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There's no way to put this gently, so I'll just say it: Marmaduke is 2010's most universally reviled film so far. It's a live action adaptation Brad Anderson's newspaper comic strip that's been running since 1954, and it stars Owen Wilson as the voice of Marmaduke, with George Lopez voicing a Balinese. I know, you're thinking "Surefire Oscar!", but unfortunately the movie is sitting at 9% Rotten on Rotten Tomatoes, which is pretty much the same as a funeral dirge.
Is this any respect to show man's best friend at the start of summer? Definitely not. You might be out there and possibly considering going to see this, or you have kids who think it looks like a laff riot, we understand. Everyone loves dogs, right? Fortunately, we're here to help by offering up this list of realistic video game dog experiences. We're not talking about the cutesy, like Nintendogs, but instead we're going straight from the lovable companion to the frightening, slavering jaws of canine death. Read on.
Has there ever been a more lovable, faithful, four-legged companion than the dog in Fable II? You meet him during the tutorial/opening of the game, and the little guy stays with you throughout the game. In fact, he'll also take on a different appearance depending on your actions. Living the straight and narrow? Your dog will have a nice golden coat. Feel like being supremely evil? The dog turns black, just like your heart. Developer Peter Molyneux wanted you to bond with this little furry guy, so that you'd feel emotionally tied to him ... just so he could make you cry.
Why do moviemakers and game designers want you to feel an emotional attachment to something? So they can rip your heart out when the main character starts coughing up blood (you know that means they're doomed) or when a beloved pet DIES. That's right, your dog can and will die in this game. I'm remembering it like it happened yesterday, and I'm still getting choked up. Give me a second to go slaughter a lot of vicious wolves in Red Dead Redemption. Okay, much better.
Actually it's only better because the dog comes back in the end if you make the right choices, or you can even bring him back via DLC. That's right, this dog has his own DLC content that not only lets you bring him back to life, but now you can also give him potions that change him into different breeds. This is what makes Fable II dogtastic, and apparently the dog will be back in Fable III.
So, this rehash of 2002's Dead to Rights wasn't exactly universally loved, but it did have one redeeming quality: it beefed up the role of Jack Slate's K-9 dog partner Shadow to the point that they should have just axed Jack entirely from this game so you could play as a hero cop dog the entire time. In the original game, you control Shadow from time to time, but Retribution gives you total control over the dog right in the opening scene. You can make him bark, run, attack, and tear guy's balls off. Yes, seriously. There's even a "Scrotality" achievement for it. This means that somewhere down at Dog Police Academy, they're teaching testicular attacks to canines. Awesome.
But beyond protecting his human buddy, Shadow has a lot of other functions. He can seek out weapons and ammunition, find keycards in buildings, and when in stealth mode he can detect enemy heartbeats. Yes, his hearing is just that good, and apparently acts as some sort of radar as well, because when he's doing it you can see where the enemies are. When you're idly standing there, Shadow will sometimes flip over and writhe around on his back, hoping for some affection, but more often than not, he's just your bullet-absorbing, furry friend.
Seriously, if Namco had turned this into a dog-only title, chances are that we would have loved it. Now it's just a few highlights from a game we panned. Hopefully they're listening and agreeing that this is an incredibly awesome idea, and development on Cop Dog: Shadow in the Night has been kicked into high gear. I'd buy it. Give Retribution a rental just for the dog and you'll see what I mean.
Fallout has been dog-friendly from the beginning of the series, with the canine "Dogmeat" being available as an NPC who could join your party in the original 1997 game. He came back in Fallout 2, so why wouldn't he make an appearance in Fallout 3? Which is actually sort of creepy, because you can pick up dog meat in that game. In fact, it's a fairly common food source, which means you're probably eating someone related to your befanged friend. You can actually even kill Dogmeat, and search his body where you'll find dog meat. Ew.
However, if you opt not to blast this friendly pup who is based on the nameless dog that followed Max around in the post-apocalyptic world of Mad Max 2. You'll find that he's a faithful companion who is more than happy to leap into battle next to you. Even if that sometimes means he'll aggro something or someone you're trying to sneak past. He can go find things for you, carry some of your junk, and growl to warn you that enemies are nearby. In fact, enemies will shoot at Dogmeat before they shoot at you, providing an excellent distraction.
The one problem is that Dogmeat can die in the game, separating you from your most faithful friend for the rest of the game. Luckily the developers realized this and added a "Puppies!" perk with the Broken Steel DLC. With this perk enabled, your dog will experience a pure miracle and be resurrected. This dog-from-beyond the grave also levels up with you and is a lot tougher than the original Dogmeat, meaning there might be something to that whole karma thing.
The Call of Duty series has had dogs in it since Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, but my money for the best dogs in the series are the ones in Call of Duty: World at War. Why? Because they're a very useful killstreak reward. Not only will they kill your enemies, but they'll also lead you straight to wherever they happen to be hiding. Very useful for ferreting out pesky snipers. But when your opponents get the same reward, it's not quite as fun because dogs will tear your throat out unless you shoot them, or break their neck just before they bite you.
World at War also upped the ante by adding an entire zombie mode to the game. I'm not here to debate why Treyarch felt the need to do that, but rather to point out that there are also zombie dogs in there! It wasn't scary enough having dogs that could tear your throat out, but now they have to be undead as well? Thanks for giving me nightmares and making me wonder if I really want to be a dog owner as I could neither break my own dog's neck, if it turned into a killer, nor sleep well wondering if the undead pooch is going to come in silently in the night and eat my brains.
John Marston might be a cold-blooded, ex-killer in Red Dead Redemption (which places a lot of weight on the word "redemption"), but he's also got a conscious. There are multiple dogs in this game, and if you happen to kill one of them, he feels really bad about it. He'll usually say something like "This ain't right," while the locals go crazy and run around in circles. Of course, the law will come after you as well, because they don't tolerate dog-killin 'round these parts. You can gun down as many wolves, coyotes, deer, bear, armadillos and birds as you want, just don't harm the dogs.
By the way, as dog lovers, this is fine with us. Except the game is extremely wonky when it comes to dogs. You can't kill one in town, because the townsfolk will turn against, but you also can't pet them, even though they come running whenever you whistle. In fact, your faithful horse will also come running when you whistle, possibly because he's jealous of the attention you want to give the dog, but can't. But despite the fact that you can't pet the pup ... you can gun them down and then skin their dead bodies. Doing so gives you a dog skin and dog meat. Ew.
Case in point: there's a local dog named Charlie over at the McFarlane Ranch, and you can accompany him on Nightwatch missions, where he'll sniff around for trouble, and bark to alert you when he's found anything. Which usually happens to be some no-gooder trying to steal a horse. You can blast the thief, then return for a reward. You can't target Charlie during this mission, but one it's done - ka-blam. Then the freaking out and the shootings (at you) commence. But the moment you have some free time, you can skin his hide ... and then whistle to summon a duplicate Charlie. Self-replicating dogs! Science comes to New Austin.
So there you have it, our favorite gaming dogs. Well, our favorite non-cartoony gaming dogs. There were a few more that we wanted to include. Remember the dogs in Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2? And what about Sam from Sam & Max? Great dog, but I'm just not sure he'd take a bullet for me. So get out there, enjoy your weekend, and avoid that movie while walking the game line with those bad boys.
Comments
Displaying 1–20 of 33
122
eat_cake
re: the game clip: i can see shooting attacking wolves and skinning them for a profit, but shoot the dog who's accompanied you, you're loyal pal who's just sitting there, looking up at you in admiration with those loving puppy eyes? why kev? why would you do it?
erob90
Where is Hewie???
It even had its own song theme.... :-(
ugotownd
Has everyone somehow forgotten the dog in Resident Evil 4?
HollowSora
Is it just me, or is Old Yeller in dire need for a game?
M6000
aren't there some other game dogs there missing?
nightsnipe
I loved my family 2 dog. and I choose to save him at the end of the game :)
tybinn007
y the hell did u kill the dogs in rdr what the hell is wrong with u
geoeye
Me likes the doggies but have there been any useful cats in games? none come to mind
angryOnanist
I don't see my comment so I'll repost, if it comes up ..then I don't have OCD
Don't forget about the real life dogs in your life, their the ones that are always there for you.
if you lose your girlfriend and break both of your hands
your dog is there...always and forever
angryOnanist
video game dogs are great and all,but there's nothing like the real thing ....their always there for you.
if you lose a girlfriend and break both of your hands ...your dog is there
always and forever
LunaFae
I liked Fable II's dog until he would go and get glitched on some rock or next to a chest. I also liked Dogmeat until he'd go bonkers on freindly people, or go to the top floor of some building just cause something was up there to kill while you were dealing with 10 ghouls on the 1st floor and get himself dead.
mattgindago
i find it kinda disturbing the amount of times you shot charlie.
gambitjuggalo
what about the dog you can get for your party in dragon age origins that thing is a BEAST...(insert rim shot here) anyway i always have him in my party. not only does he pwn but also i dont have to listen to any back story or smart ass comments from him.
JessicaStar
I really thought Fable II had just about the best implementation of having a dog I've seen, but Dragon Age was a close second. They really gave your Mabari hound SO much personality, and some of the dog scenes were the best. Plus I named him Pugster so it was like my pug was playing with me, and when I switched character control to him and was running around as the dog it drove my pug crazy. The dog noises in the game are really realistic at times.
I kind of felt the Dog in fable II was inspired by the Dog in the FATE games, which of course stayed in Torchlight? Do you think Molyneux might have taken it from that?
Another dog that wasn't fully implemented but I was really attached to was Angelo, Rinoa's dog from Final Fantasy VIII--although as usual I named him after one of my dog's. It's just fun to be able to use a summon and have your dog attack. Conversely, I thought it was an awesome send-up in the Penny Arcade Adventures when you summon T Kemper! Totally made fun of that concept.
1nitial_D
I love shadow the dog and fable II dog the most.
tragedy93
Just want to point out that Bards Tale was multiplatform...My girlie-friendie loved that game, I couldn't get past the graphics, which I have always regretted because the way she described it- it sounded really awesome.
LangWu99
In the old ps2 game "A Bards Tale" was this first time I remember getting a dog companion. It was great, you find this little terrier in the fields alone and you have the option of having him tag along or not. As you progress he can find treasure for you and helps you fight. In a major encounter later an enemy says he has brought a pet as well, This big ass Pterodactal looking thing that kills your little dog. The scene is quite upsetting.
Later you come to a type of reflection pool and you are told somebody from your past wants to see you. If you chose not to bring the dog along in your adventure this nasty horse monster you fight earlier in the game comes back, however if you did choose the dog they bring him back from the dead as a skeleton and he fights along side you once more.
zpjack
I would like to point out that in Fallout 3, you can actually find Dogmeat, the dog. you find him in some town somewhere and he becomes a companion.
what is great about it is that dogmeat doesn't fill up the companion space so you can still have whoever else you want.
BenLakeC
i just want to shoutout to remind people of the undead dog from shivering isles in oblivion. even though it was crappily named, weak, and impossible to get is you just so happend to play as a Khajiit, it was still a sentimental favorite for me cuz... who doesnt love their own skinless pooch? ES ftw. and i also feel terrible when my dog companions kick it so go this post.
obanana1
me hate dogs
Displaying 1–20 of 33
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