Dog Bites Man

While playing Assassin's Creed III, I came across a "meme" of sorts that's been prominent in video games over the last generation. That is: wild animals and dogs can inflict more damage on your character than knives and bullets. 

In games that boast their, "realism," wolves can own you, while your character ignores bullet wounds to the head. I've had entire rows of soldiers line up and shoot me as one, only to walk away, or fight my way through while being stabbed in the kidneys. A wolf, on the other hand, can kill you in one or two bites to the arm.

This is a prominent feature of most games containing wild animals and hunting, like Far Cry 3 and Red Dead Redemption. In Red Dead Redemption, any wild cat can basically insta-kill you. Your super-macho character is less likely to survive an attack than you are in real life. 

The Call of Duty franchise is by far the worst offender, where in multiplayer unleashing the dog attack is second only to unleashing a nuke. Once you hear the dogs barking, you're screwed. If you see one, you have exactly a split second to aim and open fire at this scud missile with fur on it. 

 

On the other hand, in games like Skyrim, Fallout 3, and Minecraft where you have dogs and wolves as pets that can fight for you, those dogs are incredibly likely to be killed instantly by you with a misplaced blow. I don't know anyone that's accidentally shot their own dog... ever. Even Dick Cheney hasn't. In other games like Fable II and Fable III, your dog is basically immortal... until he's not. In Nintendogs, you have all the responsibilities of being a dog owner without any risks of mortality.

I'm basically just pointing out that no one has gotten dogs and animals right in a video game yet.