Virtual Skipper 3

Rating:
Summary: For a land lubber and skipper alike!
Review: I am new to the world of sailing having played games such as Sea Dogs, Pirates of the Carib. ect. that really lack the reality of really being on the open sea and focus more on combat which is slow, boring and bad for the most part but when I tried the DEMO out of this game I couldn't believe the detail and the graphics to boot!

First of all the graphics rival those of Far Cry and DOOM 3. Excellent!

The water looks real and the waves splash against your sail boat as if you are really there. You can almost feel the wind as it swings your sail back and forth!

Next, unlike PC Gamers review on this game it's not that hard to learn, really! I figured it out in about ten or so minutes and I'm pretty dense when it comes to PC games.

Al you have to do is figure out what task you want your crew of AI to do and they will get the job done. Focus on the navigational meter on the bottom because that help a great deal with direction and steering your boat to the finnish line correctly. Choosing the sail is a little harder especially if you are not learner with sailing but by experimenting with this in a few mintues you'll have it down.

PC Gamer said because of lack of a trainer the game really lacks but I think you would have to be pretty dense not to accomplish this by yourself. Sorry PC Gamer I think this game is awsome!

Rating:
Summary: Satisfy your sailing jones year round
Review: There is absolutely no reason for anyone that loves sailing and has a computer not to own this game. Awesome is an understatement. 4 different boats and they all have completely different sailing characteristics. The simulation of the water and waves is phenomenal. As you pick up speed, the wake gets longer. As you go up a roller, the boat slows down, down the other side and you speed up. Winds shift, current, storms it is all there. The night I downloaded the free demo I was up until 2:00 AM sailing against the machine.

When you reach the windward mark and want to raise the chute, make sure you give the crew enough time to do what needs to be done before they raise it. Similarly, at the leeward mark, if you don't call for the chute drop early enough, you won't round the mark. Sail in an opponent's lee and you will get gassed. Pinch a little, you loose a little speed, pinch a lot and you will stop.

The best part is that you can do it on the internet or on a LAN. A good friend and racing bud has a wireless network in his house. Three of us on lap tops drank beer and sailed in front of the fire yelling "STARBOARD!!!!!" All we needed was someone to throw buckets of salt water on us.

Yes the computer simulation has its faults but they are laughable. If an IACC boat hits a rock, there is a thunk and the boat stops. If the IACC boat hits one of the inflatable marks.... Same thunk and the boat stops. Sail right up to the sandy beach and you don't hit bottom with the 12 foot keel, the hull hits the sand with the same thunk and stops.

There is also a little room for improvement. The camera keys are F1 through F8 and raising headsails is 1 through 4 with 4 being the spinnaker. When you are sailing upwind, and you want to see an alternate angle, make sure you hit f4 and not 4. If you hit 4, you are raising the spinnaker and there is no cancellation or abort key. After the spinnaker, or should I say "drag chute" is up, you then hit 2 to raise the Genoa and drop the chute. Remember earlier I said you had to wait for everyone to do what they need to do, as in real life, this seems to take forever.

My wife bought this for me for Christmas and now has realized that she will be a Wednesday Night Racing widow in the winter too.

Dennis Doherty
A drinker with a sailing habit


Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: This is the killer of all sail simulators. Choose from ACC to Offshore to Melges.

Make your own courses from several sailing areas.

Choose the right sails (Jib, Gen, Code0, Spin) for the right wind or point of sailing.

Full ISAF sailing rules

You can race on-line or against AI boats.

Loads for virutal clubs who arrange races etc like VSK-MATCH.com and vskitalia.com