Very nice!

I wonder if in Ranger mode if you can still tick hunter sense in the Game options. That way you will still have the most challenging animal hunts but at least be able to pick up animal ratings via binos.

No, when you set it to Ranger the hunter sense options are greyed out. I've played on Ranger a bit, just to check it out. I don't get enough definition with the positional sound. Whether it's the way the game handles it, or my headphones or settings or whatever, I find it difficult to accurately determine the direction of the animal sounds. That's where hunter sense really helps, as I know the exact azimuth and approximate range any time an animal within range makes a call or cracks a branch. Without this, actually finding targets is much more difficult, or it's probably better to say hunter sense makes it far easier. For me that is the biggest challenge in Ranger, actually laying the old mark ones on game.

I finally took a gray wolf last night and that makes at least one of each animal type in Idaho. I see them often, but rarely am I carrying a proper weapon for them. I used the .223 Steyr Scout a couple times, and felt I placed the shots well, but small amount, animal survived at the mark. The rifle was showing impact energy around 1500 joules which is within the window, but the shots were ineffective. So I took a .243 this time and that was a good match.

For anyone new to the game, you'll see there are four private property areas on each map. You can purchase hunting rights for each one for 4500. But you can also finish the mission chains for each landowner to get the rights as well. Some of the missions are silly, like picking alpine flowers, but it saves lots of money. I have five of the eight done and haven't bought any. Doing the missions gets more money as well along the way. One of the loading screen blurbs says that these areas have animals bred for higher fitness. I have yet to really notice any difference, but there's so much that is variable in this.

Another quick tip is you can rearm at either the safe in the lodge or the back of the vehicle. When you swap guns in your loadout they go in unloaded. When you bring the gun up it automatically goes in to reload animation. A mag is inserted or the rounds are put in depending on the gun. When you then chamber a round, it means you can add one round back in to the mag, on bolt actions anyway. This then leaves you short of max ammo. Click one more time on the safe or vehicle gate to top the ammo off. You'll rarely shoot enough to get near running out, but it's an extra five or six rounds anyway depending on the gun.

I was scrolling down the Steam library page, you know, where they have videos and other community stuff. I was interested in knowing more about the .338 Lapua. So I clicked on one. The dude found a male and female elk and shot the male in the head, sending the female running, and he was just popping off rounds at the fleeing moose. I've taken nearly 140 animals now and have yet to shoot one time at a running animal. Every shot is controlled, and taken only when I am nearly assured of success (aside from waterfowl and other birds). And the .338 is far too much cartridge at this sort of range. Matter of fact, I'm not sure the .338 is really appropriate in this game, at the ranges we engage. Maybe a moose at 800 yards or something, but otherwise it must be overkill, no? I haven't bought it for this reason. Have you used this rifle Ajay? Headshots too are considered unethical evidently.

A new player should probably get a .243 first, as it gives you a better deer rifle than the Grandpa rifle .30-.30, as sad as that makes me. The .30-.30 is fine in close, around 120 yards and in. But that is pretty restrictive, and even the slightly bigger mule deer are questionable at this range. It feels underpowered to me, but maybe that's my sentimentality. The .243 is a smaller projectile of course, but has much higher muzzle velocity. This rifle has a very flat trajectory, and retains energy well over distance. Makes it accurate. The 7mm Hunter Pro II is another good deer rifle, but doesn't retain energy as well over distance. Its round does do more damage, but you want to be as clean as possible so I prefer the .243 over the 7mm. These class 5 rifles can take a variety of game, like mountain goats, boars, mouflon, chamois and wolves. I took my big red stag with a .243, but it was inside 140 yards.

For the next purchase I bought the .223 Steyr Scout, but that was a mistake. It's good for badgers and fox, and was disappointing for wolves as mentioned. But the .30-.30 you already have is good for this class of game, so the .223 can wait (unless you really like it!)

I'd suggest a big-game rifle next instead. The Remington 700 Long Range is a great choice. It's inexpensive and chambered in .300 Win Mag, so is great for moose, elk and bear. This class of tier 6 animals pays better, if you're selling them. And early on you won't want to be dropping the coin on taxidermy too often. Wait until you've got a gaggle of guns. I did however mount my first buck, because of course I did

For shotguns it's wide open. Somehow I seemed to have gotten the pre-order bonus shotgun, maybe through the season pass? It's a more ornate version of the Jack 1502, called Cinnamonsky. 12 gauge side-by-side. Not a fan of side-by-sides honestly, so I bought the Morning Silence, a 20-gauge semi-auto. It's not a break-action, so you don't qualify for perks, but the fast firing and extra shells is great for duck hunting. Eventually I bought all of them, aside from the 1502 since it's really expensive and I already have a nicer one haha. The over/under feels right for pheasant. But anyway, shotguns are for taste, as they'll all do the job.

Ajay, if you 'clear' a finished taxidermy, can the animal be used for another display? I mounted my first five star pheasant. Now I have two and want to do the display with two pheasants. Can I clear the current one without losing the animal? I suspect it's yes but wanted to ask first.

It's a yes, but i'm sure you'll have to repay to mount it somewhere new.

The 700 Rem is my go to atm for big game, i love it I also only just picked up the scout as i have three or four missions now i need to knock off for small game. I like that double barrel shottie though, one on the ground and then one in the air, i'm partial to it because my Dad had one when we used to Goose hunting decades ago in Darwin. I grabbed the 4.95 supporter pack that gives you the Cinnamonsky and camo jeep, felt like throwing them the extra small bit of cash for some trinkets was deserved for the chill favtor the game gives me after a long day at work.

Your starter area does have lower star animals compared to the ones you unlock. I grabbed a five star Elk on my first hunt in Haliwitch, a five star goat in She Devil and a five star Mule in Diamond Drill. I did lost my White tail in the starter region that i have been watching and waiting for. He went four star and i haven't seen him since.

Thanks, yes I cleared the mounts and had to pay for the new one. And actually, the two-pheasant display required one female. Derp.

I also got a five-star mulie in Diamond Drill. That's a tough area to hunt, but worth it. The starter area has produced four of my five-stars, the pheasants, the bighorn and the whitetail.The whitetail was west of the Small Paws camp and the bighorn was on the railroad tracks just NE of the Rivermouth camp. Both pheasants were in the fields along the river. Adjacent to the starter area anyway, if we consider Cottonwood the starter area.Five-stars are rare so far for me, despite a heavy focus on taking one-star matures. But rare they should be, I reckon. But I can't say my culling efforts have resulted in a significant improvement to the quality of the animals. Primary habitat should be the only requirement for getting high-level animals I think.

I got the Hunter's Pack too, included in whichever edition I purchased. A few extra bucks for the devs, agreed. We have some new maps, animals and weapons in the pipeline, so the season pass seemed worth it with this one.I really want some new rifles and scopes. The ones I'm using are fine, but I'm itching for rifles closer to what I own. The .30-.30 is one, looks just like my Marlins. But it feels underpowered as mentioned. I was reading a thread and one of the posters claimed the devs modeled a 125-grain bullet for this rifle, If so, that would explain why it feels to lack pop. My dad taught me to handload ammo when I was a kid and I was loading 150 to 170-grain bullets for .30-.30 then. Of course there isn't much we can see about the ammunition as it's modeled in Way of the Hunter, but it would be interesting to see if it's available.

I want a .270 bolt-action. And a BLR. I have a .243, and that would be fine, but maybe something slightly harder-hitting would be good. The animals on average are bigger in the game than what I hunted all those years ago, so guns to match are needed. But yeah, I think more lever actions would be welcome. Some control over the ammunition we are loading would be nice too, and I think I've read some changes are coming here. The .300/.308 combo I roll with most of the time is fine, but a few new choices would be good.

I've had such a good time playing Way of the Hunter I pulled the trigger on Call of the Wild too. It's marked down 25% at the mo, so I picked it up and while I don't think I'll like the hunting simulation part as much, I think I'll find plenty of good stuff. More maps, animals, weapons, bow hunting, ATV.

Got one more five star in Way of the Hunter. A mountain goat with the .308. So far I've taken

Whitetail Deer
Red Deer
Mule Deer
Bighorn
Mountain Goat
Pheasant x 2

Long way to go to 50, but that's a start!

Dropped four hours last night in to Call of the Wild. It's six years older than Way of the Hunter, and feels like it. But it's also much more robust with all that time in the oven. More maps, weapons, animals and gear.

I could see straight away why some folks talk about 'arcade' or how easy it is. Way of the Hunter is a better hunting simulation, I have no doubt. My first kill in CotW came at 18 yards. You have to work very hard to get anywhere near that close in Way of the Hunter. The animals are more convincing, in both their animations and their behavior in Way of the Hunter. It's just more sim-like, which is what I expected, no surprises there. But Call of the Wild is far more robust with all that time in the oven. Many more maps, more weapons, animals and gear.

But I had fun with it and I'll give it a proper go. I like chasing challenges, and there are a lot of Steam achievements for Call of the Wild. WotH only has 13, CotW has 164. Call of the Wild looks much more grindy too, with weapon and gear prices high compared to the money you make. But that's not a problem really. If I like it I'll drop the time and the stuff will come. I chose Silver Peaks as my first map. You start with a scoped, bolt-action .243, a 12-ga over/under and a .357 revolver. I have some DLC too which adds some additional weapons for 'free'.

If I had to choose one I'd pick Way of the Hunter, as it is the one that is closer to what I want out of a hunting game. But it's good to have options.

I just dropped 39k on the new atv in WotH. I'm broke now, but she's a hoot! Gets where the Jeep can't and doesn't seem to be as loud. I've been using it to get around quickly to unlock the houses and camping spots so i can fast travel on Transylvania.

CotW i have two version in my Steam library, classic and something else. Might give it a shot again one day but i just remember it not grabbing me.

I downloaded it, loaded up the game and had a quick look for it. I thought it is free? 39k is pretty steep. It had better track my animals for me at that price.

As for Call of the Wild.... I'm enjoying it. It's different in many ways, easier to hunt the game, which seems more plentiful, less aware and overall easier to harvest. But it's not too simple either. The graphics are beautiful. Both games look great. CotW is less pretty at the closest ranges, and draw distance for animals and vegetation is much lower, but when you take in the greater vistas it's gorgeous. I like how you can see animals at 1000 yards and more in WotH, even if you won't take a shot. Those ranges makes it feel more real, less like a game, and gives you distant targets to stalk in on. On the other hand, Call of the Wild has four times as many animal types to hunt.

Way of the Hunter has far more convincing animal behavior and animations. Maybe that's to be expected given it's so much newer. in CotW you can equip three weapon slots which is nice. Handguns, bows and crossbows are available. Different ammunition types, like hollow point, polymer tip and soft tip. Call of the Wild also offers more statistics, tracks and displays more information on the player's hunting career which I like. And of course it has many more maps to hunt, from New England, to snow to savannah.

I like the hunting better in Way of the Hunter, but it has some way to go to catch Call of the Wild in terms of scope and content. All in due time I reckon.

SimHQ moves way too slow, there's never enough of a conversation around here to satisfy me

So I've had to venture in to forums where people actively discuss stuff haha. I think I'll start a new thread below as I feel like I'm intruding a bit here in Ajay's thread, derailing it in to a comparison thread between the games, and it should probably remain on topic.

Anyway, this is a post I just made on one of those other forums, comparing the two games.....

I did indeed add two more DLC to my CotW install, the tents and blinds, and the ATV. The tent is handy on long hunts, or if real life suddenly intervenes, you can plop down a save point right here. Or swap loadout, buy ammo, whatever. The problem is it weighs 6 (kilos, pounds, whatever it is) and that limits other stuff you can carry and still keep under the "make more noise and be more visible" threshold.

This wouldn't be a big deal if the rangefinder sight for my bow wasn't so fookin' heavy. It weighs four times what a rifle scope does. Why?

I'm having a good time with Call of the Wild. I prefer the hunting sim in Way of the Hunter if I'm honest. It's just closer to what I want out of a hunting game when out in the field, tracking game, taking shots. But if I set that aside, the rest of Call of the Wild expands on what WotH is.


-- Maps/Reserves. No contest here. I can find little fault in the way the reserves in either game are done. Beautiful, huge, diverse. But Call of the Wild has so many more to choose from. Admittedly, some are not that much of a switch, like New England, Layton Lake District and Hirschfelden aren't that much different really. But they are still different maps, with some variation in populated game, and more so in Europe of course.

And while CotW does have all of these maps to hunt, they are individual DLC at 8 bucks a pop. Two reserves are included in the base game, and there are ten as DLC. Some gear is also behind these DLC paywalls, like the muzzleloader and .300 Win Mag rifle.

-- Animals. Again, CotW is a clear winner here in terms of sheer variety with more than 80 unique animal species to hunt. By comparison, WotH is around 20. Big difference, but expect that gap to close over time.

But WotH hits back when considering animal behavior and animations. It is much more convincing in this game than CotW. I've got hunting experience, and one spot Way of the Hunter is off a bit is how closely the animal herds stand and travel together. They should be more spaced out. I also find the way birds flush to be rather unconvincing in Way of the Hunter and I hope the devs look at these two areas to fine tune otherwise impressive animal behavior modeling.

-- Weapons and gear. Yeah, Way of the Hunter suffers here too. I might expect that this gap too will close over time. But it's not a given. Bows, crossbows and handguns give Call of the Wild diversity that Way of the Hunter cannot match. The bow hunting is fun too.

It's been out a lot longer, and like mentioned some of this kit is locked behind paywalls. It remains to be seen how WotH will handle expansion, but so far what's been added has been done for 'free'. And it's not just weapons, but callers, scents, blinds and stands and more that Call of the Wild has in abundance.

-- The hunting. This is what it's all about right? I have to give the nod to Way of the Hunter. It just feels more realistic to me. The stalking, animal behavior and shooting feels more like actual hunting. But when you step back and consider all the other stuff that surrounds it -- like the aforementioned maps, animal types, kit and gear -- the two games round out in about the same spot for me. If Way of the Hunter ever approaches Call of the Wild for sheer content, I think the choice between the two will be clear for me.

But that's a big if, and the way things stand right now I see plenty to like from both games.

Like I said, I think I'm dragging this excellent review thread down for my own purposes, so I'll look to start a new one, comparing the games in more depth. Probably in the tactical forum (these are stealth games really) if I do.

I am playing CotW since 2019 and it certainly isn't a bad game. Unfortunately the quality of the released DLC reserves has somewhat declined over time. For the last reserves the developers haven't even bothered to add some interesting hunting missions and most animals were just re-used from other maps. My favorites are still the base maps, Hirschfelden and Layton Lake, followed by Yukon Valley and Medved Taiga.

Medved kicked my ass and I got killed by getting attacked by wolves and run over by all sorts of stuff.

How is positional sound for you guys? It's one aspect I've been disappointed in, but is it my setup, or a limitation with the way the game is done? Like in Call of the Wild I can hear a sound fully in my left ear. I pivot one or two degrees to my left and the sound is now fully in my right ear. So I'm facing 12 o'clock, but just a tiny pivot makes the sounds alternate between 9 and 3 o'clock, like there's no middle ground, a blended sound coming through both ears when the sound source is dead ahead. Makes pinpointing game by sound nearly impossible for me. Way of the Hunter is slightly better here, but still not good enough. I can't rule out my hardware or settings. Are you guys happy with how it is implemented and feel it's got good accuracy? Maybe it's me.

I feel like with accurate positional sound I could avoid getting run over by angry moose or whatever. Or at least know which direction it is coming from. Sounds like it's all around me the way it is.

I also can't pinpoint sound sources, neither in CotW nor in WotH, but my hardware is not that great.

Regarding animal attacks, that's something I am really missing in WotH, especially the sporadic wolf attacks from CotW. They might not be very realistic, but forces you to be vigilant in wolf territory and give a good adrenalin rush. You should also try hunting buffalos in Vurhonga, they are real killers.

I have the Africa reserve DLC and yeah, I'll give that a go for sure. The jury's still out for me, whether I like the hunter becoming the hunted on some of these maps. On the other hand, your point about how it keeps you on high alert is a good one, and it adds another element to it. It's not just predators either, with boar and moose among those who have run me over in heavy brush. I have not been attacked by anything in Way of the Hunter.

I don't have a good class 9 rifle option yet, and I want one before I head to Africa. The .300 or maybe the .338, but one is locked behind the Yukon DLC and both are expensive, more than I have at the mo. All I really have is the Drilling, and that's not exactly my style. I don't like how regular broadhead arrows are rank locked. I can understand special arrows, but some of the standard one are locked behind high archery mastery. Not all that keen on taking out class 9 African animals with a bow anyway.

There's a lot of DLC for this game, and I will wait for a sale for some of it. But I might pull the trigger on a few more to get a new map or two, and some weapons and ammo that I have my eye on.

Which rifle are you hunting the big stuff in Africa with juri?

For the big stuff I always use the Rangemaster 338.

If the .338 were a bolt action I think I'd get that one. But instead I'm going for the .300 Canning. Bolt action, magazine fed. Not a fan of break action guns, even if the .338 is the hardest hitting rifle in the game. The .300 will still do the job, and not be a single-shot break action

It costs 75,000 though, which is a lot. Plus I need a couple grand for a couple boxes of ammo. I have 73k after last night's session so nearly there, and then I can head off to Africa.

My plans were dashed when I discovered that the .300 requires 6000+ rifle mastery. How I ignored this I don't know. I had a good start to yesterday's session, quickly earned more than enough to buy the rifle, then hopped out to purchase the Yukon DLC, at which point I finally realized I cannot have this rifle. Derp.

Many players had been playing for two years when this DLC was released, and for them the mastery lock would have been no issue. I've been playing for less than two weeks and I sit at half that number.

Well, I have a new reserve to hunt anyway.

That good start was on Revontuli. I was doing the first quest, the 'Blue Trail' mission. Near the end it has the player show his shooting skills by shooting at targets at increasing distances from inside rock circles placed on the ground. I hit the first few first try, but the 300m target eluded me. I took four shots and missed them all. Then I saw that even the hits counted as misses and now my shooting percentage is all fouled up dammit. Those shots should not have counted (like at the rifle range) or at least count the hits right?

I gave it up as a bad job and I'll return when I have the top scope. Best I have now is the 4x8 (Hyperion?). A .300 has a nice flat trajectory (I assume, yes?) and the higher power scope should allow me to finish this one.

Speaking of this mission..... the narrator drives me nuts. I wish I could shut him up. In Way of the Hunter I complained about the story and narrative. How cheesy it is. Call of the Wild said 'hold my beer' because in some ways it is even worse. Not every reserve is terrible, but the dude in Finland is just too much. Musing about philosophy and being naked. I was talking out loud to him, just shut up man!

The dude in Silver Ridge Peaks? Get off your ass man! Tap dancing on my last nerve that one.

Just let me hunt. Why couldn't the missions have just been hunting? Shoot a bear at 200 yards, or spot ten ibex, harvest a gold whitetail, or find five partridge tracks, or that sort of thing.

Did manage to get my first diamond while earning the money to buy the rifle I can't have. A capercallie!

And the hunt club is back up. That earned me some good money last night. I like these sorts of daily and weekly challenges. I hope they stick with it.

Anyway, I started the thread I threatened to in the tactical forum

Way of the Wild

I've derailed this one long enough. Ajay's review is top notch, and thanks for helping me get in to these hunting games mate.

An Alaska DLC map has been announced. I am curious how it will compare to the CotW Yukon Valley map.

And a free patch was also announced that adds crossbows to the game.

Looks fantastic. I've had a great time hunting on the CotW Yukon map. Caribou, grizzlies, elk and moose, among others. It'll be awesome to have this in Way of the Hunter. I've got the season pass so bring it on!

Not a huge fan of crossbows if I'm honest, but I'd like compound bows.

Any new additions are welcome.

Oh, yeah, I've been meaning to ask Ajay... how did you grab those screens in the OP? Like the one with the bullet impact? Did you record video and screenshot that?

Camera mode, then zoom in and around. You get a certain 'fly' distance from your position standard which is added to via a perk with a further 50%. You can also pause and unpause the action to grab that action shot you are trying for.