Ship Simulator 2008 is a realistic simulation game that puts players at the helm of some of the most varied and detailed ships to be found at sea. Players will need to perform a multitude of tasks, all set within a realistic 3D environment, taking control of a wide array of ship types - from massive cargo ships and ferries, to speedboats, yachts, water taxis and even the mighty Titanic.
The Shipyard contains a mixture of new purchasable ships and free ship add-on packs for Ship Simulator 2008. These products require a fully upgraded version of Ship Simulator 2008, some also require the New Horizons expansion pack.
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VSTEP will continue to release new high quality free add-on packs for Ship Simulator 2008 at the Shipyard on a weekly basis leading up to the release of the new Ship Simulator Extremes game in 2010.To download the free add-on pack, visit the Shipyard.
Ship Simulator 2008 was developed by Vstep and published by Lighthouse Interactive and released on July 18th, 2007. It had 14 ships and 15 environments at launch. A expansion pack and add-on content was released later for the game.
When I initially reviewed the 2006 version of Ship Simulator, I was skeptical of finding any real entertainment value in a shipping simulator, but after a short period of time, I found myself pleasantly surprised. With the latest release of Ship Simulator 2008, armchair captains now have even more reasons to leave their virtual ports for the high seas. With over 30 new challenging missions, 16 additional ships, and three new geographic locations, Ship Simulator 2008 offers up multiple hours of nautical fun. Numerous visual and gameplay improvements have been made since its initial release, and more attention has been given to generating community content through the use of the included mission editor, ranking system and multiplayer free-roaming mode. Ship Simulator 2008 is currently available in stores and as an online download.
Ship Simulator 2008 offers an excellent mission system that connects to an online database, which tracks completion times and player ratings on a mission-by-mission basis. Mission activities include mooring/towing vessels, racing, ramp jumping, rescuing people/ships, taxiing, and transporting cargo. There is now more to gain than just the mere satisfaction of completing a mission, as successfully completing missions can increase your ranking in one of five different shipping classes: Cargo, Motorboat, Passenger, Special and Tugs. Each class has five ranks, and the ranking system tied to your online profile, which allows you to upload your statistics to the Ship Simulator 2008 Web site to be displayed as a tag next to your name in forum messages. The more complex a mission is, the more you can improve your ranking.
If you'd rather avoid missions altogether and just explore the world of Ship Simulator 2008, you have the option of playing in a free-roaming mode, which allows you to adjust several game parameters including location, sea conditions, ship type and weather. Even with a large amount of control over the environment, don't expect to be able to simulate hurricane-level conditions; the simulator was only able to produce moderate conditions at best. I should note that I encountered a few crashes to desktop while playing Ship Simulator 2008. The included manual offered suggestions to avoid these "crashes," but since they occurred at random moments while playing, this leads me to believe that there are some stability problems that have not yet been worked out.
As with the previous ship simulator release, you can monitor your progress on a customizable vector map. The 2008 version allows for adjustment of transparency levels to make the map easier to use full-time in your main viewing window. I also found the map's zooming functions to be a bit awkward to use, and at first glance, the object symbols and map coloring are a bit confusing.
Ship Simulator 2008 features a new multiplayer mode, which allows you to join up to 25 other players in an open "sandbox" environment. You must establish a forum account at the Ship Simulator 2008 Web site and register your program key in order to participate on one of the multiplayer servers. After signing up, I found the multiplayer mode to be relatively easy to connect to, and my connection stayed relatively stable. While online, players are allowed to select from a handful of ship types from the single-player portion of the game. In general, my online experiences with Ship Simulator 2008 weren't as enjoyable as I had expected. Some repeated abuse of the online vote-kick and chat systems distracted me from what would have been a reasonably fun online experience. In reflection, it could easily be reasoned that without a formal set of objectives or activities in the multiplayer environment, it will only be a matter of time before some of the less mature players will come up with their own games to play. Of course, as with all online play, your experience may vary.
Without a doubt, the improvements that have been made to Ship Simulator 2008 are a giant leap forward for the franchise. There are still a few wrinkles to be ironed out, namely an awkward information display panel, some less-than-realistic physics, and some random game crashes. The new multiplayer system has a lot of potential, although it is in desperate need of some activities or multiplayer challenges to pick up the pace a bit. Some welcome improvements have been made to the AI with this release, and the ability to regularly download new user-designed missions offers the potential of unlimited replay value. If you enjoy simulations and have the patience, you'll find Ship Simulator 2008 to be an entertaining and relaxing armchair adventure.
In addition to the missions, Ship Simulator 2008 also has a sandbox mode that you can play. This mode is what you would expect, you can pick a destination, the kind of ship, what you are delivering or doing, and so on. I just wish that you could have more severe weather to deal with as even the harshest weather in this game feels pretty tame in all honesty. 2ff7e9595c
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