Outdoor sports such as hunting and fishing can be an exercise in endurance during Chicago’s brutal winter months. And who can even think about such summer sports as golf?
Fortunately, we live in a world where deer, fish, flowers and Tiger Woods can live in our home offices. Computer software packages can animate just about anything these days, and hobbyists are among the top beneficiaries of the software explosion.
Walking silently through the woods in the three-dimensional Deer Hunter II ($20), players can carry six hunting accessories — such as binoculars, buck urine scent and a deer grunt call — to help find the prey and lure it into shooting range. Attention to detail is what makes this package, the beefed-up sequel to GT Interactive WizardWorks’ popular Deer Hunter, both an excellent game and a useful practice session. Find it at Best Buy or through the company’s Web site, www.wizworks.com.
Deer Hunter’s fishing equivalent is Philips’ Art of Flyfishing, which re-creates overhead views of three trout rivers and dives in for animated fish replicas. Players can fiddle with depth, temperature, location, rod and lure options. Volume One: Rivers of the British Isles goes for $38.95, at the CD Access site (www.cdaccess.com/html/pc/artflyf.htm).
For outdoors enthusiasts who can’t stand killing things, tons of computer golf games let you harmlessly whack at inanimate objects. In EA Sports’ Tiger Woods 99 PGA Tour Golf ($49.95), a player can be Tiger Woods — with the superstar’s actual timing, swing and rhythm. Available at most software-selling stores, including Kmart, the game also can be purchased through the EA Sports Web site, www.easports.com.
If tiny cartoonlike golf players just get you antsy for the real thing, the National Golf Course Directory ($20) has a searchable database of more than 14,500 courses around the United States. Select Chicago and uncover, say, the North Side’s Sydney R. Marovitz course — which, the program reports, has nine holes and is open to the public from March to November. The directory is available at Best Buy.
Because hobbies don’t have to be of the competitive nature, Sierra helps tinkerers envision their dream lawns and gardens. Sierra Complete Land Designer has fancy interactive options in which gardeners, using photos, can graphically add new landscaping (such as 3,500 types of flowers, trees and bushes) to their homes. The package is $48 at Best Buy.
Finally, if you miss the tug of a monster bass biting on your line or hearing the crack of a baseball against a bat, several handheld games promise similar thrills. Radica Games Limited’s Lunker Bass Fishin’ ($20) detects the power of your casting motion. And when a fish bites your lure, the game shakes. Tiger’s Sports Feel Baseball ($20) gives a new meaning to fantasy baseball. Players actually swing the bat-shaped game to hit the ball. Both are available at Wal-Mart, Kmart, Target and Toys “R” Us.
