Life keeps finding a way

In my original review for Jurassic World Evolution, I described the game as shallow and an overall mediocre park management game. I even ended o??n the note of "here's hoping Frontier Developments continues to support the game in the coming months because what's here right n??ow is just a skeleton of a game waiting to be fossilized."

Well, they went and did exactly that. From fossil to fully fleshed out, Jurassic World Evolution went on to be a much better game than it was at launch, thanks to a plethora of new content and improvements from Frontier Developments. However, when the sequel announcement popped up earlier this year, admittedly, I was surprised. I thought for sure that's the last Jurassic World game we'd see for a good long while.

So, here we are, and I'm happy to say �for the most part �Jurassic World Evolution 2 is far better than its predec??essor was at launch.

Jurassic World Evolution 2 (PS5 [reviewed], PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC)
Developer: Frontier Developments
Publisher: Frontier Developments
Released: November 9, 2021
MSRP: $59.99

The key comparison here is specifically at launch. The original game is now reasonably polished all around. In contrast, Jurassic World Evolution 2 feels like it's all over the place in terms of gameplay complexity, length, and narrative. O??n that last note, let's start with the incredibly brief ca??mpaign mode.

Set after the events of the latest film (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom), dinosaurs are pretty much let loose all across the United States, and you're tasked with helping the conservation efforts. Essentially, with the help of the Fish and Wildlife services (yes, really), you'll be capturing and re-homing problematic dinosaurs across several different biomes ??set in the US. From Washington state to Pennsylvania, you'll be taking pictures, tranquilizing, and moving dinosaurs into fenced-off enclosures of your creation and learning the basics of taking care of them.

//youtu.be/g76Zx7zydXQ

The campaign mode in Jurassic World Evolution 2 is pretty much a brief tutorial on how to handle your dinosaurs with a fun in-universe narrative spin thrown in. Once again, Jeff Goldblum reprises his role as Dr. Ian Malcolm and delivers some of the best commentary and narration in the game. Other characters from Jurassic World make an appearance again, such as Claire (voiced by Bryce Dallas Howard) and Owen, who some random dude voices because Chris Pratt is too busy being Mario and Garfield.

The overall story has some interesting moments (such as working with the CIA to prevent dinosaurs from entering Canada). Still, my biggest issue is that it ends out of nowhere with no actual resolution. It comes off feeling more like an epilogue from the last game than a natural continuation. In general, this whole mode can be wrapped up in the span of three-to-four hours. I suspect there will be more to the campaign and various modes once the latest movie (Jurassic World: Dominion) is out next year.

Hell, there's even a convenient big blank spot in th?e Chaos Theory menu when you're selecting which movie what-if scenario you wanna tackle that you just know is where the Dominion take on this is going to ?be.

On that note, though, let's talk abo??ut the Chaos Theory mode �because outside of the sandbox mode, I'd argue this is the meat and potatoes of the whole game. To sum it up, you're essentially tasked with fixing or avoiding the disasters that happen throughout the various movies and, instead, turning them into successful dinosaur theme parks.

It's in this mode, though, where I think a lot of the improvements and added detail that Frontier Developments have done for both the dinosaurs and park management aspects make Jurassic Word Evolution 2 shine and make it an obvious step-up from the original game. The dinosaurs, in particular, look stunning. Admittedly, they were reasonably impressive looking in the original. However, these are a step above in all-around attention to detail, animation work. I think the resolution boost from the new consoles goes ?a long way here as well.

There's also a ton of them this time around (79 t?o be exact, with five more included in the deluxe edition). I couldn't spell or properly pronounce half their names if my life depended on it. I also maybe only recognize like a quarter of these at best. Still, honestly, it made researching, sending out scientists to excavate, and ultimately releasin?g a shiny new dinosaur I've never heard of before into an enclosure fun and addicting in a messed-up crime against nature gameplay loop that I appreciate.

Dinosaurs also have different behaviors and needs you need to keep track of and be aware of this time around. This also includes their enclosure and the environment around them. Different dinosaurs need anything from different types of plants and food to even space requirements and cohabitation limits. You can't just throw in a bunch of herbivores into a single enclosure and call it a day. Some may need tons of forest coverage and fruit, while others might prefer nuts and ground grazing. All ??of this takes up precious space, so you'll want to plan out these pens in advance before hatching specific dinosaurs.

That goes double for big predators. The moment they're unhappy, your guests behind your low-secu??rity fences will go from "Oooh, ahhh" to screaming and running.

Genomes and DNA tamperin?g play a big part in the creatio?n of your dinosaurs and how they behave. Depending on how much research you've done and how well trained your science staff is, your batch of dino eggs can have plenty of both positive and negative traits tied to each dinosaur.

For example, my first batch of velociraptors were all 30% more aggressive (meaning they were more likely to att?ack staff who occasionally do wellness checks from the safety of vehicles). However, on my se??cond batch, by some miracle, I managed to create one that was completely docile towards staff. These perks also vary from the diet (requiring more water or specific food as an example) to even being more susceptible to disease.

There are also both flying and aquatic dinosaurs now that require unique pens (aviary domes and giant pools of water, basically) that I think add?? a nice visual variety to your parks. However, it's in the parks themselves, and the more complex management systems that I belie?ve make Chaos Mode far better than the campaign mode. I could just list off various mechanics and reasons why like I did with the dinosaur stuff, but instead, let me tell you a tale of both a failed and successful park that I think highlights both the management mechanics and the Chaos Theory mode perfectly.

My first attempt at making the original Ju?rassic Park a success started off pretty normal as I followed the tutorial in placing various buildings in the park, hiring my staff of scientists, researching the basics, and learning the basics. However, after successfully beelining my way to breeding a tyrannosaurus with no expense spared (quite li?terally draining most of my income in the process), I had one major task left: Create a five-star park.

I figured now that I had the tyrannosaurus sorted, money and guests would just come flowing in, and I'd be on my way to completing this first part of the Chaos Theor?y mode. After some story-related sabotage involving all my gates mysteriously opening up, I dealt with the escaped raptors and re-opened my guest shelters. However, the whole ordeal put me into the red in terms of money. So, naturally, I just sped-up time in the hopes my tyr?annosaurus would draw folks back in, and I'd recoup my money.

After waiting around a bunch, it accomplished exactly that??. Not a lot, but enough to breed a batch of new raptors I desperately needed after? mine all died from old age (they're the first dinosaur you produce in this specific mode). So, after splurging all my money and releasing my new batch of raptors, suddenly, mother nature decided it had enough of my rule-breaking and released a hurricane on me.

Different biomes have different weather, including extreme weather events like tornadoes, blizzards, and so forth. This wasn't the first time I dealt with a hurricane, with the first one only causing minor damage to my park, and again, I just sped up time to recoup enough money to get me o??ut of the red.

This time, however, it was far worse. There were multiple fences broken, multiple dinosaurs escaping (i??ncluding those raptors I just released), and even that tyrannosaurus I spent hours saving up for. By the time the hurricane was over, I was around two million in the red and straight-up couldn't afford even to fix the fences that were broken all over my park. I had no choice but to either reload a save file or restart, but I decided to go with the latter and go in with a plan.

On my second attempt, I already knew that I had to research and release a tyrannosaurus to progress the plot along, so I decided to give this park a thrill-seeking theme and focus. You see, guests are broken up into different categories: General guests, luxury guests, nature guests, and adventure guests. The latter of which love high infamy dinosaurs (big predat??ors and dangerous dinosaurs all around, basically).

So, knowing this, outside of the plot-related triceratops you have to include, I went all-in on researching big predators, with the tyrannosaurus placed right in the middle of the park. I built wide pathways all around it, viewing galleries on every side of the enclosure, big ol' steak houses, and other amenities equipped to cater directly towards adventure guests. This place was BIG DINOS EATIN MEAT, and my guests loved it.

The money poured in, I spent it on researching high-security fences and upgrades all-around to my buildings to bring in as much money as possible, and I even survived my first hurricane with money to spare. I went in with a plan and a focus, and it paid off. It was incredibly satisfying to pull off, and a lot of that is due to the added complexity in Jurassic World Evolution 2. They took the criticism of shallo??w in th??e original and went, "fine, we'll make it a swimming pool," and it rules.

Admittedly, the game is very menu-heavy, though. It can be a task and a half clicking through all the various sub-menus and constantly assigning your scientists to multiple things. Your staff of scientists is used in everything from research to digging up bones and hatching the dinos themselves. They can even be overworked and require rest (I bet the developers loved adding that detail). However, as a result, it's a w?hole lot of extra clicking and steps to get dinosaurs made, and I can ?easily see some folks being turned off from that.

Outside of the Chaos Theory mode, there's also a challenge mode, but admittedly I barely touched this and only completed the first challenge. It's basically pre-made parks with different problems or in specific states of disaster that need to be fixed within a given timeframe or with a specific amount of money. Each challenge has different difficulty settings, b??ut this wasn't as interesting to me as Cha?os Theory or the sandbox mode.

Sandbox is the endgame, and I think it will be the most appealing mode for people. It basically gives you tons of settings to play and t??oggle with (including unlimited money), letting you go wild in creating whatever type of park you want. However, at the very start of the game, all the different biomes, dinosaurs, and am??enities are locked away until you've unlocked them by completing either the challenge or Chaos Theory mode.

This has been a pretty divisive decision within the community, as a lot of folks just simply wanna dive right into creating their own unique parks or craz??y dinosaur battle arenas. Honestly, to bring up another point from my review of the original: I think Frontier Developments should simply add in a cheat code or toggle that unlocks everything in sandbox. Maybe have it disable trophies/achievements on that save file or something; who c??ares! Let people have their fun.

To wrap things up, again, I think Jurassic World Evolution 2 is a much better game than its predecessor was at launch. That said, I can't shake the feeling t??hat much like the original, it's only going to get better and more content-rich in the next coming year or so. It's a beautiful trend from Frontier Developments that I think will make an already great game all the more excellent.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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Two runners-up will win JW: Fallen Kingdom on Blu-ray

When a movie makes over $1.5 billion at the box office, you don't have to waste a whole lot of time introducing it. Chances are you've?? seen it, and anything I say about it won't tell you anything you don't already know -- so let's just get to it.

We've got some Blu-ray copies of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom to give out. Come win one!

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is the fifth film in the blockbuster movie franchise. When natural di??saster once again threatens the existence of dinosaurs (they really can't catch a break, can they?) it's up to Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) and Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) to find a way to help life find its way. But things don't go exactly as planned, and man yet again learns that playing God must also spur the creation of a devil. The park may be closed, but the world is open for business.

One grand prize winner will receive a Blu-ray copy of Jurassic World 5-Film Collection, which features all five movies in the series. Two runners-up will receive a Blu-ray copy of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Everyone wins when Chris Pratt flexes.

To enter to win, comment below with your horrible genetic dinosaur hybrid. I'm crossing the dilophosaurus (?the highly inaccurate spitter from the first movie) with a camel to create a creature so vile that it lugs around a carnival dunk tank to use as its spitoon. It's totally useless apart from all the spitting, but it's also pretty hilarious.

Winners will be drawn on Tuesday, September 18. This contest contains a physical prize, and as such, you need a United States address in order to win. Make sure you comment using a Dtoid account that has your current email address on file. If I can't email you, I can't send you the schematics for my stupid dinosaur. Or this free mo??vie.

Jurassic World 5-Film Collection and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom are available anywhere that likes money on September 18. Want more chances to win? Check out Flixist for their Fallen Kingdom contest!

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Box office round up

It's a good summer for the movie studios. People seem to be rolling out in droves for the big busters (other than Solo) and this week has shown that even the smaller summer fare is going to feel the love. Both Sicario: Day of the Soldado and Uncle Drew outperformed their predicted box offices, while Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Incredibles 2 continued to dominate the box office. Neither Sony nor Lionsgate, production companies on the two films respectively, were even thinking of sniffing number one or two spots with these so they have to be pretty happy with coming out ahead of where they thought they'd be. With the holiday weekend rolling in and Ant-Man and the Wasp about to drop things are looki?ng very, very up for Hollywood.

Like... very, very, very super, mega up. The North American box office for quarter 2 just hit a new record of $3.3 billion. June finished 20.1 percent ahead of last year with an estimated record $1.27 billion. Then you have May finishing 24 percent ahead of last year,? and April breaking records and ??going up 26% ahead of last year. So everyone is going to the movies again. Hurray! Well done. 

Honestly,?? I mean that all around. Hollywood and indie studios have delivered one hell of a year so far. We've got stunningly good blockbusters coupled with a host of smaller independent and mid-level movies of great quality in 2018. If Oscar season pans out well along with the Hollywood blockbusters we could be l?ooking at one of the best years in cinematic history both in terms of quality and box office. 

1. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom - $60,000,000
2. Incredibles 2 - $45,546,000
3. Sicario: Day of the Soldado - $19,015,000
4. Uncle Drew - $15,500,000
5. Ocean's 8 - $8,035,000
6. Tag - $5,635,000
7. Deadpool 2 - $3,450,000
8. Sanju - $2,550,000
9. Solo: A Star Wars Story - $2,293,000
10. Won't You Be My Neighbor - $2,290,000

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Box office round up

It's not too unexpected, but Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom opened big this weekend with $150 million box office despite the tepid reviews of the film. Clearly, the franchise has legs, and people still love dinosaurs doing dinosaur things. Interestingly, however, the movie's box office was well below Jurassic World's $203 million opening, which was a surprise record breaker. Sequels of this sort usually make more money, especially with how hard the film got pushed, so it not even sniffing the original's box office is a bit of a letdown. I don't think Universal is too upset though, but it will be int??eresting to see how the movie holds next weekend.

Speaking of holding, Incredibles 2 dropped 56 percent, but that still put its box office at more than $80 million, eclipsing the entire cume of the original movie. That's a beyond incredible opening weekend for most animated films and made for a massive weekend for Hollywood. In fact, I can't remember the last time two films opened up this well within a week of each other. This has been a truly stellar summer for the movie studios, especially Disney, who now holds the top three box offices of the year. We still have Ant-Man and the Wasp and a new Mission: Impossible coming so this should be a massive, money-????making summer.

The lesson for Hollywood? Pump ou?t dem franchise films because we're going to show up.

1. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom - $150,001,000
2. Incredibles 2 - $80,928,000
3. Ocean's 8 - $11,650,000
4. Tag - $8,200,000
5. Deadpool 2 - $5,250,000
6. Solo: A Star Wars Story - $4,045,000
7. Hereditary - $3,809,000
8. Superfly - $3,350,000
9. Avengers: Infinity War - $2,482,000
10. Won't You Be My Neighbor - $1,875,000

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Fallen quality

One of the amazing things about the original Jurassic Park is its ability to create wonder.?? No matter how many times I watch it, the reveal of the dinosaurs at the beginning of that movie is awe inspiring. I get goosebumps every time Sam Neill shakily lifts his glasses from his face and the score kicks in. It's a film about the wonder of&nbsp?;life, and man's role in that.

The Jurassic World films are not that. They're monster movies, and that is, of course, OK. The original Jurassic World was fun enough as one, and still maintained some of the childish wonder at just how cool dinosaurs are. It had charm. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom does not. It takes the themes of the original movie, and the plot of its predecessor and mushes it all i?nto what amounts to almost nothing. There's no wonder here. No goosebumps moments. It's that wonder of din??osaurs turned into the franchise of dinosaurs.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
Director: J.A. Bayona
Rated: PG-13
Release Date: June 22, 2018

Fallen Kingdom kicks off with a moral question that teases a movie that might a?ctually want to do something interesting. The dinosaurs living on the island where the Jurassic World theme park was are all about to go extinct thanks to a volcano that's erupting. Should humanity save them or should we let them die as they were never really supposed to be around in the first place and they enjoy killing people? While most of the world decides to let them die a much-softened Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) is working to get someone to rescue them. Thankfully, Benjamin Lockwood (James Cromwell), who helped create the dinos originally, pays her and Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) to return to the island and rescue a few, inclu?ding our boy Blue, the velociraptor. 

Dinosaurs back on mainland, evil idiots doing evil things, a kid somehow getting involved. Yadda yadda?? yadda. As no one has learned anything from any history ever, shit hits the fan and almost any thematic q?uestions are tossed out the window to once again have a genetically modified monster movie, but this time without any of the fun or creativity of the first. 

There's a moment in Fallen Kingdom where our heroes are trapped and reflecting on the first time they saw a live dinosaur. It's supposed to be the film's equivalent of the aforementioned scene from the original (the timeless Jurassic Park score even kicks in), but it is so out of place in a film that c?arelessly throws dinosaurs around the screen that it caused me to sneer with cynicism. Th??ere's no feeling to the film, it's just CGI dinosaurs and a bunch of people doing stupid things over and over. It's hard to even enjoy it as a monster film as nothing feels cheesy enough, and the movie keeps trying to lay on the moral quandaries but doesn't actually care about them. There's nothing here but the repeated and hollow roars of a franchise that used to have a soul.

A lot of the blame needs to fall in the lap of J.A. Bayona, who seems to have ditched the originality and creativity that made A Monster Calls so good for straight up plagiary. You expect sequels to repeat the key shots of their predecessors here or there and give fans something to cheer about, but Bayona never does anything of his own to make the movie new. The iconic T-Rex moment from Jurassic Park is repeated over and over, and if he had done one more dramatic push into the mouth of a screaming dinosaur I would have thrown up from m?otion sickness. At no moment does anything in the film feel t??ruly original, more a collection of scenes that hit a franchise checklist, all of which previous films in the franchise have done better.

The film has some redeeming value here and there keeping it from being a total trainwreck. The beginning of the movie features a prolific escape sequence amidst a volcanic erupti?on. It's loud, and big, and everything a monster movie should be. It even contains the one emotiona??l moment that actually functions in the film. Sadly, it's at the beginning of the movie and you have to slog through the rest unless you're smart and leave early. 

Pratt does his best with what he's given, but that's not much, especially as a host of other new characters are shoved in left and right for us to not enjoy. There's a new tech guy who hacks everything, and the manic pixie dream girl who does doctor stuff, and the big evil guy just out to make money who yells at the contractually obligated child. Why every movie in this franchise needs to have a child is beyond me, but Maise Lockwood (Isabella Sermon) has got to be the dumbest excuse ever. I'd be spoiling plot details in my ra??nt on this so I'll digress, but her backstory and entire reason for existence just gets dumber and dumber as the movie tries to salvage some of its thematic pull through idiotic plot twists.

Speaking of idiotic, what the hell happened to Claire Dearing? Her character is almost completely changed from the original film. I know she learned a life lesson in that one, but she went from badass sprinting in heels to nothing more than a screaming, shouting, McGuffin that gets Pratt's character to go places. It's ??a really weird shift considering the film was written by the same guy and a loss of a character who could have been interesting. Even if they had used her well the movie completely wastes Blue, whose reappearance feels more like a toy contract obligation than anyone actually wanting him bac??k.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is supposed to be a big dumb monster movie, but it doesn't even pull that off. It feels so redundant of Jurassic World and so reliant on the tropes of the series that nothing is ever interesting. Despite its repeated and desperate reminders that it thinks dinosaurs are so cool, it doesn't treat them that way. Somehow it takes all the childhood wonder that Jurassic Park encapsulated so?? perfectly and forgets it, leaving behind the fossilizing bones of a behemoth that once rul?ed many years ago.

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Did you ever want to spend $25 on Frosted Flakes?

Not to be confused with the mega-hit film already out, Jurassic Games, a weird knockoff film called Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is doing whatever it can to get some sort of attention from the general public. And what better way to remind children and their parents of an upcoming dinosaur movie than cereal? The grocery store display of promotional boxes has been a time-honored tradition to make sure a child knows that a movie with dinosaurs is coming out. Maybe there's a special maze with dino-info on the back or a little plastic raptor inside. Either?? way, it's going to get that kid stoked for some prehistoric action.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, however, is taking a more modern route. Instead of a maze or spot-the-difference or whatever, this box will have a front flap that lifts to reveal an embedded screen through which y?ou can view a five-minute compilation of  behind-the-scenes footage.

Also, there's only 200 boxes available, and you can only buy it through Amazon??, and it costs $25 dollars.

So, that's something. I thin?k I would ?prefer a maze, to be honest.

The strange and small-scale promotion ??with Kellogg's will contain Frosted Flakes that I don't believe have been shaped into raptors. T??here also doesn't seem to be anything inside the box. And to top it all off, the embedded screen is only 1024x600. What were they thinking? That resolution is a mockery to cereal boxes everywhere.

If you do somehow happen to be a rare and exotic cereal box collector and a mad fan of the Jurassic franchise, then you best hop on it now assuming its still available. They'l??l surely be $30??0 on eBay before the day is out.

‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ Video Now Playing on Kellogg’s Boxes [Variety]

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Blue is a good boy

I wasn't a huge fan of Jurassic World when it first came out,?? but I can tell you that I liked th??e fact that it ended with a t-rex, a raptor, and a genetically modified dino fighting it out in an obvious homage to early Hollywood monster movies. Once that happened I knew that they were ditching the pseudo-science thread of the originals and basically going all out monster movie, and it let you frame the movie in a slightly better light. 

Well, if the conclusion of the first film was a hint at the franchise's direction than the newest trailer for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is basically shouting it. We're in full monster movie territory, folks. Giant sea creatures taking out helicopters? War mongering corporations designing super dinosaurs? The return of plucky dino sidekick Blue? All we need now is a giant monkey. We've left behind the very basic attempts to be somewhat realistic of Jurassic Park, and we're in full commitment to something entirely different. This is Jurassic Park via Godzilla, not Michael Chrichton.

And I'm kind of all for it? Is that bad? This just looks like some crazy fun, and no I'm not just saying the because The Goldblum, hollowed be his name, is in it.With my expectations re-calibrated to giant mons??ter movie, I'm actually looking forward to this. 

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Unless they learn how to make good sequels ... uh, open doors

This trailer was due out a week ago, but Universal got trailer envy when Marvel dropped some big-ass Avengers: Infinity War action right in front of ?their release. That's right, not only did Marvel show up DC by making more money on a trailer than DC's flagpole franchise movie did in the same week, but they whipped it out, and all the dinosaurs Universal could muster turned tail and ran for the jungle.

For a week, at least.

Now that you've seen the first full look at Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, what are your thoughts?

The premise seems confused: we're clearly shown the volcano blowing up with what looks like every-single-dinosaur-on-the-island not having been rescued. This after they've told us they're there to rescue the dinosaurs from the volcano. Perhaps this will all take place in the first 15 minutes of the movie and then we'll get to the movie I've been hoping for: dinosaurs loose in civilization. Super smart dinosaurs in civilization? Think Turok. When they get there, ??it's going to be so good. If they get?? there.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom finds a way June 22.

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