These are visible in any mode, but may be turned off, if desired.Īccording to the manual, 'for missions with fast boats, like the powerboat, you need a frame rate of at least 20-25.' For larger ships, they say that you may be able to get by with 13-15 frames per second. When you control the game, you can use keyboard keys, a DirectX (DirectInput) compatible controller or you can use the mouse to manipulate controls shown as throttle controls, captain's wheels, etc. What? On-screen controls? Good point, I should elaborate. Even mousing response seemed sluggish, making it difficult to click and drag on the on-screen control sticks for setting throttle to a certain point and leaving it there. The particle effects were the most obvious, especially environmental effects, such as snow storms. That leaves me in a place where I can't speak to the graphical performance of the game with a more powerful card, but can say, firsthand, that my ATI Radeon HD 2400 (with 256 MB) had some issues attempting this game.

My graphics card falls slightly short of the minimum requirements for Ship Simulator Extremes, according to a developer who was helping me to troubleshoot an issue, but he said it shouldn't really affect anything. For most games, it's performed quite well. Nip as a Christmas gift, was not the top of the line, necessarily, but was intended to allow me to play and review most PC games that would come out for the next year.

There isn't, however, any background music or a (music) radio or anything. I've never been able to make out anything specific, but there's a constant drone of radio communication in the background when you're on the bridge. if you're in first person view (on the ship's bridge), you will hear radio chatter, as well. You will hear the sounds of huge engines chugging to push the ship along, the waves lapping back and forth.

The sounds you will hear in-game are limited to what you'd likely hear when piloting a ship.

Ship Simulator Extremes is a simulator with highly defined ship graphics, complete with particle effects for exhaust and realistic waves and wake effects.

Ship simulator extremes controller