While the graphics could be better, the improvements that were made in Bird Hunter: Wild Wings Edition make a world of difference in the gameplay. This is not a new feature by Wizard Works, but is very skillfully incorporated into Wild Wings Edition. It is even possible to determine their range to an extent. I was able to almost intuitively find birds that I heard first by looking in the direction of the sound. Mallards sound like mallards, teal sound like teal, and quail sound like quail. In addition to being visually distinguishable, the birds make the appropriate calls for their species (as far as I can tell with my somewhat limited knowledge of game bird species). The sound, on the other hand, is very well done. I suspect that the first manufacturer to employ really high-end graphics in an outdoors game may tap a virtually untouched market. Still, the quality of the graphics falls short of the quality I’ve seen in other genres of gaming. Also, the dogs look much better and move more realistically than in previous versions of Bird Hunter. In Waterfowl Edition, all ducks were solid black with light bills. On a more positive note, it is now possible to identify ducks visually when they get close. A duck actually folded its wings, planted its feet, and walked around some 30 or 40 feet up in the air. I thought this was my imagination until I saw it happen through binoculars. In fact, they sometimes appear to land in mid-air, take a few steps, and then take off again. They fly fairly realistically at first, but become extremely jerky when landing and turn too sharply in the air. The biggest letdown, however, is with the movement of the birds themselves. The trees are still two-dimensional and, although they look nice at a distance, appear paper thin when viewed close up by looking up at a sharp angle. Objects tend to be a little blocky even at the highest resolution, and the shorelines and contour lines of the land are still comprised of mostly straight lines with sharp corners as in previous versions of Wizard Works’ hunting games. The graphics are improved over the previous editions of Bird Hunter with which I am familiar, but Wild Wings still leaves quite a bit to be desired.
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