By Jim Rossignol on August 10th, 2010 at 2:36 pm.
You want to be a ship’s captain, right? You might say no, but actually you do. Deep down, somewhere in the normal-mapped depths of your GTA-polluted soul, you want to earn an honest living by plying the high seas with reputable cargo. It’s this fundamental lust for earnest oceanic activity that lies – truly – within all gamers, to which Ship Sim Extremes is addressed. With co-op missions, perfect storms, and everything floaty from hovercraft to speedboats to supertankers, this is pretty much as extreme as a simulation of a ship and/or boat is going to get. At least until someone creates a hyperbolic Red Faction style damage-model that allows you to crash supertankers into cities. I mean, that’s gotta be on the cards, right?
Anyway, I’ve posted a video presentation of the game by VSTEP’s Frank Dolmans below. Take it away, Frank!
10/08/2010 at 14:43 Rich says:
“At least until someone creates a hyperbolic Red Faction style damage-model that allows you to crash supertankers into cities. I mean, that’s gotta be on the cards, right?”
It better be. I played Ship Simulator for just long enough to crash into another boat, bounce off safely, and get billed. It ain’t a ship sim if you can’t sink.
10/08/2010 at 14:49 Cunzy1 1 says:
This game sounds excellent but only if upon crashing into a city you have to sit through three hours of slow motion footage of the ensuing devastation a la burnout after each crash.
10/08/2010 at 18:27 Jake says:
Burnout, except instead of cars you have supertankers, and instead of corners you have cities. Sounds good to me.
10/08/2010 at 14:44 David says:
I think I’ll wait for the Somali Pirate expansion.
10/08/2010 at 14:46 Rich says:
Also, I want cannons.
10/08/2010 at 14:48 Tetragrammaton says:
The sea can bind us to her many moods, whispering to us by the subtle token of a shadow or a gleam upon the waves, and hinting in these ways of her mournfulness or rejoicing. Always she is remembering old things, and these memories, though we may not grasp them, are imparted to us, so that we share her gaiety or remorse.
10/08/2010 at 15:24 Kommissar Nicko says:
Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn.
10/08/2010 at 15:47 Xercies says:
I demand a R’lyeh mod now!
10/08/2010 at 15:47 tomwaitsfornoman says:
Unglnu’nph k’lyeh r’wnglua hngilu’phth’n, l’yi? Rg’hlia k’gr. F’nath rg’hlia gr’rnua.
10/08/2010 at 15:47 Diziet says:
Pffft…. good. :P I am curious about this though.
10/08/2010 at 15:22 M says:
Working title – Shoregasm.
10/08/2010 at 16:03 westyfield says:
Luckily I’d just finished drinking my tea, otherwise it would have come squirting out of my nose when I read that. M is credit to team!
10/08/2010 at 15:40 Nilocy says:
My dream is if there are new pew pews, to reinact the cod wars.
10/08/2010 at 15:40 Nilocy says:
no pew pews*
10/08/2010 at 16:13 Tetragrammaton says:
That sounds curiously awesome. Also, I want a game mode where I can invade the Principality of Sealand.
11/08/2010 at 09:15 Kristinn says:
Yes! The lack of simulated Cod War needs to be addressed on the double. I propose it be dubbed “Secret Weapons Of The Icelandic Coast Guard”.
10/08/2010 at 15:47 Nyst says:
For a moment there I thought you were talking about Frank Dolmans from the dutch PCGamePlay magazine.
10/08/2010 at 15:47 Magiced says:
i’ve worked at sea. For the full experience there needs to be a real-time mode where it takes 6 hours to get up the solent to southampton, and six weeks to get to singapore.
Lock yourself in your house!
Unplug the internet and TV!
Wake up at 4 oclock every morning to stare at water or machinery all day, then get drunk every night!
repeat every day for four months!
Have trouble adjusting to normal life when you get out!
10/08/2010 at 15:59 Skurmedel says:
I want sharks with lasers. I could settle for cod with lasers though.
10/08/2010 at 23:21 Xercies says:
Unfortunately we could only get ill-tempered mutated sea bass…
10/08/2010 at 16:03 Koozer says:
So extreme it needed pluralising.
10/08/2010 at 16:26 stahlwerk says:
Oh, “RESEARCH” ships in the arctics. I wonder if their area of research is the resistance of whale skin against sharp and blunt objects.
10/08/2010 at 16:38 Duffin says:
Sorry but -WHERE THE HELLS MY STARCRAFT 2 WOT I THINK!?!?!?!?
10/08/2010 at 16:59 Hodge says:
Wot, no song reference in the title? With so many viable candidates, too.
10/08/2010 at 17:14 Buzzmong says:
But it’s no Ports of Call is it?
10/08/2010 at 17:49 Schaulustiger says:
That ocean *does* look incredible. I wonder if this game would be worth its money if all I w
10/08/2010 at 17:49 Schaulustiger says:
That ocean *does* look incredible. I wonder if this game would be worth its money if all I want to do is staring at the oh-so beautiful waves.
10/08/2010 at 18:27 Tanner says:
Are there jet skis? I feel like that is the only thing I could handle controlling in this.
That, and a jetski in a hurricane would be awesome.
10/08/2010 at 19:01 Antlia says:
So quiet too, was the sea, and so steady the breeze, that if these sails were sculptured marble, they could not have been more motionless. The dark blue sky was studden with the tropical stars.
10/08/2010 at 23:29 Tinus says:
Oh wow, that guy needs sleep!
10/08/2010 at 23:34 Tinus says:
Other than that: Wooh! That ocean tech looks absolutely amazing. :)
11/08/2010 at 00:21 themagma says:
this is called silent hunter
x1 mode
11/08/2010 at 00:23 themagma says:
reply to magiced goddamit
11/08/2010 at 02:18 DarkNoghri says:
“You want to be a ship’s captain, right?”
Why yes, I do. This is why I used to play Escape Velocity.
And Freelancer, to a lesser extent.
11/08/2010 at 20:32 Raum says:
Why why why why why why aren’t someone making a good pirate simulator?
Imagine a sort of small scale MMO where you have to work a ship like it had to be worked in real life. Want to get anywhere? Well, then someone has to pull this rope and that rope, the sails must be set in the correct position, someone has to steer, and someone has to navigate. Clans are basically people who joins in on a ship. To get a ship you have to work up a considerable bank-roll by being a landlubber-pirate in some rum-infested coastal town. Haven’t got enough money? Then you work a menial job under a rich captain.
The best part would be the Buried Treasure System™. There is nowhere in the game to store riches, so you’d simply HAVE to bury it on some remote island (in my minds eye, this game is using the Crysis engine). As a captain, you’d be best of just taking some of your closest friends on expeditions burying treasures. The location of the treasure would be stored in the character system. The ones who witnessed the burial has a memory of it. Making maps, in-game, would be the easiest way (and de-facto way, because of the immense size of the in-game Caribbean) to orient yourself within the game-world. Trades would take place with the help of maps, for instance. Making shady deals in remote places, to avoid the player controlled Royal Navy. You want to find the riches of some legendary pirate captain? Capture one of his men and torture him until he marks the spot on a map. Is it buried in a risky place? Sell the map instead, then sell your old ship and get a faster one, and race the poor sod to the spot; only to find out the guy you tortured was tough as nails (+2 eyepatch of torture-resistance), and had given away the wrong spot, instead it was a place where the Royal Navy used to sit in wait to ambush unsuspecting pirate ships.