Giganotosaurus

Giganotosaurus
Overview
Homeworld	Terraformed planet
Era	Modern/Future
Diet	Carnivorous
Physical description
Distinctions	Large slender skull, three-fingered arms
Eye color	Yellow
Other information
Notable groups	Theropoda
Other nomenclature	T. rex (Slade, mistakenly)
Audio

"T. rex! Holy crap! Don't let that bastard see ya!"

—Slade.

The Giganotosaurus is a carnivorous theropod dinosaur that made its first appearance during the events of Turok. It would only be encountered once by members of Whiskey Company, inhabiting a large, bleak valley on the planet.

Appearance

2006 build

In a prerelease image for Turok dated to 2006, the Giganotosaurus was seen with a drastically different appearance, being beige-yellow in coloration, with a distinctly unique skull design, looking more akin to an actual Giganotosaurus. The teeth of the carnivore were much more jagged, and the creature's arms were scaled properly with relation to its body. The eyes of the dinosaur were a deep yellow, and a large scar was present alongside the right side of the dinosaur's face, on its jaw and fenestra.

2008 build

Upon Turok's release in 2008, the Giganotosaurus featured a redesign, appearing as a giant, gray-skinned carnivore with a slimmed frame, a narrower skull, crests above its eyes, and a larger amount of teeth than it originally possessed. Unlike its 2006 counterpart, this updated variant possesses a subtle striped pattern running down its body, starting from the back of its skull and going all the way down to the tip of its tail.

Notably, the amount of scarring on the animal's face was toned down, with smaller injuries from Utahraptors marking the Giganotosaurus' hide instead.

Gameplay

Single-player

The Giganotosaurus shares a moveset with Mama Scarface, possessing a long stride, a headbutt, and a tail-whip attack. This dinosaur is encountered in a large arena-like valley, with the dinosaur's invulnerability forcing the player to run and hide from the animal, using the chaos of nearby Utahraptors to distract it in an effort to escape. While the two share all attack and movement patterns, on Inhuman difficulty the Giganotosaurus moves at a faster footspeed than Mama Scarface does, coming in at 565 world units, versus Scarface's 550 and 560 during her battles in "Mother Superior" and "An Eye for an Eye", respectively.

BurningTest2

The Giganotosaurus appears in one of the developer testing maps, dubbed "BurningTest2". Unlike its single-player counterpart, this Giganotosaurus is vulnerable to weaponry without modifications and when killed, will simply ragdoll.

History

Following the infiltration and escape from a nearby Mendel-Gruman base, Turok and Slade encountered a lone Giganotosaurus in Death Valley. Slade immediately mistook the dinosaur for a Tyrannosaurus rex and took cover, with the Giganotosaurus running past his and Joseph's position. The massive carnivore attempted to feed on Parasaurolophus, Utahraptors and, eventually, Joseph Turok and Slade as it noticed them while they made their way through its territory. The duo would escape the large dinosaur's sights, and it seemingly made no effort to leave the valley, having not been encountered by Whiskey Company again.

Later on, as Turok made his way through a forested region and a Utahraptor den on his way to rescue Cowboy, he'd find Giganotosaurus-like skulls in the den.

Alpha Team would later find more skulls akin to the Giganotosaurus' in a mass grave of dinosaurs near a Mendel-Gruman Corporation outpost located around Mother Superior.

Production notes

Design

The Giganotosaurus' appearance changed multiple times over Turok's development. The dinosaur originally sported a stylized, yet faithful design to an actual Giganotosaurus, possessed a more yellowish hide, featuring bloodstains all over its skin, while also having a maw of jagged teeth, some being broken. Akin to Scarface, the original version of this dinosaur also had a large scar running down the right side of its skull. It would eventually be redesigned to its more recognizable final form sometime in 2007.

This final design would receive multiple tweaks over time, which included changing its tooth design, and adding brow spikes. Notably, the Giganotosaurus features two models in the final release builds of Turok, the variant seen on the Xbox 360, and the variant seen on the PC and PlayStation 3 versions of the game. On top of lacking the vertices of the 360 version's model resulting in poorer model quality, the PC and PlayStation 3's version of the animal has a slimmed neck, a more prominent underbite, an unnaturally constricted set of pupils, and redesigned teeth, among other anatomical tweaks.

Side profile of the original Giganotosaurus model from 2006.

Side profile of the PlayStation 3 and PC build's Giganotosaurus from 2008.

Side profile of the Xbox 360 build's Giganotosaurus from 2008.

Role within Turok

The Giganotosaurus was intended to be featured more prominently within Turok, with multiple conceptual level overviews showing that its "feeding ground" would've been set at the end of a long level, rather than being briefly seen at the start of one. Turok and Slade would've encountered the giant carnivore after having their LLG Rhino 4x4 destroyed within its valley, forcing them to run from it on foot, rather than haphazardly stumbling upon it.

Concept art of Giganotosaurus in Death Valley.

A preliminary level in a different build of Turok dated to March of 2007 showed an entirely cut encounter, where Turok would encounter the Giganotosaurus near a large cliff. The large theropod would knock him over the side, and Turok would be tasked with walking through the jungle as the Giganotosaurus remained nearby, presumably stalking him. This same build also had this dinosaur taking the place of Mama Scarface during "The Lost Land".

Builds dated closer to release had the dinosaur present at the enormous Mendel-Gruman complex seen during "End of the Road", along with a Utahraptor and a deceased Dilophosaurus. These gameplay elements would later either be moved to, or would only be seen during "Death Valley", with Mama Scarface replacing the Giganotosaurus in this level.

The Giganotosaurus has a unique death animation present within the game's files, despite being invincible in Turok's final release. This animation has the dinosaur falling while sprinting, before falling down a large gap. It would ultimately go unused.

Gallery

Developmental images

Screenshots

2006 iteration

The only official screenshot showcasing this early model of the Giganotosaurus.

The original 2006-era model for the Giganotosaurus, modded into Turok.

The same model at a levelled stance.

The same model, with the Giganotosaurus stalking around Death Valley.

2008 iteration

Turok and Slade firing at the Giganotosaurus.

The Giganotosaurus attacking Turok.

Joseph Turok firing at the Giganotosaurus.

The Giganotosaurus lunging at Turok.

The dinosaur going over the wrecked bridge in the level.

List of appearances

• Turok (First appearance)