TNN OUTDOORS PRO HUNTER
Manufacturer: ASC Games (1998)
Genre: Deer, elk, turkey, and small game hunting simulation.
System Requirements: Win95, Pentium 166 (P2 200+ recommended), 32 MB RAM,
185 MB HD space, PCI video, Direct X compatible 3D accelerator card, CD ROM.
TNN Outdoors Pro Hunter has probably been one of the most
highly anticipated hunting releases of the year. Sporting the awesome UNREAL gaming engine
and advertising the ability to hunt everything from elk to dove with a large equipment
option has had cyber hunters drooling. But can a trend setting "sci-fi shooter"
engine successfully work in a hunting setting? Uh, not too well I'm afraid.
TNN Outdoors Pro Hunter offers a wide variety of weapons
(eight rifles/shotguns/pistols, two bows and the now standard issue muzzleloader) and a
decent amount of gear- including items like hand warmers, insulated gloves and tousle
caps. The number of available hunting locations is excellent, allowing hunters to prowl
around in just about every region in North America (i.e. Pacific Northwest, Southwest,
Mid-Atlantic, Southeast). Choosing gear is dependent on the region and the climate so
dress/equip accordingly or be prepared to overheat or shiver during your hunt (this
affects your aim by the way). The game also offers multiplayer and tournament modes as
well as a beginner mode to help newbies get their feet wet.
While all of this is great, TNN Outdoors Pro Hunter fails
to provide outstanding gaming. The graphics are slow and choppy-even on high end P200 MMX
and Pentium 2 machines! I experienced some very nasty pixelization and graphic bugs (like
the animal texture overlays, or "skins", suddenly appearing while walking
around. The trees actually appear to float above the ground with no visible connection.
However, the water effects look nice so that's a positive. Very disappointing from a game
that uses one of the finest gaming graphic engines ever developed. And I haven't even
mentioned the MOST important feature- animal AI!
The AI in TNN Outdoors Pro Hunter is some of the worst I've
seen. You can practically walk up and kick small critters before they spook! The big game
animals tend to run a bit then stop in order to give you a nice juicy shot! Even on higher
difficulty levels there wasn't much of an improvement. You can literally bag countless
deer due to the fact that they are just not bright enough (I shot eight on one hunt,
several on the fly before the game shut me down for exceeding my tag). Literally, it was
shooting deer in a barrel! Your hunting dogs (a beagle and Brittany) are just about as
dense as the animals so they really don't help too much either. Oh and did you see the
hard drive space required for this game? 380 MB is quite a bit for a game with as many
bugs as this one.
TNN Outdoors Hunter Pro offers some positives (like the
gear/climate feature and the variety of hunting locations) but it's in dire need of a
patch in order to make it the game we've all been waiting for. It looks and plays like a
product rushed to the shelves. What a bummer.
THE SCOUTING REPORT:
THE PROS:
- Excellent selection of firearms and gear.
Good variety of game animals- the best all-around variety you'll find.
THE CONS:
- Ugly pixelizations at times.
Bulky UREAL graphics engine just doesn't work- more beta testing may have helped here.
Animal AI is some of the worst you'll find.
Hard drive hog: eats up LOTS of HDD space and system resources.
Need a patch or some further development.
