Thursday, June 07, 2007


Cabela's African Safari - Completed

Few years back when I only played FPS on PC and ignored all other gaming venues, I found a hunting game that sounded like fun. That game was Carnivores. It was a dinosaur hunting game that made me enjoy stalking around and firing a single bullet to eliminate my prey. When Mike T suggested that I check this game out not only for the achievements but because it was genuinely fun, I thought I would give it a go.

Let me tell you this game is enjoyable, stress free, frustration free, and well you get to shoot stuff with large guns that actually exist. The game consists of four basic types of hunts, Bird shooting, Heard hunting, Tracking, and just walk out and shoot the animal. The bird hunting would be what you expect from a 3d version of duck hunt, other then your dog is not laughing when you miss the bird. Heard hunting was shooting fish in a barrel, some forty odd animals run by and you have to pick the biggest ones off while in a moving jeep or just shoot randomly into them until you get your quota. Tracking was the only portion that could be frustrating as you have to look for these certain spots that have tracks on them. My first tracking mission took me three tries to figure out that I had to follow there bread crumb trail before my objective would even appear. Once I understood the process these hunts were not as bad.

The last hunting type where you go out and shoot them was by far the most fun. Stalking your prey avoiding predators and waiting to make that perfect shot, and when you hear the crack of your rifle and see that with a single bullet you bagged a rhino, well it was rewarding. Now I am not a real life hunter nor could I ever be the concept of hunting living things for sport almost sickens me. But when it’s virtual and nothing that breathes is harmed in the process I am all for it. Now while doing these hunts you’re not allowed to shoot anything but your intended target. So when that cheetah comes running after you what can you possibly do? Your adrenalin kicks in and you whip your pistol out and try to take it down. Since this cannot always be avoided the game does not penalize you for it. Plus it gives you a nice little rush when you see an elephant thundering towards you and fall before your feet.

Now the one thing I found that I was surprised to appreciate as much as I did was the sound. The sound was very realistic when walking on the ground and even in the water. The faint rustling when walking through bushes gave the game some realism. When game gives you some idea that your actually there in the area depicted someone somewhere was really doing there job.

The game for me as far as hunting games go was 9 out of 10. The controls work, the graphics are good and the game is over all just fun.


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