Recent reviews by vassilevb

What a nice surprise from Slovakia! This is going to be an inevitable comparison to CotW.

1. You can see animals farther than 430 metres! That alone makes this the better game of the two. Let's continue.
2. With the serious scopes, you can zero from 50 to 1000 metres (in CotW you only have three possible zeroes (25/50/75 & 75/150/300 & 20/40/60), it's pretty arcadey). A few hours ago I dropped a mountain goat with the .338 LM (it's an overkill, but I was after a quest) at 762 metres.
3. The weapons and scopes are licensed. That's always appreciated by firearms enthusiasts like myself. Weapon selection is somewhat limited, but there's no redundancy this way, so I can't complain. In the end of the day, weapons are tools and (at least in a videogame, where you don't care about the weapon's ergonomics, weight, etc.) you only need variety in calibers, not ten redundant rifles of the same caliber that are just cluttering the menus/UI.
4. Terminal ballistics information is available — welcome to the normal world of projectiles that deliver kinetic energy measured in Joules. :)
5. A little bit of complexity is added to the blood splatters, depending on what organs and/or blood vessels you hit. Neat!
6. Animal behaviour is described in a useful manner in the encyclopedia. In general, WotH is a way more transparent game than CotW.
7. There are indeed less reserves (three, at the time of writing), but you can pay for a season pass (almost every paywalled thing in CotW is a separate purchase).
8. There is no dog in WotH, but I'm pretty sure there will be (one of the original purposes for the domestication of wolves approximately 30 000 years ago was hunting).
9. WotH also crashes and has bugs, however, there are bugs that can make you mad and destroy something IRL (CotW's invisible hitboxes - remember ruining your shots after hitting a stupid invisible part of a tree/stone instead of what you're aiming at) and harmless bugs (press 1 while ADSing .338 Steyr with the 3-18x Leupold). WotH is more stable (crashes less), but runs worse than CotW, at least on my PC (which is somewhat decent i7/16/1650).
10. Movement in WotH is somewhat faster. Driving (oh, yeah, cars are free) with some nice music radio stations is a nice touch and makes the discovery of points of interest/camps/etc. a little bit less of a chore. Let's face it, hunting games are glorified walking simulators and movement should not feel like a chore.
11. Hunting stands are pre-built and are used for free (compared to CotW where they cost money and their usefulness is debatable).
12. The skills are passive and don't cost money, compared to the questionable "specializations" in CotW (and the "respecializations" that cost money too).
13. Getting money when starting WotH is not as hard as it is when starting CotW. I'd say is less grindy than CotW (but it's still grindy).
14. The story feels like something out of a TV soap opera, but I don't care much. If River's mom was a real person, she'd most likely have some neurological disorder.
15. The sound of thunder is pretty cool, but the reverb on the sound effect needs to be tuned way up, I believe. :S

16. What I'd like to see is scopes with true mildots at all possible magnifications (i.e. first focal plane (FFP) scopes), because I'd like to be able to calculate distances based on what I know and what I see. I want both a scope that uses milliradians/MRADs and a scope that uses minutes of arc/MOAs (we must not piss off the imperial users, after all).
17. I want handguns (there aren't any at the moment). :(
18. I'd like to be able to utilize break/pump action shotguns' versatility (there's only birdshot, regardless of the caliber; 12ga, 16ga, 20ga - doesn't matter, you can only effectively shoot birds and hares with shotguns). Autoloader shotguns should have a dedicated load though (because some loads can't properly cycle the weapon).

I'm definitely not disappointed / 1o.
Definitely better overall game design and engine choice than CotW / 1o.

EDIT (26th of August, 2024):
The recent update, besides other things, added slugs and buckshot for shotties. I just dropped a moose with a slug into the left lung from 81 metres (it's way underpowered, couldn't penetrate the right lung, but it worked). Big thanks for this addition!

EDIT (2nd of December, 2024):
Editing to mention that I'm voting WotH for "Labour of Love" Steam award.

It feels like a Te Awaroa and Vurhonga combo. The only truly new thing to hunt are the roos. The new small caliber bolt-action rifle has aperture iron sights... it's kinda redundant. I didn't notice the usual introduction of new bugs, besides disappearing trail markers. The NPCs are amusing. You'll get some extra money for the new quests. If you need something fresh, because you're tired of the other reserves, I guess you won't regret it. However, if you haven't tried some of the other reserves, you won't be missing much by not getting this one.

"G' day, mate!" / 1o

EDIT (two years later):
Unsurprising, but not good either:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBSBmD3MwrQ

I didn't want to review this pathetic excuse of a software, because I get very emotional when it comes to philosophy, but I got triggered by a guy in the forums. My honest thoughts:

Originally posted by vassilevb:

Originally posted by The Sentinel:

Trolley Problem is a series of thought experiments in ethics. There is no right or wrong choice/answer.

If you're trying to be Captain Obvious here, you're failing miserably, because there is a wright/wrong answer, depending on which major doctrine of ethics a person subscribes to. These two major ethical doctrines are, very briefly:
A) Deontology, which is (very broadly) the statement that there are universal rules ("maxims") that one should always adhere to and disregard the particularities of each case, e.g. "though shall not kill 100% of the time". This statement entails quite ridiculous behaviours that no sane human being would ever even consider (the classical counterargument is: imagine a killer admits he's a killer asks you where are your relatives so that he can kill them - you are bound to tell him the truth (and your relatives will be killed) if you believe deontology to be true (the deontological universal maxim here would be "thou shall not lie")).
B) Consequentialism, which is (again, very broadly) the statement that the only thing that is worth evaluating morally is the consequences of individuals' actions. Universal maxims are rejected as nonsense, because they are oversimplifications that cannot account for the complexity of reality (it is a biological (not even an ecological) truism that, by simply being alive, a human continually kills organisms (e.g. gut bacteria) all the time.

The big problem with thought experiments is that they are extremely imprecise oversimplifications of reality and only allow for mostly useless speculation (since in most cases they're designed to be untestable for obvious reasons (we'd probably agree that it's not a good idea to kill people with trolleys and levers)). Daniel Dennett uses the term "intuition pump" and thought experiments are precisely that — philosophers are using them to support their own agenda. Yes, philosophers do have an agenda, depending on which major doctrine (in ethics, epistemology, or in ontology (if I was fair, I'd mention aesthetics too, but aesthetics is the most worthless part of philosophy, according to my personal philosophical agenda)) they're subscribing to.

To wrap this up, I'd go so far as to say that not only the trolley problems on the internet (including this stupid game) are pseudointellectual, but every single thought experiment (including Philippa Foot's original trolley problem) is a pseudointellectual tool.

Extremely overpriced, even at sale. I got the discounted super-duper edition (includes season pass 1) for 40 EUR and I still feel ripped off, because it's just SE4 with new maps. Beating on "authentic" felt kinda easy (braindead AI that can be cheesed n' all that; this was always true since SE2). Stealth/non-lethal mechanics are just a fluff/more busy work, you can completely ignore them (like I did), be total psycho and still make it. I guess I'm just a simple man who enjoys shooting at Nazis. If you're on a tight budget, just get SE4. It's the same game and this is not an exaggeration.

Yes, leaving aside the 1:20 scale of the world, it is a simulator, but it's crippled by the lack of a sandbox mode and the majority of the landscape is paywalled. Also, and this is not a joke (I really wish it was), more than half of the USA (everything to the East of the Rocky Mountains (except for TX); ironically, the most populated part of the USA) is still missing seven years after release. Furthermore, you get charged 12-18 EUR for a single state. The complete game (maybe somewhere in 2038) would probably cost 300+ EUR). When I see the word "simulator" in the title of a game, I imagine (at least the illusion of) freedom (e.g. what (at least partially) Arma 3, Kerbal Space Program, or MFSX offers). This game offers you just another constant MMO/IRL-capitalism-style grind, not even the illusion of freedom. You can't simply pick a truck, get in, and drive where you want. No, after buying the game and the DLCs, you gotta pay for that truck, motherf°cker! A more appropriate title would be "Capitalism Presents: Truck Driver Tycoon".

Totally "living the dream" / o.
Føck you too / o.

EDIT (May 25th, 2023):
One positive thing I could say is that I've grown to love roundabouts (even though I initially disliked them, based on my IRL driving experience), because I got curious about why are they missing in the USA and, subsequently, learned that Europeans actually care about saving lives (yeah, talk to me about your second amendment "rights" again).
The second positive thing is that the manual parking with first person camera serves as a good practice for IRL parking skills (or so I believe, based on my anecdotal evidence; I'd be curious if there is some systematic observational data on the topic of whether videogame simming enhances IRL driving/parking skills or not).

EDIT (Jan. 25th, 2024):
"How to enjoy this game: the guide-slash-review":
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/id/vassilevb/recommended/227300

You can thank me later / 1o.

The good:
— Physics-wise, it's better than the first game.
— Graphics-wise, it's better than the first game.
— Sound-wise, it's better than the first game.
— I don't believe there's a better racing simulator (I haven't tried iRacing, rFactor 1/2 or Project Cars 1/2 yet).

The bad:
— Significantly smaller car selection, compared to the first game (all cars here are GT cars and I didn't find a single car with a manual transmission; and, oh boy, I really love using that manual gear shifter! (flappers don't count)).
— DLCs here are mostly licensed racetracks and are quite pricey.
— Mod-unfriendly (unlike the first game).
— The damage model is still a f°kken joke. If a car doesn't break as a real car (at least approximately) would, this definitely has consequences about the way a person drives in this game (e.g. you don't care about your car in ReVolt, because it's basically invincible, so you drive like a madman; and that is precisely why ReVolt is not a simulator).


There exists a game that introduces this last really important part of reality, and it's called BeamNG.drive. So, my recommendation would be to get the old Assetto Corsa and BeamNG.drive and wait for Assetto Corsa 2.
https://steamhost.cn/app/284160/BeamNGdrive/

As I was talking to a friend... video editing has gone a long way for the past 10-15 years. I remember the days of VirtualDubMod and, boy, it was so bad by today's standards (yeah, we have so much more computing power at hand nowadays, but the UI of VDM wasn't making your life easier either). In the past, I've also used HitFilm Express 2017 and Filmora (I don't remember the version) - they did a simple job of mine too. This is an old version of Movavi that's no longer purchasable, but it got the job done surprisingly quickly and painlessly, so I'm happy with it.

I'm definitely gonna use it again / 1o.

Cool songs, probably going to be non-purchasable on the 15th of May, so get them while you can (they can be played on RS2014 too).

Say Hello 2 Heaven was one of the first songs I learned to play back in high school when I introduced myself to the Seattle grunge scene of the late 80s and early 90s. Unlike many other bands I've listened to, Pearl Jam still remains dear to my heart.

P.S. Today I was wondering why is there no official Ty Tabor/King's X DLC for Rocksmith while remembering that Jeff Ament once said that "King's X invented grunge". Then I said to myself:

"I never used heroine, but I love this druggie music." / 1o

Isn't the best purchase, but there's also YT. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdH8YP4UmTlnBNS3Zs6HlQQ

Let the gunshots ring / 1o.

EDIT (25-Mar-2025):
I've got 7000 hours in this game, probably my all time favourite, if "statistics never lie" is true.

Once upon a time, Crytek made a SaaS game. At some point, Crytek laid off 15% of their employees. Crytek made four separate DLCs with exclusive soundtracks for a single game.

Absolute anti-consumer and anti-ownership behaviour that should never, under any circumstances, be tolerated. So, sincerely, "UP YOURS" to your upper and middle management, Crytek!