By Jim Rossignol on January 14th, 2012 at 9:14 am.
Paradox’s near-future naval war scenario got its first developer diary last night, and you can see that below. Naval War: Arctic Circle pitches modern navies against each other in a battle for resources at the top of the world, and judging by this video it’s going to go pretty heavy on the strategy. And that’s good, because we don’t want any of this strategy-lite, with half the mind-calories of normal strategy. We want it all-encompassing, choking our neural pathways with nothing-else-to-think gloopy challenge. Mmm.
The game is out in the Spring.
14/01/2012 at 09:24 The Greatness says:
I wonder when it’ll ship.
14/01/2012 at 09:29 nikwin says:
You will have to pay close attention. Games like this often stay under the radar. It will be easy for it to sink into the depths of obscurity.
14/01/2012 at 09:36 Tyyr says:
The paradox website states that it’s planned to be released in Q2 2012.
http://www.paradoxplaza.com/games/naval-war-arctic-circle
14/01/2012 at 10:00 greg_ritter says:
Let’s not get carrier away, the game could easily sink.
14/01/2012 at 10:01 sinister agent says:
Can’t say this is really my kind of thing, but hey, whatever floats your boat.
14/01/2012 at 10:03 greg_ritter says:
But, honestly, I’ve spilled my seamen all over the screen, when i saw those images.
14/01/2012 at 10:08 Man Raised by Puffins says:
@ Tyyr: Well lets hope that date is solid ASROC then.
14/01/2012 at 10:14 Spacewalk says:
Someone needs to give you gents a stern warning about these puns. They aren’t aft terrible.
14/01/2012 at 10:22 sinister agent says:
I thought these pun threads were popular, but it looks like not everyone’s on board.
14/01/2012 at 10:23 The Greatness says:
Well I say it’s a boat time we had a naval pun thread.
14/01/2012 at 10:46 jimbobjunior says:
Water game this is turning out to be.
14/01/2012 at 11:10 JB says:
I bow before the mast-ers of the punnery. I’m just glad I’m the first, mate.
14/01/2012 at 11:25 Colthor says:
If this game doesn’t get a frosty reception I might be russian out to buy it.
14/01/2012 at 12:29 westyfield says:
Ice work with the puns there.
14/01/2012 at 12:44 The Greatness says:
‘Snow problem.
14/01/2012 at 12:52 julianbenson says:
Let’s not go overboard here, I mean the sonar this ends the better.
14/01/2012 at 15:48 Nemon says:
Nah, we can hull on for a little longer…
14/01/2012 at 17:38 Tams80 says:
Be careful not to go overboard with the puns.
14/01/2012 at 18:03 DigitalSignalX says:
Obligatory “I like bit boats and I can not lie.”
15/01/2012 at 10:53 potat0man says:
Come on now! You’ve had astern warning to cut this out already!
15/01/2012 at 15:53 12kill4 says:
I just can’t fathom why you’d try to scuttle the thread of nautical punnery when everyone is clearly having the maritime of their lives. Shore, some might say you’re just’ar board of all this fog horning, but that is no excuse to wreck things for the rest of the buoys. Schooner or frieghter you’ll see fins my wave and under-sand.
16/01/2012 at 14:12 Cooper says:
I sea what you did there.
16/01/2012 at 14:57 Jams O'Donnell says:
Just looks like a load of naval gazing to me.
14/01/2012 at 09:40 Rii says:
I hope this isn’t only a NATO vs. Russia thing. Where’s China?
14/01/2012 at 09:49 timmyvos says:
China wouldn’t have a sphere of influence over the Arctic would it? The only nations with a valid sphere of influence are indeed represented. Denmark, the USA, Russia and I think Canada are all here.
14/01/2012 at 10:48 Zeewolf says:
There will be a few more, I’m guessing. Norway for example. It’d be fun to see the Skjold-class patrol boats/coastal corvettes in action (hopefully the enemy won’t…).
14/01/2012 at 11:14 Zeewolf says:
Still don’t get what the Chinese would be doing in the North Atlantic. Most likely it will be a NATO vs. Russia-affair.
Edit: Official info: In Arctic Circle, the factions includes the United States, the Russian federation, the Nordic countries and NATO.
(which kind of indicates that things will start without NATO being involved as a whole, or something like that)
14/01/2012 at 11:21 aircool says:
Depends how far in the future it is. China is busy building a Blue Water fleet at incredible speed.
14/01/2012 at 09:54 Colaholic says:
Reminds me of good old Jane’s Fleet Command.
14/01/2012 at 12:14 -Spooky- says:
Strike Fleet, Red Storm Rising etc. pp. – i will give this a try.
14/01/2012 at 12:17 leeder krenon says:
definitely! that’s a good game, still fire it up from time to time.
14/01/2012 at 10:23 scorcher24 says:
Interested, but not going to buy on release. Will be buggy as hell. SOTS 2 teached me a lesson.
14/01/2012 at 12:27 Arclight says:
For the record, they are completely unrelated.
Whether you buy it at release or not is up to you, but that argument doesn’t make sense.
14/01/2012 at 13:30 Hensler says:
Same publisher, no?
14/01/2012 at 18:44 Javier-de-Ass says:
not the same developer
14/01/2012 at 10:25 Nemon says:
Bergen! Haakonsvern naval base! YEEEEAAAHH!
14/01/2012 at 11:26 Shadrach says:
Looks pretty good, I’ve been hoping for a worthy successor to Harpoon. I sure hope they fix some of the most glaring things in the trailer like the lettering on the ship side being mirrored. There’s really no need for that on a modern PC is there?
And with a name like “Turbo Tape Games” it’s just got to be good :)
14/01/2012 at 12:51 D says:
More trailers should end with the lead developer talking smack about beating me at his own game.
14/01/2012 at 18:22 McChubs says:
I’ve been in the beta for this for a while and honestly, I couldn’t get into the gameplay at all. I was expecting something akin to Silent Hunter, at least in graphics, but it’s actually relatively simplistic. It’s also fairly confusing with the tiny little graphics window and the huge map screen — you can’t easily see what you’re doing. Perhaps I’m an idiot.
14/01/2012 at 18:45 Javier-de-Ass says:
perhaps. hehe
15/01/2012 at 07:09 thebigJ_A says:
Since it shows right there in the video that you can click to switch views, it’s possible.
15/01/2012 at 20:47 McChubs says:
No no, I did that in game, but it feels really, really weird. The field of view is off by miles and the graphics are pretty primitive. It’s tricky to tell what you’re doing to be honest. Like I said, I was expecting it to be more like Silent Hunter in execution.
14/01/2012 at 18:50 wodin says:
Command Modern Naval and Air Operations (formerly Red Pill) is the naval type game I’m waiting on. The detail and depth going by the website is astonishing.
This one though doesn’t interest me at all. I find full on 3D graphics at this kind of level usually is a sign it’s not going to be uber realistic.
http://www.warfaresims.com/?page_id=1101
14/01/2012 at 19:02 Tac Error says:
Meh for the Arctic Circle setting. I hope there will be mod tools, so a Cold War mod would be possible…
16/01/2012 at 22:27 Zibblsnrt says:
It being a Paradox game I’m sure someone will have crammed Cold War fleets and Roman quinqueremes into the same package within a month of release.
14/01/2012 at 19:43 Porkolt says:
I wonder how a war over the Arctic could lead to letting one nation ROOL THE WUWWLD.
15/01/2012 at 07:10 thebigJ_A says:
They’re fighting over Santa’s stealth flying reindeer technology.
15/01/2012 at 21:41 heyo. says:
I’m in the beta, and I’ve been enjoying it (I think I can say that without breaking the NDA. I hope?). Fleet Command comments are spot on – it’s not really aiming for Harpoon or The Game Formerly Known as Red Pill levels of realism, but it’s not utterly gamey by any means.
Don’t expect Silent Hunter – you command fleets, not single ships.