Any good dinosaur games?

[*Laurelindo*]

Does anyone know any good and deep dinosaur games out there?
I'm chiefly looking for something where you are outdoors (jungles, for instance) and where you always have to be on your guard.
The closest I have come to this is Trespasser and that game was decent I guess, but it felt a bit, I don't know... lifeless.
I love the feeling when you walk around in beautiful environments and always have a feeling that something is behind you, and it would be even more exciting with dinosaurs.

It's also a plus if the game has a more general focus on dinosaurs, not just on the rather trite T-rex/Velociraptor/Triceratops pack.
Those dinosaurs are certainly cool, but they are a bit too common.

[Rantz]

The best dinosaur game. (http://www.arcadebomb.com/play/robot_dinosaurs_that_shoot_beams_when_they_roar.html)

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

[Levian]

Well there's always Dino Crisis, but if I remember correctly that game has more laboratories than outdoors environments.

[Slothy]

Well there's always Dino Crisis, but if I remember correctly that game has more laboratories than outdoors environments.

It saddens me that it's the only one I could think of as well, and it relies pretty heavily on Raptors and T-Rex as I recall. The original Turok would kind of fall into this as well, but it's quite dated at this point and didn't just feature Dinosaurs as enemies.

Unless I missed out on some sweet Dino games over the years, there seems to be a distinct lack of decent ones out there.

[Iceglow]

Dino Crisis 2 guys jeez!

[Dreddz]

Iceglow has it right. Dino Crisis 2 is criminally underrated. While the original Dino Crisis was pretty much a Resident Evil clone Dino Crisis 2 at least distinguished itself by playing more like a shooter. And I remember it having little to no laboratories too instead opting for a more Jurassic Park like setting. And theres a good variety of dinosaurs, not just your typical T-rex's and raptors. Dino Crisis 2 is one of the best third person shooters ever made. Wonder why people ignore it so much.

There is also Dino Stalker for the PS2 which is alright for an on-rails shooter.

[Iceglow]

Dino Crisis 3 however was awful, it was a light gun game iirc based around the character of Dylan? (the blonde guy in 2) but yeah...ignore 3 and stick to the first 2, in particular the second which was pretty awesome.

[Chris]

The game I have spent the most hours on is: "Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis". It is so much fun re-skinning the dinos, and completely overwriting the original game with tons of mods and alterations. :D

[Slothy]

Iceglow has it right. Dino Crisis 2 is criminally underrated. While the original Dino Crisis was pretty much a Resident Evil clone Dino Crisis 2 at least distinguished itself by playing more like a shooter. And I remember it having little to no laboratories too instead opting for a more Jurassic Park like setting. And theres a good variety of dinosaurs, not just your typical T-rex's and raptors. Dino Crisis 2 is one of the best third person shooters ever made. Wonder why people ignore it so much.

Honestly, I didn't mention the second one because I recall hating it quite a bit when I got it. I still have it downstairs, so I think I'll give it another shot since you seem so fond of it. That said, I'm not typically fond of action games and shooters that control like anything but.

[Crop]

Honestly, I didn't mention the second one because I recall hating it quite a bit when I got it.

It does get quite a lot of bad rep. People tend to compare it to the first one, when they are both completely different types of games.

Personally, I like them both a lot for different reasons, and didn't go in comparing the first to the second. Dino Crisis 1 is tense, has good puzzles and a fairly decent story. Dino Crisis 2 has a much better set of weapons, dinosaurs and bonus content.
I think the problem most people have with 2 is the major arcade feel to it (with the point gathering and such), but yeah give it another go, it's worth it.

[NeoCracker]

I wish I could remember the name, but there was a PC shooter where you killed dinosaurs and collected Trophies for it. It was basically a hunting game with just dinosaurs. Kind of fun, surprisingly.

[Vermachtnis]

Primal Rage, it's a fighting game. With dinosaurs!

[Slothy]

It does get quite a lot of bad rep. People tend to compare it to the first one, when they are both completely different types of games.

Personally, I like them both a lot for different reasons, and didn't go in comparing the first to the second. Dino Crisis 1 is tense, has good puzzles and a fairly decent story. Dino Crisis 2 has a much better set of weapons, dinosaurs and bonus content.
I think the problem most people have with 2 is the major arcade feel to it (with the point gathering and such), but yeah give it another go, it's worth it.

Tried playing it again for about an hour today and I definitely still hate it. I don't have a problem with it focusing more on action and having that arcade feel that the original didn't. I do have a huge problem with an action game that controls like RE2 though. Not to mention the tendency for dinosaurs to respawn if the camera shifts thanks to the pre-rendered backgrounds, or even just the fact that dinosaurs are often off screen until they come flying out of the bushes at you. Switching targets is also rather clunky, often not responding at all until some point where it decides it's done firing at the last target. All in all, far too clunky for what it's trying to be.

Survival horror games can get away with controls like that a little more because combat isn't the major reason you play them (though frankly I'd rather not see clunky controls in a horror game ever again either), but they absolutely don't work for me in DC2.

[Dreddz]

Dino Crisis 2 is very much a product of its time. In comparison to modern TPS's it would feel clunky but you have to remember it was released back in 2000. It might be hard to go back to now but it is still an important game in many ways. Try and think of other shooters around that time that could compete with DC2 within that genre.

I'd say if you are done with the game after an hour then you shouldn't bother continuing. The game really hits some low points once you start heading underwater. Back then developers still thought underwater sections were a good idea. Thank god we all moved on from that phase.

[Iceglow]

Also just to clarify, the controls of Dino Crisis 2 were the controls from Resident Evil 3 not 2. I say this because there are striking similarities within the games including FMV scenes and it borrowed heavily from The Lost World (Jurassic Park 2)

[Slothy]

Thing is though Dreddz, I didn't like Dino Crisis 2 back when it came out for much the same reasons, though I doubt I could have articulated exactly why as I can now. I'll admit that it probably bothers me more now than it did then, but I still stopped playing the first time for the same reasons.

The only real reason I could guess that Dino Crisis 2 controls the way it does is because every game by the team behind it controlled that way back then. I won't fault them for trying to take a more action oriented direction, and credit where it's due, they did make some improvements over RE by not requiring you to aim up or down to hit things, run always being on, etc. I just don't think the action experiment worked out very well with the game.

And even if you consider when it came out as being an excuse for how it plays, I would still argue that there was at least one third person shooter that played far better in the form of Syphon Filter. In fact, I'd argue it's actually still quite playable even though it has certainly aged and had to work without a dual analog setup. Now I do agree with you though that back when it came out there was a lot of stuff that came out that didn't play or control well by today's standards that we were all probably pretty lenient on. I guess DC2 just wasn't one of them for me.


Also just to clarify, the controls of Dino Crisis 2 were the controls from Resident Evil 3 not 2.

True enough. I completely forgot that there was a 180 degree turn button in DC2 which obviously wasn't in RE2 but was in 3 (and then mysteriously absent in Code Veronica, but that's a whole other story).

[*Laurelindo*]

Thanks everyone.
I've considered all of your replies and for now I guess I'm starting with Dino Crisis 2, then perhaps I'll move on to Syphon Filter (unless I find Dino Crisis 2 so good that I get hooked to it, which tends to happen XD).

[Vermachtnis]

Thanks everyone.
I've considered all of your replies and for now I guess I'm starting with Dino Crisis 2, then perhaps I'll move on to Syphon Filter (unless I find Dino Crisis 2 so good that I get hooked to it, which tends to happen XD).

Syphon Filter doesn't have any dinosaurs in it. It's a great trilogy though.

[Slothy]

Yeah, sorry if I confused you and had you thinking Syphon Filter had Dinosaurs. I was just using it as an example of a good third person shooter from the PSX days. I'd still recommend playing it because those games are awesome but don't go in with the wrong ideas.

[Vyk]

Dino Dash or whatever the Doritos game is called on XBox Live Arcade. It might be called Dash of Destruction. But it was really fun. And it was free. Not sure if its still available or if its still free or not. But worth looking into for a good half hour or so of plenty of fun

(You're a T-Rex chasing down Doritos delivery trucks)