Crichton Robbed at Gunpoint
In a scene that might have been taken from one his suspense novels, the AP is reporting JP author Michael Crichton was tied up and robbed at gunpoint during an invasion in his Santa Monica home early Monday morning. Thankfully, Crichton his and teenage daughter are believed to be fine.

September 23, 2002

Dinotopia Series Delayed
Fans of "Dinotopia" will have to wait a little longer for the promised ABC television series, as the show, which was scheduled to begin next week, has been pushed back to Thanksgiving weekend (November 28th) according to a Reuters article. ABC's "Monk" will take its place until the premiere, which Reuters says is to give Dinotopia producers "a welcome breather" -- more time to prepare the effects-laden series. (Last season's Dinotopia miniseries, by the way, took home the "Best Special Effects in a Miniseries" Emmy last night.)

September 16, 2002

The thing about "Dinosaur Battles" is that it's really the exact same game as last year's "Scan Command", but minus the pocket-sized "scanner", the little device that allowed you scan bar codes from any product then transfer them to your computer for use in the game as "DNA". Obviously, if you own "Scan Command", you're not going to go out and buy this one (unfortunately, in traditional Knowledge Adventure marketing creepiness, there's no mention of the fact that the games are virtually the same). But if you've never played that title, you might be surprised to find that unlike the last two JP3 games from KA, "Dino Battles" does have some mild entertainment value that kids might enjoy.

The plot of "Dino Battles" is pretty thin, but reveals itself little by little, so you'll actually be encouraged to progress to see what comes next. The basic setup is that a bunch of "young explorers" find themselves stranded on Isla Sorna where weird experiments have taken place to try and control dinosaurs and pit them against each in some sort of bizarre cock fight. As you progress through the game controlling a bunch of these dinos, you'll find that the Evil Doctor Corts is behind it (played by world-famous voiceover artist Kath Souci), who will throw her best creations at you.

Before you take on the genetically modified dinos, however, a large part of the game will be spent arranging the pieces of "DNA" (which are shaped like little Tetris pieces) into a board to complete a link from one side of the DNA to another. Once you're successful, a specific dino skill like "Jaws of Death" or "Tail whip" is enabled, ready to use in battle. You choose your DNA pieces from a big list, so the more "Energy" pieces you put in, the more powerful the specific skill will be. In "Scan Command", you had to actually "find" these pieces on bar codes around your house. Here, you have a huge database of 500+ pieces, making it easier to customize your dino skills, yet at the same time, a bit pointless (scrolling through page after page of pieces looking for the right one is not fun). Fitting pieces into spaces is also a bit childish, and while an interesting concept, quickly gets old -- unfortunatly, since you have 6 controllable dinos and 6 main skills for each one you'll find youself doing a lot of shape fitting throughout "Dino Battles".

Thankfully, besides the puzzle element, the main portion of the game involves controlling one of several dinos from a top down perspective, slowly making your way across the island in an attempt to accomplish a task or looking for a specific facility. The graphics here are ok, but could have been much better: the map is essentially static, and features of the island such as waterfalls just sit there, un-animated. Your dinosaur also walks painfully slowly, taking minutes to mosey from one area to another.

While you're waiting for your dino to move, every so often random dinosaurs will challenge you to battle. When they do, a message pops up and the game switches to a screen with a 3D view of your dino and the one attacking you, along with pretty straightforward controls. This is where you'll be spending much of your time, and thankfully, it's pretty fun once you get used to the fight system. Like an arcade fighter, the battle progresses in real time, with an energy and stamina meter for both animals. You can choose between one of several "stances" (such as aggressive, retreating, flanking), and click buttons to execute the skills you've enabled. Graphics here are adequate, with some nice dinosaur modeling and animation (though there are some exceptions -- some animations tend to be over the top, fake looking, and completely unrealistic -- besides the lack of blood, there's the occasional jump attack where a dino will fly through the air, turning and attacking you from the side, or one of the ending animations where a beaten dino will literally flip over backwards.) There's even some skill involved, as you'll need to wait until your guy is in a good location to attack, and retreat when your stamina meter becomes low. All in all, while the dino fights aren't as fun, as say, the classic "Primal Rage", battles are varied enough to never really get too boring.

Gameplay overall is interesting if a tad uneven -- you'll soon discover that certain moves work especially well in most battles, and you'll forget about building up the abilities of your other animals. Personally, once I had built up a powerful "Jaw snap" for my raptor, I didn't really have to worry about any of the other moves until much further into the game. You can also use the "leave battle" button to simply skip any of the random battles, jumping past all but the major fights.

While I certainly wouldn't say you should buy "Dino Battles" over the upcoming "Project Genesis", which looks far more promising and expansive, KA does get props for creating a game that does manage to have at least some redeeming qualities, unlike their previous JP-licensed titles. While the game is really bogged down by some needless shape fitting, for 20 bones, the price seems about right.

September 9, 2002

September 8, 2002

• It looks as if the rumor about the game coming out for Gamecube is not true, as the official fact sheet only lists the Xbox, PS2, and PC.
• ACT3 Animation will be doing the "in-game cinematic sequences" for the game, an Australian CG animation studio that has worked with Blue Tongue before.
• "The game's music (10 original tracks) was written by Blue Tongue's internal sound engineer and composer Stephan Schutze and is being performed by the Melbourne Symphony, conducted by Graeme Abbott. Two scores from John Williams' (movie composer) soundtrack also will be included."

No New JP Ride at IOA?
Just what the heck is Universal planning for their parks? We've heard about a possible new high-tech JP ride, a new rollercoaster, one of each, or none of the above. With all kinds of different and conflicting information surfacing, news from Anthony just confuses things more: According to someone he asked at the park itself, plans are to tear down the "Kongfrontation" ride at the Universal Studios park (not IOA) to make way for a Scorpion King/Mummy themed indoor rollercoaster, and that no new rides are being planned for the JP section of IOA. Obviously, only time will tell what Uni is truly planning.

Scientists Make Dino Protein
According to the BBC, scientists at Rockefeller University have used a computer simulation to successfully recreate a protein strand from the long-extinct archosaur. I don't really get how this works without using actual DNA material, but the dude in charge says, "We're not getting it from a fossil or from preserved amber but we're using a computer method to predict what it is going to be and to actually make it.. The fact it works beautifully in the test tube make us confident we're on the right track." But what about the major sequence gaps!? (Thanks 'Illuvdolma')

August 31, 2002

PG on Cube?
We've heard that the upcoming Project Genesis park-building game will definietly be for the PC, Playstation 2, and Xbox consoles, but what about poor Nintendo Gamecube owners? While this is certainly not official, 'CrowLives!' noticed Gamezone.com has a new entry for a Gamecube version, along with ones for the other consoles. More info as I get it....

August 21, 2002

New 'Edutainment' JP Game?
While everyone anxiously awaits PG, 'CrowLives!' noticed a new Amazon.com entry for a PC game called Jurassic Park: Dinosaur Battles, from the infamous Knowledge Adventure, makers of the much-hated "Dino Defender", "Danger Zone", "Scan Command" set of JP3 "Edutainment" titles. The release date is listed as September 3rd, but no word of the game on the KA site.

Rex Voted #5 Best CG Character
Several people, 'Oviraptor' among them, noticed those crazy Entertainment Weekly editors have created another meaningless "rank" list, this time of All-time best CG characters, where the T-Rex from JP sits at #5, one below the "T-1000" from T2 and one above Stuart Little.

August 16, 2002

The dinosaur animations already give the feel of living, breathing (and sometimes marauding) dinosaurs, but their behaviors are more sophisticated than a few animations. The dinosaur AI uses neural nets for each individual dinosaur. Some dinosaurs prefer to move in herds, so they will tend to move toward the center of a group if they get too far away, giving the group the feel of a drifting flock of herbivores, moving together across the landscape. We got to see this in action when the developers created a herd of small herbivores and, as they settled into their resting behaviors, dropped a large carnivore nearby. The large dinosaur selected his prey, and ran after the herd. The small dinosaurs scattered, usually moving in a common direction, and the larger creature changed its target when another small dinosaur became more convenient. Once the predator had a meal safely clamped between his teeth, he shook his prey back and forth (with head and limbs flailing appropriately) until it was dead, and then ate. Should any park manager be inconsiderate enough to allow carnivores to escape into a park full of visitors, people can suffer the same fate.

More on 'Prey'
Barnes & Noble.com's page for Crichton's new novel, "Prey" (due out in November) has been updated with a short description of the plot, said to be a "techno-thriller" about nanotechnology:

"Deep in the Nevada desert, the Xymos Corporation has built a state-of-the-art fabrication plant, surrounded by nothing but cactus and coyotes for miles and miles. Inside, eight people are trapped -- because outside, waiting for them, looking for them, is a predatory swarm of micro-particles that they themselves created. The swarm is getting bigger and more powerful by the hour, and they must find a way to stop it before it gets inside -- unless it's already too late"

August 15, 2002

• The most interesting news comes from Adam who reports that the "Australia Today" radio show recently had a guest who said he had just returned from recording lines as the voice of Mr. John Hammond for the upcoming game. The actor, named Bud Tingwell, might be known to Australian TV viewers as the star of 'Breaker Morant' and 'The Castle'. Adam adds that Tingwell did an example of his Hammond impression on the radio show, which apparently "sounded a lot like the 'real' Hammond".
• 'RES186XP' says his local software store reports the release date of the game may have been pushed back, from December 15th to January 12th, which would certainly be bad news if true as Blue Tongue would be missing the holiday buying season. xbox.ign.com says the same thing, putting it at "January 2002". More info as I get it.
• Ash reports the September issue of the Official PS2 Magazine (UK) features a video of the game on the included CD, presumably the same one that you can download from the Blue Tongue site.

DTS Hits 100 Million Products
I thought this was semi-cool: Digital Theater Systems announced last week that their DTS audio technology has been used in more than 100 million products since the technology made its world debut with the theatrical release of Jurassic Park in 1993. "DTS is featured on more than 21,000 motion picture screens worldwide; in home theater, car audio, PC and game console products, as well as 5.1 Music, DVD-Video, DVD-Audio and DVD-ROM software," says the press release.

Re-Release JP in '03 Petition
And speaking of the theatrical release of Jurassic Park, back in June I mentioned how cool it would be if Spielberg decided to re-release JP next year in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of everyone's favorite dino flick. Well now you too can register your vote, as Matt Lis has set up a good ol' fashioned petition, right here. (Thanks Adrian)

July 26, 2002

July '02 Films Down 18%
The Hollywood Reporter notes that last week's top films, "Stuart Little 2" and "Road to Perdition" could not beat the films opening at the comparable time frame last year, lead by JP3 ($50.8 million) and "America's Sweethearts" ($30 million). "[This weekend] was the first time in 24 weeks that the total boxoffice has been down by a double-digit margin from the comparable weekend in 2001."

July 17, 2002

Happy B-Day JP3!
Since I probably won't update the news tomorrow (nothing really to report), I wanted to be sure mention that JP3 turns one year old tomorrow! Love it or hate it, you gotta admit that 90 minutes spent watching JP3 is more entertaining that 90% of the movies out there these days. I mean, how many of them have CGI dinosaurs eating people?! Here's to JP4!

[JP3 News from June 7th through July 8th]