Hello,
I'd like to introduce You my last discovery. It's great game for sailing freaks. It is called
SailSimulator 5. The game is made by few guys from Netherlanders - Stentec Software. If You enjoy feeling wind in Your hair, You have to try this (actually You can't try becouse there is no trial or demo version). Now I'm going to tell You why...
First of all, if You have ever been looking for some sailing game I'm sure You found this:
It is called Virtual Skiper 5. It is a nice game. Game. Just a game, nothing more. Despite controlling the rudder You have nothing else to do. What's more the the wind is never to strong. The stronger the wind blows the faster You sail - that is all. If You're a real-life sailor, You must agree with me that it's not true. For me, this game became boring after about... one week. I started to looking for something else. All i found was SailSimulator 4.x, but there was some problem:
Despite the great physics, possibility to adjust everything (even the ruder up-down) the game looks ridiculous! The graphics is just ugly. I know, it is not the most important thing when You're looking for a good simulator, but look at the screenshot... The second big problem was playability. There was a multi player mode, but after two years of playing game I have played once via Internet, once! So the game became boring too...
Situation was bad, during the long Polish autumns and winters there was nothing to do. Then suddenly new Sail Simulator had been released. Stentec team has given us something great - nice looking simulator, with public on-line servers wherer You can take part in real races, get points that represent Your place in a rankings and and even more things to adjust.
So lets begin from the beginning. As I said - the game look quite nice:
It is of course far from all the up to date megahits from the selling toplists, but it looks nice. For me it is enough. The game ofer few unreal locations:
- Cabrera
- Koh Hong
- Scheveningen
- Treasure Island
We have also few different kinds of yachts, from the laser to the 70-feet regatta yacht. Some of them are real and some not:
- 470 (real)
- valk (real)
- laser (real)
- bavaria 36 (real)
- SO70 (unreal)
- YD-40 (unreal)
Despite the size and general look, boats differ from each other with many features like number of sails, additional sail (spinnaker, genaker), type of keel, rudder type and sailing performance of course. God news for newbies is that everything may be controlled automatically, even the rudder (with autopilot). This is really useful when
You are playing first time. It is good idea start with controlling only the rudder and mainsail sheet. When You can handle this, start controlling the jib, the crew, spinnaker etc.
The physics in this game is really good. I'm also a real-sailor and I have to that boat behaviour is realistic. It is not a problem to capsize the yacht, especially the smaller one like Laser or 470. When You pull up the keel sailing down the wind the speed increases about few percent, because of smaller water resistance but the leeway may become a problem. If You heave in Your sails too much boat will till too much and loose the speed. There is much more things You have to remember and control during racing.
The best part of Virtual-Sailing is on-line mode. It makes you want to play more and more, skill yourself, beat other sailors. You may sail with up to 16 players (so far). There is possibility to sail just for pleasure but the real challenge is racing. You race with people from all over the world, get points and become better and better. There are few rankings (four classes and overall ranking), on the website there is even country ranking. I was really suprised with the connection quality. So far i had never any problems with disconnecting during the game or login problems.
The main problem with this game is its popularity. Acutally - a lack of popularity. Theres is less than 500 playing online (February 2009). Most of them has less than than 3 points so they played once or twice. The amount of the real on-line sailors is much smaller. About 100-150 I suppose. It makse quite hard playing with more than 3-5 other people. I think I don't have to admit more players make racing more enjoyable.
Summarizing, Sail Simulator 5 as a game is quite good product. It doesn't have astonishing graphics, superb soundtrack but it is playable, especially in multiplayer mode. If I was a gaming magazine editor i would assess it for 6/10 maybe 7/10. On the other hand Sailsimulaor as a substitute of real sailing in long winter evenings is just great. I think it is not a game for everyone. For those who don't like sailing, it may be just boring.
The game costs about 35$. You may download it directly from the web, so 10 minutes after buying and paying via paypal You are ready to race! It is being still developed so You may expect upgrades like new boats or new locations.
SailSimulator 5 official website:
Sailsimulator.com
You can buy it here:
Stentec.com
Beginners guide:
Guide
