By Nathan Grayson on August 24th, 2012 at 11:00 am.
There’s a school of thought that says half the videogames people make are just big-budget, explosion-packed attempts at reliving rah-rah-rah playground fantasies. But that’s a dumb accusation. Obviously, we’re really attempting to relive rah-rah-rah action figure fantasies. Case in point: gaming’s un-ending pursuit of the ultimate man vs dinosaur sim, ripped straight from my childhood’s imaginary “G.I. Joe vs Godzilla” newspaper headlines. Sadly, both Dino D-Day and Orion: Dino Beatdown fell flat, so Primal Carnage is moving in to pick up the slack with its hilariously short, strangely adorable dinosaur arms. But will it succeed? Let’s ask our good friend, Mr Character Showcase.
And you say that you even burned their tibias, just to be sure? How very droll. Oh, sorry, I was just having a quick chat with Mr Character Showcase. He really is just delightful. Anyway, Primal Carnage. It’s looking… well, a bit messy. I don’t know. I mean, I’m digging the potential for flocks of high-flying, lock-on-lunging devil lizards and the ability to counter them with nets, but the rest looks kind of ho-hum. Shooting seems a little stiff, and the action looks too chaotic for its own good.
But then, this is just one trailer, and it does seem like Lukewarm’s aiming for a focus on coordinated class usage and – if nothing else – basic teamwork. Meanwhile, beta’s right around the corner, so you’ll be able to try it for yourself before too much longer. Plus, that also means there’s still plenty of room for tweaks and improvements, so perhaps the quintessentially human dream of being able to play with guns and dinosaurs at the same time isn’t that far from coming true.
24/08/2012 at 11:05 Revolving Ocelot says:
It’ll take an especially clever girl to make a good dinosaur game. I think the last good one was Turok 2 on the N64. Ah, brain drills. Sweet, sweet brain drills.
24/08/2012 at 11:21 misterT0AST says:
The BEST dinosaur game I ever played was Nanosaur 1 for Macintosh. Exploration based shooter with dinosaurs? Yes please!
24/08/2012 at 11:26 Askeladd says:
Sounds intriguing.
btw. I somehow remember Nazi Dinosaurs… whyyyyy
24/08/2012 at 12:02 Chris D says:
If you also remember rat necrophilia it’s because you played Time Gentlemen Please. Unless you’ve also been on a night out with Robert Florence in which case it’s probably just that.
24/08/2012 at 12:26 Sarigs says:
^^ Yeah was going to say that same thing, “Time Gentlemen Please” :-)
24/08/2012 at 14:50 ReservoirDog says:
JP Trespasser and Operation Genesis are also up there among the best dino games.
24/08/2012 at 11:24 RedViv says:
More multiplayer-only dinosaurs. Makes me make a sad face.
24/08/2012 at 23:19 Clavus says:
It has great potential though if they’d put in objective based maps. Dinosaur Escape, Fetch The Eggs, Clear The Compound or something? It seems too deathmatchy right now.
24/08/2012 at 11:27 DestructibleEnvironments says:
Hey so this game is like ORION: Dino Beatdown, but many times better, right?
24/08/2012 at 11:31 Keymonk says:
The main problem about these games is that no-one will ever want to be humans. :/
24/08/2012 at 11:36 Kollega says:
Okay… maybe i am getting ahead of myself here, because i’ve never actually made a game (yet), but does anyone else think that indie shooter developers aren’t being creative enough? As the article states, there are at least three team-based “humans-vs-dinosaurs” shooters, and zero of them seem to be too creative with the basic idea. “Real world plus dinosaurs” isn’t an overly original idea to begin with – and at the same time, there is a serious lack of a seemingly obvious thing like steampunk shooter games. I am not saying that every video game has to deliver a completely new universe bristling with unique, alien features, but the developers shouldn’t allow themselves to fall back on dead horse tropes like “humans vs dinosaurs” either. Isn’t that what Call of Duty is for?
24/08/2012 at 11:53 Keymonk says:
Pretty sure the Orion game was sci-fi vs. dionsaurs.
The other one, beyond this, was WW2 vs. dinosaurs. So.
24/08/2012 at 12:04 Kollega says:
THAT IS NOT AN ANSWER I WANTED ARGLE BARGLE.
Seriously though… you can’t be serious. Can you?
24/08/2012 at 12:12 Keymonk says:
Well, that -was- their settings.
I’m not really sure what the problem is, honestly – it is, to me, more interesting than man shooting other man, at least for variation. I might have misunderstood something I guess.
24/08/2012 at 13:00 Kollega says:
The problem is encapsulated by the comment below: those developers just put dinosaurs in them and call it a day.
24/08/2012 at 23:08 PopeJamal says:
I know exactly what you mean:
Indie1: Hey man, screw the establishment. All they do is make derivative man-shooters with the same old tired class mechanics.
Indie2: Yeah! We are the vanguard! Let the innovation begin!
Indie1: So how are the models Dinosaurs coming for our feathered-reptile-bird shooter?
Indie2: Great! And Indie3 has an awesome model for the new bazooka
*brofist*
Seriously folks. I know you have to make something that people can relate to, but you could afford to go a LITTLE further off the beaten path than “but with hunters and Dinosaurs instead of army men!”.
Do you just HAVE to use Dinosaurs? OK then, how about taking a DayZ cooperate/survive type of approach:
You are “primitive” man, in the evangelical Christian fantasy world where man and dinosaur are forced to co-exist. Build shelters and fashion primitive weapons and bamboo booby traps to protect yourselves from the marauding dinosaurs.
If you can last a round without losing too many of your tribe, you win, and Jesus himself comes down on a GOLDEN DINOSAUR with a magical unicorn horn and lays waste to the remaining beasts.
If you lose too many in the tribe, you lose and are forced to play a quick minigame to make it out of hell with as small of a debuff as possible for the next round. Swap sides every three rounds.
As cheap as indie games generally go for, I’m sure most dedicated gamers would be willing to throw money at something that might be a bit on the unconventional side, but has a real SOUL.
25/08/2012 at 00:03 Clavus says:
I don’t think picking the theme of “human vs. dinosaurs” isn’t that bad. Problem is the execution. So far the footage shows people playing deathmatch, and I can’t imagine that being fun for long. It needs to have a few solid gamemodes that reside around the theme.
24/08/2012 at 12:16 Tidgyb says:
No feathers? What is this, 1993?
24/08/2012 at 13:30 Malawi Frontier Guard says:
Yeah, exactly. No feathers, no buy.
24/08/2012 at 15:05 InternetBatman says:
Stop taking away all the good dinosaurs!
24/08/2012 at 16:41 Robomutt says:
This is what I came here to say…
24/08/2012 at 20:12 Dilapinated says:
Unfortunately, I can see why they’ve gone with that.. Feathered dinosaurs are still a new and unwelcome idea for a lot of people. One of Micheal Crichton’s lasting dents in scientific representation.
Anyone who thinks that feathered dinosaurs don’t look good, or don’t look scary enough, probably needs to spend more time with Google Image Search.
It’s as if every film, documentary and game featuring owls had to have them be magic, because they were magic in Harry Potter, and non-magic owls are just silly anyway shut up.
Back on-topic, a feathered mode would be an awesome compromise.
24/08/2012 at 12:33 standardman says:
I like dinosaurs as much as the next mammal but the problem with these games seems to be that they put dinosaurs in it and call it a day. Here’s hoping this game has some ideas other than ‘dinosaurs are cool’.
24/08/2012 at 12:47 Greggh says:
Waitaminute! Dinosaurs had X-ray vision?? WTH teachers, books and Discovery Channel, you taught me all wrong!
24/08/2012 at 12:57 Lazurah says:
Have you tried Dino D-Day recently? It had a horrible launch, but the devs are still supporting it with content updates and patches; I’ve had loads of fun playing it. The most recent update added bots, with the devs now working on a survival mode.
24/08/2012 at 13:58 Lucretious says:
e: post not reply
24/08/2012 at 13:59 Lucretious says:
Also, the sound seems pretty uninspired. Like, quiet hissing? A dull roar? And, perhaps the biggest omission of all, no footstep sound? Good sound design goes a long way to adding physicality to these giant lizards.
24/08/2012 at 14:15 Shooop says:
This looks woefully generic, from the one hit kill melee to the Duke Nukem clones the humans consist of.
24/08/2012 at 14:48 atticus says:
I think games with dinosaurs needs the same awakening as games with zombies has had with DayZ. Anyone can put some dinosaurs and people with guns in a game, but nobody seem to try to make it anything special.
I’d like the, for lack of a better description, “Jurassic Park”-feeling in a dino-game. I don’t want to run towards a T-Rex trying to headshot it with my giant rocket launcher, I want to run away from it and hide. Scavenge supplies from a broken down research center while Velociraptors hunt you in the courtyard, that sort of thing.
I don’t know, maybe it’s just me.
24/08/2012 at 14:56 Shooop says:
Dino Crisis?
24/08/2012 at 15:07 InternetBatman says:
Absolutely this. How cool would a free roaming Dino exploration game be. Especially if you could play as a dinosaur. On the one hand, you would need food more frequently than humans. On the other, you would be a dinosaur.
24/08/2012 at 15:12 FootlingSummers says:
I’m now frothing at the mouth from imagining a DayZ inspired survival horror game with dinosaurs, so thanks.
24/08/2012 at 20:14 Dilapinated says:
Shut up and take my money!
24/08/2012 at 18:48 Mollusc Infestation says:
I’ve been waiting for a game like that since the dawn of time. I like the idea of being dropped in the cretaceous, with nothing but a flashlight and a sharpened stick.
24/08/2012 at 18:16 Tei says:
The image of the article seems like a bro shotting at a dinosaur while other dinosaur try to stop it saying “no bro, don’t shot, thats my childrenss, bro”.