February 28, 2012
Jetpacks and Dinosaurs
Remember Timegate? Of course you don’t. The dinosaur-filled film was never finished. But if it had been, the combination of time travel, Tyrannosaurus, and laser-toting jetpack soldiers would have certainly made the movie a late-night, B-movie staple.
Fortunately for those who feel like they might have missed out on something cheesy, crunchy and overall bad for you, Orion: Dino Beatdown picks up the theme of pitting rocket-boosted players against dinosaurs. This forthcoming game is yet another run-and-gun dinosaur shooter, just with a little extra hardware to help gamers jump around the battlefield. You can get a glimpse at the gameplay in the trailer posted above. Sadly, though, the game seems to offer only Velociraptor and Tyrannosaurus as villains. I love these celebrity carnivores as much as anyone, but would it really kill game developers to throw in a Suchomimus, Torvosaurus or Austroraptor now and then?
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So badly needs giant pterodactyloids! Kamikaze scansoriopterygids?
Actually, I heard there will be more dinosaurs than just Rex and Raptor.
Why are dinosaur-themed video games so underwhelming? The technology has advanced to the point where video games can give us some marvelous open worlds — check out the trailers for FarCry 3 — but developers seem to be stuck in a rut when it comes to gameplay and themes. The recent Jurassic Park game is one example. It was fine for an adventure game, and I understand that is what that developer specializes in. But if I can freely move about Skyrim fighting dragons, why can’t I roam about a virtual Jurassic Park avoiding raptors and hanging out with hadrosaur herds?
I can think of only a few notable examples of dinosaur video games. The Carnivores series of dinosaur hunting games was fun for its time, giving you open worlds to explore, but is now dated. (You can still download the games as apps.) The first person sequences in the King Kong tie-in game were actually very fun, making good use of the theme. Where the game suffered was it was obviously rushed through production to come out at the same time as the movie. The Jurassic Park Operation Genesis game was a pretty fun title, letting you build your own dinosaur zoos.
Travel back in time, see amazing species, kill them for points!
I realize it’s just a mindless diversion, but I’d go nuts listening to that “Pirates of the Caribbean meets Survivor” music while pew-pew-ing an unending stream of not-very-clever predators.
I appreciate though that they’re pretty up front with what the game is – they don’t try to hide the simplicity. Its just very disappointing that the jetpacks are on the humans, rather than the dinosaurs.
Don’t promote this, these guys are scam artist, they stole things from other games as placeholders, fired workers that were doing a good job and didn’t even pay them for their work, and stole Primal Carnage’s trex and used it as concept art.
What is it with pathetic, weakling geeks and their “need” to fantasize their mock-manliness by pretending they are mighty dino hunters and dragon slayers? Don’t they realize that if they actually faced such creatures in real life, they would just wet themselves and run away in terror? In medieval times we see artwork in which it required the power of a Saint just to subdue a pony sized dragon, but as people continued to become more and more ignorant of real human abilities, the dragons and monsters grew bigger and bigger. I cannot imagine how anyone intelligent enough to access and comment on this website would spend their time and money and playing this idiotic nonsense.
This just makes me angry. Not because it’s a stupid concept or glorifies environmental vandalism, but because it reminds me that, despite all the talk & proofs of concept during the last quarter of the previous century, I still can’t jet pack to work or driver a hover-car to the shops.
Where are my rocket pants?!
Mark, your dream of strapping on a Jet Pack is not as far off as you may think. There’s a new water based jet pack call JetLev available. Google it or youtube it if my youtube link doesn’t work. JetLev is now available for water sports enthusiasts in certain places. I know it’s already available in California.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-KczCp0OQ4
Oh dear, I bet the author and the commenters on this website get all the women…
I wonder when people will finally realise that calling people on the internet “pathetic, weakling geeks” while actually BEING on the internet is just idiotic, as it basically backfires immediately.
Let me ask you, mister Dan Peterson or anyone else who shares the same opinion, aren’t YOU the “pathetic, weakling geek” when you insult people on the internet while not even knowing them?
I’d like to see you saying that into anyones face while standing in front of them, as I am quite sure you’ll be the one wetting himself and running away in terror.
Your’s sincerely,
Someone who is intelligent enough to access and comment on this website and spends his time and money playing this game