The Gamers Arms

https://www.planetzoogame.com/

Could be cool. My daughter is heavily into animals at the moment so already eyeing this up as something we can play together.

I can't say I'm that enthused given every game from this developer has been pretty but ultimately quite shallow. Planet Coaster was a great park designer, but lacked any serious management. Jurassic World was, I understand, pretty dull after you were done looking at the beautiful animations, and it's taken them years to put any serious content into Elite: Dangerous.

Apparently it'll have the most authentic, most realistic animals in any game. For what that's worth.

Think about all that animal sex you will get to supervise.

It's going to be fantastic!

I'm assuming artificial insemination is going to be an unlock further down the tech tree. Looking forward to jamming many a glass pipette up a turkeys vag!

Out November 5th...

Hmmm I am not sure I want another management sim from Frontier, this does look very close to Jurassic thingy.

Thing is, I am a sucker for these more chilled out games, and will probably jump in at some stage.

What about all that sweet Hippo poo action?

The animal models and animation are superb, but if it's anything like Planet Coaster (and from what I've read and seen, Jurassic World) it'll ultimately be pretty shallow, gameplay-wise. The problem with PC was that the simulation always felt skin-deep, with really simplified guest logic. The game's best feature, the completely free-form decoration, had no effect on the gameplay, and I can't see those amazing-looking giraffes caring about the 6000 overlapping wooden slats that make up that beautifully detailed viewing platform you spent 3 hours on.

Jurassic world was exactly what you thought it would be tbh.

Funnily enough, the biggest flaw in it was the whole 'Life finds a way' that has been part of the films since the first. Dinos escaping as the result of a tornado ripping open fencing, yeah OK I get that, but when you are constantly sending out helicopters to tranq yet another dino who has escaped for yet another reason you start losing the will to live after a while.

There aren't enough trees, there are too many trees, there isn't enough water, there is too much water, there isn't enough grassland, there is too much grassland, there isn't enough space, there is too much space, there aren't enough other dinos, there are too many dinos ugh for the love of god just get to fuck. Even when you have just the right fucking dinos and they are tiny but behind the biggest thick concrete electrified walls they still chisel away at them and escape. Punish me when I do shit wrong. Throw random events in and have me respond to them. Arbitrary constant dino escapes though, they stop being cinematic and just get boring.

Aaaand in saying that, provided this doesn't revolve around lions eating your guests, if this is genuinely about zoo stuff, then it may scratch the itch that Jurassic world never quite did.

Frontier do excel in spectacularly pretty games with very little game attached. Except Elite. And I am aware that many people would level the same complaint at that. But they are wrong.

Eldest daughter is going through a real pro-animals phase at the moment. The other day she spotted the ad for this on Steam as I was browsing the store and insisted we watch it. A lot of excitement ensued, and blood oaths that I would buy it forcibly sworn under duress.

It's going to be a long wait until November for her.

When I started reading your message Sly I thought it was going to end with your daughter railing against the game, when you said pro-animal I thought animal rights activist.