Using cranes to load containers is fun for about five minutes.
While there's no comparison with the vast expanses of water offered by MS Flight Simulator or Silent Hunter, you do at least get a taste of Poseidon at his angriest, and a feel for the mind-numbing tedium of long-distance voyaging. The eight tracts of landless scenery act as token transition zones between the various destinations. Now, for relatively short distances, ships get to wallow in gloomy troughs and ride foamy crests. In SS2006 the brine was always close to shore and halibut-flat. Just as important as the extra craft and harbours are the new open ocean areas with their queasy wave action. Where the first instalment felt skinny and tentative, this one feels confident and plump. If you're familiar with Ship Simulator 2006 you'll appreciate the significance of those numbers and realise the Dutch dev has been damn busy during the past year. Thirteen different vessels ranging from tubby tugs and zippy launches to hulking oil tankers and car-crammed ro-ro ferries wait patiently in seven different ports for player pilots.
It's these strange law-abiding toilers of the sea that Ship Simulator 2008 lets you captain and explore.
Apparently some have holds stuffed with completely innocent cargoes (bananas, disposable nappies, tropical hardwood, mercury-laced industrial waste.) and ply the oceans on totally legitimate business. You know those big rusty things with the pointy fronts and the funnels and the anchors and the little round windows? Well, according to VSTEP - the creators of this atmospheric maritime sim - not all of them are crewed by terrorists and gangsters, or packed to the gunwales with dirty-bombs, guns or drugs. Sit down this might come as a bit of shock.
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