Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter HD, a re-imagining of the classic dinosaur hunting simulator game, Carnivores, has been announced for PSN for later this year in both North America and Europe. Carnivores was a PC title, before it got ported to iOS, Android, and PlayStation Portable.

Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter HD will be hitting the PlayStation Network Store for PlayStation 3 in North America on September 10, with a later release date in 2013 for Europe. No release for other territories, or even other platforms, including Sony’s own PlayStation Vita, which shares a lot of PSN games with the PlayStation 3, has been announced so far.

The game is also announced to have full support for the PlayStation move accessory, for when you use a crossbow. There will be other weapons available, including a tranquilizer gun for those who don’t feel comfortable shooting a helpless, sweet and innocent Tyrannosaurus Rex to death.

Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more information.

The game is, unsurprisingly, about hunting various breeds of dinosaur. There is no story involved, with the game instead just dumping you into a series of maps with a variety of weapons with which you must hunt a plethora of prehistoric lizards. It sounds simple and quick, but this belies the core of what Dinosaur Hunter really is.

The game is presented in first person shooter fashion, with players tasked at hunting and killing a specific type of dinosaur for points. More dangerous carnivores net higher points, and these earnings can be used to buy new maps and further upgrade your repertoire of dino slaying toys. Said weaponry offers a pleasing level of variety, but they all feel a little hollow. Without any particularly satisfying sound effects and weight to accompany each shot, it all feels a bit empty and unsatisfying; a feeling that would sadly dog my time with Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter in general.

The upgrades give the game a pleasing depth, but going after them isn’t as addictive as you’d think

The general action of Dinosaur Hunter is pretty impressive. Having been used to little more than Tetris and Breakout clones ganging the Minis section of the Playstation Network, the open maps and 3D visuals of Dinosaur Hunter are a real step up. Whilst the scope of the graphics is a milestone for the platform, there is a serious issue of repetition that seeps into the game’s visuals and gameplay. From a graphical standpoint the maps, whilst numerous enough, all feel samey. The textures are flat throughout and, aside from the odd hill or pool of water, there is little geographical need to ever adapt your tactics in the game.

These same maps are a cause of the game’s pacing, which at times boarders on the excruciatingly slow. There just aren’t any definable elements that make the levels memorable or engaging, aside from many drops and hills. These don’t sound like such a big deal but, without a jump button, they become the constant bane of any players with a particular destination in mind. The lack of jumping is the first of a few control issues that felt niggling. The big one is the analogue stick issue. Being a FPS style game on PSP, Dinosaur Hunter maps the analogue nub to aiming with the face buttons used to move your character. I understand this was done to help with targeting sensitivity but, in an age where players are so used to using the right analogue stick to adjust aiming, this control method was a constant source of irritation. The option to aim with the face buttons would have greatly alleviated this problem, but regular console players used to dual stick controls will just have to be left out in the cold on this particular issue. The final killer to the game’s pace is speed. The movement speed of the game is slow. Too slow. Without a sprint feature or any kind of running pace, getting from A to B is a mind-numbing chore. There’s the option to relocate to different areas of the map but, without any kind of control over where you’re going, this is a poor excuse for the fast travel option this game so clearly needs.

The scale of the game is ahead of the competition, and the dinosaur AI impressive

I’ve focused a lot on the negatives so far, but that’s not to say that Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter is without positive qualities; quite the opposite in fact. The graphics have already been covered, but the sheer sense of scale is impressive for such a budget and portable title. Though the maps have their problems, they are big and expansive. Though there are pacing issues, the sheer feel of commandeering a decent hunting sim on the minis platform is pretty awesome. Not to mention the fact that the weapons, though lacking in weight and feel, offer enough variety within themselves to provide the game with a certain hidden depth. The dinosaur AI contributes to this particular element too, with your prey being able to track you with sight, sound and smell based on the direction of the wind.

There’s a lot of good to be had in Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter, especially for the price. That said, there’s just a certain something lacking. You keep slaying dinos for points and then spending them on new equipment to help you slay more reptilian ancestors for yet more points. It’s just a shame that the game’s technical successes aren’t enough to free it from the cycle of repetition that it falls into. That said, if you are a fan of the series or want a really cool mini hunting sim to distract you from time to time, Dinosaur Hunter has few enough flaws for them to be overlooked.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 3.

Beatshapers has released two new videos for their game Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter- one launch trailer and one new gameplay video. The launch trailer basically takes you through the land and shows you some dinosaurs with a moody soundtrack playing in the background. Graphics looks horrendous, honestly, but who cares when you get to see dinosaurs?

The second video, the gameplay video, shows the player wandering in a forest full of dinosaurs, and hunting those poor little things. At one point (1:04), the dinosaur the player is hunting hunts the player himself and starts chewing at his crotch.

Have a look, it might interest you.

Game feature 15 different dinosaurs across 5 distinct environments including pine forests, muddy marshes and rolling hills. How you approach your target is important: wind direction, scent and the use of a special dinosaur call are all strategically important elements in tracking your prey. If you’re not careful, it’s very easy for the hunter to become the prey!

For more on Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter please click here.

Beatshapers have announced a few updated to their PlayStation Mini game: Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter.

The updated version features:

• Better terrain rendering like in recently released Carnivores: Ice Age
• Improved controls
• New weapon sounds
• Options with sensitivity and axis inversion settings
• An exclusive weapon for minis version: Laser Rifle
• Other minor improvements

Playstation Minis game Carnivores: Ice Age has been released in European PlayStation Stores for the price 2.99 EUR / 2.49 GBP.

North American release is scheduled for 31 of August 2011 with price $3.99.

Also Beatshapers have confirmed that StarDrone Extreme will be a launch title for the PlayStation Vita.

Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter

Let’s start with Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter as you quite obviously hunt for dinosaurs.  Now I might have been a little harsh on how bad the graphics are in the intro, but they are nothing to brag about as there are TONS of games for the PSP that have graphics that blow both of these games away.  Now hunting dinosaurs sounds fun as you can use a pistol, crossbow, sniper rifle and more but it just doesn’t quite get you into it.  After a few minutes of searching for a dinosaur that you specifically pick to hunt before the level starts, you start to get bored really quick as you can’t find the dinosaur you need to kill.  Then you forget which dinosaur you were supposed to be hunting and start killing everything.  Your then out of bullets and couldn’t kill the dino you needed to even if you found it.  Maybe I am just putting a scenario up here but I would expect a lot more from the PSP. You start off a beginner hunting easier pray like herbivores and the then make your way up to the more dangerous carnivores. These meat eaters can smell you a mile away, but in windy areas you can’t take advantage. Shooting my guns sounded like a BB gun and it takes some getting used to aiming.

Moving on the Normal Tanks, where it is a top view game while you control a tank.. and I don’t know what is so normal about it. I mean you do get missiles and a machine gun but the title still boggles my mind. The game is very complex, you see, you must blow up everything in your path with out getting hit. It might take a genius to understand it. Normal Tanks was actually released for the PC a while back, and I mean a while. The heavy metal midi soundtrack for the game brought me back to the days of Doom which was cool.

Normal Tanks

All in all we here at GamingBolt don’t usually review games like this so the bottom line is that it far from being up to par with any type of game on any console in this generation, but the size and ability to download the game for cheap is a plus. Carnivores: Dinosaur Hunter costs $3.99 while Normal Tanks costs $2.99. Now the size of these game are so small that if that is a problem for you, then these games might be worth it for you as these games are never over 100MB. If your not worried about memory space, I would spend your money on something else.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 3.