NRAs Varmint Hunter Video Game

The Hottest Hunting Sport in North America.

 

Not one of the hottest Video games I have ever played though.  First I love the fact that I saw name brand products involved in the game.  The marketing idea behind this was sound its just not enough action for it to be called a video game. 

 

I started out with a Quick Hunt- Melt your barrel action.  Now the game is true to realism and for Prairie Dog Practice this is an outstanding product.  Leading the animals seemed to be very accurate to true life.  So for that aspect your bound to save real world rounds by using this as a Prairie Dog Simulator versus a few hours of entertainment to kill a Saturday off.

 

The navigation flow of the game was hard to work with, but the in game graphics were fair enough to keep you interested once the action started.   NRA’s Varmint Hunter was kind of a pig on the resources of our computer resources.  To balance that the real action shooter Counter-Strike can be minimized much easier than the Varmint Hunter when needing to work with other applications.

 

The load work up and fully adjustable scope were nice features.  I enjoyed the coyote shoots and the realism in being able to make the Mexican wolf turn instead of attempting to make one of those famous Texas heart Shots.

 

The game was interesting and fun once I got into it but something’s were just too real.  I hate running out of ammo when I am hunting and making me stop shooting to go to the store to buy more is just a bit much.  Adding in the feature for unlimited ammo and faster pace cold barrel shoots would be entertaining as well as good real world practice and would of kept me captive for hours versus 20 minutes.

 

I don’t want to discourage manufactures from sponsoring video games to reach new markets in that it is important to use them to build a vocabulary with a younger market and build brand recognition in lots of ways.  Glock’s and Desert Eagles are available through Valve’s Half-life and Half-life2 but these games contain no 1911’s or Browning Hi-Powers, Springfield’s M1A would be a nice option.  These games are often used to train team tactics in law enforcement and military units.  Valve would be happy to put this branding out there for free if the companies would just allow them to use their product name.

 

Get a copy of the NRA’s Varmint Hunter if you want to practice long range or leading shots without using real world ammo.  I liken this game to Microsoft’s Flight Simulator more than a traditional video game.