| Silent Hunter 5: Battle of the Atlantic | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Ubisoft Romania |
| Publisher(s) | Ubisoft |
| Version | 1.20 (as of May 11, 2010) |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows |
| Release date(s) | March 2, 2010 |
| Genre(s) | Submarine simulator |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, Multiplayer |
| System requirements
[1] Intel CPU- Core 2 Duo E6850 3.0GHz |
|
Silent Hunter 5: Battle of the Atlantic is a submarine simulation for Microsoft Windows developed by Ubisoft Romania and published by Ubisoft.
Contents |
Silent Hunter 5 takes players behind the periscope of a German Type VII U-boat to take on the Allied Forces in battles across the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. Players command the U-boat as a submarine captain from a first-person view in a campaign that spans 1939-1943.
The game's reception has been mixed. GameZone's Steven Hopper gave it a 5 out of 10, saying "The game offers some deep elements, but the overwhelming interface and steep learning curve make it very difficult to get into. The campaign missions are fairly low-key, with quick missions not really matching the depth of the gameplay. Many bugs and performance issues will also bog down your ability to enjoy the game."[2]
3DJuegos' Álvaro Castellano Córdova gave the game an 85 out of 100, saying that "Silent Hunter 5 is the most accurate simulation of World War II submarine conflicts in the Atlantic. With more testing and less bugs this game could have been the best in the series",[3] while PC Gamer UK awarded it a score of 77 out of 100, criticizing the bugs and DRM but saying that without them, "it would be the best Silent Hunter yet."[4]
In 2011, Ubisoft announced that they were stopping any patches and support for Silent Hunter 5: Battle of the Atlantic.
In January 2010, Ubisoft announced the Online Services Platform, which forces customers to not only authenticate on the first game launch, but to remain online continually while playing, with the game pausing if the network connection is lost. This makes it impossible to play the game offline or resell it, and means that should Ubisoft's servers go down, the game would be unplayable.[5] Silent Hunter 5 uses this DRM solution.[6]
Within 24 hours of the game's release, pirated copies turned up on torrent and newsgroups sites with the activation disabled but not fully removed, allowing users to copy and play only a portion of the game without needing an active internet connection.[7] On March 7, Ubisoft's servers experienced an outage, rendering the game temporarily unplayable for around 5% of users.[8] The server failure was caused by a Distributed Denial of Service attack.[8] Ubisoft also released a statement via Twitter on March 8, stating that Silent Hunter 5 remains uncracked.[9] On July 12, a new crack for Silent Hunter 5 was released.[10] Gaming news sites have not yet commented on the crack.
On March 7, 2010, at approximately 8pm GMT, Ubisoft's DRM servers for Silent Hunter 5 and Assassin's Creed II were taken offline and kept down for nearly 24 hours. Ubisoft claimed that this was a result of the number of users attempting to access their servers to play. As a result of this downtime, legitimate owners of both games were unable to log in and play them in any form. Ubisoft later released a statement claiming that hackers were attacking the DRM servers, retracting their previous claim.[11] The servers were attacked again on March 9, with Ubisoft claiming on their Twitter page that they were attempting to repair the problem.[12]
The Collectors Edition of the game has been recalled in Germany, after it was discovered that the publisher failed to remove a portion of Silent Hunter 5's World War II symbols, such as swastika flags which was not in accordance with German law. German law prohibits the distribution of video games with certain Nazi symbols such as swastikas and SS runes.[13]
|
|||||