Some friends of mine have been playing an online hunting game created by Swedes at Avalanche Studios, the folks who made Just Cause and are currently working on Just Cause 2. In this online hunting game, you can go for an hour before you come across deersign. I'm not sure how much longer you can go before finding a T. Rex, but unless you pony up to pay for the full version, you're never going to find anything but mule deer. When you sign up for "the Warden plan", you get turkey, whitetail deer, and elk, plus two new guns and more clothes.

The game is called theHunter. Yeah, that's how they write it. At least they didn't make it an acronym. You can go here to register and download the client for free. Then you can mess around and hunt mule deer. Or just watch this. It looks absolutely gorgeous, even if it is slow as molasses. Think Far Cry 2, but minus Molotovs and with about 1/1000th the amount of ammunition fired.

Any hope for a patch to add in dinosaurs? Perhaps this comment from the press release will provide some clue:

"theHunter addresses the lack of quality and realism found in many hunting games, which has done a great disservice to the sport and its fans for many years," said Morgan O'Rahilly, President of [publisher] Emote Games. "By developing an experience that uses the most advanced technology and follows strict ethical guidelines, theHunter will change the way the genre is perceived and set a new benchmark for future hunting games."

(Thanks flyinj and Cubit!)