Silent Hunter 4 resurfaces

In March 2005, a release schedule in a financial report first revealed that Ubisoft was working on a fourth entry in the Silent Hunter series. However, that's about all the report revealed, other than the game's tentative release date--the January-March quarter of 2006.

With that three-month period now over three months in the past, Silent Hunter 4 has finally emerged from silent running. Subtitled Wolves of the Pacific, the game will now ship in spring 2007 for the PC. It is currently in development at Ubisoft's Romanian studio, which developed Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII.

Like Angels, Silent Hunter 4 is set during the 20th Century's pivotal conflict, World War II. It puts players on the con of a US Navy submarine tasked with disrupting Japanese shipping lanes with an arsenal of torpedoes. Unfortunately, guarding said shipping lanes is the Japanese Imperial Navy, whose ships are desperately trying to sink every American craft in sight.

For a full rundown on the new gameplay features found in Silent Hunter 4: Wolves of the Pacific, set a course for GameSpot's brand-new preview of the game.