A Month in Gaming
Here we are again with another summary of my gaming activities in recent months. Or in this case since last September. It’s been a while but I’ve been on a blogging hiatus until recently. However, I’ve kept myself busy gaming wise and often I find the hunt for news video games, just as entertaining as I do playing them. Perhaps that could be a future blog post. Back to the matter in hand. Gaming wise, pretty much all things related to the MMORPG genre are currently on the back burner. I’ll give specifics later but I am taking a break from these for the present. I am currently looking at trying games outside my usual comfort zone and also trying to test whether you can or cannot teach an old dog new tricks. Fortunately, the answer appears to be yes you can. Enough summation, on to the specifics.
Here we are again with another summary of my gaming activities in recent months. Or in this case since last September. It’s been a while but I’ve been on a blogging hiatus until recently. However, I’ve kept myself busy gaming wise and often I find the hunt for news video games, just as entertaining as I do playing them. Perhaps that could be a future blog post. Back to the matter in hand. Gaming wise, pretty much all things related to the MMORPG genre are currently on the back burner. I’ll give specifics later but I am taking a break from these for the present. I am currently looking at trying games outside my usual comfort zone and also trying to test whether you can or cannot teach an old dog new tricks. Fortunately, the answer appears to be yes you can. Enough summation, on to the specifics.
LOTRO Update 34: Before the Shadow. Let me state for the record that I still consider The Lord of the Rings Online to be a robust and entertaining realisation of Middle-earth. It has kept me entertained since late 2008. If you are new to the game there is a ton of content, a huge amount of lore references and a supportive and friendly community. But the last update had very little to offer veteran players. The new content was aimed at level 1 to 32 players. So apart from a new story, nothing much of note was added to the game for those with level cap characters and that is pretty much why I’m tired of this game. All it ever offers is “more of the same”.
Due to changes within EG7, I suspect a lot of the promised updates like the graphics overhauls and the console version will never be carried out and LOTRO is fated to remain essentially as it is. No major new systems or gameplay mechanics will be added. Just variations on existing content. For me that is no longer sufficient to hold my interest. Hence I played through some of Update 34: Before the Shadow when it was released last November but after a few days I just stopped logging in. I didn’t feel especially upset. In fact it felt like the right response. When you’re done, you’re done.
Red Dead Redemption 2. I returned to this RPG in January and picked up exactly where I left off in 2020. The plot was still familiar to me so it really was a seamless continuation. I played through the main story and was amazed at what a compelling experience it was. As I’ve already written a blog post about this remarkable game I won’t repeat myself too much but I consider this to be one of the best video games ever. Great game play, a compelling narrative and a feeling of immense satisfaction when you reach the end. It also keeps you thinking and reflecting upon it for days afterwards. As all great art does.
Hogwarts Legacy. Controversy aside, I really enjoyed this game. It offered everything I personally wanted from a Hogwarts themed video game. I was surprised at the quality of some of the companion side quests, especially the Sebastian Sallow story arc. I will happily return to the game if further DLC is released and I may at a future date play through the entire thing again with a new character. If they are in another house there are some unique storylines. In the meantime, the only content left to me to do is some completionist, busy work, so for the present I’ve finished with this title. It did provide over 70 hours of entertainment.
Sniper Elite 5. Nowadays, most games have a relatively short life cycle. One year is usual, so I was quite surprised to discover that Sniper Elite 5 was to get a second season pass with another “years worth” of content. New maps, new weapons, new cosmetic skins. Some may argue it’s all a bit thin but I just fundamentally like the concept behind this game. Slow, measured and tactical driven gameplay for those who want it. For those who like to run and gun, that is still an option. This fifth iteration of the game has really refined the sniping mechanics and the weapons customisation means you really can create a loadout that suits your need and style. I like the stealthy approach and setting booby traps and the game excels at this. Invasion mode where another player can gatecrash your game and hunt you down, still keeps me on my toes. I’ll happily play for another year.
Star Trek Online. What I like about this MMORPG is that you know exactly where you stand with it. You can complain about the monetisation, the ground combat and “lack of diplomatic missions” but the game doesn’t lie to you about its nature. STO is the gaming embodiment of a quid pro quo. If you grind a new event, you get a reward. If you grind all the events scheduled throughout the year, you get a bigger reward. There’s always something to do in this game. If you have time to kill, then you can play through all story arcs on all factions. There’s a lot. Alternatively, if you just have 30 minutes of gaming time, why not do the latest Task Force Operation? This is why STO is always in my gaming rotation.
Warzone 2.0 DMZ. I ended up buying a new graphics card because of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, when it was released last November. The latest iteration of the franchise also saw the release of a new version of Warzone, its free multiplayer counterpart. I’m simply not a good enough player to get the most out of the battle royale mode but the new DMZ variant, which is an extraction shooter, is damn compelling. Yes the game is flawed at present and a lot of the community are sociopathic but occasionally you get a game that hits the spot perfectly. You find a good squad, play in a coordinated fashion and gain some phat loot. And any fool that crosses your path, gets wrecked. You then exfil in the helicopter, under the cover of smoke, back in time for corn flakes. These are the days when gaming is good.
The Hunter: Call of the Wild. Finally, I bought this hunting game after watching a “let’s play” video on YouTube and am happy to report that it is a very interesting alternative take on the "first person shooter" genre. The game is slow, methodical and surprisingly immersive. It rewards patience. I didn’t think this genre would have any appeal for me but it is certainly holding my interest at present. It also has a substantial playerbase and community on reddit who are happy to share tips and information. I wasn’t expecting any of this which is an added bonus.
The Hunter: Call of the Wild
I have always dismissed hunting games as “not my thing”. Perhaps that stems from my ambivalent views about hunting per se. Yet after recently watching a YouTube video for The Hunter: Call of the Wild, I revised my opinion. The footage showed a slow and thoughtful game and I was also surprised to see that there was a campaign with a story. Hence I decided to step outside of my comfort zone and give the game a try. The base edition can be purchased for £20 on Steam and there is a wealth of optional DLC. I bought a bundle that included some additional maps, weapons packs and a dog that can be used for tracking. I also bought a quad bike as this is invaluable for traversing the open world, which is enormous. As ever with steam, the installation was easy and hassle free and within an hour I found myself exploring Layton Lake District, which is based upon the Pacific Northwest geographic region.
I have always dismissed hunting games as “not my thing”. Perhaps that stems from my ambivalent views about hunting per se. Yet after recently watching a YouTube video for The Hunter: Call of the Wild, I revised my opinion. The footage showed a slow and thoughtful game and I was also surprised to see that there was a campaign with a story. Hence I decided to step outside of my comfort zone and give the game a try. The base edition can be purchased for £20 on Steam and there is a wealth of optional DLC. I bought a bundle that included some additional maps, weapons packs and a dog that can be used for tracking. I also bought a quad bike as this is invaluable for traversing the open world, which is enormous. As ever with steam, the installation was easy and hassle free and within an hour I found myself exploring Layton Lake District, which is based upon the Pacific Northwest geographic region.
The Hunter: Call of the Wild was released in 2017, yet has been continuously supported by developers Expansive Worlds since then. Over the last five years the game has received new content and had its systems revised. The last patch was 14th March this year and it appears that there is a robust community of players. The game, much to my surprise, supports multiplayer gameplay and does something most unusual in so far as you can play on maps you don’t own while in co-op mode. This “try before you buy” approach is most equitable. Furthermore, the DLC seems to be functional and doesn’t fall into the “pay to win” category. There are cosmetic skins, weapons packs and most significantly, new maps featuring locations from all over the world. The prices are reasonable, although if you do decide to be a completionist and buy everything, you will end up spending an additional £115 on top of the base game.
Upon starting The Hunter: Call of the Wild, the player finds themselves on a jetty in the Layton Lake District, armed with an entry level rifle, revolver and shotgun. The tutorial (more on this later) and story is supplied via the Huntermate handheld device. This is a cross between a GPS tracker and a cell phone. You receive updates, missions and back story details via the reserve warden Colton “Doc” Locke. The Huntermate can display details of tracks, droppings and blood trails. It is also a means of taking screen captures in-game as it has a photo mode. From here the game quickly has you learning the basics of tracking, using lookout points which open up locations of note on the map and finding outposts. The latter are bases where the player can purchase resources, change their loadout, access their dog and quad bike, if purchased. Outposts also facilitate quick travel.
Hunting games are by their very nature, stealth games and The Hunter: Call of the Wild is no exception. This is a genre where it is beneficial to take a slow and methodical approach. Tracking is simple in principle but far trickier in reality. The player has to keep their noise level down (this is tracked by an in-game meter) and be aware of the wind direction as their scent can give their presence away (again there is a HUD display for this). Lures can be used to attract animals and the optional dog is great for tracking wildlife. Animals are also subject to a night and day cycle. There are also specific locations to be found where wildlife graze and drink water. All these factors come to bear when hunting. Due to the expansive open world, the quad bike is invaluable, although it is also noisy so has to be abandoned when you get near your quarry.
Talking of noise, sound design is an integral part of The Hunter: Call of the Wild. The ambient sounds are both atmospheric and functional. Footsteps alter depending upon where you walk and what you walk upon. Animal sounds can alert you to their presence but conversely, they may also tip you off when they have detected you. Wind, rain and moving water all contribute to the overall environmental atmosphere. At night, the sound design becomes positively alarming at times, utilising animal sounds that you may not immediately expect from such creatures as deers and rabbits. The game uses ambient music sparingly but each map does have its own bespoke theme which is appropriate. There is also support for Dolby Atmos and it showcases all the aforementioned attributes well. Sound is so often the one aspect of game design that gamers are inattentive of, turning it down or even off.
When it comes to actually shooting an animal, the game offers a similar amount of complexity to tracking. An appropriate calibre firearm has to be selected depending on the prey. Ammunition also is a key factor offering improved accuracy or penetration. Lying prone stabilises your shot but sway is still a factor, so the game uses a “hold your breath” mechanic found in most FPS games. However, perhaps the most important skill is choosing where to aim for a “quick, clean kill”. This requires the player to learn about animal anatomy and how shots to vital organs are the most desirable. Be warned, most of your initial kills will not be instantaneous and will require the player to track a blood trail to find their deceased target. Animals that you have successfully killed can be examined to determine where the bullets penetrated and what damage they did. There’s even a posthumous x-ray mode.
Now some may find all of this distasteful but I would point out that a game such as Sniper Elite does all the above but the target of choice are people, so I am not going to debate the morality of this particular game here. So far, The Hunter: Call of the Wild has proven absorbing, leisurely and at times quite impressive in the scope of its virtual world. I was pleasantly surprised by the narrative campaign and love my dog, which has skills that you can level up. The game is mainly in first person but can optionally switch to third when riding on a quad bike. Sadly, the tutorial is woefully lacking, leaving you dependent on internet searches. Also running and walking seem a little off and akin to wading through molasses. But these quibbles aside, the game’s greatest appeal is its pacing, which eschews the boisterous nature of so many other genres. The Hunter: Call of the Wild rewards the player who wants to take their time and consider their plan of action.