Here's the SS2008 review in PC Zone, a leading UK PC games publication:
The text of the review (if you can't read the above):
I'm a massive fan of progress bars. I love the way that 'minutes left' reports can drop minutes in seconds as the computer revises its estimate as it has a longer and more accurate sample to extrapolate from. My favourite is two progress bars at once, one for overall progress, and one for the current task. God, I love progress bars. An ex-boyfriend even indulged this ill fixation by writing a Visual Basic program that allowed me to spend a pre-determined amount of time watching a bewitching array of progress bars.
I'm sharing way too much, but there is a point. I love Ship Simulator 2008, but it's that same feeling. The big-boat missions are a ponderous progress bar, with dozens of informative numbers to distract you from the virtual inaction on-screen. Smaller boats are more immediate fun, and now there's speedboats; it's hardly SSX Dumbyank Ramprider, but it's a welcome change of pace.
It's slicker, more varied and better-looking than its predecessor, and it still does what it sets out to do very well indeed. I suppose the passionate niche market might be willing to spoon out £35 frigging quid, but as much as this is a classic of its genre, it goes without saying that genre is realistic ship simulation. So you can take 64 as a genuinely high compliment. Oh, and read the manual.
64/100
Ship Shape
Jon Blyth
And here's SS2008's second appearance in the magazine, on the 'Chart Track' page:
Any truth in that comment, Vstep?
