Hi Everyone,
I have always had a fascination with dinosaurs. I still remember visiting Blackgang Chine on the Isle of White when I was very young (younger than 6 years). They had these huge model dinosaurs. As I was so young they appeared even bigger. It was not just the size that amazed me, it was their amazing appearance. The three horns and neck frill of the Triceratops, the huge plates of the Stegosaurus, the long neck and tail of the Brontosaurus (Pre-1990 terminology, i.e. Apatosaurus with Camarasaurus head), and the massive head and tiny arms of the Tyrannosaurus Rex.
One of my favourite toys when I was young was a little Triceratops that I got from the Blackgang Chine gift shop, see photograph below. I still have this toy even today and I have added a few more to it,
My interest in dinosaurs was also fuelled by dinosaur films. I cannot remember much about most of them but several of them involved fight scenes between the Tyrannosaurus Rex and the Triceratops or a giant gorilla (i.e. King Kong). The animation was really bad by today’s standards but that was the best we had back then. They looked like puppets and the Tyrannosaurus Rex stood very vertical like a person. In 1993, the Jurassic Park film made a huge leap in dinosaur animation. They presented dinosaurs in a way never done before. They looked incredibly real and so different from the puppets from earlier films. The film introduced me to many different types of dinosaurs, which I had never heard of before such as the Velociraptor and Dilophosaurus.
I found the television series ‘Walking with Dinosaurs’ amazing as well. The animation was also fantastic. It was different from the Jurassic Park films as it was a documentary series covering a few selected dinosaurs. I enjoyed Episode 3: Cruel Sea, which featured the sea dinosaur Liopleurodon. In this the series it was massive. Later, they revised the size of the dinosaur down by quite a bit.
The Jurassic Park movie franchise kept expanding. In 2022, they added another film (sixth in the series so far) titled ‘Jurassic World Dominion’. The dinosaurs are still impressive even if the storyline has lost some of its appeal. The new dinosaurs such as the Therizinosaurus, Dreadnoughtus, and Quetzalcoatlus were very impressive. It was also great how the film included feathered dinosaurs and explained it by using complete genomes instead of filling in the gaps with frog DNA as explained in the original film.
I have played several Jurassic Park/World video games over the years. I believe the first one I played was Trespasser, which was linked to Jurassic Park 2 (The Lost World). This was a first person game. It required the player to escape Site B (the island where they raise the dinosaurs before they transfer them to Jurassic Park). It was a fun game and the graphics were good for a late 90s game. The second game I played was Jurassic Park Operation Genesis (2003). This game involved building your own Jurassic Park while completing several challenges. It was a lot of fun and quite similar to the Zoo Tycoon games of that time. This game had a lot in common with the current Jurassic World Evolution series of games but on a smaller scale.
For a long time, I did not see any Jurassic Park/World video games. It was not until 2018 that I played one again; that was Jurassic World Evolution. This game felt like the upgraded version of Operation Genesis. It had more and better looking dinosaurs, which was expected from a game made 15 years later. The game was a lot of fun but it was a bit rigid in terms of unlocking islands and required a particular order for completing missions and tasks. Sandbox mode (free to do as you like mode) only became available after all the mission islands were completed; this could frustrate some people. I did not mind because I enjoyed completing most aspects of the game.
I got Jurassic World Evolution 2 as a Christmas present from my sister (
The recent update has added another five more challenges, I have not competed them yet. I expect to come back to them at a later date. There are a few other expansion packs I have not bought but I only really wanted the Dominion expansion pack. I have completed enough of the game to build any park with any of the dinosaurs and buildings. This is the biggest reward for completing the game.
My first attempt was with the BioSyn map and buildings from the Dominion expansion pack. It was good practice but I could not build the park I really wanted. My second attempt was with the Sierra Nevada map from the Dominion expansion pack and the buildings from Jurassic World. This map is cold and snowy and a good size and shape to design any style of park I wanted. Below are the maps of the completed park.
The best way for me to show you the game and the frozen adventure I created using the game’s sandbox mode is through video.
I apologise for my awful pronunciation of the names of some of these amazing dinosaurs.
I hope you enjoyed the video. If you find the game interesting, you might as well give it a go. It is available on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox, and PC. It is more affordable now as it was released in late 2021.
If you want to read any of my other posts, you can click on the links below. These links will lead you to posts containing my collection of works. These 'Collection of Works' posts have been updated to contain links to the Hive versions of my posts.
▶️ 3Speak
