Dreamworks Studios brings us what could be quite possibly the greatest simulation ever created. Jurassic Park Trespasser ("Trespasser") takes place on Isla Sorna ("Site B") several years after the events that occurred on Site A. The main character in the game, obviously yourself, is a scientist named Anne who, while traveling on a plane trip across South America, gets stranded on an unknown island since her plane has crashed. It is unknown whether the rest of the crew is alive, injured or even dead. As the game begins Anne finds herself on a small sea shore with no one around her, or so it seems. Within this lonely escape from the rest of the island Anne finds the tail of the small sea plane she was traveling on and calls for help, but this is to no avail when she realizes that she could be the only person that has been fortunate, or at least it seems, to have survived. She makes it to her feet and keeps walking until she finds herself at a supply site with oil barrels, crates and cans of food. This is where Trespasser begins and where it ends is up to you to decide.

The graphics in Trespasser are top notch in terms of features and executions. Finally after months of waiting we are treated to such advanced effects as hardware generated trees, not just 2D objects, spectacular physical water, truly dynamic for the ground that you walk on, meaning that no other spot of land will be the same as the one that is currently being seen and a slew of other effects such as the much talked about, hardly seen, bump mapping, a 16-bit texture pallet, amazing weather effects and even the odd baseball bat.

The graphics and feature level in Trespasser bring up two very important questions, the first of which deals with the complexity of the engine compared to the 3D video hardware that is out on the market today. I will be the first one to admit that Trespasser will require a top of the line machine to run very well. I'm also not afraid to say that despite running it on a P200, like mine, I played the game at 800 x 600 and experienced what a low frame rate truly is when I played at 15 frames per second. The graphics on a high end machine will also be at a medium to low medium rate on a Voodoo2 graphics card. Trespasser will require an AGP card to run at a good speed. Despite the features of the Voodoo2 chip set and the fact that an SLI setup could take this game up to 35 frames per second at 1024 x 768, at medium to high action areas, an AGP video card will truly make this game a good experience since it is not very polygonal, but rather very textural. The game will run alright on an 12 MB SLI setup, 16 MB texture RAM, however, a card like the Intel i740, Matrox G200 or the fabulous Riva TNT will take this game to new heights.

The second issue deals with value for your graphics card. Now supposing you do have a very good video setup, an AGP or even a Voodoo2, you will still find yourself wondering why the game's graphics are not everything you've wanted, moreover, why you have not got any 'bang for your buck'. Despite its graphic engine capabilities, Trespasser still lacks value in terms of the most popular buzzwords in 3D graphics today, eye candy. However, I feel that all things happen for a reason and Trespasser should be played at this graphical level. It's two fold. You have to play the game via your visual sense, moreover, you also have to use your imagination. This makes for a great gaming experience.

When you first enter the game you will find yourself doubting what you are seeing. Personally I found myself asking what all the hype is about. I saw a few non anti-aliased trees, some rocks that simply looked ground shaded and water that looked dithered all of this being most unimpressive. As I approached the training facilities I found eager for the game engine to impress me, however this was not meant to be. As I approached some cans I found textures to be nothing more than non-bilinear filtered, a baseball bat that was poorly alpha blended and a sky that was most likely just a two-colour texture. As I leveraged myself up a path of semi-steep hills and rocks I started to notice that the ground was different. The ground was not the same as I had seen near cans, moreover, not even near the beach. The dynamic textures really made a big difference. This was like a REAL world where no two things are alike and, certainly, this was a real treat to see and experience. I made my way across a few other training areas, which I will talk about later, and soon found myself in front of what looked two steep hills, a certain dead end. I tried to climb them, however, I was unfortunate to fall right to the bottom. I soon discovered, with the help of some great textures, a hidden path of sorts buried to the left. I made my way up the path and turned my head and put down my mouse as my CD-ROM drive started to buffer something. John Hammond's voice came over my speakers with an echo, a voice-over, and he said the word Brachiosaur ("Brachs") which caught my senses by storm. As I picked up my mouse once again I raised my head only to see one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen. There were two of them, two Brachs, and it shocked the hell out of me. I could not believe how real they actually looked. After months of screenshots this was the real McCoy and man, did it look amazing. I approached them and found them to be perfectly recreated in colour, form, movement and appeal. One of them was chewing away at the top of a long tree while the other was walking towards me, however he was not concerned with me. I made my approach wondering what would happen next. As I stopped by for a closer look under the brach that was grazing, I saw what I had only heard about for sometime. This guy was bump mapped! It was awesome to see what this really was. There was no 'edginess', to the naked eye, and this made the dino look very real. Moreover, the textures used for the brach were also very real. It seems like Dreamworks had split into a variety of poly groups for added realism. The body was split into two areas, the upper and lower. The upper part was created using a darker, rougher looking texture. The texture for the bottom underbelly was a continued dark from the top, but as your eyes move further down you can see it change into a white of sorts, however, still rough looking. The animations are also done really well. The knees of the dinos bend at the right places and the head and neck movements are just, wait let me pull out my thesaurus, astonishing

Like the graphics, the sound in Trespasser is very good. As I first found myself on the island I started to walk around and heard my footsteps 'swishing' in the water and almost silent on the beach. The sounds are almost as dynamic as the textures, in that they change in almost every area you visit, however, unlike the textures which are recreated via the CPU every time, there is a limit to how many there are. I played the game with my SoundBlaster AWE64 and found the sounds to be quite realistic and the quality was perfect as well. Trespasser does a good job by taking advantage of Direct Sound 3D. This means that even truly non-audio users such as myself can experience Direct Sound 3D, at least, which is not that bad at all. If you are one of the people who have bought a Sound Blaster Live! audio device or an Aureal Vortex chipset based card then you are in for a real treat. Trespasser takes full advantage of the features and extensions of both cards. The people who I have talked to say that the support is very effective. The famous beach that I have described earlier sounds very real from the back speakers. Footsteps through various areas are carried through the front speakers. As you move your head down, the audio is truly positional, the sound increases in the front speakers because your ears are closer to the ground. Shooting the gun gives a very loud echo almost as if it actually went off in your room and your ears are ringing. Moreover, the sounds and 3D support in the game are done in a way that they are VERY obvious. The sounds are not very loud in that to show off the 3D positional audio and they are not low enough in that you do not hear them at all.

The sounds also contribute a lot to the gameplay, in that they have an effect on what happens on the action in the game. I once entered area in which there was a destroyed truck. As I walked around the truck I noticed a baseball bat in the bat. Since I had practiced using the bat earlier I decided to give it another shot, however this time I was looking for an object to hit just for the fun of it. I saw a tree nearby and decided to investigate, this turned out to be a big mistake. As I looked up and down the tree I discovered that it was just an ordinary, and slightly old tree. Innocently I took a practice swing and was mistakenly not satisfied. I then proceeded to hit the tree once with the bat. The sound was very real, almost like hitting dead wood. Although it sounded really cool I then lost my faith in the physics engine. If I was to swing the bat across a huge tree trunk in real life across a massive hard tree trunk surely the bat would break, maybe it's because I'm a lady (NOTE: This is a joke! Sorry Phire for offending your kind). I came up with the notion that to equal a man's ("Typical Human") strength I would have to hit the tree a number of times. As I repeatedly swung the bat across the tree I heard the same noise of dead wood. However after a few sing I started to hear an echo. Now I just thought that it was an echo from the tree, since I hit it to many times. I continued my assault and found myself hearing the echo once again. I stopped for a second and discovered the echo itself had not stopped. As I moved my mouse I noticed a pool of water next to me. Can you guess what happens next? The water was actually moving with the echo, and the 'splish-splashy' sounds could be heard from my speakers. I knew I was in for trouble and I started to become nervous. As I started to turn my head the only sound I heard was a ferocious roar than put me in such a shock that it made me take my hand off my mouse. When I picked it back up I saw a raptor staring at me. It started to roar and make its approach. I took my bat and once again hit the tree, the sound certainly making it hide behind the deserted and destroyed truck. With one leap it jumped and attacked me quite fiercely. I could not do anything else, since I had no gun, if it would help, so I tried swinging the bat. This was no to avail, however, since I found myself lying on the ground dead. The audio made a BIG difference in my experience of this title and I'm sure if I had a better sound card it would elevate my experience further.

Now we get down to the much talked about physics of this game, in other words "how real is real?" One of the big selling points of Trespasser is the fact that its engine is based on real-world physics. Now I know there are going to be numerous critics but the fact is that nothing is perfectly real. There are always things that are odd, strange and certainly would not be possible in real life. Trespasser, is to my knowledge, the most realistic simulation experience I have ever played right down to the fact that dinos have different emotions based on hunger, happiness, aggressiveness, position and more. The first time I noticed this was when I started to walk. It was not the same walk that was predominant in most first person shooters out there such as Half-Life, Sin and Quake 2. The character was actually walking at a normal speed. You can actually feel yourself experiencing the time as you walk from one way-point to another, not that way-points exist in the game by any means. A run option does exist in the game, and since I am a first person shooter fan I found myself assigning that as my forward key since I was not used to the slow speed. As the game progressed I soon changed the key back to the walk key, it just made more sense and looked real.

As far as human capabilities go the subsequent processes are also top notch. The difference in walking around with a light object as opposed to a heavy piece of metal is astounding. I picked up a rock and started to walk around with it with no effect, however, after a while I guess I got tired and dropped it. Then when I tried to pick up a heavy oil drum I managed to only carry it one step before I dropped it. As you climb up small hills you will notice that if you do not react fast enough you will fall off. If you find yourself unable to climb up a small hill, sidestep a bit to the left, or right, and try again. You might actually put your foot in a position for leverage. This is how real it is! Shooting off the guns in the game are quite realistic as well. The reaction time between the trigger going off and the ability to fire the next shot is also quite realistic. In one training exercise there is a pile of rocks and a set of cans. Your instructions are to pick up the rocks and try to knock down the cans. Every shot I made was different, even from the same position. As you look from a different perspective and try to hit a can the trajectory changes and I got frustrated enough to run up to them and wack away at them with a 2 x 4. And I do not even want to start mentioning how fun it was to skim stones across puddles. Hours of fun standing in one spot.

Since dinosaurs are not obviously around now it is difficult to picture how they would move or react. Through scientific research the Dreamworks team has recreated the best motions possible for each different dinosaur. The Brachs almost ignore the sight of Anne since she is so small compared to them, even when standing right under them. As the hungry Brach lunged at the tree top he whipped his head back to eat his selection and then moved it forward again for another morsel. The same can be applied to the raptor. I could not believe it that it hid behind the destroyed truck when I hit the tree a couple of times and when I stopped it took its chance and took a leap forward and ended my adventure. I have yet to experience what else this game has to offer, but one thing is sure, I look forward to it with great anticipation.

Jurassic Park Trespasser is here and it will raise the bar very high for any subsequent game that will call itself a simulation. It sets new heights for its competition to rival and, moreover, surpass. At the beginning I found myself quite bored eager to 'shoot' dinos as fast as I could. When I saw my first Brach, however, this all changed. Trespasser will open eyes if you give it a chance to. You will appreciate playing the game on a P200/V2 at 10 frames per second because it will stir up a feeling of realism that has never been felt before while playing a simulation game. The experience is one that you will never forget, if you only give it a chance. This is Jurassic Park, Site B. This is an adventure you will never forget because it is just not a level, it is a world. Take your time, do not rush it, and you'll be just fine. Enjoy the game because there will not be an adventure like this for a long time.