The Hunter
 

I knew it was around since years, but their business model and the online-only-mode had me stand apart for all these years. Which now I consider to be worth a regret.

Got it now and tested it over the weekend, even better, I activated via the - Germany-exclusive - DVD package, which gives the player plenty, really plenty of additional weapons and equipment that else would be needed to be bought in the virtual shop for virtual money (that must be exchanged for real money).

Wowh. Just wowh. Beautiful, stunning, addictive, many details so very realistic. Will maybe write a (years late :D) review some time later.

This one is gonna stay on my HD for years to come, no doubt. A new longtime-performer.

Must leave now. The wilderness is calling, and she is a harsh mistress if you let her wait for too long.

I've been playing this sim since it was first released. It is easily the best hunting sim\game ever.

Elk, Whitetail, Blacktail, Mule Deer, Roe, Red Deer, Wild Boar, Pheasant, Black bear, Moose, coyote, turkey, and half a dozen hunting areas each with their unique vegetation and terrain.

You can play free with limited tools. (hunt one species only, one rifle caliber only, etc)

Take a free walk through the free hunting reserve and maybe take aim at a big Mule deer. You'll not regret it.
http://www.thehunter.com

There are also a lot of gameplay videos on youtube.

It'S like with a decent flight sim - you get as much simming and realism out of it as you are willing to put into it. Fly realistic flight plans, procedures, obey real world rules, and your flight sim is most challenging and rewarding. Fly like a moose in love, and you have an arcade game. Same with The Hunter. Approach this like you would approach real world hunting, and you get the most out of it.

I totally love it! And it is hands down the best-looking world-simulation I have ever seen. It is relaxing to just look at this.

Today I was sneaking on a blacktail, but the boss of the herd remained invisible. Spend one hour avoiding those females to become aware of me and fleeing, having the whole herd going to alert mode and stampede away. Like a sub avoiding the escort to get close to the real bummer. It is totally satisfactory gameplay even when not firing a single shot in hours.

Not perfect though. Sound could be done better, it is already great, but calls by animals are always the same sound level, and distance and direction is not properly matched by what you hear in the earphones. Grasshoppers still chirp like crazy even in severe raining. Steps by animals are too loud, imo. Lures work to easily, I think.

But that are luxury issues. :)

A german guy has made a long series (over 40) of Hunter movies, and many of them are very well done and explanatory. The title is "Hunting with Pratze". He started them in English, but since 4 or 5 films has started a parallel series with German comments. What I like about these films is that he takes his time, like a TV docu.

Check his channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/pratze86?feature=watch

I do not have surround sound, but I'm told that if you do you can tell the direction of sound. I cannot.

The focus on competitions is my gripe. Many of the competitions force you to play unrealistically so I ignore them almost totally.

There is always that line between a true sim and a game. If you could go for days or without finding an animal worth shooting like in real life they would have few players and go broke. One must as you say, use a realistic play style to get the most enjoyment from it if you want to play it as a true sim.

The team of devs working on this game are very good at listening to the community and making changes or adjustments when they feel it is warranted. They have made many, many tweaks and as they do the game slowly gets better and better.

The original developers of this game went broke and after Avalanche Studios picked it up it began to show its true potential.

EDIT: Those videos you posted show off the beautiful environments very well.

I love open world, or better: open landscape simulations. That's why I love Skyrim and Oblivion, ArmA and ArmA2. The action is not that important to me.

As a child I also loved to play "Kriegen", I think that is "Cowboys&Indians", "Hide&Seek", yes? Hiding from the other while trying to sneak on him at the same time. That's why I love Steel Beasts Pro. Few games allow that so well.

Like you, I also do not care much for highscores in The Hunter. I have simulated a day's roaming by having 3 sessions: From 07 to 11, from 11 to 15, and from 15 to 19. I use to set up a tent now at the end of a session - and starting right there again in the next. That way, I can wander for example from the very North to the very South of - what was the name: Whitesomething Island. Could be done in one session only when running in a straight line. But then you do not see any animals. The forests there are very nice, plenty of underwoods.

But of course I need to adapt to the activity time tables of the species sooner or later. A bear I probably will not get the way I play now, not without setting up a bait some days earlier. those beasts so far have only shown me their backs on two occasions, in another reserve, running, and from great distance. But I got one coyote, from a blind stand, luring.

I think the blind stands, especially the one on the ground and the tripod, are too effective. The callers are too effective, too.

A self-imposed rule I obey is that I do not shoot it if it ain't give me a score, that rules out all female deer already, and female turkeys. But they stay around, and I must avoid making them panicking, else they flee and make the trophy-carrier leaving Dodge, too.

But the best part is to just wander around, looking, staying hidden. It's like a mini-holiday.

Question, by your experience, what do you prefer, the Deer Grunt Caller or the Deer Bleat Caller? I think I so far missed their difference, if there is any. Should attract Blacktail, Whitetail and Mule Deer, but is there a difference between both callers?

Scents I have not used so far.

I hope they are going to implement night time, too.

Hunting? I don't need this game. I do this in real life. It's much more fun in real life.

It is also glamorized by games. Have you ever been Elbow-Deep inside a deer taking the guts out? Can't do that in the game. It doesn't teach you how to hunt safely or ethically.


I am slightly against hunting games if you couldnt tell. They aren't ever accurate. :nope:

I've got a hunting game that doesn't even try to be realistic. Probably because you hunt dinosaurs :D

Preserve that attitude and recall it next time you embark on one of your flight sims. You then can save time by immediately switching off your computer instead of wasting your time with not smelling the kerosin, not doing the radio comms and not feeling the Gs and not doing accurate paper work before and after the flight. ;) What worth is a flight sim without fresh filled vomit bags? Doesn't deserve to be called a sim then. ;)

It's all about running head movies.

I have to disagree with you on that, anyone can hunt, but not everyone can fly a plane, especially larger Commercial airliners.

But yes, he shouldn't be calling you out on your sim.


Edit: Correction, mostly anyone can hunt(the crippled can't), but there are more people who can hunt than who can fly a plane.

I'm against hunting as a whole, with the exception of the rules that 'if you kill it, you eat it' and 'don't overhunt the area' however I have to disagree a little bit with you there Spike.

You accurately state that not anyone can fly a big commercial airliner, that's true...but in the same way that if you went out on your own with a gun and tried to hunt down a Leopard, I would have you sign your last will and testament before you left.

Sure, there are easy shortcuts in hunting, having the pheasants too fat that the poor sods can barely fly, using a shotgun, having a tracker lead you to the target, but there are also easy aircraft to fly, well easier than a commercial airliner.

Sure, The Hunter can't replicate having your arms up to your elbows in deer guts, or spending two hours plucking and gutting a pheasant, but FSX can't accurately replicate the paperwork, enginework, G forces and other nuances that a real flight can...although to be fair with some of the addons out there it comes damn close.

Now...we just have to work on giving the deer weapons to shoot back with... :O::haha:

I guess whatever floats your boat. I am just vividly saying that hunting "sims" aren't realistic. Flight sims and subsims aren't realistic either. I'm saying that there can't be a sim that is like real life. They try to get close, but this is one of the few "sims" that I get to live out during hunting season. I'm just calling out the things they left out (realistic blood, animal behavior, wind, tracking, field dressing) that make up the hunting experience.

And you can't replicate that feeling you get after the first shot.


I am not meaning to call you out on your sim. I am simply voicing my opinion.

Hmmmm

Electric trigger operated by a sip on the straw\tube. Quadriplegic shooting prairie dogs.
Crippled?
Yes.
Deadly?
Yes!!!!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...Picture009.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...pscc1a99df.jpg

Yeah, yeah, not walking around in the woods stalking, but then........they are 400-500 yard shots!!


The sim is for days when you cannot get out there and do it. The most avid flight sim player I know happens to be an A-10 combat pilot.

Yes, but most people don't hunt Leopard in real life or in hunting simulations.

The Hunter is about hunting deer, not anything that has a chance of fighting back.

My point was more about the fact that it's a whole lot easier to go out and hunt than it is to fly a plane. Even if you're just saying a basic 2 seat-er plane.

First getting a plane is a lot more expensive than getting a gun or a bow. Second the licenses required to hunt is just a small fee(you don't even need one if you're hunting locally, at least in my state), while a pilots licenses is like a drivers license where you need to pass actual tests.

Anyways, the point is that if you wanted to hunt, you could go out and do it easier than you could go out and fly a plane, which is why Plane simulators are kind of a different story compared to Hunting simulators.

Most people who are interested in hunting would be more interested in going out and doing the real thing than playing a simulator. While most people who are interested in flying a plane end up playing simulators because they don't have the means to do it in real life(plus I'm fairly certain more pilots spend time in simulators for leisure than hunters do). This holds true for most other sims too, it's easier to go hunting on your own than it is to work on a farm, drive a semi-truck, drive a bus, drive a train, etc. Most of these have some sort of qualification or limitation that keeps the average Joe from doing so in real life, so simulators let them experience it.

Either way, if someone finds interest in a particular simulator, you shouldn't knock them for it. Even if some of the simulators out there are a bit... niche. We're all on a forum dedicated to submarine simulators for Christ's sake. :O:

Edit:
Yes, but he can't do so without the help of another person. Although to be fair most quadriplegics can't play computer games either. But where there is a will there is a way.

Technically someone who is missing their legs can sit up in tree platform and wait for a target to come by, but it's rarer for people to have the dedication to do so.

Pfffftttt

I'm the quad in the pictures and I sure as hell play computer games. Once loaded and set up, I shoot that rifle on my own.

Most hunters need help hauling the Elk or Moose meat out of the woods so I might argue that they aren't alone either.