Gotta Get That Five-Star Show
Mar. 4th, 2009 07:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hkellickThere's something I want to write about later. I will. Friends-locked, I
think.
But... to actually get something in my journal, I'm going to talk about
Zoo Tycoon 2. Zoo
Tycoon 2 is NOT a new game. It's over 4 years old. I've been a fan of Zoo
Tycoon since the first one came out in 2001. This game is.. it's the epitome
of family-friendly games. Even four and five year old can play this game
(with a little help from mom and dad, of course). What you do is simple..
you build and manage a zoo. Sound simple? Well, yes.. and no.
Firstly, let me start by saying Zoo Tycoon 2 has had four expansion packs
(and that, most likely, is it.) There's an Ultimate Collection out now which
includes everything.
Most expansion packs have a real point, they include something new and
different and neat. Endangered Species brought us Tours and Safaris through
the park. Marine Mania included Show Animals and show (and the first real
mini-games and the games) and Extinct Animals provides you with a
fossil-hunting and cloning mini-game to create any extinct animal you can
entirely unbury. There's one other expansion set, African Adventures which..
well.. gives you 20 more animals.
Altogether, with all expansion packs, you get over 100 animals, including,
no doubt, some of your favorites.
Not to say that you can get to them if you want them.
There are three modes in the game.. the first is the Scenario Mode. The
original game came with a bunch of scenarios. Win a few and unlock
something. Each expansion set has come with it's own scenarios as well.
The second is freeform. You get all the money you want and access to all the
animals and you can build the perfect zoo, exactly the way you want it.
The third, and possibly, in some ways, the most challenging is the Challenge
Mode. Challenge Mode is where you'll spend most of your time playing. You
get a blank slate. A small, medium or large zoo to fill... more or less as
you like. More or less. There's a few ifs to that. During Challenge Mode,
you'll get all sorts of challenges ranging from.. taking pictures of guests
getting food and being entertained to taking pictures of certain animals
doing certain things to having certain animals in your zoo to.. whatever.
The more expansion sets you have, the more challenges. That makes it much
tougher to have SPECIFICALLY the zoo you want, because at least for a time,
you may have to get a certain animal to meet a challenge. That said, if
you're like me and you had your favorites (Grey Wolf!!!) before you even
started playing, it's a good way to get to see some of the other animals in
action. They're all fairly realistic, as far as A.I. go. (Though some of the
animations are a bit fawlty.. OK, alot of them.. when they pass THROUGH
trees or each other, not so good...)
In Challenge and Scenario Mode, you have to worry about the zoo's
star-level. Your zoo can be up to Five Stars high (You start at half a
star). Increasing your star level gives you access to more animals, more
buildings, more decorations, etc.
Building an actual zoo enclosure is pretty easy. Put up some walls or a tank
and fill it and *POOF* Zoo Enclosure. Even making an educational zoo
enclosure, filled with the flora and fauna that the animal might wander
around naturally is pretty simple, thanks to a tool called Zookeeper's
Recommendations.
And keeping your animals happy is pretty easy too, so long as they have
plenty of food, plenty of toys and enough space (You have to keep an eye on
space. If the animals keep breeding, space WILL eventually become a problem.
Then you have to figure out how to deal with the problem.)
Keeping Zoo Peeps happier... is relatively harder. Well, no, I lie. Keeping
your peeps happy is pretty simple. Keeping the game happy is harder.
See, by and large, if you have plenty of happy animals around, a place for
them to donate to the zoo and a few amusements and decorations around, your
peeps WILL be happy. However, the AI gets stupid.
One such example is trying to donate after a show. Your Marine Animals can
be trained to put on a show. Well.. some of them. Belugas, Pilot Whales,
Orcas, Dolphins, Sealions, Otters, Walruses, etc. You know the usual gang.
And the shows, btw, are absolutely adorable.
Assuming, however, you've put on a good show, your peeps will say "Wow! I
NEED TO DONATE TO THE ZOO!" but no matter how many donation boxes you put
around, they just somehow don't seem to find them or don't want to wait to
donate or something. It's bad programming/bad AI.
You'll get alot of these kind of messages and no idea where or why. That's
the one downfall of the game. Not a HUGE deal because you'll learn you can
ignore them, but .. if there's one area they could really approve on, it's
Peep AI.
But seriously, this game is so cute. How can it not be to watch animals
playing (and the choice of toys and amusements for Animals is pretty big.
Balls to bat around, squeaky toys, fake icebergs, tires to play in, jungle
gyms, even a paint set so your elephants can paint (how is it elephants know
how to paint a peanut anyways?)
if you have a kid (or are like me and ARE still a kid ;) ), and can you have
a PC that runs Vista or Windows XP, I highly suggest you find and get "Zoo
Tycoon 2: Ultimate Collection." It's a great game. Challenging for those who
want a challenge. Fun for those who just want to screw around and build a
zoo, or show or.. whatever. :)
think.
But... to actually get something in my journal, I'm going to talk about
Zoo Tycoon 2. Zoo
Tycoon 2 is NOT a new game. It's over 4 years old. I've been a fan of Zoo
Tycoon since the first one came out in 2001. This game is.. it's the epitome
of family-friendly games. Even four and five year old can play this game
(with a little help from mom and dad, of course). What you do is simple..
you build and manage a zoo. Sound simple? Well, yes.. and no.
Firstly, let me start by saying Zoo Tycoon 2 has had four expansion packs
(and that, most likely, is it.) There's an Ultimate Collection out now which
includes everything.
Most expansion packs have a real point, they include something new and
different and neat. Endangered Species brought us Tours and Safaris through
the park. Marine Mania included Show Animals and show (and the first real
mini-games and the games) and Extinct Animals provides you with a
fossil-hunting and cloning mini-game to create any extinct animal you can
entirely unbury. There's one other expansion set, African Adventures which..
well.. gives you 20 more animals.
Altogether, with all expansion packs, you get over 100 animals, including,
no doubt, some of your favorites.
Not to say that you can get to them if you want them.
There are three modes in the game.. the first is the Scenario Mode. The
original game came with a bunch of scenarios. Win a few and unlock
something. Each expansion set has come with it's own scenarios as well.
The second is freeform. You get all the money you want and access to all the
animals and you can build the perfect zoo, exactly the way you want it.
The third, and possibly, in some ways, the most challenging is the Challenge
Mode. Challenge Mode is where you'll spend most of your time playing. You
get a blank slate. A small, medium or large zoo to fill... more or less as
you like. More or less. There's a few ifs to that. During Challenge Mode,
you'll get all sorts of challenges ranging from.. taking pictures of guests
getting food and being entertained to taking pictures of certain animals
doing certain things to having certain animals in your zoo to.. whatever.
The more expansion sets you have, the more challenges. That makes it much
tougher to have SPECIFICALLY the zoo you want, because at least for a time,
you may have to get a certain animal to meet a challenge. That said, if
you're like me and you had your favorites (Grey Wolf!!!) before you even
started playing, it's a good way to get to see some of the other animals in
action. They're all fairly realistic, as far as A.I. go. (Though some of the
animations are a bit fawlty.. OK, alot of them.. when they pass THROUGH
trees or each other, not so good...)
In Challenge and Scenario Mode, you have to worry about the zoo's
star-level. Your zoo can be up to Five Stars high (You start at half a
star). Increasing your star level gives you access to more animals, more
buildings, more decorations, etc.
Building an actual zoo enclosure is pretty easy. Put up some walls or a tank
and fill it and *POOF* Zoo Enclosure. Even making an educational zoo
enclosure, filled with the flora and fauna that the animal might wander
around naturally is pretty simple, thanks to a tool called Zookeeper's
Recommendations.
And keeping your animals happy is pretty easy too, so long as they have
plenty of food, plenty of toys and enough space (You have to keep an eye on
space. If the animals keep breeding, space WILL eventually become a problem.
Then you have to figure out how to deal with the problem.)
Keeping Zoo Peeps happier... is relatively harder. Well, no, I lie. Keeping
your peeps happy is pretty simple. Keeping the game happy is harder.
See, by and large, if you have plenty of happy animals around, a place for
them to donate to the zoo and a few amusements and decorations around, your
peeps WILL be happy. However, the AI gets stupid.
One such example is trying to donate after a show. Your Marine Animals can
be trained to put on a show. Well.. some of them. Belugas, Pilot Whales,
Orcas, Dolphins, Sealions, Otters, Walruses, etc. You know the usual gang.
And the shows, btw, are absolutely adorable.
Assuming, however, you've put on a good show, your peeps will say "Wow! I
NEED TO DONATE TO THE ZOO!" but no matter how many donation boxes you put
around, they just somehow don't seem to find them or don't want to wait to
donate or something. It's bad programming/bad AI.
You'll get alot of these kind of messages and no idea where or why. That's
the one downfall of the game. Not a HUGE deal because you'll learn you can
ignore them, but .. if there's one area they could really approve on, it's
Peep AI.
But seriously, this game is so cute. How can it not be to watch animals
playing (and the choice of toys and amusements for Animals is pretty big.
Balls to bat around, squeaky toys, fake icebergs, tires to play in, jungle
gyms, even a paint set so your elephants can paint (how is it elephants know
how to paint a peanut anyways?)
if you have a kid (or are like me and ARE still a kid ;) ), and can you have
a PC that runs Vista or Windows XP, I highly suggest you find and get "Zoo
Tycoon 2: Ultimate Collection." It's a great game. Challenging for those who
want a challenge. Fun for those who just want to screw around and build a
zoo, or show or.. whatever. :)