Hi team, sorry been busy this week with work and getting my A kicked at Sekiro. Is there any games left for me to check out?
In terms of the list, took a quick squizz and I can't argue too much with the rankings. I might pop Black Ops 2 down a notch personally but I haven't played much of that except in MP with a friend.
Now I may be an idiot, but there's one thing I am not sir, and that sir, is an idiot
@Rudy_Manchego no worries. We have six left. Pick three and I will look at tge other three.
Cabela's Adventure Camp Cauldron
Cabela's African Adventures Activision
Cabela's Hunting Expeditions Fun Labs
Cabela's North American Adventures Fun Labs
Cabela's Outdoor Adventures Activision
Cabelas Survival: Shadows of Katmai Fun Labs
I assume I know where they are going but I will do my due diligence!
@RogerRoger Don't worry, to be honest I feel that the subject matter will be covered in the game. I'm not sure how you can make a good game out of killing animals! But if it got 9 or 10's across the board, I'd have to respect that in the rankings.
Now I may be an idiot, but there's one thing I am not sir, and that sir, is an idiot
@RogerRoger I definitely agree. I detest any reviewer who marks a film or game down because they're uncomfortable with the subject matter, and I'll call that out whenever I see it. Don't like fanservice? Then don't review a fanservice-heavy action game like Senran Kagura. Don't like the idea of killing animals for sport? Then you have no business reviewing a hunting game. And so on.
Fantasy is fantasy, and almost any sort of subject matter will have its fans, and those fans deserve for their preferred form of media to get a fair analysis without the reviewer interjecting their unwanted moral waffling into the mix. Anyone can offer an opinion online, but a reviewer is supposed to possess the analytical skill and writing ability to communicate the good and the bad aspects of anything their play, watch, read, etc.
Currently Playing: Fields of Mistria (PC); Cookie Clicker (PC); Metaphor: ReFantazio (PC); Overboard! (PC)
Died out and only one I think made the jump to PS4 before it was canned completely.
The series of Cabela games as a whole were mainly only released in the US, with only six releasing in the PAL region (Dangerous Hunts 2013 only released on WII U for PAL territories whereas the US got it on PS3/360 alongside the Wii U)
This entry in particular having middling to low reviews (And not many like the whole series)
There aren't many hunting games in the first place... Though being a mix of an arcade shooter with some on rails shooter elements for multiplayer modes there isn't much of an actual hunting or survival element to the game (With survival mechanics and modes in games actually springing up quite a bit as of late it could've actually influenced things more)
I'd say overall this game didn't give us much at all for the future of the gaming.
But it wasn't trying to set the world alight either?
TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT
The graphics are pretty decent for the time. The bears look like bears, hyena's look like hyena's etc ... They're not the most detailed models but they could've been much worse.
The sandboxes are in a similar position. Could've been better, could've been much MUCH worse.
However unlike in real life where an animal might be skittish and run away... Nearly all animals in this game are weirdly all out to kill you soon as you cross that imaginary line that makes them notice you.
Elephants, bears, tigers... All of 'em.
There's not much (if any) variance to the AI at all because of that... They're either dumb as rocks or after you constantly.
The career mode has decently(?) sized open spaces for you to run around in, but it's marred by badly implemented invisible walls. Also some objectives are rather poorly explained to you from what I could gather.
There's A "hunter vision" mode that makes everything go black and white on screen for you to track the animals (Not that you really need to as all the stages seem to be in the day and the animals are mostly out in the open). It seems a bit pointless to me really.
There was some six axis motion implemented in quick timey events to like fight off a bear/wolf/hyena... But it seemed to only activate whenever the computer felt like it rather then at specific points (barring the tutorial one)
There's also a slow-mo bullet time mechanic called "adrenaline mode" which freezes everything aside from you, allowing you a chance to turn the tide if you get surrounded.
Overall I guess the technical achievement is average going on poor
ARTISTIC MERIT
There aren't many hunting games? I'll give it that.
However as I already said in the importance to gaming section this is weirdly more of a first person arcade shooter rather then an actual hunting game.
Some of the uniqueness it might've had is lost right out the gate.
There's on rail sections for multiplayer fun but there's far superior games you could play for that.
PERSONAL OPINION
This one seems to be the worst out of the three I have. I'm not very interested in trying this one out at all.
FINAL VERDICT
1 - POINTLESS
(Really struggled between this and 2 - Not Important, so I'm not terribly bothered if anyone feels 2 is the more appropriate score here)
Same as the previous entry really. None to gaming as a whole overall.
To the previous games in this particular sub series (Dangerous Hunts) this one has an actual story mode and in particular tried to be rather serious about it by hiring the writer Brad Santos (who's writing credits included Resistance: Fall of Man, Tomb Raider: Legacy and The Saboteur) to craft the story.
TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT
The environments and animals look a touch better as you'd no doubt expect from a two year gap, poorly implemented invisible walls once again though.
This installment was move compatible, but it also shipped with it's own gun controller in the US called the Top-Shot elite.
Pushsquare actually has a review for this installment (7/10) that seemed to enjoy it (www.pushsquare.com/reviews/2010/12/cabelas_dangerous_hunts_2011_ps3)
Another review (By Angry Joe for the 360 version (there's not much of a difference)) lambasted the gun calling it quite awkward to use.
It seems to vary from person to person. To me the controller looks kinda decent but I'd have to have it in my hands to give a proper verdict... The red tinted scope does seem a bit pointless though.
You can play it with a standard PS3 controller, it seems to be made more for the Top-Shot Elite or the move, especially with the multiplayer on rails shooting gallery type modes... But there are sections where it looks like a more traditional controller could be better.
They added some night levels for some more variance and it seems to be a bit harder then the previous game?
Overall I'd give it an average score. Higher then previous one at least.
ARTISTIC MERIT
It TRIED to have a story and take itself a bit more seriously... Even if this doesn't translate to the gameplay at all where it's still guns-a-blazing action and all the animals are man eating crazies.
There's some monster in Africa called the "Kaftar" that's been terrorising the local villages and the main character and his hunter father go to hunt it.
It might just be an extremely aggressive animal.
It Might be supernaturally powered.
It MIGHT be part of some super secret military experiment using sound waves? (thanks to secret documents you find in the last level)
... It's never quite explained...
There's also some family drama with a dead brother and the main character's hyper masculine and batsh*t insane father who fought the monster before, lost an eye and wants revenge... And also might be the cause of the brother's death cus of how nuts he is.
It's pretty bonkers honestly in a so bad it's good kinda way... I'm tempted to look at more.
PERSONAL OPINION
There's SOME effort here? It was better received then Cabela's Dangerous Hunt 2009 on a whole as well
FINAL VERDICT
3 - Existing. (Though feel free to bump it down if you wish, I thought the story mode effort and bit more overall polish was worth the extra points)
None for gaming as a whole like the previous two installments in this sub series.
It did however have a story mode in it like the 2011 entry so... 2011's new addition was brought back. (More on that later)
TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT
Graphics wise aside from very minor improvements to the environments and animals there isn't much else to say about that once again. It's pretty average graphically.
This game of the series however was shipped with a different controller... The "Top-Shot Fearmaster light gun"
This gun could measure your heart rate and hand tremors through metal sensors on the gun.
If your heart rate was steady then you'd shoot fine, if you were panicking though it'd worsen your accuracy by causing the screen to blur a bit and shake a little I think too?
... Seems more of a gimmick really but I guess some originality points there? I couldn't find as many reviews for this and in particular it's controller so i don't fully know about this.
There was also a "killer instinct" mode where if something was behind you attacking you could activate this to 180 round in slow-mo to attempt to kill it. So a variation on the adrenaline mode from the 2009 edition.
Otherwise it was relatively the same as the previous installments. The reviews I did manage to find seemed to imply it was a little jankier then the others.
ARTISTIC MERIT
The story is a lot more of a bog standard affair that I would've expected from the series on first glance.
The main character's dad died cus of a bear, brothers who don't talk cus of said dad dying (One a hunter and the other a conservationist), a person is killed by black lion which spurs the main character to kill it cus it reminds him of the time his dad died, the conservationist brother follows him because... Reasons... and eventually the black lion is killed with some flashbacks along the way of how the dad died.
This one doesn't take itself as seriously as the previous entry... And doesn't even seem to be so bad it's good kinda territory... Just kinda there really and wasn't written by the guy who did the 2011 entry as far as i can gather.
PERSONAL OPINION
I can't say much overall, it got middling reviews like all the series has, seeming a bit worse then Dangerous Hunts 2011.
I'm not as interested in this installment either compared to my genuine curiousity of the previous game
FINAL VERDICT
2 - NOT IMPORTANT (Feel free to bump it down to 1 - Pointless if you think that fits better)
Hope these are alright for my first try Team Microtransactions (MTX!)
Cabela’s North American Adventures
This will go into pointless. Bad graphics, bad voice acting. Did not really add much to the series & the controls are apparently really crap. Cabela's Outdoor Adventures
I will drop this in the Existing category as it really changed the formula. It is funny reading criticism that a hunting sim is to real so the "Adventure" series only focuses on the key, exciting areas and was a hit with fans. Has a Trophy Creator mode that allows you to create custom hunts after you have finished the story
Cabelas Survival: Shadows of Katma
Not Important.
It tried to become a story driven narrative hunting game but tripped over trying to be something different.
Sorry for lack of details, past 2 days have been crazy!
Call of Juarez: The Cartel - Pointless (1) - from reading reviews and watching a couple of videos, this one has dropped the civil war/western setting, and moved it modern day LA/mexico where you play as DEA agent taking on the war on drugs. it seems to have been a bit of a bug ridden technical mess (even by techland's standard), and from 42 reviews on metacritic there is not a single positive one, and about 60% of them are negative. it seems to have been a bit of a rush job that was slapped together, that lost any charm the series had. the previous entry was a fairly unassuming game, not bad, and maybe if you're a seriously avid FPS fan worth a playthrough, but this one seems to be much worse on just every level.
Captain Morgane and the Golden Turtle - Pointless (1) - i could only find one review of this on PS3, by the official playstation magazine, and it was less than complimentary ("Point & Click elsewhere"). looking through a few reviews of the PC version, they're not much more favourable, seemingly it's got a case of monkey island envy, with a bland story and bad character models. suffice to say, for point-and-click games there has been much better before and after it, so its influence seems to be zero.[/em]
Carnival Island - Existing (3) - playstation move exclusive game, seems to be a compilation of party games and fairground attraction games. one common theme from reviews seems to be that it's probably a much more fun and attractive game for younger gamers, 'playing with family' is mentioned regularly in reviews. this came out around the time sony was doubling down hard on targetting PS3 at families, and PS move game like this and the likes of wonderbook were part of that strategy. in general, reviews are fairly mixed, with some design flaws (clunky interface) and technical issues (poor loading times) mentioned. art design seems to be fairly decent (santa monica studio provided development support to magic pixel games). motion control gaming (outside of VR) seems to have had its time in the spotlight (MS sold kinect with X1 at launch and has there even been a game use it since 2014?!), so the importance to gaming in general was probably pretty limited to the very short term. but i feel i shouldn't rate it too low, for families with younger children, games like this can provide a valuable experience with hand/eye coordination, and show that games are not all about shooting things in the face with a shotgun. right here on pushsquare, it was summarised as "An inviting mini-game compilation that gets a lot right. Its slick PlayStation Move implementation is a stark reminder of the device's potential, and the entire package is buoyed by a strong art direction and a good variety of activities. Sadly it's let down by a poorly thought out interface and some inexplicable loading issues."
Ok I had a look at the buzz! video games. They look ok, but they really don't seem to do very much at all to stand out, certainly not bad games but not in any way memorable. And it seems very little changes between releases as to how they play.
Generally a fastest buzzer first and make sure you get the answer right to get the most points and win.
Personally I'm thinking not important for all 3. The only achievement is it's a rare ps3 game that even those uncomfortable playing console games should be able to play relatively easily with the family with the simple unique controllers.
But no points for artistic merit or technical achievement here.
Interestingly, this is not a hunting game and wasn't widely reviewed for PS3 or any other platform. However PushSquare gave it a solid if uninspired 6 and said it was good for kids. Other reviews seem similar.
Verdict = Existing.
Cabela's African Adventures Activision
Poor to average reviews citing a simplified system and two reviews calling it an upscaled PS2 game.
Anyway, apart from that gem, not many reviews that are positive so I am saying pointless though to be honest, that is based on how little I can find online about it.
I can't get on the excel at the moment but will update it.
Now I may be an idiot, but there's one thing I am not sir, and that sir, is an idiot
Alright, I updated the rankings in the first post and cleaned up the spreadsheet.
There are still four games that I didn't see rankings for. Did I miss them, or did we just overlook them?
The games are:
Cabela's Big Game Hunter 2010 Cauldron HQ
Cabela's Big Game Hunter 2012 Cauldron HQ
Cabela's Big Game Hunter: Pro Hunts Cauldron
Cabela's Hunting Expeditions Fun Labs
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