"I've killed thousands of animated AI characters across hundreds of games during my time as a gamer" HairyArse about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

He's Coming Right For Us! Feature
By Stuart Walton on 16/06/2009 at 15:38:12 - 4 comments
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A day in the life of The Hunter

I've got what I need to go hunting. Rifle and scope, binoculars, deer call and an ever handy HunterMate. A GPS, tracking aid and game device all rolled into one. The HunterMate is used a bit like the Far Cry 2 GPS. It's held up in front of you as you stalk through the woods, when you encounter sign of deer you left click to enter that data. If it's a deer call then you'll see where it's coming from, if it's droppings and it's fresh you'll get a circle appearing telling you how far the deer may be. If you find tracks then the direction is displayed, fresh tracks will also give a distance too.

I had been given these few pointers by Doc on the website. He messaged me out of the blue and will continue to do so, giving me extra advice and the odd challenge. To start with he just wants to see if I can track a deer, not even see it. Then I can try and get an eyeball on one and maybe even a chance at a shot and harvesting one.

Even with Doc's help it took me over an hour to even see a deer, Actually I didn't find him, he found me. I was following its trail and suddenly it came bounding out of the bushes right at me, I'm not sure who was the more frightened at that moment. There was no time to shoulder my rifle, by the time I'd have it up he was already gone. I was going to have to be a bit more careful.

Luckily only a few minutes later I found another track and soon spotted another deer across a clearing, some 80 yards away. I took out my binoculars to see where he was going and he was heading into the clearing, this was my chance. My rifle was already loaded, a bonus, loading a round is very noisy and can easily spook your prey. Second bonus was that I had higher ground and foliage cover. I manoeuvred into what I felt was a good spot and got into a prone position.

The deer kept making its way into the clearing but he was almost facing me, not a clean shot but my sights weren't steady enough for that distance anyhow. I let him come closer and he changed direction heading to my left, blissfully unaware. I tracked his movement for a few yards, but then a moment of worry, in the left of my scope was a very near tree. I would lose sight of the deer behind it and what's more I'd have to move if I were to aim to its left, the deer was too close for that. I had to take a shot now. Then, almost to my wishes the deer stopped. This was it, I lined up on his neck, took a heartbeat to make sure and fired.

The deer turned and bolted! Did I miss? By the time I was on my feet I'd lost sight but I knew which way he went. For a moment I thought to give up but common sense said I may have winged the beast and I followed. I found his tracks and followed them 100 yards and just as I thought I had lost him I practically tripped over the poor beast knelt by a tree. I took little time in dealing a second fatal shot. Then recording the harvest in my HunterMate I logged the data on the kill. My first shot was in fact pretty good, not far off from an instant kill at 158ft, it also seem to be the deer I was tracking. It may have even been the same one that jumped me.

It took an hour and a three quarters to get to that point, half of that was spent wandering looking for deer signs. The other half tracking the deer and then losing them without even seeing anything. That may seem frustrating but it is in fact quite engaging, it's you versus a creature that has evolved to evade predators. They move pretty fast, even when just walking so it's a real challenge to catch up with one without giving yourself away. Constantly reading the terrain in order to try and approach the deer from a good angle without being spotted or heard.

It's also very pretty to look at. For a relatively small (500 MB or so) download it's a very convincing wilderness. As the sun rises and the fog slowly clears and the birds begin to sing you may as well be taking an idyllic hike. The small birds flit through the trees and insects buzz all around. And when you do see a deer, you've never seen a better animated animal in a game. making it's way through the trees, lowing its head to the grass, sniffing the air and shaking off the flies. You almost don't want to shoot them and rather just watch, or take a far less lethal shot with the camera.

Hunting deer isn't all that The Hunter offers, the kit I got comes with the free online account. However it isn't free forever, you only start with 30 rounds for your rifle. If you want to continue with your character and their stats as well as hunting other animals, you'll need to pay. Two options are open to you either sign up for a membership or purchase more ammo (amongst other things) via micro transactions.

A membership, starting at around $15 will last 3 months and give you two more weapons with unlimited ammo, you also get all the hunting licenses which allows you to go and harvest more types of deer and even turkey. The other method is purchase the licenses, guns and ammo individually by first purchasing emote dollars. US$5 gets you em$500, enough for a short term license, a new gun and the ammunition. There are also items not included in a membership for sale. Animal calls, deer urine, clothing, wind detectors and even more games for your HunterMate. Not essential but can give you an edge.

I encourage everyone to try it, even if you don't like the idea of hunting you could play your own meta game of photographing as many deer as possible. Sadly the sim doesn't offer any progression for doing so but you will experience the magnificent creatures and their habitat. For those willing to gun down defenceless animals, those thirty rounds will last more than long enough for you decide upon investing further. Still unsure? Check out the handy tutorial vid below.

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NewYork - on 16/06/2009 at 16:17 wrote:

I always called people who baulked at rape games hypocrites, because if you're virtually killing people in GTA, why are you acting so offended by virtual rape?

Yet, here I am, kinda creeped out by this deer-shooter o_0 Killing grannies in GTA? I'm all for it. But leave Bambi alone!

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peej - on 16/06/2009 at 16:29 wrote:

I like the idea that they've split the game to appeal to the pacifist bambi lovers (like me) with the photography mode. Nice idea.

I had no idea these games were so massively popular till I found some website's done TEN feckin' different versions of the same Grizzly Hunter game.

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Tiger_Walts - on 16/06/2009 at 20:24 wrote:

There's no dedicated photo mode, but photos you take get put on your profile page on the website.

Nearly bagged another buck but I lost sight of it twice and got too close without realizing. I had some shooting opportunities but they weren't good enough.

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Spin Dr Wolf - on 22/06/2009 at 15:17 wrote:

Couldn't i just go and stalk deer in the woods down the road with my catapult? Or better yet i could craft a bow and some arrows from the Tress there...

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