Be Excellent To Each Other

http://www.thehunter.com

Anybody ever given this a bash? I got a hankering to play a hunting game. I remember having one for the PS2 I think, or possibly the PC. It was a Cabela one and it was really good. You'd basically have to stalk a deer for half an hour or so and get a clean kill.

I was thinking about buying that Cabela's Alaskan Adventures from Games on Demand on Xbox Live, but after watching some YouTube videos, it seems to have taken a more arcadey approach with loads of action rather than having you really take your time to hunt one animal. I had a similar problem with one of the Cabela games I picked up on Steam recently for cheap.

Then I discovered theHunter, which is exactly what I wanted. It looks gorgeous, it's free to play (although you can only hunt deer and you only have one type of rifle unless you buy either a licence to hunt other animals or more weapons). And it's great! You have to track the deer, sneak up on them, go for the clean kill, etc, and the environments are absolutely huge. Worth a shot if you fancy it. I'm Jonarob if you want to add me as a hunter friend.

Also, whilst we're here - is that Alaskan Adventures actually any good regardless? Have I got the wrong end of the stick from YouTube videos? I'd still like a proper hunting game on the 360 for living room hunting fun and cheevos.

Disclaimer: I'm definitely not into real life hunting.

Here's a video:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ea6Cjzm3mc



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3GkL9UpPNM

The Hunter is meant to be very good. Tim Stone (he of PCG and RPS) finds it is even more enjoyable to try and play as a nature photographer instead of a hunter.

Alaskan Adventures, by contrast, is very rough around the edges. The fishing is wonderfully relaxing, beer and pretzels gaming, perfect for a lazy Sunday. The hunts proper are enthralling at first, but you realize you often have more luck just charging around blasting at things (though not to the extreme of those goat-slaughter YouTube videos). The animal behaviour is often bizarre, small animals hard to get at and the whole thing is very rough around the edges.

If you're me, you go in not expecting much (it is a budget title) and enjoy yourself. Or you herp derp your way in from Call of Duty and think the whole things sucks and is gay.

Hmm. Might still give it a try, then.

Oh yeah, you get a digital camera in your kit. It's such a beautiful game with a variety of fauna, I can definitely see the appeal of taking snappy snaps instead of shooting stuff. Tempted to spend real money on it so I can get the tent, then I can camp wherever I like and continue from there instead of starting back at the lodge every time.

In theHunter news, I've just shot my first mule deer! I tracked a few for about half an hour and didn't see a damn thing, but as I approached a river I heard a deer calling. So I sneaked up to a ledge overlooking the river's edge, low and behold, a fine young female mule deer. 73.561 kg! I took my time aiming for the heart, a drew a breath and took my shot. I hit it in its neck and it ran off... I tracked its blood trail and found it laying down by a few trees, still very much alive but more or less fucked. I had no choice but to shoot it in the face.

RIP female mule deer.

This is awesome fun. It's so pretty!

http://jonarob.thehunter.com/site/statistics/ Can you guys check my stats without a login?

Yes, it seems to work. What's with your hair?

It was the most amusing of the pre-made avatars!

Just had another hunt for nearly an hour. Shot five deer, only managed to confirm three kills, though. Still got my 100% accuracy rating however. Yet to see a male deer, but I did spot a couple of feral hogs. Wasn't allowed to shoot them without a licence, though.

The licence/tag system in Alaskan Adventures can be infuriating. Sometimes you're only meant to shoot males or females, and for some species it's pretty much blasting away and counting on luck, as the behaviour observed from a distance (females staying near young) is hard to remember when the entire herd bolts when you get too close and you're playing the equivalent of a shell game trying to remember which was which.

It doesn't help that the local guide (unseen while you're out in the field) can tell immediately when you've violated your tag or stood 3 metres too close to a building when discharging your weapon. They also make constant stupid comments regarding your driving when you're using a vehicle, and declare 'this spot is fished out' as the biggest salmon you've ever seen is about to bite your hook.

If you do play Alaskan Adventures, have a peek at the FAQ on GameFAQs. There's a number of special weapons you get for doing bonus objectives as part of the regular hunts, and some (notably the crossbow) are invaluable.

Hmm. I wonder if the other Cabela games will run on PAL 360s? There are considerably more out in the US/Canada than we've got over here. We got Alaskan Adventures and the new Dangerous Hunts, which looks more or less as arcadey as Big Buck Hunter.

edit: For example, the US get Big Game Hunter 2010 and 2012 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabela%27s ... unter_2010) I wonder if they're more like what I'm after?

edit edit: The one I mentioned in the OP that I had for PS2 was Cabela's Deer Hunter 2004 (or 2005). That was more along the lines of proper hunting. Really enjoyed that. The one I have on Steam is Cabela's Trophy Bucks, which is a bit too arcadey, but to be fair, I haven't played it for more than half an hour tops.

Hmm. Apparently this sneaked out late last year:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005UZW04E/r ... B005UZW04E

It's not a hunting game, but a "survival" third person thing. It actually looks half decent... For a laugh I mean. Easy max as well according to the cheevo sites!

Alaskan becomes something of a survival game, the further south you go (there are four regions in total) the more vicious wildlife you encounter. Stuff like lynx and wolverines are soon hurling themselves out of the grass (and often you hear them coming before you spot the telltale movement in the grass) at every opportunity. One of the final special challenges has you walking down a long path having to shoot three or four animals per checkpoint. Except, they might be vicious ones, especially bears which often require multiple shots, and there's no healing items for the whole run. Probably the hardest bit of the game.

Considering how the game is very strict about what you can hunt elsewhere, the change of pace is both jarring and shows the controls up for how stiff they are... stalking through the woods to take down a deer with a single shot is fine, but when you need fast reactions to bring down a rampaging wolf before it bites away nearly half your health in one go, you'll be cursing.

Heh. It sounds more like Cabela's Hunt of Duty.

Damn it, http://www.thehunter.com is down. I wanted a quick lunchtime hunt!

Too much animal cruelty involved for me to enjoy this.

Go and take photos of them instead, that's one of the options.

It's a computer game. Precisely no animal cruelty is involved

Something about this type of game just puts me off, i'm kinda with Myp on this.
I'm not against hunting per se, and have shot at foxes with shotguns in real life. In video games I am usually more than happy to shoot people in the face over and over again, blood spurting everywhere, and I'm more than happy to kick a puppy down the stairs in an RPG if it calls for it.

Yet I couldn't bring myself to play a game like this, even though I know it is better to kill virtual animals than real animals.

some sort of twisted moral thing I guess!

Strikes me as similar to refusing to eat meat in Minecraft because you're a vegetarian in real life. Or something.

Pfft, it's an game. I'd quite like an Animal Crossing hunting sim where you could stalk and murder the inhabitants of villages. Hanging their skins on the doors to warn Nook away. Still wouldn't play more of that cripple fucking simulator though.

Not really, it's closer to refusing to eat meat in Minecraft, even though i'll happily eat it in other games, and eat it in real life.

I do feel genuinely a little sad when I kill a deer in this, which is strange, but also a testament to just how involving it is. I'd never deliberately kill an animal in real life, though.

Hunting games leave me feeling vaguely unsettled, I must admit. Intellectually I recognise it as nonsense that I have no such qualms about games where you shoot people, of course.

Is it because you don't get to eat the animal afterwards?

Possibly, yes. Fucking tease games.

I feel the same way really. Most games where you shoot men see you involved in some sort of fight. I don't think I'd be into a game where you play the part of the sort of cowardly prick who gets his kicks from creeping round and killing blameless and entirely defenceless foes.

You mean Metal Gear Solid?

Anyway, I think everyone should give this a try regardless. Even just for a walk around the virtual woods. It's gorgeous!

Yeah I'll have a look for that but mainly I wouldn't ever want to play a simulator of something which I have no interest in. So I like planes and flight simulators, I find trains about as exciting as dishwashers so I don't bother with train simulators. I find the idea of hunting as a hobby both boring and slightly nauseating.

Yeah, I've never seen the joy in hunting when you vastly out power your prey.

I can see the need to do that to eat to survive, but as fun, I just don't get it.

Now, if it was just you and a knife, that's slighty more of a fair fight. And I could understand the pleasure of overcoming those sort of odds...

Malc

Are we still talking about simulators here?

Because your cock has tasted badgers arse.

I'd hate to kill a knife in cold blood.

Don't get cut up about it, I can tell you're on edge.

Either

Malc