By 2004 a single new game a year was the norm. By 2002 most of the gadflies had moved on to greener pastures - the flood of new hunting games had become a trickle. The situation began to change in the early Noughties. For a while it was hard to see the wood from the trees. To say there was a lot of dross in-amongst the initial bumper crop of hunting recreations would be a bit like saying there was a lot of pony poo in the New Forest.

Punters bored of stalking hoofed prey, soon had the chance to bag ducks, turkeys and pheasants, and put their virtual lives on the line tracking creatures that growled, gored, and fought back. Though big guns like EA, Activision and Sierra tended to stick with the tried-and-tested DH theme, a few smaller outfits gamely experimented with alternative quarries and settings.

Mainstream publishers were just as eager. Browning, Remington, Buckmasters, Field & Stream, TNN and Cabela all had their names blazoned across game lids by the end of 1999. Companies connected with rural sport milked the new genre mercilessly. Unsurprisingly, given DH's runaway success and relatively simple components, it was soon joined on US shelves by a herd of doppelgangers. While everyone else was doing 'frantic' and 'fantastical' Sunstorm had gone 'stealthy', 'slow' and 'realistic'. You had to step back a few paces to appreciate the originality. Compared to the FPSs of the period it was rather pedestrian, rather ugly entertainment. Hunters chose gear and weapons, selected a tract of wilderness, then got down to the delicate business of locating, luring and liquidating virtual venison.

With the exception of 'real-time mobility' (walking would be added in the sequel) everything that came to define the genre was present from the start. That was the year Deer Hunter, a budget oddity built in three hectic months by a tiny team at Sunstorm Interactive, bounded straight to the top of the US charts. The Bambi jokes and the barracking began back in 1998. Today I want to talk of hunting simulations, a genus of games that's been mauled, mocked, and lately, studiously ignored by British game critics. Today I want to tell you about my penchant for a pariah genre.

Throw a couple of logs onto the fire, pour yourself a glass of something warming, and come sit down here next to me. The following is a piece I penned a few years back for PC Gamer UK on the history and appeal of gaming's least fashionable genre. Autumn wouldn't be autumn in the Stone household without a spot of digital deer slaying.

Deer hunter 2005 full game