Introducing theHunter: Call of the Wild

[Fletchette]

Seriously, this game looks a million times better than theHunter Classic - even with my NVIDIA Inspector settings.
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Wow, a million times is a lot !!!.....IMO, using max settings on a good monitor, both games are great looking. But there is a difference, and I personally prefer the look of Classic. I play on a 27", 2k(1440p) Gsync monitor, pushed by (2) GTX 980's (although for now SLI doesn't seem to work in COTW).

While it's certainly true that COTW has more detailed textures, these really only come into play for things that are pretty close to you (less than 30m). As others have observed, the colors are over-saturated or something. But what bothers me the most, is that the images are hazy or foggy or something (even with "Heat-Haze" off). And equally bothersome, it that objects (trees, bushes, etc.) in the medium to long distances look blurry or slightly out of focus or something.

I don't have the artistic vocabulary to describe what I'm trying to say, but I've spent the last few days playing both and prefer the crisper imagery of Classic. To me, visuals in Classic look crisp, and real, like how things look IRL when out the countryside or woods. COTW looks like an oil painting. The LOD obviously much higher, but at the price of a less "realistic" look for me. It's beautiful for sure, but IMO looks more "artificial".

It's probably one of those, "in the eye of the beholder" type things....

[Cireme]

The new game without the higher (distance)lod and without the more detailed sc would nearly look the same as thc with maxed inspector settings or?

Inspector makes everything crisper/sharper but it doesn't help with the outdated lighting effects, shadows, textures, shaders, animations and so on. There's a 8-year technical gap between the two games and it's quite obvious when you put them next to each other.

[\m/]

It's probably one of those, "in the eye of the beholder" type things.

Thats for sure.

Dont get me wrong Cireme, Cotw looks good and uses new tech, thats sure! I would love to see thc with this higher (distance)lod and more detailed sc, i think the difference would be not that super big

Spoiler:

For example the first pic with the sc of the second pic would be pretty good for thc

[jsundeen90]

lol, theres a twitch stream going on right now where the guys are talking about how they and a couple friends just emailed the devs saying they wanted to stream it and they just sent them a couple keys... Thats an odd raffle

[L3M182]

with cotw now on the scene, i was worrying allot about what would happen to thc but watching streams and seeing the screen shots i found allot of stuff taken from thc and just polished up. and recent events e.g the overhaul of the black and brown bear and how good they look. im more optimistic than ever for thc and its older content. It seems that the vast majority of people who have left comment claim cotw to cabelas/farcry and i tend to agree with them. Also the payment model with the 1 off pay with the possibility of dlc ....POSSIBILITY...... tells me that all the eggs havent gone into one basket. The big thing for me that seems to have gone under the radar is the devs now have access and hands on experience of up to date technology and experience in taking stuff from thc and bringing it up to date. surely that a 2 way street?

It sounds really odd to say but i kinda hope cotw doesn't do too well. I dont want it to be a disaster id like it to do well enough to be a tidy money maker for EW and a massive learning experience in how to and not to do a massive list of stuff. but thats it. id like it to go away then and do as primal did and have little to no follow up content.I dont like what ive seen, its not for me and id rather it didnt become the flagship as id prefer the attention to be on thc. Is that selfish? maybe, but we now have all seen what the devs have the means to do, so maybe that overhaul will come one day. i mean we have a hell of a platform their now.

as a side not the brown and black bear look fantastic. if the pigs could get a bit of attention as i think theyre the worst offenders now and their case hasnt been helped seeing what a job was done on the cotw boar.

[postulart]

Meanwhile, I am trying to be positive. I mean after all, I can play Hunter Classic for serious hunting business. But since I love hiking and nature and since there's such a beautiful Hirschfelden, I may end up buying Cotw as well and just enjoying the scenery and also doing some not-so-serious hunting. IF they allow for removing the terrible blinky blinky beep beep UI (disturbing immersion massively).
Also the good side is they gain experience with other tech, that may help thc at some day.

[Prinz1989]

Meanwhile, I am trying to be positive. I mean after all, I can play Hunter Classic for serious hunting business. But since I love hiking and nature and since there's such a beautiful Hirschfelden, I may end up buying Cotw as well and just enjoying the scenery and also doing some not-so-serious hunting. IF they allow for removing the terrible blinky blinky beep beep UI (disturbing immersion massively).
Also the good side is they gain experience with other tech, that may help thc at some day.

It's the strangest thing. They make this beautifull game CotW with nice textures lights, shadows, skins, animations (when they work), even if the animal AI is on easymode it could be so immersive. But then they throw some icons in your face, white outlines for a call the animals light up when spotted a lot and you get a health bar a sound bar and so on and so on.
For now thc is far more immersive, thats for sure.

[mikeman1]

Can you hunt all species at night?

[Skybird]

I am no Beta tester, only basing my impressions on some videos that are now available at youtube, Let'S Plays.

And the one impression that dominates mercilessly any other, is that the places seem to be crowded with animals, or not? I mean Classic already had very massive animal populations, and made it very easy to find them. But this feature - some may call it a disadvantage - seems to have been boosted even more?

In combination with the terribly easy animal behaviour - animals seem to be extremely unaware of accoustic give-aways by the player!? - , I wonder where should be the challenge or where the excitement should come from. You run around like a tank and boom-boom-bang around at targets that almost ask to get put down.

The design and idea seems to have gone terribly on the wrong track there. If it stays like this, this game for me will not even get out of the starting block, that desinteresting it currently is for me after these first impressions from maybe 6 or 7 longer videos, SP and MP alike. The Hunter Classic tried to be more a subtle shooting game, while the new title looks as if the shooting gallery at the fair has opened.

Very sceptical I am. Currently I have zero intention to get engaged with this.

As others already have said, the floating icons also are a very bad idea, imo. A top grade immersion breaker. The visual clues for animal calls also are a bad idea. People should instead estimate the direction from the sound i their headphones alone. Good direction indicating by sound alone is possible, other games have demonstrated that often enough. I think the sound marker on the Hunter Mate already is too much.

What I would like to learn from Beta players, is the reserve size, compared to Classic maps.

COTW currently looks way too simplistic to me. Classic already was a simplification - and here now comes a simplification of the simplification?

[Tod1d]

What I would like to learn from Beta players, is the reserve size, compared to Classic maps.

It looks like the map is 12km x 12km (144 km²). Compared to WRR which is about 12km², or the entire huntable area in tHC (without TgT) is 100km²

Not all of that area is huntable, there is water on the east side, so maybe 120km²

With Tgt, tHC is probably close to that. So, about the same size as the EHR. But, it's all one reserve. And it looks like they's set it up to be expanded.