The waves are notable, as you would expect for a game that primarily takes place at sea, and weather can be dangerously beautiful. There is severe pop-in, though, when you quickly turn the camera, no matter what your detail settings are adjusted to. I found performance to be acceptable, not great, but acceptable. While it would have been nice to be able to sail anywhere, like in a fight simulation, the tradeoff for that limitation is more accurate port geography and landmarks. The environments are all recognizable locales, sending you off to exotic hot-spots around the world (like Rotterdam!). While the textures aren’t the most various (none of the ships suffer from rust or other signs of wear-and-tear), the ship models are quite impressive. Each of the ships in the large roster (there are sixty ships in all, half of which can be controlled by the player) is very detailed, from the interiors (which you can walk around) out. Ship Simulator Extremes features a strong presentation for a naval simulation. What has been added in three years’ development to warrant another $40 investment? Ship Simulator Extremes is the next in the line of accurate non-combat maritime adventures, previously encountered in Ship Simulator 2008 (which was actually released in 2007). Well, good thing there are niche PC simulations to satisfy your nautical desires. Have you ever wanted to sail a gigantic oil tanker, or any other outrageously expensive boat? Don’t lie, I can tell when you are lying to me. What say you? This feature-filled civilian boating simulation has some new features but a lot of the same limitations: 5/8

The Not So Good: Terrible AI ships, lacks dynamic or random missions, touchy controls, no objectives for online play, no visual damage The Good: A variety of ships from motorboats to container ships, detailed environments and ship models, scripted campaign missions with clear objectives including towing and fire rescue, impressive weather effects, autopilot with time acceleration, multiplayer, all content available from the beginning

Ship Simulator Extremes, developed by VSTEP and published by Paradox Interactive.

Ship simulator extremes controller