After a successful hit, and depending on how cruel you're feeling, you can either destroy the ship completely or target strategic parts, such as the engine, and cause it to sink slowly into the murky depths below. Lining up your ship so that these numbers overlap will maximise the chance of a direct hit. In Silent Hunter 5 your tactical map will show the trajectories of your torpedo and the targeted ship, and each trajectory has several numbered reticles. Launching a torpedo at a moving target means you need to aim ahead of the target, and unless you're at point-blank range, a hit can be difficult to achieve. Ubisoft has tried to make things easier when aiming and firing. The tactical map now appears in periscope view, which gives you the benefit of being able to see the overall strategy while targeting enemies. The best way to attack targets is to use stealth to flank enemy units and attack them from behind, and when you're ready to attack, use the periscope view. There's a trade-off between remaining undetected and gathering information on your enemies' whereabouts, and if you're spotted, you'll need to balance speed and stealth to get out of there alive. At full throttle you are easily detected, but if you slow to a near stop, then this radius will be reduced dramatically. A second radius shows their hydrophone range (the range at which they can hear your sub). Enemy ships appear with a black arrow indicating heading, and they are encircled by a grey radius that represents the limit of their detection range. How The Game Is Played: Silent Hunter 5 features a new top-down map to plan your strategy. There's also an external camera that you can move around the map to see the current battle's full scale. What There Is To Do: You can explore your submarine from a first-person perspective, see the crew members working (or sleeping), and check out other parts of the ship, like the engine room.

The draw distances are pretty impressive too, and we saw some picturesque alpine hills far off in the distance through our periscope. What The Game Looks Like: The game has some impressive visual effects, such as massive explosions and fires on ships, as well as nice weather effects, such as raindrops smearing your periscope view. Who's Making This Game: Ubisoft Romania, the same team behind Silent Hunter: Wolves of the Pacific, Tom Clancy's HAWX, and Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII. The game surfaced at GamesCom, and we checked it out at Ubisoft's booth. Announced just before GamesCom 2009 kicked off last week, submarine sim Silent Hunter 5 takes players back to the cruel, cold waters of World War II's Battle of the Atlantic.

Silent hunter 5 keyboard map