I'm proud to announce this small update, the first for 2025! Amongst a few crucial fixes, I have been working hard on NPC animation and interaction to bring the game world more to life. I've done a few experiments before, and now with this update we are bringing a character to life.

'General Van Jaarsveld' who is heard providing mission briefings throughout the game, particularly in the early/first missions has now been brought to life as a living breathing NPC standing in front of you.
Featuring procedural blinking, synchronized facial expressions, inverse kinematics/looking and dialogue hand gestures coupled with movement and A.I.

He will react to you differently depending on how you behave, and features a comprehensive voice acting performance by the Voice Actor recorded at Asylum Studios over these holidays, which I am very excited to share with you!

This appearance comes with a brand new obstacle course led by Jaarsveld himself, which you can now access by selecting the "Tutorial" option from the main menu. The original tutorial is still available, but the first part now consists of the obstacle course. Any of the 3 tutorial segments can be exited at any time.

• A new character brought to life as well as new voice acting.
  
• A new obstacle course level.
  
• New NPC hand gesture dialogue system.
  
• Enhanced NPC facial expression to dialogue syncing.
  
• New dialogue skip mechanic with VCR animation. Activated by holding spacebar for a few seconds while an NPC is talking.
  
• NPC spoken dialogue will change and react to your actions in the obstacle course based on weather you choose to take things seriously or not.
  
• New NPC's added to "Noise Complaint" secret mission, as well as new improved dance moves.
  
• New wind SFX.
  
• Fixed bug causing arrow buttons on controller to select weapons while using the inventory.
  
• When receiving radio transmissions, the player will now only automatically select the radio if there is no danger as well as being able to interrupt the radio switch by selecting a weapon.
  
• New "Scope Strength" slider in options which can be used for increasing or decreasing the zoom scope lens lines.
  
• Weapon wheel can now be assigned to a custom binding in control options.

A massive thanks to the users who have reported bugs to me on Discord as well as on our public Steam Forum. It's a great help and I please encourage people to let me know of any other issues they might find. Or even just to let me know what you did like, I am always down for a chat!

I hope you enjoy this first update of the year, it will be the first of many!

A small update to kick off the festive season, focusing on environment and wildlife with other regular maintenance updates.

• 5 New animals.
  
• 7 New locations.
  
• Population of animals increased.
  
• Detail of outskirt environments has increased.
  
• New seamless sunset transitions.
  
• Various game performance optimizations.
  
• Various bug fixes.
  
• Various other improvements, listed below.
  
• Environment improvements and detailing.
  
• Improved vegetation and terrain texture painting.
  
• General visual enhancements.
  
• Many new models and items.

• Buffalo: Are mostly docile but are known to kill humans. Comes in two varieties, clean and dirty - the dirtier the buffalo the more flies it will attract.
  
• Warthogs: Unendangered, relatively harmless, numerous.
  
• African Wild Dog (Lycaon pictus): Not known to attack humans, but a fearless predator amongst its peers.
  
• Scorpions: Good thing you're wearing those boots!
  
• Geese: Known to chase people up trees.

• Reserve Entrance: The reserve now has its own actual entrance gate which visitors and guests would use to enter.
  
• Groundskeepers Cabin: The groundskeeper now has her own cabin and garden, this area will be further expanded on in other updates.
  
• Chicken Truck: Is now available at anytime in the game for the achievement mission, as opposed to only in chapter 2.
  
• 4 x Warthog Zones: containing additional detail.
  
• 5 x Buffalo Zones: containing additional detail.
  
• Forest Zones: shadowy biomes.
  
• Other new hidden areas and secrets.

• Fixed issue with enemies firing before they finished reloading
  
• Numerous small other bug fixes and improvements.
  
• Reduced terrain flickering.
  
• Fixed some broken terrain seams.
  
• Fixed some areas you could get stuck.
  
• Fixed some skinned mesh renderers/animals/characters disappearing when halfway off the edge of the screen.

• Increased likelihood of certain enemy bark audio.
  
• Removed trees that were placed on slopes unrealistically.
  
• New vegetation such as mushrooms and tomato plants.
  
• Improved Gazelle Texture.
  
• Improved warehouse exterior model material and texture.
  
• Improved other small building[s] material lighting.
  
• Improved intensity of "Sun Shafts" effect appearance, but can also be disabled from advanced graphics menu if not desired.
  
• Sunset transitions are now seamless when playing on high environment settings.
  
• Improved color quality and synchronization of distance fog at the base of mountains.
  
• Decreased the monotony of certain tree clusters outside of the main reserve.
  
• Improved the blending quality of certain asynchronous streaming zones.
  
• Improved quality of transition from terrain to distant mountain objects.
  
• Improved quality of waterfall rendering during night time.

• Implemented animation hashing for enemy reload action.
  
• Limited the amount of "miss" bullet decals that enemies can produce globally.
  
• Improved culling of bird flocks when not in camp.
  
• Improved culling of enemies when player is exploring outskirts far away from enemies.
  
• Removed more trees hidden under rocks.
  
• Improved cleanup of animals that have become invisible.
  
• Improved culling of animals and meshes inside the main camp while the player is out exploring.
  
• Removed trees growing under rocks that weren't visible using precious resources for nothing.
  
• Numerous other internal performance optimizations.
  
• 'Environment Quality' setting now affects the ambient lighting interval for time of day transitions.

Mammals:

• Rhino
  
• Zebra
  
• Elephant
  
• Giraffe
  
• Wildebeest
  
• Buffalo
  
• Warthog
  
• Wild Dog
  
• Gazelle
  
• Hippo
  
• Ostrich
  
• Goat
  
• Rat

Insects:

• Dragonfly
  
• Dung Beetle
  
• Rhino Beetle
  
• Common Fly
  
• Hornet
  
• Scorpion
  
• Snail

Amphibians/Reptiles

• Crocodile
  
• Salamander
  
• Frog
  
• Snake

Birds:

• Pigeon (bos duiwe)
  
• Crow (Swartkraai)
  
• Owl
  
• Sparrow
  
• Chicken
  
• Duck
  
• Goose

More species & locations to be added soon!

As always, thank you everybody for the continued support, encouragement & bug testing. It is greatly appreciated!

Happy Hunting and Happy Holidays.