Whatever Happened to Dinosaurs?

Usually when I'm at work and there's a combination of having nothing to do and it being a slow news day I find myself browsing Reddit, a repository for most of the interesting, funny and/or attention-worthy pieces of information you can find on the internet at any given time.  Reddit of course has a large gaming-related community and it is where I usually find myself when I log on there.  During one especially boring day several months back I, like many other Redditors, discovered a tweet from the Twitter account of Gustav Halling, the lead gameplay designer for Battlefield 3.

The link, which can be read here, was a screenshot of a 4chan conversation from 2009 shortly after the launch of Modern Warfare 2.  In it, an "Activision sales representative" asked the dangerous question of what the /v/ board thought about why Modern Warfare 2's PC version wasn't selling as well as its console brethren.  Sure enough, the /v/ board responded in typically hilarious fashion, proclaiming that dinosaurs were the key selling point in their decisions to not purchase the game.  The Twitter post itself was referencing EA's E3 2011 press conference wherein they demonstrated the infamous Thunder Run level whose intro depicted a soldier examining his child's dinosaur toy.

The resulting meme, of course, was short lived but offered a fine selection of Photoshop imagery, some of which I've included for your amusement below.

 While these pictures easily entertained me and countless others it did sort of gnaw at me.  Why exactly have dinosaurs gone, well, extinct in the eyes of every major development studio out there?

Defaulting on Dinos

To being with, let me define exactly what I mean by a dinosaur game.  A dinosaur game should, most prominently, be a game about interacting with dinosaurs and not some educational BS title that has you doing point and click excavations of fossils in the scope of a grander mystery.  It shouldn't be a game where you are raising them as pets and fitting them with clothing, nor is it a licensed title that uses them as a tool to pass along some kind of joke.  No, I'm talking motherfucking DINOSAURS, the kinds of games that have you fighting for your life against creatures that outweigh you by a couple dozen tons and view you as a tasty afternoon snack best served raw.  Dinosaurs, beasts that can't be tamed, don't care for social conduct and most certainly don't think that your Tuesday evening dinner plans are something to not interrupt.  If you aren't running in fear or desperately emptying the last rounds of your magazine into them in a feeble attempt to put it down then we simply aren't speaking the same language and it is in your best interest that you click the back button now.

With that said, you're probably thinking to yourself "gee, when was the last time I really played a game with dinosaurs in it?"  That's a good question my friend.  In consideration of AA and AAA development studios and their release schedules over this past generation I think you'll be surprised at the number of games that have the prehistoric creatures in them: 5.

Yes, you read that right.  Only 5 major AA/AAA titles fit this description and even then two of them don't necessarily come from known developers while another game, Telltale Games' Jurassic Park, isn't due for release until November.  That leaves us with the 2005 Xbox 360 launch title King Kong and the 2008 Turok reboot.  Only two major releases in six years from a plethora of several dozen high profile developers to choose from?

What the hell, gaming industry?

During the Playstation and Nintendo 64 console war that we all fondly remember we saw the pinnacle of the dinosaur game.  With The Lost World we saw a renewed interest in the gaming genre with a whole slew of tie-ins none more famous than the controversial Trespasser which many gamers continue to play and mod to this day.  The almost tactically-timed release of the Dino Crisis franchise (kudos to StrykeBlayde for his coincidentally-timed community article).  I loved the DC franchise personally as it both captured the fear that was igniting Resident Evil fans at the time while giving the fan pretty much everything they could ask for from a survival-horror title with dinosaurs.  Carnivores, a hunting simulator series for the PC, was wonderful as well as it had you chopping your way through jungles with the goal of adding a prehistoric trophy to your wall provided you don't in up in their stomachs.

It seems that the trouble began following the release of Jurassic Park 3 in 2001 which saw a slew of merchandising tie-in games for the Gameboy Advance and one title lightgun-based arcade title, all of which were, at best, mediocre.  The 2003 title Jurassic Park Operation Genesis, a title that took the franchise at its most literal, came out to only modest reviews.  The much anticipated Dino Crisis 3, a title that abandoned the Playstation and came to the Xbox, was a disaster of a title that still leaves many with a sour taste in their mouths.  Despite this new generation nearly perfecting the design of 3D gaming and allowing players to travel to beautifully crafted worlds to explore, for dinosaurs at least, it seems to have been the beginning of the end, an ending heralded by a name that we can't help but recall with mixed feelings.

Killing the Dinosaur Hunter

During the 8 and 16-bit generations dinosaurs were in what many can consider a renaissance as titles feature them were released regularly and done so in a variety of fashions.  It wasn't until the 32-bit generation came along that we saw the greatest dinosaur franchise to come along: Turok.  When Iguana Entertainment's Turok Dinosaur Hunter released in 1997 on the Nintendo 64 few could believe that this tale born from a less than popular comic book featuring a dimension-traveling Native American badass could be this good.  Its sequel the following year, Seeds of Evil, is still widely cited as one of the most entertaining games of that generation thanks to its impressive graphics and arsenal of weapons, cementing the Cerebral Bore as one of the most beloved weapons even put in a video game.  The series saw two more sequels, Rage Wars in 1999 and Shadows of Oblivion in 2000, both of which receiving positive reviews but it seems that, during that two year period, something changed.  Perhaps it was their move to my hometown and their renaming to Acclaim Entertainment Austin.  Maybe it was when then president Jeff Spangenberg left to found Retro Studios in 1998.

Whatever the case was, it began with next-generation title Turok Evolution in 2002.  While the jump to the Xbox was a highly anticipated one what gamers received that year was anything but what people expected of a Turok title.  The storyline for the series had been in decline for some time but Evolution's story and singleplayer experience wasn't what people expected from a next-gen Turok title.  After Evolution it seemed as if the once prominent franchise was dead as it wasn't until 2005 when we first got wind of the series making a comeback.

Turok, a title without subtitle, was released in 2008 by Propaganda Games.  Just like the fact that Propaganda had little to nothing to do with Iguana Entertainment at all so too did Turok have anything to do with the titles released before it.  A quintessential reboot of the franchise, Turok ditched the dimension-traveling, Native American badass with awesome weapons storyline in favor of a "more exciting" space marine one that has all the makings of BORING.  Halo and countless others over that six year time span had pretty much covered every aspect of the space marine genre of shooters and Turok's tale of a man stranded on a dinosaur planet seeking revenge against his unit's leader that left him to die was neither original nor entertaining.  While the brutality the series was known for was present in more ways than one the game's questionable AI, extremely linear level design and the lackluster of arsenal of more traditional weapons told the story of a game that had all but abandoned its origins in everything but name.  This wasn't a Turok game nor should it have been.  Any potential for a sequel that would do the franchise justice was gone after this title however as the Propaganda development team laid off 70 employees and was eventually shuttered this year after their RPG based on the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise was cancelled.  Touchstone Games, the current owners of the Turok franchise, has not expressed any interest at all in reviving it.

The dinosaur hunter is dead.  Long live Turok.

 One Last Hope to Prevent Extinction

With the end of the Turok franchise it seems that there is no franchise or major developer willing to step up and make a game about you're childhood's favorite topic.  The Carnivores franchise isn't what it used to be at all and the new Jurassic Park is nothing but a cavalcade of quick-time events with, if they wish to stay true to the canon, no chance at shooting up some velociraptors.  Even Capcom, a major Japanese production house that has been milking the hell out of the Resident Evil franchise as of late,  doesn't seem willing to man up and do anything their fans want these days, meaning we'll probably get no resolution to what happened at the end of Dino Crisis 2.  Are dinosaur games going the way of the World War II shooter?

Not necessarily my friends.  While dinosaurs may never see a prominent return to the games we loved there is still hope in the most unlikely of places: the indie gaming scene.  For your consideration I've compiled three projects from indie developers that may just be our ticket to reigniting the gaming community's passion for games with giant lizards.  Let's take a look.

First up we have Dino D-Day, a title from indie devs 800 North LLC and Digital Ranch.  This title was originally conceived as a total conversion mod for the Source engine before the team decided to release it on its own this past April.  A multiplayer-based game, Dino D-Day's ludicrous plot is just as awesome as it sounds.  Rather than storming the lands of Europe in his initial blitzkrieg Adolf Hitler instead was able to do with the most feared arsenal in the history of man: resurrected dinosaurs.  As an Allied player you play as one of six human classes while the Nazis get either three human or three dinosaur choices to choose from including a Raptor, a Dilophosaur or a Desmatosuchus with a 20mm cannon strapped to its back.  Yea, you read that right.

The game's development team sounds quite passionate right now so if you're in the mood to do some dino-killing right now head on over to Steam and pick it up for $10.  Not convinced?  Check out their recent T-rex update that adds the king of the dinosaurs to the game with the Nazi addition of twin MG-42 machine guns mounted on either side of its head.

Next up we have Orion Prelude.

Much like Dino D-Day, Orion Prelude comes from humble beginnings as a mod for the Source engine that took on a life of its own as an Unreal 3 title.  This new indie development team, Spiral Game Studios, has been getting a lot of press this year thanks to several partnerships as well as a successful Kickstarter campaign that was held back in February.  Orion looks to include single, co-op and multplayer modes with eight vehicles total, a class that includes a jetpack, and playable dinosaurs with optional AI for them.  Orion's team seems to have quite a love for this project as they've already established a long background narrative that sets the stage for the game.  Looking at the gameplay the best way to describe it is that it is Tribes with dinosaurs.  Go ahead, soak that statement up a little bit.  Ready?  Let's continue.

Orion Prelude is the first in a planned series of titles set to release (hopefully) this year on Steam, Xbox Live Arcade, and PSN.  Here's the latest footage of the game straight from Gamescom and Pax Prime 2011.

One final entry for your consideration is Primal Carnage and before you ask, no, it has nothing to do with that rather fantastic fighting game of a similar name.

Coming to us from the international team of Luke Warm Media, Primal Carnage is much like the other two titles listed above as it is a multiplayer-focused affair of dinos versus humans.  What the other two games don't have however is looks as, of the three, Primal Carnage is goddamn beautiful.  From just one look at the game it looks like Crysis with, well, you know.  Each side has five classes of varying strengths and weaknesses with the possibility of DLC expansions that include the Spinosaurus as was demonstrated in a tech demo.  Of the three though it is also the least well known as Luke Warm has yet to announce gameplay modes or a release date.  Either way though Primal Carnage looks fantastic and should be well worth the price when it finally drops on Steam and, hopefully, consoles.

 Meanest Six Foot Turkey You Ever Saw

Dinosaurs and video games were once inseparable but sometime within the past decade it seems like the industry decided that modern war games, zombies and high fantasy was far more important an endeavor which is a shame considering the bountiful amount of talent to be had across thousands upon thousands of creative minds.  This "Dino Dustbowl" we've been forced to endure is not only frustrating, its down right cruel.  As gamers, we deserve the chance to bring shotgun to velociraptor, rocket launcher to Tyrannosaurus Rex, steel-toed boot to Compsognathus!

Go out gamers!  Write your congressman and tell them that we need more dinosaurs in video games!  Stage protests in front of Valve's headquarters demanding an Allosaurus tear apart a Strider in Half Life 2 Episode Three!  Demand compensation from EA for not including the Tyrannosaurus Warfare Pack in the DLC for Battlefield 3!  Fight, FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHTS!

Or at least check out Dino D-Day, Orion Prelude and Primal Carnage.  They look great and are probably the only games we have a chance of shooting giant lizards in anytime soon.