Pteranodon-fanciers and Stegosaur-whisperers, please throw your velociraptor-skin hats skyward in adulation. Frontier have partnered with Universal to make a third Jurassic World videogame. It's one of three new management games inbound from the Elite Dangereux developer over the next few years, including a game based on one of Frontier's own intellectual properties.
]]>When Jeff Goldblum delivered the news that we'd be getting a sequel to Frontier's 2018 park builder Jurassic World Evolution sometime in the next six months at the Summer Game Fest last week, I was immediately raised from my E3 slumber. While not perfect by any means, JWE is pretty much the best option out there right now for people who love dinosaur games that don't involve any combat. Sure, the trailer for Jurassic World Evolution 2 only revealed a very slim portfolio of facts about the game, but using my sordid credentials as a giant Jurassic Park nerd, and a sinker of many hours into Frontier's park games, I reckon I can offer some reasonable assumptions as to what you can expect.
]]>Frontier Developments have announced Jurassic World Evolution 2, the sequel to their dinosaur park building sim. I say Frontier announced it, but actually on the big screen at the Summer Game Fest kickoff, Jeff "Life Finds A Way" Goldblum introduced the new trailer. He'll be reprising his role of Ian Malcom from the Jurassic World films for the game, and other cast members will be joining him too. Jurassic World Evolution 2 is set to release later this year.
]]>I love Frontier’s trio of park-building games, but they are strange beasts. All three (that’s Planet Coaster, Planet Zoo, and Jurassic World Evolution, for the record) are slightly shallower management games than I usually tend to enjoy, but they make up for it with severe overperformance in every other regard.
]]>A new year has arrived, which mostly means that life will continue finding a way in a similar fashion to the year before. That includes the weekly free Epic Games Store offerings where you can currently find dino park maker Jurassic World Evolution free until Thursday. It's not the best dino game or the best Frontier Developments game either, honestly, but it sure does have big, stompy dinos to play with if that's your lane.
]]>Frontier Developments, the makers of Elite Dangerous and Jurassic World Evolution, have big news. The news is so big they can't tell us how big it is. Frontier have, they proudly announced today, "signed a major global IP licence to develop and publish a future game." That's right: a major, global, intellectual property licence. Which one? Oh don't worry about that. To make what game? Please, think bigger, you can't see the forest for the trees. A major global IP licence. Just think...! I have some pretty good ideas what it might be.
]]>I worry about Geralt. The Witcher series may be over for now, but this hasn't stopped Geralt from taking odd jobs here and there, slaying beasts in Monster Hunter: World, or stabbing folks in Soul Calibur VI. Is Geralt getting adequate retirement benefits? Have witchers unionized yet? I hope he can get some rest, or at least find more contract work that doesn't involve exterminating monsters all the time. Freelancing is tiring.
Here are seven games that need to be blessed by Geralt’s presence.
]]>I'd somehow never noticed it until now, but Jurassic World Evolution's dinosaurs would only ever rest if they were on death's door. As of today's patch - update 1.5 - the sun will now set on the dino-park sim, the big lizards will take a kip and hang out with their reptilian pals when they wake, as detailed in the patch notes here. Still, if you're playing god, why not go all-in? Today's paid Secrets Of Dr Wu DLC adds more islands, new story missions and a few gene-spliced hybrid creatures, like the very pointy Stegoceratops above. See the ethically questionable trailer below.
]]>Dino-park management sim Jurassic World Evolution was great at capturing the visual style of the films, but that John Hammond experience of hubris and greed causing inevitable disaster? Absent. Yesterday's update to the game addresses that - while it adds a few things to the game's extra-relaxing sandbox mode, it also introduces Challenge Mode, a new way to play, unlocked from the start. You've got ornery dinosaurs, decreasing public trust and more to worry about as you rush to create a five-star park across multiple difficulties. Below, a patch trailer.
]]>As authentic as dino-park management sim Jurassic World Evolution looked and sounded, it was ironically a bit toothless, so said Fraser Brown in his review. While it tried to nudge players into creative park designs and risky moves through its staff division system, there was little incentive to take absurd, John Hammond-like risks. That may change soon.
Headed to the game on September 13th is a major patch - update 1.4 - that includes a free new Challenge mode with four different difficulty settings and some fun new twists. Check out a developer video tour of new mode below.
]]>Words are ill-equipped to describe how dull this week's Steam Charts truly are. Read on to see how I combat that. But also, thank goodness there's at least the interesting feature that Plunkbat has, for the first time since it shot to the top of the charts on its release, dropped to third place. Its year-long grip on the top spot was beginning to waver in recent weeks, increasingly finding itself at #2 in the face of a big new release. Now its weakening dominance has seen it slip another spot down. Could Plunkles be seeing its rule coming to an end?
]]>Hello! Goodness me, it's good to have you with us. If you're reading this sentence on Steam, then I simply implore you to click through to the site to read what has been described by Simon Pulitzer as "the greatest games journalism the world has ever been blessed to receive."
]]>Welcome to my nightmares. As chronicled last week, all human progress is wiped out by a Steam Sale. Where once we were a species that revelled in new, interesting ideas, pursuing our dreams, we are once more wedged neck-deep in the past, doomed to buy the same £40 five-year-old games until we rot and coagulate into a molten horror. Welcome to the Steam Charts!
]]>We've just passed the half-way point of 2018, so Ian Gatekeeper and all his fabulously wealthy chums over at Valve have revealed which hundred games have sold best on Steam over the past six months. It's a list dominated by pre-2018 names, to be frank, a great many of which you'll be expected, but there are a few surprises in there.
2018 releases Jurassic World Evolution, Far Cry 5 Kingdom Come: Deliverance and Warhammer: Vermintide II are wearing some spectacular money-hats, for example, while the relatively lesser-known likes of Raft, Eco and Deep Rock Galactic have made themselves heard above the din of triple-A marketing budgets.
]]>I have reached a conclusion. Everything that's bad is the fault of Steam sales. Two weeks ago these charts had reached a place of being a fertile ground of interesting new games and discounted classics. Today, they're back to being mostly a miserably predictable list of games that even the undiscovered tribes of Papua New Guinea have on their Steam accounts.
]]>Hallo! Me again, filling in (slightly late) while John is handcuffed to a steering wheel for other duties. The Steam Charts were all shook up (mm mm mmh!) last week by the launch of Steam's summer sale, including propelling a lump of hardware into the top ten for the first time in ages. A number of older games have rocketed back too, boosted by sale discounts, and displaced several games from their near-permanent spots in the hit parade. Let's stroll down it and see.
]]>As you stare out into the world, at the tumult and turmoil, perhaps you feel the only hope is to turn to the Steam Charts for its comforting predictability and stability. I'm sorry folks, but it's all gone batshit crazy in here too.
]]>Frontier's dinopark-building management sim Jurassic World Evolution launched this morning, I'll remind you in case the waves of E3 announcements mean you forget games can even come out in 2018. It's a bit disappointing, our Jurassic World Evolution review will tell you, especially in comparison to Frontier's Planet Coaster, but you might still fancy it? It does, at the very least, have pretty dinosaurs.
]]>I’m not proud to admit that I’ve forced dinosaurs to fight to the death in Jurassic World Evolution. What could possibly lead me to do something so horrible to these wonders of science-fiction? Capitalism, of course. I was being paid, and I needed to buy an ugly fast food restaurant. Every ‘Dino Bite’ that my guests have snacked on has been stained with Velociraptor blood. That’s my guarantee.
My sadness and guilt are especially profound because the dinosaurs are one of the few bright spots in this otherwise humdrum theme park management game.
]]>"Miss, Miss, it's so sunny, can we have Steam Charts on the field?"
"NO. Sit down and write about popular PC games in this oppressively hot room until the DAY YOU DIE."
]]>Remember the bit in Jurassic Park where John Hammond airlifts a live Ceratosaurus into the food court? No? That’s because it didn’t happen, which was a huge failing of imagination on Spielberg’s part. Hammond was all about show business, after all, and business doesn’t come showier than a dinosaur eating tourists as they exit a burger joint. Obviously, the makers of Jurassic World Evolution don’t encourage you to feed guests to the 'talent' - it makes for a doozy of a TripAdvisor write up - but that it's done with just three mouse clicks suggests they know exactly what they are making.
]]>After building rollercoasters in Planet Coaster, the next park management game from Frontier Developments will focus on the wildest ride of all: life. Today they announced that Jurassic World Evolution will launch on June 12, days after the next movie comes out. Evolution will have players build their own tropical dinoparks, trying to keep tourists happy so your business turns a profit while keeping dinosaurs happy so they don't break out and devour tourists. Life, I'm sure Jeff Goldblum will remind us in his role as the in-game advisor, finds a way. For now, have a watch of 20 minutes of gameplay:
]]>What d’you think the greatest gift of the holidays is? Dinosaurs? I’d say dinosaurs. And so would Frontier, who are making the upcoming dino safari simulator Jurassic World Evolution. We’ve not seen much of the Planet Coaster developer’s pre-historic theme park sim but today they’ve at least narrowed down their release from “Summer” to June 2018 (which makes sense considering the next Jurassic World movie is due out June 22). Alongside this, they’ve revealed that Jeff Goldblum will feature in the game as leathery mathematician Dr Ian Malcolm. But, uh, well there it is.
]]>I enjoyed Jurassic World. There, I said it. Apparently I have bad taste, but gosh, I’m a sucker for anything involving dino shenanigans and Chris Pratt. If I had better taste, I’m still pretty certain I’d be looking forward to Jurassic World Evolution [official site], however. Frontier showed off the park management game at their Frontier Expo, letting us watch dinosaurs just hanging out.
You can check out the trailer below, and while it doesn’t show off much, Frontier devs were on hand to explain what you’ll actually do in the game, from picking different development paths to managing disasters inspired by the films.
]]>The next theme park management game from Planet Coaster studio Frontier Developments will focus on something even scarier than a triple corkscrew: dinosaurs. Last night Frontier announced Jurassic World Evolution [official site], which will put us in charge of the cinematic theme park franchise that surely should have been sued into oblivion by now. We'll get to build a park, bioengineer new dinosaurs, and watch everything go pear-shaped when they get bored. Remember to invite two plucky children, including at least one nerd, to help save the day.
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