Biscuits & Gravy & Big Buck

Nothing says 'Good Morning' like a hot steamy cup of 'Big Buck Hunter'.

When in the course of human events someone is tempted to a night of frivolous skullduggery, the next morning can be a little rough. Chris Dimattia of Charleston, SC, has realized that from time to time, people may need a little help getting thru the morning after.

Chris owns a restaurant called 'The Recovery Room' (685 King St.) designed to help the morning-challenged make it through the morning after.

The Recovery Room offers cheap comfort food all day, specializing in breakfasts, served all day.

According to Rob Smith, of The Post and Courier:

"His joint supplies the perfect lubricants for last night's debauchery: Dark environs and great munchies, breakfast all day and bar fare. "

Finally, to stabilize patients before being discharged, The Recovery Room offers a game of 'Big Buck Hunter'. What better way to batten down your hatches and get prepared for the dog-eat-dog world than poppin' some critters in your favorite game?

Big Buck for Breakfast, this could be a new trend.

How do you Big Buck?

Logs & Frogs

The news is full of stories regarding the dangers of Frog Hunting.

The Times of India reports of more arrests and crackdowns by Indian Police for illegal frog hunting.

Big Buck Hunter is one place where Frog Hunting is legal - and very beneficial.

It seems Big Buck Hunter has one hidden easter egg. In the first site of the first level of Elk, there's a log on the left edge of the screen. If you shoot the log, a frog will hop up on the log. You can shoot the frog up to 4 times (just like the frog flippin' bonus) - and get credit for 4 extra critter shots. This can add up to quite a lot if you also get the birds.

How to Get the Secret Frog:
1. Select 'Elk' Adventure
2. On the 'Select Your Site' screen of the first trek, shoot the site all the way to the left
3. Shoot the log on the left edge of the screen
4. Out comes the frog!
5. Shoot it up to 4 times if you can.

(If you time it just right you can get 4 frog hits + some birds + all 3 deer!)

Try it your self. Only don't let the Indian Police see you.

Saving the Earth - one deer at a time

The uninformed, knee-jerk opinion may consider Big Buck Hunter to be at odds with environmental causes. However, I submit to you that Big Buck Hunter is a very animal-friendly game.

Consider these points:

1) Increases Deer Population
During an average 5 min. Big Buck Hunter game, approximately 35 deer are created. Based on national play averages of 100 plays per week, or 14 per day, that's 420 deer created each day. Once you consider there are over 10,000 Big Buck Hunter machines out there, that's over 4,200,000 deer created EVERY DAY!! (USDA estimates total Whitetail Deer population to be 14-20 million) Conservative estimates would indicate that more deer are created by Big Buck Hunter players every month than exist worldwide.

Conclusion: If you want to increase deer population... Play more Big Buck Hunter!!!

2) Cares for Animals

Earthtimes reports that The Outdoor Channel sponsored a 'This Land is Your Land' challenge. For every game of Big Buck Hunter or Bass Simulator played at their booth, they donated $25 to the Animal Rescue of New Orleans (ARNO). Earthtimes reports that over $10,000 was raised by Big Buck Hunter players.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/outdoor-channels-this-land-is,437797.shtml

Conslusion: If you want to help homeless animals... Play more Big Buck Hunter!!!

Big Buck Safari - Lexicon

If you have ever wondered what some of the phrases the new african announcer is saying in the Big Buck Safari game, here's some of the sound calls that we have researched.

Developers from Play Mechanix (the makers of the game) say that the speech list was made using consultants from various areas of Africa, including South Africa, Liberia & Nigeria.

"King Shaka would be proud" - King Shaka (pictured left*) was the King of the Zulu Nation, ruling the Zulu clan at the time of it's greatest victories. He led their growth from a small clan into the dominant power of coast of south-east Africa.

"He's King of the Kraal" - Kraal is an Afrikaans word for an enclosure for cattle or other livestock, located within an African homestead or village surrounded by a mud wall or other fencing, roughly circular in form.

"That's Kubwa Saana" - Kubwa Saana is Swahili for 'very big'.

"That's Kaganga" - Kaganga is a tribal slang for 'big'

"Big like the Marula" - Marula (scelerocarya birrea) - is a large African Tree, growing over 18m tall with a wide crown.

I believe those are the only 'african' words, the rest seem to be English words.

*Shaka Zulu - as played by Henry Cele in Shaka Zulu (1987)

Don't Mess with Texas

If the Big Buck Hunter Pro - National Tournament is any indication, there are some serious Big Buck players down in the lone star state. In the last 5 National Tournaments (Jan 2008 - May 2008) two-thirds have been won by someone from Texas.

In fact if you look at the top five places in the the same tournaments, Texan players took in over 68% of the cash prizes. The next closest state was perennial powerhouse Minnesota with only 21% of the prizes from the top five spots.

Texas is unmistakably the current hot-spot for Big Buck mastery. In fact, not only are the Texan players owning the national tournament scores, they will go to great lengths to play the national tournament. A recent article at coinup.com reports that some Texan players drove over 400 miles roundtrip just to play in the national tournament. Ten-gallon hats off to you.

However, there may be a change in the air. Perhaps a stirring from the great white north of Minnesota. According to the latest leaderboard of the current national tournament (Caribounga) the top 3 spots belong to Minnesotans. Who knows how it will end up.

This is how it is done in Columbus

On the Beat the Pro tour, you see some interesting stuff...

Critters - the other white meat

One of the big changes between Big Buck Hunter II and Big Buck Hunter Pro, was the addition of critters. Other than being immensely gratifying to shoot, those little buggers can really add up to some serious points.

The score value increases with every critter you shoot.

1 Critter = 50 pts.

2 Critters = 100 + 50 = 150 pts.

3 Critters = 150 + 100 + 50 = 300 pts.

4 Critters = 200 + 150 + 100 + 50 = 500 pts.

5 Critters = 250 + 200 + 150 + 100 + 50 = 750 pts.

Mathmatically, that's: critterScore = (n! * 50)

Since a deer averages in score from 100 - 300 pts, getting 5 critters in a single site can almost double your site score. That's some powerful numbers. But like Uncle Ben says: "with great power comes great responsibility". The fools gold of critters can distract you from your way and lead to broken promises. Over the course of a trek or adventure, the most powerful effect on you score is still, by far and away, consistently getting all 3 deer. The power of the perfect streak is the most powerful way to increase your score. And if going after critters prevents you from getting all 3 deer, than they are not worth the points. ONLY GO AFTER CRITTERS IF IT DOESN'T PREVENT YOU FROM GETTING ALL 3 DEER! The critters should just be gravy after you get your 3 deer.

Here's an example:

Method 1: 5 perfect sites - no critters

deer scores = (~150 + ~200 + ~300) = ~650pts

accy bonus = (50% * 3) = 150 pts

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Base Site Score = 800 pts

Total Score for 1 trek shooting 3 deer + 0 critters at each site:

Base Site Score X 5

+ streak bonuses of 100, 200, 300 and 400

---------------------------------------

Total Score 5 sites = 5000

Method 2: 2 Deer + 4 Critters per site

deer scores = (~150 + ~200) = ~350pts
accy bonus = (50% * 2) = 100 pts

critter bonus = 500 pts
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Base Site Score = 950 pts

Total Score for 1 Trek shooting 2 deer + critters at each site:

Base Site Score X 5 = 950 x 5 = 4750 pts

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Total Score 5 sites = 4750

So it's worth more points to consistently get 3 deer at every site with no critters than to get 4 critters at every site but miss the 3rd buck.

Critters are a great way to buff out your score, but don't let them be too big of a distraction.