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On February 7, 1497, Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola and his followers burned objects of art and pieces of literature in the public square of Florence, Italy. Decrying these objects as distractions that turn the people’s attention from God, they called the pyre “the Bonfire of the Vanities.” The phrase has been used time and again […]

The post Brian De Palma’s Most Disastrous ’90s Movie Is Now Free to Watch Online If You Dare appeared first on Den of Geek.

In the ‘90s, there was a stark line between console and PC gaming. Many games that first released on PC never received console ports (and vice versa), and most PC titles were built exclusively for a mouse and keyboard. These early PC games were also notoriously finnicky to install, and there was much less information about troubleshooting online than there is today. This was still years before YouTube and Reddit would go online.

But if you could get past those issues, the reward was cutting edge gaming. The ’90s PC gaming scene was a golden age when developers took big risks, entire genres were invented, and new titles constantly pushed graphics cards to their limits, far beyond what consoles of the time could do. These are the 15 best PC games of the ‘90s.

15. EverQuest

MMORPGs are a dime a dozen nowadays, but in 1999, the idea of an online-only 3D game where you could join guilds and adventure with other players (or fight them in PvP) was mind blowing stuff. One of the genre’s major pioneers, EverQuest, wasn’t super accessible either, given the game’s then-beefy system requirements, and how rare it was to find a reliable internet connection to even play it. These were the days when most people were still relying on AOL and dial up, after all.

But for those who could get online, EverQuest provided an addictive glimpse of the type of experiences that would dominate gaming in the coming decades. Though EverQuest’s popularity has dwindled to a fraction of what it used to be, it’s surprisingly still online, and even receives new expansions on an annual basis.

14. Unreal Tournament

Unreal Tournament wasn’t the first online FPS, but it was the first to understand just how important the competitive online component would be in these titles moving forward. Sure, there’s a barebones campaign here, but most players barely touched it. The star of Unreal Tournament was always the wealth of multiplayer options that let you tweak each match to get the exact experience you were looking for.

Add in some of the greatest deathmatch maps ever made (that continue to influence the genre to this day), and you have the recipe for one of the best and most influential first-person shooters of all time.

13. The Secret of Monkey Island

Adventure games had been a staple of PC gaming during the ‘80s, but some of the very best titles in the genre came in the following decade. This golden age kicked off in 1990 with The Secret of Monkey Island. First off, pirates are just awesome, and tend to work great in video games, and wannabe pirate Guybrush Threepwood is one of the funniest and most likable characters in all of gaming.

The Secret of Monkey Island is full of weird and wonderful scenarios, clever puzzles, and also featured some great graphics at the time. Plus, it was much more accessible than other adventure games, which tended to be crushingly difficult if you made the slightest mistake. There’s a reason why this game continues to be a huge influence on adventure games.

12. Civilization II

Is Civilization II the best in the series? Far from it, but that’s not because it wasn’t a great game during its time, it’s because the sequels built on everything it did so well. To be clear, everything here is fantastic. Civilization II is still the deepest strategy game of the ‘90s thanks to AI that vastly improved on the original game’s, and its multitude of options for both combat and diplomacy.

Even though the sequels are better, Civilization II still has its rabid fans. In 2012, one Redditor famously posted about his decade-long game where three civilizations were perpetually locked in nuclear war and climate calamity. Few games from the ‘90s have that kind of longevity. 

11. Worms Armageddon

Worms Armageddon is one of those games that just “feels” right. The game has this fantastic tone that’s both full of dread and also in love with its own absurdity. Armageddon really does seem like it could launch at any moment, but it’s just as likely to come from a Holy Hand Grenade as an air strike.

Whether the weapons are conventional or ridiculous, the physics are finely tuned. Success or failure never feels unfair, regardless of whether you’re playing multiplayer or the surprisingly deep single-player campaign. There’s a good reason why, even after multiple sequels, this is still widely considered the pinnacle of the Worms franchise.

10. Star Wars: Dark Forces

With the massive popularity of Doom in the ‘90s, all Dark Forces really needed to be a success was be a halfway decent Star Wars-skinned Doom clone, and everyone would have loved it. At first glance, that’s exactly what this classic shooter looks like, but when you actually dive into it, it’s clear that the developers were much more interested in pushing the genre forward than cranking out a cheap licensed cash-in.

Dark Forces pioneered several concepts in the FPS genre that we now take for granted, like jumping, being able to look up and down, the inclusion of puzzles and more complicated mission objectives, and levels with multiple floors. While it absolutely nails the look and sound of the Star Wars movie, those innovations made it a fan favorite even among those barely know a lightsaber from a light switch.

9. SimCity 2000

Have you ever thought you could run your town better than the people in charge? Of course you have! SimCity 2000 gave players everything they could ever want to build the city of their dreams, including schools, libraries, roads, and multiple types of power plants. Tax your citizens until they flee, or cut your budget to the bare minimum. Then there was the ability to just destroy all of your hard work with natural disasters and try to rebuild from the ground up. The options were almost limitless.

SimCity 2000 was a massive success, and since EA obtained the rights to the series, they’ve tried to reboot the series every few years. But while those games all look better, none have matched the pure gameplay bliss of this gem.

8. Diablo

Yes, Diablo II is far superior to the original, but it also came out in 2000, disqualifying it form this list. What’s remarkable about the first Diablo game is that, even though it’s a really simple action RPG, with three basic classes and far less loot than the many games it would inspire, it’s still incredibly fun and addictive.

A lot of it is the setting. The dark, foreboding atmosphere of Diablo has always helped set it apart, and made it a fan favorite from this very first release. Who knew that going to Hell could be so much fun?

7. Thief: The Dark Project

Thief is one of those games that made a lot of people completely rethink what could be accomplished in the medium. Sure, screenshots made this look like another first-person shooter (hardly an anomaly in the late ‘90s), but the actual stealth gameplay was far ahead of anything else on the market at the time. You didn’t want to confront enemies head on. Instead, the key to progressing was stealth, hiding in the shadows, and using distractions to your advantage.

These ideas went on to the influence other fan-favorite series, such as Hitman and Splinter Cell, and then appeared in all sorts of other genres as well to varying degrees of success. As hugely influential as Thief was, developer Looking Glass Studios went out of business in 2000, and later sequels from other developers didn’t have anywhere near the same impact or success as the first game.

6. Planescape: Torment

You might think that the original Baldur’s Gate would be on this list. Sure, that was a great CRPG from the ‘90s, but the lesser known Planescape: Torment actually runs circles around it when it comes to setting and gameplay, even if the two titles share a lot of similarities and even run on the same basic engine.

Planescape: Torment is just a much more unique game, exploring some of the darker, more bizarre worlds of Dungeons & Dragons. The reduced emphasis on combat was a welcome new approach for the genre, especially considering just how well-written every last line of dialogue is, and how many different directions the story can go in.

5. Quake II

With monumental releases like Wolfenstein 3D and Doom under its belt, id Software was at the height of its powers in the ‘90s. The legendary developers simply could not do any wrong. All the work they put into the first-person shooter genre ultimately culminated in Quake II. At the time of release, the 3D graphics were among the most advanced ever seen.

More importantly, the gameplay backed it up. The game was fast, smooth, and challenging, with a lengthy single-player campaign. Once you got through that, it was time to take things online with one of the best multiplayer shooters of the decade. Even now, Quake II holds up surprisingly well if you can find a few other gamers willing to play it online.

4. System Shock 2

System Shock 2 was one of the first FPS titles that realized the view could be used for more than just shooting. This is an early sci-fi horror masterpiece that will disturb you just as often as it will give you something to fire a weapon at. On top of that, it still has tons of RPG customization, another rarity in the genre at the time.

Though originally released in 1999, System Shock 2 almost feels like it could be a game from the 2020s with a few tweaks. This was a wildly ambitious game that years ahead of its time. Unfortunately, as is often the case, that meant the public at large didn’t quite know what to make of it, and early sales were low, even if critics loved it. At least it’s received a lot more attention over the last couple of decades, and a remake is currently in the works.

3. Fallout 2

The original Fallout was a fantastic introduction to the Wasteland and its many weird inhabitants. The second game is even better, even if it doesn’t change a whole lot from the first. Though it lacks the 3D graphics of newer Fallout games, it still features many of the gameplay ideas that are present in modern entries.

The name of the game isn’t so much combat as it is finding unique ways to complete each quest. Usually that means using your head, or talking your way out of trouble. This is some of the best apocalyptic old-school role-playing around.

2. StarCraft

Real-time strategy games were a PC staple for much of the ‘90s, but StarCraft is still widely considered the very best of these titles. The brilliance of StarCraft is in its balance. Sure, there are similarities between the game’s three playable races, but each of them have their own unique units, strengths, and weaknesses that ensure no one side has an advantage over the others.

StarCraft is so perfectly designed that it became one of the first to garner a sizable professional community, particularly in South Korea where top players were full-on celebrities in the 2000s. Even now, it’s highly debatable whether another RTS (including StarCraft II) is as well designed as this classic.

1. Half-Life

As innovative and eclectic as PC games were in the ‘90s, there was still only ever going to be one title at the top this list. Half-Life wasn’t just a tremendous first-person shooter, it was a landmark title that moved the entire industry forward and established Valve as a powerhouse developer that basically runs the PC game market to this day with Steam.

The genius of Half-Life is how the shooting takes a backseat to the storytelling. Scripted scenes are overused now, but no other game had leveraged them as well before, or told a story that was so compelling. You really couldn’t wait to see what would happen to Gordon Freeman next. Hell, we still want to know what happens to him next, though Half-Life 3 seems as elusive as ever after all these years.

The post 15 Best PC Games of the ’90s appeared first on Den of Geek.

Vertical lines and black and white stripes. Sullen expressions and pallid skin tones. Disheveled hair and often handcrafted special effects. There are certain staples and motifs that recur in the works of Tim Burton. So much so that 40 years after his directorial career began, Burton’s films remain instantly recognizable and a good gateway to […]

The post Every Tim Burton Movie Ranked From Worst to Best appeared first on Den of Geek.

In the ‘90s, there was a stark line between console and PC gaming. Many games that first released on PC never received console ports (and vice versa), and most PC titles were built exclusively for a mouse and keyboard. These early PC games were also notoriously finnicky to install, and there was much less information about troubleshooting online than there is today. This was still years before YouTube and Reddit would go online.

But if you could get past those issues, the reward was cutting edge gaming. The ’90s PC gaming scene was a golden age when developers took big risks, entire genres were invented, and new titles constantly pushed graphics cards to their limits, far beyond what consoles of the time could do. These are the 15 best PC games of the ‘90s.

15. EverQuest

MMORPGs are a dime a dozen nowadays, but in 1999, the idea of an online-only 3D game where you could join guilds and adventure with other players (or fight them in PvP) was mind blowing stuff. One of the genre’s major pioneers, EverQuest, wasn’t super accessible either, given the game’s then-beefy system requirements, and how rare it was to find a reliable internet connection to even play it. These were the days when most people were still relying on AOL and dial up, after all.

But for those who could get online, EverQuest provided an addictive glimpse of the type of experiences that would dominate gaming in the coming decades. Though EverQuest’s popularity has dwindled to a fraction of what it used to be, it’s surprisingly still online, and even receives new expansions on an annual basis.

14. Unreal Tournament

Unreal Tournament wasn’t the first online FPS, but it was the first to understand just how important the competitive online component would be in these titles moving forward. Sure, there’s a barebones campaign here, but most players barely touched it. The star of Unreal Tournament was always the wealth of multiplayer options that let you tweak each match to get the exact experience you were looking for.

Add in some of the greatest deathmatch maps ever made (that continue to influence the genre to this day), and you have the recipe for one of the best and most influential first-person shooters of all time.

13. The Secret of Monkey Island

Adventure games had been a staple of PC gaming during the ‘80s, but some of the very best titles in the genre came in the following decade. This golden age kicked off in 1990 with The Secret of Monkey Island. First off, pirates are just awesome, and tend to work great in video games, and wannabe pirate Guybrush Threepwood is one of the funniest and most likable characters in all of gaming.

The Secret of Monkey Island is full of weird and wonderful scenarios, clever puzzles, and also featured some great graphics at the time. Plus, it was much more accessible than other adventure games, which tended to be crushingly difficult if you made the slightest mistake. There’s a reason why this game continues to be a huge influence on adventure games.

12. Civilization II

Is Civilization II the best in the series? Far from it, but that’s not because it wasn’t a great game during its time, it’s because the sequels built on everything it did so well. To be clear, everything here is fantastic. Civilization II is still the deepest strategy game of the ‘90s thanks to AI that vastly improved on the original game’s, and its multitude of options for both combat and diplomacy.

Even though the sequels are better, Civilization II still has its rabid fans. In 2012, one Redditor famously posted about his decade-long game where three civilizations were perpetually locked in nuclear war and climate calamity. Few games from the ‘90s have that kind of longevity. 

11. Worms Armageddon

Worms Armageddon is one of those games that just “feels” right. The game has this fantastic tone that’s both full of dread and also in love with its own absurdity. Armageddon really does seem like it could launch at any moment, but it’s just as likely to come from a Holy Hand Grenade as an air strike.

Whether the weapons are conventional or ridiculous, the physics are finely tuned. Success or failure never feels unfair, regardless of whether you’re playing multiplayer or the surprisingly deep single-player campaign. There’s a good reason why, even after multiple sequels, this is still widely considered the pinnacle of the Worms franchise.

10. Star Wars: Dark Forces

With the massive popularity of Doom in the ‘90s, all Dark Forces really needed to be a success was be a halfway decent Star Wars-skinned Doom clone, and everyone would have loved it. At first glance, that’s exactly what this classic shooter looks like, but when you actually dive into it, it’s clear that the developers were much more interested in pushing the genre forward than cranking out a cheap licensed cash-in.

Dark Forces pioneered several concepts in the FPS genre that we now take for granted, like jumping, being able to look up and down, the inclusion of puzzles and more complicated mission objectives, and levels with multiple floors. While it absolutely nails the look and sound of the Star Wars movie, those innovations made it a fan favorite even among those barely know a lightsaber from a light switch.

9. SimCity 2000

Have you ever thought you could run your town better than the people in charge? Of course you have! SimCity 2000 gave players everything they could ever want to build the city of their dreams, including schools, libraries, roads, and multiple types of power plants. Tax your citizens until they flee, or cut your budget to the bare minimum. Then there was the ability to just destroy all of your hard work with natural disasters and try to rebuild from the ground up. The options were almost limitless.

SimCity 2000 was a massive success, and since EA obtained the rights to the series, they’ve tried to reboot the series every few years. But while those games all look better, none have matched the pure gameplay bliss of this gem.

8. Diablo

Yes, Diablo II is far superior to the original, but it also came out in 2000, disqualifying it form this list. What’s remarkable about the first Diablo game is that, even though it’s a really simple action RPG, with three basic classes and far less loot than the many games it would inspire, it’s still incredibly fun and addictive.

A lot of it is the setting. The dark, foreboding atmosphere of Diablo has always helped set it apart, and made it a fan favorite from this very first release. Who knew that going to Hell could be so much fun?

7. Thief: The Dark Project

Thief is one of those games that made a lot of people completely rethink what could be accomplished in the medium. Sure, screenshots made this look like another first-person shooter (hardly an anomaly in the late ‘90s), but the actual stealth gameplay was far ahead of anything else on the market at the time. You didn’t want to confront enemies head on. Instead, the key to progressing was stealth, hiding in the shadows, and using distractions to your advantage.

These ideas went on to the influence other fan-favorite series, such as Hitman and Splinter Cell, and then appeared in all sorts of other genres as well to varying degrees of success. As hugely influential as Thief was, developer Looking Glass Studios went out of business in 2000, and later sequels from other developers didn’t have anywhere near the same impact or success as the first game.

6. Planescape: Torment

You might think that the original Baldur’s Gate would be on this list. Sure, that was a great CRPG from the ‘90s, but the lesser known Planescape: Torment actually runs circles around it when it comes to setting and gameplay, even if the two titles share a lot of similarities and even run on the same basic engine.

Planescape: Torment is just a much more unique game, exploring some of the darker, more bizarre worlds of Dungeons & Dragons. The reduced emphasis on combat was a welcome new approach for the genre, especially considering just how well-written every last line of dialogue is, and how many different directions the story can go in.

5. Quake II

With monumental releases like Wolfenstein 3D and Doom under its belt, id Software was at the height of its powers in the ‘90s. The legendary developers simply could not do any wrong. All the work they put into the first-person shooter genre ultimately culminated in Quake II. At the time of release, the 3D graphics were among the most advanced ever seen.

More importantly, the gameplay backed it up. The game was fast, smooth, and challenging, with a lengthy single-player campaign. Once you got through that, it was time to take things online with one of the best multiplayer shooters of the decade. Even now, Quake II holds up surprisingly well if you can find a few other gamers willing to play it online.

4. System Shock 2

System Shock 2 was one of the first FPS titles that realized the view could be used for more than just shooting. This is an early sci-fi horror masterpiece that will disturb you just as often as it will give you something to fire a weapon at. On top of that, it still has tons of RPG customization, another rarity in the genre at the time.

Though originally released in 1999, System Shock 2 almost feels like it could be a game from the 2020s with a few tweaks. This was a wildly ambitious game that years ahead of its time. Unfortunately, as is often the case, that meant the public at large didn’t quite know what to make of it, and early sales were low, even if critics loved it. At least it’s received a lot more attention over the last couple of decades, and a remake is currently in the works.

3. Fallout 2

The original Fallout was a fantastic introduction to the Wasteland and its many weird inhabitants. The second game is even better, even if it doesn’t change a whole lot from the first. Though it lacks the 3D graphics of newer Fallout games, it still features many of the gameplay ideas that are present in modern entries.

The name of the game isn’t so much combat as it is finding unique ways to complete each quest. Usually that means using your head, or talking your way out of trouble. This is some of the best apocalyptic old-school role-playing around.

2. StarCraft

Real-time strategy games were a PC staple for much of the ‘90s, but StarCraft is still widely considered the very best of these titles. The brilliance of StarCraft is in its balance. Sure, there are similarities between the game’s three playable races, but each of them have their own unique units, strengths, and weaknesses that ensure no one side has an advantage over the others.

StarCraft is so perfectly designed that it became one of the first to garner a sizable professional community, particularly in South Korea where top players were full-on celebrities in the 2000s. Even now, it’s highly debatable whether another RTS (including StarCraft II) is as well designed as this classic.

1. Half-Life

As innovative and eclectic as PC games were in the ‘90s, there was still only ever going to be one title at the top this list. Half-Life wasn’t just a tremendous first-person shooter, it was a landmark title that moved the entire industry forward and established Valve as a powerhouse developer that basically runs the PC game market to this day with Steam.

The genius of Half-Life is how the shooting takes a backseat to the storytelling. Scripted scenes are overused now, but no other game had leveraged them as well before, or told a story that was so compelling. You really couldn’t wait to see what would happen to Gordon Freeman next. Hell, we still want to know what happens to him next, though Half-Life 3 seems as elusive as ever after all these years.

The post 15 Best PC Games of the ’90s appeared first on Den of Geek.

In the ‘90s, there was a stark line between console and PC gaming. Many games that first released on PC never received console ports (and vice versa), and most PC titles were built exclusively for a mouse and keyboard. These early PC games were also notoriously finnicky to install, and there was much less information […]

The post 15 Best PC Games of the ’90s appeared first on Den of Geek.

In the ‘90s, there was a stark line between console and PC gaming. Many games that first released on PC never received console ports (and vice versa), and most PC titles were built exclusively for a mouse and keyboard. These early PC games were also notoriously finnicky to install, and there was much less information about troubleshooting online than there is today. This was still years before YouTube and Reddit would go online.

But if you could get past those issues, the reward was cutting edge gaming. The ’90s PC gaming scene was a golden age when developers took big risks, entire genres were invented, and new titles constantly pushed graphics cards to their limits, far beyond what consoles of the time could do. These are the 15 best PC games of the ‘90s.

15. EverQuest

MMORPGs are a dime a dozen nowadays, but in 1999, the idea of an online-only 3D game where you could join guilds and adventure with other players (or fight them in PvP) was mind blowing stuff. One of the genre’s major pioneers, EverQuest, wasn’t super accessible either, given the game’s then-beefy system requirements, and how rare it was to find a reliable internet connection to even play it. These were the days when most people were still relying on AOL and dial up, after all.

But for those who could get online, EverQuest provided an addictive glimpse of the type of experiences that would dominate gaming in the coming decades. Though EverQuest’s popularity has dwindled to a fraction of what it used to be, it’s surprisingly still online, and even receives new expansions on an annual basis.

14. Unreal Tournament

Unreal Tournament wasn’t the first online FPS, but it was the first to understand just how important the competitive online component would be in these titles moving forward. Sure, there’s a barebones campaign here, but most players barely touched it. The star of Unreal Tournament was always the wealth of multiplayer options that let you tweak each match to get the exact experience you were looking for.

Add in some of the greatest deathmatch maps ever made (that continue to influence the genre to this day), and you have the recipe for one of the best and most influential first-person shooters of all time.

13. The Secret of Monkey Island

Adventure games had been a staple of PC gaming during the ‘80s, but some of the very best titles in the genre came in the following decade. This golden age kicked off in 1990 with The Secret of Monkey Island. First off, pirates are just awesome, and tend to work great in video games, and wannabe pirate Guybrush Threepwood is one of the funniest and most likable characters in all of gaming.

The Secret of Monkey Island is full of weird and wonderful scenarios, clever puzzles, and also featured some great graphics at the time. Plus, it was much more accessible than other adventure games, which tended to be crushingly difficult if you made the slightest mistake. There’s a reason why this game continues to be a huge influence on adventure games.

12. Civilization II

Is Civilization II the best in the series? Far from it, but that’s not because it wasn’t a great game during its time, it’s because the sequels built on everything it did so well. To be clear, everything here is fantastic. Civilization II is still the deepest strategy game of the ‘90s thanks to AI that vastly improved on the original game’s, and its multitude of options for both combat and diplomacy.

Even though the sequels are better, Civilization II still has its rabid fans. In 2012, one Redditor famously posted about his decade-long game where three civilizations were perpetually locked in nuclear war and climate calamity. Few games from the ‘90s have that kind of longevity. 

11. Worms Armageddon

Worms Armageddon is one of those games that just “feels” right. The game has this fantastic tone that’s both full of dread and also in love with its own absurdity. Armageddon really does seem like it could launch at any moment, but it’s just as likely to come from a Holy Hand Grenade as an air strike.

Whether the weapons are conventional or ridiculous, the physics are finely tuned. Success or failure never feels unfair, regardless of whether you’re playing multiplayer or the surprisingly deep single-player campaign. There’s a good reason why, even after multiple sequels, this is still widely considered the pinnacle of the Worms franchise.

10. Star Wars: Dark Forces

With the massive popularity of Doom in the ‘90s, all Dark Forces really needed to be a success was be a halfway decent Star Wars-skinned Doom clone, and everyone would have loved it. At first glance, that’s exactly what this classic shooter looks like, but when you actually dive into it, it’s clear that the developers were much more interested in pushing the genre forward than cranking out a cheap licensed cash-in.

Dark Forces pioneered several concepts in the FPS genre that we now take for granted, like jumping, being able to look up and down, the inclusion of puzzles and more complicated mission objectives, and levels with multiple floors. While it absolutely nails the look and sound of the Star Wars movie, those innovations made it a fan favorite even among those barely know a lightsaber from a light switch.

9. SimCity 2000

Have you ever thought you could run your town better than the people in charge? Of course you have! SimCity 2000 gave players everything they could ever want to build the city of their dreams, including schools, libraries, roads, and multiple types of power plants. Tax your citizens until they flee, or cut your budget to the bare minimum. Then there was the ability to just destroy all of your hard work with natural disasters and try to rebuild from the ground up. The options were almost limitless.

SimCity 2000 was a massive success, and since EA obtained the rights to the series, they’ve tried to reboot the series every few years. But while those games all look better, none have matched the pure gameplay bliss of this gem.

8. Diablo

Yes, Diablo II is far superior to the original, but it also came out in 2000, disqualifying it form this list. What’s remarkable about the first Diablo game is that, even though it’s a really simple action RPG, with three basic classes and far less loot than the many games it would inspire, it’s still incredibly fun and addictive.

A lot of it is the setting. The dark, foreboding atmosphere of Diablo has always helped set it apart, and made it a fan favorite from this very first release. Who knew that going to Hell could be so much fun?

7. Thief: The Dark Project

Thief is one of those games that made a lot of people completely rethink what could be accomplished in the medium. Sure, screenshots made this look like another first-person shooter (hardly an anomaly in the late ‘90s), but the actual stealth gameplay was far ahead of anything else on the market at the time. You didn’t want to confront enemies head on. Instead, the key to progressing was stealth, hiding in the shadows, and using distractions to your advantage.

These ideas went on to the influence other fan-favorite series, such as Hitman and Splinter Cell, and then appeared in all sorts of other genres as well to varying degrees of success. As hugely influential as Thief was, developer Looking Glass Studios went out of business in 2000, and later sequels from other developers didn’t have anywhere near the same impact or success as the first game.

6. Planescape: Torment

You might think that the original Baldur’s Gate would be on this list. Sure, that was a great CRPG from the ‘90s, but the lesser known Planescape: Torment actually runs circles around it when it comes to setting and gameplay, even if the two titles share a lot of similarities and even run on the same basic engine.

Planescape: Torment is just a much more unique game, exploring some of the darker, more bizarre worlds of Dungeons & Dragons. The reduced emphasis on combat was a welcome new approach for the genre, especially considering just how well-written every last line of dialogue is, and how many different directions the story can go in.

5. Quake II

With monumental releases like Wolfenstein 3D and Doom under its belt, id Software was at the height of its powers in the ‘90s. The legendary developers simply could not do any wrong. All the work they put into the first-person shooter genre ultimately culminated in Quake II. At the time of release, the 3D graphics were among the most advanced ever seen.

More importantly, the gameplay backed it up. The game was fast, smooth, and challenging, with a lengthy single-player campaign. Once you got through that, it was time to take things online with one of the best multiplayer shooters of the decade. Even now, Quake II holds up surprisingly well if you can find a few other gamers willing to play it online.

4. System Shock 2

System Shock 2 was one of the first FPS titles that realized the view could be used for more than just shooting. This is an early sci-fi horror masterpiece that will disturb you just as often as it will give you something to fire a weapon at. On top of that, it still has tons of RPG customization, another rarity in the genre at the time.

Though originally released in 1999, System Shock 2 almost feels like it could be a game from the 2020s with a few tweaks. This was a wildly ambitious game that years ahead of its time. Unfortunately, as is often the case, that meant the public at large didn’t quite know what to make of it, and early sales were low, even if critics loved it. At least it’s received a lot more attention over the last couple of decades, and a remake is currently in the works.

3. Fallout 2

The original Fallout was a fantastic introduction to the Wasteland and its many weird inhabitants. The second game is even better, even if it doesn’t change a whole lot from the first. Though it lacks the 3D graphics of newer Fallout games, it still features many of the gameplay ideas that are present in modern entries.

The name of the game isn’t so much combat as it is finding unique ways to complete each quest. Usually that means using your head, or talking your way out of trouble. This is some of the best apocalyptic old-school role-playing around.

2. StarCraft

Real-time strategy games were a PC staple for much of the ‘90s, but StarCraft is still widely considered the very best of these titles. The brilliance of StarCraft is in its balance. Sure, there are similarities between the game’s three playable races, but each of them have their own unique units, strengths, and weaknesses that ensure no one side has an advantage over the others.

StarCraft is so perfectly designed that it became one of the first to garner a sizable professional community, particularly in South Korea where top players were full-on celebrities in the 2000s. Even now, it’s highly debatable whether another RTS (including StarCraft II) is as well designed as this classic.

1. Half-Life

As innovative and eclectic as PC games were in the ‘90s, there was still only ever going to be one title at the top this list. Half-Life wasn’t just a tremendous first-person shooter, it was a landmark title that moved the entire industry forward and established Valve as a powerhouse developer that basically runs the PC game market to this day with Steam.

The genius of Half-Life is how the shooting takes a backseat to the storytelling. Scripted scenes are overused now, but no other game had leveraged them as well before, or told a story that was so compelling. You really couldn’t wait to see what would happen to Gordon Freeman next. Hell, we still want to know what happens to him next, though Half-Life 3 seems as elusive as ever after all these years.

The post 15 Best PC Games of the ’90s appeared first on Den of Geek.

In 2018, a Buffy the Vampire Slayer revival was announced by Deadline as in-development by original creator Joss Whedon and writer-producer and Midnight Texas creator, Agents of SHIELD and Fringe writer Monica Owusu Breen. That didn’t happen, and in the years that followed, it became clear that a new Buffy involving Whedon was not the […]

The post Sarah Michelle Gellar Promises Buffy Revival Will Only Happen “If We Know We Can Do It Right” appeared first on Den of Geek.

Most people watching the first trailer for Jurassic World: Rebirth certainly noticed a shot of a T-rex skeleton in the park visitors center, with a bold banner behind it. The banner, which reads, “When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth,” seems to be coming down, which at first seems like a callback to the ending of the first movie.

But in an interview with Vanity Fair, producer Frank Marshall provides some context for the image. It’s not an echo of the triumphant scene from the original movie, showing that dinosaurs rule the earth once again. “Well, the banner’s coming down again,” Marshall explained. “[Actor] Jonny Bailey’s a scientist at a museum that’s closing up their dinosaur exhibit.”

For Marshall, the closing down of the exhibit is a perfect example of the pitch from Rebirth screenwriter David Koepp, who also wrote the scripts for Jurassic Park and The Lost World: Jurassic Park.

“He came up with this idea that dinosaurs were passé now. People were tired of them. They were an inconvenience,” explained Marshall. “People weren’t going to museums to see them or to petting zoos. They were just in the way.”

Although Marshall describes the idea as a radical shift, it actually sounds very familiar to anyone who saw the last big franchise reboot, Jurassic World. In that movie, we see teens bored with dinosaurs and Claire Dearing explicitly says that dinosaurs don’t wow people anymore.

The solution to this problem that Koepp, Marshall, and director Gareth Edwards came up with for Jurassic World: Rebirth also feels familiar. Instead of just relying on traditional T-rexes and spinosauruses, Rebirth will feature mutant dinosaurs, hybrids that were kept hidden from the public. At least one of these mutants is featured in the first trailer for the film, the so-called “D-rex.”

Marshall and Edwards talk a good game hyping up their creations. “These are the dinosaurs that didn’t work. There’s some mutations in there. They’re all based on real dinosaur research, but they look a little different,” said Marshall. Edwards compared the creatures to classic movie monsters, telling VF, “Some Rancor went in there, some H.R. Giger went in there, a little T. rex went in there…”

Yet, for all of their pride in the ideas, these creators don’t seem to acknowledge that the Jurassic Park franchise has tried mutant dinosaurs quite a lot, and it’s never really worked. Jurassic World introduced a super-predator with the Indominus rex, a mixture of T-rex and velociraptor that operated more like a b-horror baddie than anything in the previous films. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom hinged its emotional stakes on the idea that research into dino cloning would allow for human cloning. The follow-up Jurassic World: Dominion took it further, presenting mutations in the form of giant locusts.

Even before any of these reboots, Marshall and others at Universal had mutants on the mind. An early treatment for Jurassic Park IV featured human/dinosaur hybrids created for the military.

On one hand, the mutant focus makes sense. After all, cloning and experimentation is at the heart of the Jurassic Park premise, including the majestic “Life finds a way” theme of the first movie. It follows that duplicitous corporations would try to alter Dino DNA to make more money.

But it misunderstands the other half of the Jurassic Park premise. Spielberg, a master of cinematic awe, loved dinosaurs and translated that into his work. He found ways of making dinosaurs look amazing and powerful and gentle and beautiful, not just because he thought audiences would like dinosaurs, but because he loved them and translated that into the movie.

Maybe instead of mutants and hybrids, Jurassic Park movies should just focus on awe and adventure, making us feel once again welcome to the park.

Jurassic World: Rebirth hits theaters on July 2, 2025.

The post Jurassic World Rebirth Looks Doomed to Repeat the Sequels’ Worst Mistake appeared first on Den of Geek.

It’s always a big deal when Captain America says, “Avengers Assemble.” It took four Avengers movies before Steve Rogers said it at the end of Endgame, and who knows how long it will be before his successor Sam Wilson gets to utter the famous line, given that he’s just now getting his own film with […]

The post Captain America 4’s Anthony Mackie Knows the Marvel Heroes He Wants on His Avengers appeared first on Den of Geek.

Most people watching the first trailer for Jurassic World: Rebirth certainly noticed a shot of a T-rex skeleton in the park visitors center, with a bold banner behind it. The banner, which reads, “When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth,” seems to be coming down, which at first seems like a callback to the ending of the first movie.

But in an interview with Vanity Fair, producer Frank Marshall provides some context for the image. It’s not an echo of the triumphant scene from the original movie, showing that dinosaurs rule the earth once again. “Well, the banner’s coming down again,” Marshall explained. “[Actor] Jonny Bailey’s a scientist at a museum that’s closing up their dinosaur exhibit.”

For Marshall, the closing down of the exhibit is a perfect example of the pitch from Rebirth screenwriter David Koepp, who also wrote the scripts for Jurassic Park and The Lost World: Jurassic Park.

“He came up with this idea that dinosaurs were passé now. People were tired of them. They were an inconvenience,” explained Marshall. “People weren’t going to museums to see them or to petting zoos. They were just in the way.”

Although Marshall describes the idea as a radical shift, it actually sounds very familiar to anyone who saw the last big franchise reboot, Jurassic World. In that movie, we see teens bored with dinosaurs and Claire Dearing explicitly says that dinosaurs don’t wow people anymore.

The solution to this problem that Koepp, Marshall, and director Gareth Edwards came up with for Jurassic World: Rebirth also feels familiar. Instead of just relying on traditional T-rexes and spinosauruses, Rebirth will feature mutant dinosaurs, hybrids that were kept hidden from the public. At least one of these mutants is featured in the first trailer for the film, the so-called “D-rex.”

Marshall and Edwards talk a good game hyping up their creations. “These are the dinosaurs that didn’t work. There’s some mutations in there. They’re all based on real dinosaur research, but they look a little different,” said Marshall. Edwards compared the creatures to classic movie monsters, telling VF, “Some Rancor went in there, some H.R. Giger went in there, a little T. rex went in there…”

Yet, for all of their pride in the ideas, these creators don’t seem to acknowledge that the Jurassic Park franchise has tried mutant dinosaurs quite a lot, and it’s never really worked. Jurassic World introduced a super-predator with the Indominus rex, a mixture of T-rex and velociraptor that operated more like a b-horror baddie than anything in the previous films. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom hinged its emotional stakes on the idea that research into dino cloning would allow for human cloning. The follow-up Jurassic World: Dominion took it further, presenting mutations in the form of giant locusts.

Even before any of these reboots, Marshall and others at Universal had mutants on the mind. An early treatment for Jurassic Park IV featured human/dinosaur hybrids created for the military.

On one hand, the mutant focus makes sense. After all, cloning and experimentation is at the heart of the Jurassic Park premise, including the majestic “Life finds a way” theme of the first movie. It follows that duplicitous corporations would try to alter Dino DNA to make more money.

But it misunderstands the other half of the Jurassic Park premise. Spielberg, a master of cinematic awe, loved dinosaurs and translated that into his work. He found ways of making dinosaurs look amazing and powerful and gentle and beautiful, not just because he thought audiences would like dinosaurs, but because he loved them and translated that into the movie.

Maybe instead of mutants and hybrids, Jurassic Park movies should just focus on awe and adventure, making us feel once again welcome to the park.

Jurassic World: Rebirth hits theaters on July 2, 2025.

The post Jurassic World Rebirth Looks Doomed to Repeat the Sequels’ Worst Mistake appeared first on Den of Geek.

While we’re all wringing our hands about the identity of the next James Bond, a new video has resurfaced online showing a potential 007 of the past. The clip from 2006 shows Henry Cavill running through lines from GoldenEye as part of a screen test for Casino Royale. Cavill’s lines recreate the first meeting between […]

The post Henry Cavill’s James Bond Audition Tape Is a Great Look at What Could Have Been appeared first on Den of Geek.

Most people watching the first trailer for Jurassic World: Rebirth certainly noticed a shot of a T-rex skeleton in the park visitors center, with a bold banner behind it. The banner, which reads, “When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth,” seems to be coming down, which at first seems like a callback to the ending of the first movie.

But in an interview with Vanity Fair, producer Frank Marshall provides some context for the image. It’s not an echo of the triumphant scene from the original movie, showing that dinosaurs rule the earth once again. “Well, the banner’s coming down again,” Marshall explained. “[Actor] Jonny Bailey’s a scientist at a museum that’s closing up their dinosaur exhibit.”

For Marshall, the closing down of the exhibit is a perfect example of the pitch from Rebirth screenwriter David Koepp, who also wrote the scripts for Jurassic Park and The Lost World: Jurassic Park.

“He came up with this idea that dinosaurs were passé now. People were tired of them. They were an inconvenience,” explained Marshall. “People weren’t going to museums to see them or to petting zoos. They were just in the way.”

Although Marshall describes the idea as a radical shift, it actually sounds very familiar to anyone who saw the last big franchise reboot, Jurassic World. In that movie, we see teens bored with dinosaurs and Claire Dearing explicitly says that dinosaurs don’t wow people anymore.

The solution to this problem that Koepp, Marshall, and director Gareth Edwards came up with for Jurassic World: Rebirth also feels familiar. Instead of just relying on traditional T-rexes and spinosauruses, Rebirth will feature mutant dinosaurs, hybrids that were kept hidden from the public. At least one of these mutants is featured in the first trailer for the film, the so-called “D-rex.”

Marshall and Edwards talk a good game hyping up their creations. “These are the dinosaurs that didn’t work. There’s some mutations in there. They’re all based on real dinosaur research, but they look a little different,” said Marshall. Edwards compared the creatures to classic movie monsters, telling VF, “Some Rancor went in there, some H.R. Giger went in there, a little T. rex went in there…”

Yet, for all of their pride in the ideas, these creators don’t seem to acknowledge that the Jurassic Park franchise has tried mutant dinosaurs quite a lot, and it’s never really worked. Jurassic World introduced a super-predator with the Indominus rex, a mixture of T-rex and velociraptor that operated more like a b-horror baddie than anything in the previous films. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom hinged its emotional stakes on the idea that research into dino cloning would allow for human cloning. The follow-up Jurassic World: Dominion took it further, presenting mutations in the form of giant locusts.

Even before any of these reboots, Marshall and others at Universal had mutants on the mind. An early treatment for Jurassic Park IV featured human/dinosaur hybrids created for the military.

On one hand, the mutant focus makes sense. After all, cloning and experimentation is at the heart of the Jurassic Park premise, including the majestic “Life finds a way” theme of the first movie. It follows that duplicitous corporations would try to alter Dino DNA to make more money.

But it misunderstands the other half of the Jurassic Park premise. Spielberg, a master of cinematic awe, loved dinosaurs and translated that into his work. He found ways of making dinosaurs look amazing and powerful and gentle and beautiful, not just because he thought audiences would like dinosaurs, but because he loved them and translated that into the movie.

Maybe instead of mutants and hybrids, Jurassic Park movies should just focus on awe and adventure, making us feel once again welcome to the park.

Jurassic World: Rebirth hits theaters on July 2, 2025.

The post Jurassic World Rebirth Looks Doomed to Repeat the Sequels’ Worst Mistake appeared first on Den of Geek.

Marvel action figures are a dime a dozen. Whatever your price point, collection size, shelf space, you name it, there is a Marvel figure out there somewhere for you. But if you’re looking for something genuinely deluxe that stands above the rest—the cream of the crop, if you will—look no further than Hot Toys, and […]

The post The Best Marvel Hot Toys of All Time appeared first on Den of Geek.

Most people watching the first trailer for Jurassic World: Rebirth certainly noticed a shot of a T-rex skeleton in the park visitors center, with a bold banner behind it. The banner, which reads, “When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth,” seems to be coming down, which at first seems like a callback to the ending of the first movie.

But in an interview with Vanity Fair, producer Frank Marshall provides some context for the image. It’s not an echo of the triumphant scene from the original movie, showing that dinosaurs rule the earth once again. “Well, the banner’s coming down again,” Marshall explained. “[Actor] Jonny Bailey’s a scientist at a museum that’s closing up their dinosaur exhibit.”

For Marshall, the closing down of the exhibit is a perfect example of the pitch from Rebirth screenwriter David Koepp, who also wrote the scripts for Jurassic Park and The Lost World: Jurassic Park.

“He came up with this idea that dinosaurs were passé now. People were tired of them. They were an inconvenience,” explained Marshall. “People weren’t going to museums to see them or to petting zoos. They were just in the way.”

Although Marshall describes the idea as a radical shift, it actually sounds very familiar to anyone who saw the last big franchise reboot, Jurassic World. In that movie, we see teens bored with dinosaurs and Claire Dearing explicitly says that dinosaurs don’t wow people anymore.

The solution to this problem that Koepp, Marshall, and director Gareth Edwards came up with for Jurassic World: Rebirth also feels familiar. Instead of just relying on traditional T-rexes and spinosauruses, Rebirth will feature mutant dinosaurs, hybrids that were kept hidden from the public. At least one of these mutants is featured in the first trailer for the film, the so-called “D-rex.”

Marshall and Edwards talk a good game hyping up their creations. “These are the dinosaurs that didn’t work. There’s some mutations in there. They’re all based on real dinosaur research, but they look a little different,” said Marshall. Edwards compared the creatures to classic movie monsters, telling VF, “Some Rancor went in there, some H.R. Giger went in there, a little T. rex went in there…”

Yet, for all of their pride in the ideas, these creators don’t seem to acknowledge that the Jurassic Park franchise has tried mutant dinosaurs quite a lot, and it’s never really worked. Jurassic World introduced a super-predator with the Indominus rex, a mixture of T-rex and velociraptor that operated more like a b-horror baddie than anything in the previous films. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom hinged its emotional stakes on the idea that research into dino cloning would allow for human cloning. The follow-up Jurassic World: Dominion took it further, presenting mutations in the form of giant locusts.

Even before any of these reboots, Marshall and others at Universal had mutants on the mind. An early treatment for Jurassic Park IV featured human/dinosaur hybrids created for the military.

On one hand, the mutant focus makes sense. After all, cloning and experimentation is at the heart of the Jurassic Park premise, including the majestic “Life finds a way” theme of the first movie. It follows that duplicitous corporations would try to alter Dino DNA to make more money.

But it misunderstands the other half of the Jurassic Park premise. Spielberg, a master of cinematic awe, loved dinosaurs and translated that into his work. He found ways of making dinosaurs look amazing and powerful and gentle and beautiful, not just because he thought audiences would like dinosaurs, but because he loved them and translated that into the movie.

Maybe instead of mutants and hybrids, Jurassic Park movies should just focus on awe and adventure, making us feel once again welcome to the park.

Jurassic World: Rebirth hits theaters on July 2, 2025.

The post Jurassic World Rebirth Looks Doomed to Repeat the Sequels’ Worst Mistake appeared first on Den of Geek.

The entertainment heralds from VIZIO WatchFree+ have queued up a month’s worth of free Hollywood blockbusters to keep your binge list overflowing in February! WatchFree+ has thousands of free premium movies and shows that can be streamed on demand on VIZIO TVs, or anyone can enjoy titles like these and more using the VIZIO mobile […]

The post Link Tank: Vizio Announces Free Blockbuster Offerings in February on WatchFree+  appeared first on Den of Geek.

Most people watching the first trailer for Jurassic World: Rebirth certainly noticed a shot of a T-rex skeleton in the park visitors center, with a bold banner behind it. The banner, which reads, “When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth,” seems to be coming down, which at first seems like a callback to the ending of the first movie.

But in an interview with Vanity Fair, producer Frank Marshall provides some context for the image. It’s not an echo of the triumphant scene from the original movie, showing that dinosaurs rule the earth once again. “Well, the banner’s coming down again,” Marshall explained. “[Actor] Jonny Bailey’s a scientist at a museum that’s closing up their dinosaur exhibit.”

For Marshall, the closing down of the exhibit is a perfect example of the pitch from Rebirth screenwriter David Koepp, who also wrote the scripts for Jurassic Park and The Lost World: Jurassic Park.

“He came up with this idea that dinosaurs were passé now. People were tired of them. They were an inconvenience,” explained Marshall. “People weren’t going to museums to see them or to petting zoos. They were just in the way.”

Although Marshall describes the idea as a radical shift, it actually sounds very familiar to anyone who saw the last big franchise reboot, Jurassic World. In that movie, we see teens bored with dinosaurs and Claire Dearing explicitly says that dinosaurs don’t wow people anymore.

The solution to this problem that Koepp, Marshall, and director Gareth Edwards came up with for Jurassic World: Rebirth also feels familiar. Instead of just relying on traditional T-rexes and spinosauruses, Rebirth will feature mutant dinosaurs, hybrids that were kept hidden from the public. At least one of these mutants is featured in the first trailer for the film, the so-called “D-rex.”

Marshall and Edwards talk a good game hyping up their creations. “These are the dinosaurs that didn’t work. There’s some mutations in there. They’re all based on real dinosaur research, but they look a little different,” said Marshall. Edwards compared the creatures to classic movie monsters, telling VF, “Some Rancor went in there, some H.R. Giger went in there, a little T. rex went in there…”

Yet, for all of their pride in the ideas, these creators don’t seem to acknowledge that the Jurassic Park franchise has tried mutant dinosaurs quite a lot, and it’s never really worked. Jurassic World introduced a super-predator with the Indominus rex, a mixture of T-rex and velociraptor that operated more like a b-horror baddie than anything in the previous films. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom hinged its emotional stakes on the idea that research into dino cloning would allow for human cloning. The follow-up Jurassic World: Dominion took it further, presenting mutations in the form of giant locusts.

Even before any of these reboots, Marshall and others at Universal had mutants on the mind. An early treatment for Jurassic Park IV featured human/dinosaur hybrids created for the military.

On one hand, the mutant focus makes sense. After all, cloning and experimentation is at the heart of the Jurassic Park premise, including the majestic “Life finds a way” theme of the first movie. It follows that duplicitous corporations would try to alter Dino DNA to make more money.

But it misunderstands the other half of the Jurassic Park premise. Spielberg, a master of cinematic awe, loved dinosaurs and translated that into his work. He found ways of making dinosaurs look amazing and powerful and gentle and beautiful, not just because he thought audiences would like dinosaurs, but because he loved them and translated that into the movie.

Maybe instead of mutants and hybrids, Jurassic Park movies should just focus on awe and adventure, making us feel once again welcome to the park.

Jurassic World: Rebirth hits theaters on July 2, 2025.

The post Jurassic World Rebirth Looks Doomed to Repeat the Sequels’ Worst Mistake appeared first on Den of Geek.

Few people have a better understanding of what it means to steward a Marvel TV series in the Disney+ streaming era than Jac Schaeffer. Assisted by some pandemic-related schedule juggling, it was the Schaeffer-created WandaVision that served as the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s televised opening act in early 2021. The New Jersey-born, California-raised writer and producer […]

The post WandaVision and Agatha Creator Jac Schaeffer Reveals the Marvel Character She Couldn’t Leave Behind appeared first on Den of Geek.

Most people watching the first trailer for Jurassic World: Rebirth certainly noticed a shot of a T-rex skeleton in the park visitors center, with a bold banner behind it. The banner, which reads, “When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth,” seems to be coming down, which at first seems like a callback to the ending of the first movie.

But in an interview with Vanity Fair, producer Frank Marshall provides some context for the image. It’s not an echo of the triumphant scene from the original movie, showing that dinosaurs rule the earth once again. “Well, the banner’s coming down again,” Marshall explained. “[Actor] Jonny Bailey’s a scientist at a museum that’s closing up their dinosaur exhibit.”

For Marshall, the closing down of the exhibit is a perfect example of the pitch from Rebirth screenwriter David Koepp, who also wrote the scripts for Jurassic Park and The Lost World: Jurassic Park.

“He came up with this idea that dinosaurs were passé now. People were tired of them. They were an inconvenience,” explained Marshall. “People weren’t going to museums to see them or to petting zoos. They were just in the way.”

Although Marshall describes the idea as a radical shift, it actually sounds very familiar to anyone who saw the last big franchise reboot, Jurassic World. In that movie, we see teens bored with dinosaurs and Claire Dearing explicitly says that dinosaurs don’t wow people anymore.

The solution to this problem that Koepp, Marshall, and director Gareth Edwards came up with for Jurassic World: Rebirth also feels familiar. Instead of just relying on traditional T-rexes and spinosauruses, Rebirth will feature mutant dinosaurs, hybrids that were kept hidden from the public. At least one of these mutants is featured in the first trailer for the film, the so-called “D-rex.”

Marshall and Edwards talk a good game hyping up their creations. “These are the dinosaurs that didn’t work. There’s some mutations in there. They’re all based on real dinosaur research, but they look a little different,” said Marshall. Edwards compared the creatures to classic movie monsters, telling VF, “Some Rancor went in there, some H.R. Giger went in there, a little T. rex went in there…”

Yet, for all of their pride in the ideas, these creators don’t seem to acknowledge that the Jurassic Park franchise has tried mutant dinosaurs quite a lot, and it’s never really worked. Jurassic World introduced a super-predator with the Indominus rex, a mixture of T-rex and velociraptor that operated more like a b-horror baddie than anything in the previous films. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom hinged its emotional stakes on the idea that research into dino cloning would allow for human cloning. The follow-up Jurassic World: Dominion took it further, presenting mutations in the form of giant locusts.

Even before any of these reboots, Marshall and others at Universal had mutants on the mind. An early treatment for Jurassic Park IV featured human/dinosaur hybrids created for the military.

On one hand, the mutant focus makes sense. After all, cloning and experimentation is at the heart of the Jurassic Park premise, including the majestic “Life finds a way” theme of the first movie. It follows that duplicitous corporations would try to alter Dino DNA to make more money.

But it misunderstands the other half of the Jurassic Park premise. Spielberg, a master of cinematic awe, loved dinosaurs and translated that into his work. He found ways of making dinosaurs look amazing and powerful and gentle and beautiful, not just because he thought audiences would like dinosaurs, but because he loved them and translated that into the movie.

Maybe instead of mutants and hybrids, Jurassic Park movies should just focus on awe and adventure, making us feel once again welcome to the park.

Jurassic World: Rebirth hits theaters on July 2, 2025.

The post Jurassic World Rebirth Looks Doomed to Repeat the Sequels’ Worst Mistake appeared first on Den of Geek.

On February 7, 1497, Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola and his followers burned objects of art and pieces of literature in the public square of Florence, Italy. Decrying these objects as distractions that turn the people’s attention from God, they called the pyre “the Bonfire of the Vanities.” The phrase has been used time and again […]

The post Tom Hanks’ Worst Movie Is Now Free to Watch Online If You Dare appeared first on Den of Geek.

Most people watching the first trailer for Jurassic World: Rebirth certainly noticed a shot of a T-rex skeleton in the park visitors center, with a bold banner behind it. The banner, which reads, “When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth,” seems to be coming down, which at first seems like a callback to the ending of the first movie.

But in an interview with Vanity Fair, producer Frank Marshall provides some context for the image. It’s not an echo of the triumphant scene from the original movie, showing that dinosaurs rule the earth once again. “Well, the banner’s coming down again,” Marshall explained. “[Actor] Jonny Bailey’s a scientist at a museum that’s closing up their dinosaur exhibit.”

For Marshall, the closing down of the exhibit is a perfect example of the pitch from Rebirth screenwriter David Koepp, who also wrote the scripts for Jurassic Park and The Lost World: Jurassic Park.

“He came up with this idea that dinosaurs were passé now. People were tired of them. They were an inconvenience,” explained Marshall. “People weren’t going to museums to see them or to petting zoos. They were just in the way.”

Although Marshall describes the idea as a radical shift, it actually sounds very familiar to anyone who saw the last big franchise reboot, Jurassic World. In that movie, we see teens bored with dinosaurs and Claire Dearing explicitly says that dinosaurs don’t wow people anymore.

The solution to this problem that Koepp, Marshall, and director Gareth Edwards came up with for Jurassic World: Rebirth also feels familiar. Instead of just relying on traditional T-rexes and spinosauruses, Rebirth will feature mutant dinosaurs, hybrids that were kept hidden from the public. At least one of these mutants is featured in the first trailer for the film, the so-called “D-rex.”

Marshall and Edwards talk a good game hyping up their creations. “These are the dinosaurs that didn’t work. There’s some mutations in there. They’re all based on real dinosaur research, but they look a little different,” said Marshall. Edwards compared the creatures to classic movie monsters, telling VF, “Some Rancor went in there, some H.R. Giger went in there, a little T. rex went in there…”

Yet, for all of their pride in the ideas, these creators don’t seem to acknowledge that the Jurassic Park franchise has tried mutant dinosaurs quite a lot, and it’s never really worked. Jurassic World introduced a super-predator with the Indominus rex, a mixture of T-rex and velociraptor that operated more like a b-horror baddie than anything in the previous films. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom hinged its emotional stakes on the idea that research into dino cloning would allow for human cloning. The follow-up Jurassic World: Dominion took it further, presenting mutations in the form of giant locusts.

Even before any of these reboots, Marshall and others at Universal had mutants on the mind. An early treatment for Jurassic Park IV featured human/dinosaur hybrids created for the military.

On one hand, the mutant focus makes sense. After all, cloning and experimentation is at the heart of the Jurassic Park premise, including the majestic “Life finds a way” theme of the first movie. It follows that duplicitous corporations would try to alter Dino DNA to make more money.

But it misunderstands the other half of the Jurassic Park premise. Spielberg, a master of cinematic awe, loved dinosaurs and translated that into his work. He found ways of making dinosaurs look amazing and powerful and gentle and beautiful, not just because he thought audiences would like dinosaurs, but because he loved them and translated that into the movie.

Maybe instead of mutants and hybrids, Jurassic Park movies should just focus on awe and adventure, making us feel once again welcome to the park.

Jurassic World: Rebirth hits theaters on July 2, 2025.

The post Jurassic World Rebirth Looks Doomed to Repeat the Sequels’ Worst Mistake appeared first on Den of Geek.