekend, so honest customers, who play AS2 and SH5 without the crack, could not start the game at all.

The servers were down all weekend long. No honest customer was able to play Assassins Creed 2 and Silent Hunter 5. I'm really looking forward to UBI's excuse for this total debacle.

Both have their pros and cons. You can also adapt both to your needs, e.g. by increasing the value what's considered "centered" for both, cyclic and rudders.

Hm, don't know. When I dive and evade and depth under keel becomes important, I'm usually in the central, not on the bridge, so that's no problem for me. I rarely put my boat in so swallow water it becomes critical for navigation. What I don't understand, is, why they release the 5th version of their simulation and have still not entered the most critical items on the map, like water depths and known minefields areas.

Agreed. Many things are new and a lot of things deserved a "How To", but the release is not as bad as some people scream. Don't know, maybe I'm just happy we don't have the number x clone of SilentHunter back from the 80s, with the same GUI, options and gameplay. I found this new approach very refreshing. I like it.

http://warthognews.blogspot.com/search?q=

Actually you don't have to run through the boat in the middle of a fight. That's pure nonsense unless you want to talk to those officers about their families and other personal stuff. You can access all critical skills from any stations, including overstressing engines, rigging for silent running, etc. Of course you CAN do that speaking to them personally, but it is not NECESSARY. Yes, the compass is missing, as well as a direct rudder control. But instead you have a "minimap" - overview that allows you to select all these actions manually. And of course, you have working compass e.g. on the bridge. Long story short: the HUD is minimized, because you have other ways to access actions. From the coning tower you can very well control the complete ship in all situations. IMHO the downside is, that it's more realistic. Yes, sounds silly, but that's what it is. In other releases you could man FlaK and gun, operate the firing-computer manually. No Kaleun would have done so in reality and you cannot do that 1st-person-like or via HUD any longer. A loss in things to do, no loss in realism.

Happy birthday to both of you!

Now, that's odd. Well, hopefully the problem is gone with your new PC ;)

Of course. In Win7 BC2 uses many additional features from DX10/11, which are much more demanding than just the basic DX9 features. You can adapt settings with advanced options in DX11, though. At the moment EA still lacks the necessary servers to support the login and stats, but it's already improving. Another problem comes from Punkbuster. The current version sometimes does not install PunkbusterB correctly, resulting in a kick after 1min in the game. Deleting the PunkbusterB-Components and updating PB manually largely solved the problem for me. The game itself is very nice. IMHO they found a nice balance between infantry-fighting, armor and helos.

That also ensures precision strikes. Let's not forget that most of these engagements are not out in the lonely desert, but next to urban areas, roads and other installations. So it's not only about limiting the danger of hitting friendly troops, but also about causing as little collateral damage as possible. And for these strikes with minimum radius and maximum effect, the gun is probably the weapon of choice. Not even to mention the psychological effect of that gun, when you're at the receiving end.

.. and then die from a heart-attack with a smile on your face...