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Here’s the official synopsis:

As a man or woman stranded, naked, freezing, and starving on the unforgiving shores of a mysterious island called ARK, use your skill and cunning to kill or tame and ride the plethora
of leviathan dinosaurs and other primeval creatures roaming the land. Hunt, harvest resources, craft items, grow crops, research technologies, and build shelters to withstand the elements and store valuables, all while teaming up with (or preying upon) hundreds of other players to survive, dominate… and escape!

So yes, one can simply describe ARK as a sandbox game but what makes ARK different is the presence of dinosaurs that can either kill you or, once tamed, help you.

You start off with no resources, tools or clothes and your initial task is to gather stones, wood and thatch to create a stone pickaxe. With that tool you can then mine flint which is essential to
build a stone hatchet. More tools and technologies become available to the player as they level up and also, as the game is still in early access stage, as the game receives updates. Wildcard provides regular updates where they
tweak game mechanics, optimisations and add new dinosaurs and technologies.

I started playing ARK last year and I have an excellent gaming PC, but even that could not run ARK on medium-high details without a drop in FPS. Wildcard has optimised the game since and if you, like myself, played the game before and had issues with performance, do give it another go as soon as possible.

ARK is more than just a sandbox; it is a massive living world with its own rules. Animals and dinosaurs have specific behaviour and spawning patterns. The spawning system is quite sophisticated, for example I never had issues with dinosaurs being spawned at random behind my back as I walk but now there’s this nasty Alpha raptor running around the island, across the river from my base since about a week!

Aside from gathering resources, crafting, building, farming you can also tame dinosaurs who can help you with a variety of tasks. Some of them can’t be ridden, but every single one of them will try to protect you from enemies, unless you will set them to “passive” mode. The variety of creatures you can tame is impressive: there are goofy dodos, quick and fierce raptors, mighty brontosauruses and tens of others that rule the land, with peaceful Ichtyosauruses, blood-thirsty Megalodons and cowardly pteranodons and fierceful argentavises – plus others that rule water and air respectfully.

As your character levels up you can choose which attribute to improve and which new engram to learn and eventually you will be able to craft things like generators and machine gun turrets.

Even though there’s currently only one map available to play, it is big enough for you to explore and it has a variety of locations with different weather conditions. The game in fact pushes you to explore the island, as you won’t be able to harvest some resources close to your base (wherever you are.) The game also has massive caves for the player to explore and this is where my inner Tomb Raider fan goes crazy; caves were a huge part of the classic Tomb Raider games, notably the first three games in particular, and all three had dinosaurs in them.

Surely it is not a platformer game and even though you can switch to a 3rd person view the game mechanics are completely different to a Tomb Raider game, but nevertheless I can’t help but draw some heart-warming similarities. There are also some underwater caves, but I haven’t been able to explore them just yet.

The main problem with the game in my opinion is optimisation: it runs fine on medium-high details but I do want to play it on higher details so I can enjoy this beautiful world to the fullest. Most say that even on medium-high details the game looks absolutely stunning. Sometimes I just walk around my base at night and enjoy looking at the moon.

Another problem is a lack of character customisation. You can adjust various body parameters and even the colour of the character’s hair and eyes, but you can’t change facial features or hairdos. Nevertheless, the game offers you a variety of wearables that you can either unlock or earn from killing an Alpha Raptor for example. You can also craft a painting brush and paint your clothes or equipment, dinosaurs and buildings just the way you want to.

In fact, you can also craft a painting canvas and draw whatever you want, here’s a masterpiece that I have on the wall:

Players can create tribes, tribes can go on war on one another or trade and help eachother, creating a very interesting social component. If you are playing this game or plan to buy it, do join our dedicated “South Pacific Islands” server, we are a friendly bunch

ARK is so huge that it has its own Wiki website, where you can learn about every single creature and resource.

With the game being in the early access it’s clear that there are some bugs, but the game is totally playable already. You may find it a bit expensive for an early access game but do consider that you are sponsoring an independently produced game that will capture you for many weeks or months! The full version of the game is set to be released later this year so you have a chance to learn how to play and level up your character
before the release, though you still may find that there are lots of players playing the game already.

ARK: Survival Evolved was released last year and is available now as an Early Access game on Steam and Xbox One with a PS4 version being in development.

Special Thanks:

A. Croft

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Here’s our Let’s play video with Helen (AKA Lady Scion) and Mishka the Bear as Lara Croft. This was my first ever LP and it was the first time Helen played Rise of the Tomb Raider as well but it definitely was fun!
I hope you guys enjoyed our ‘counter’

Read my full review for the Rise of the Tomb Raider

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Two days ago, a royal shitstorm has hit the internet regarding the (timed) “Xbox One Exclusive” Tomb Raider game, due to be released next year. I, as everyone had a sad reaction at first though I did restrain myself from posting death threats online, since I read the game is due for release in 18 months (that’s a lot of time for things to alter).

Either way even the Xbox One owners (at least the mature/intelligent ones) were disappointed with this decision, as no one wants any fellow fans to be left out (let alone that Tomb Raider always was a simultaneously released multi-platform game, and the exclusivity sounds somewhat strange). It was very nice to read how people stick with each other. Which (how I think) fans should behave towards each other. 

Obviously not every XB1 gamer was sympathetic. The Internet is full of 12-16 years olds who just love to start their console wars. I as a specimen of “the Master PC Race” normally just spectate this puberty war of consoles with a bucket of popcorn and some Pepsi.

But on forums, I read the likes of: “You guys aren’t fans if you won’t buy console for one game, because this is TOMB RAIDERRRR” directed at me and fans with alike thinking ( as in “why buying another console because of ONE game?”).

Well excuse me for breathing, but I’d like to know who gave said people the right to talk about this game, when they are far younger than its 18+ rating.

That’s firstly. Secondly what actually makes a Tomb Raider fan?

I personally learned the English language, 3DS Max, Photoshop, Delphi only because I wanted to become a game designer when I was 16 (inspired by playing Core Design’s Tomb Raider games). I later was making renders with Lara and Kurtis (that was before XNA). And even though I’m now on Media/Journalism/Film career path I still use those skills that I got because of Tomb Raider.

Eventually I even moved country because of this game. I made friends worldwide who visit me every year (even I myself am going to Croatia next week to visit my fellow Tomb Raider fan-friend who I met online in 2007).

Everytime they visit – I take them on a “Tomb Raider Pilgrimage”. Speaking of which… I visited so many places – ex Core design offices in Derby, Lara Croft way, Kedleston Hall and other buildings that were an inspiration for the series.

I managed to meet the actual developers from Crystal Dynamics and some awesome people from Square Enix Europe (and no I won’t be blaming separate people for company’s decisions either). Let alone I was blessed to interview some people from Core Design (hopefully will interview a few more later, more on this soon).

The list can go on and on! Lara Croft indeed changed my life starting from my crazy teenage years where I was even bullied in school for avidly playing a game with a female protagonist.

However, I am indeed terribly sorry that I am not “fanly enough” (or “fan at all”?) to downgrade from my gaming laptop to some console.

This is like telling me to get an Iphone because you can play Tomb Raider I on it even though my Galaxy Note III can emulate any PS1 game with a full gamepad support; BUT HEY YOU MUST GET AN IPHONE COZ IT HAS AN OFFICIAL PORT YOU AINT FAN OTHERWISE!!!! I wonder if you guys got all the games for gameboy (and gameboy itself just to play those Tomb Raider games for it)?

On pictures is me with Rhianna Pratchett, Darrel Galagher, fellow fan Athora on Eurogamer Expo and in Square Enix offices. 

Sincerely, Ash. (not a) tomb raider fan.

As a solidarity with our readers who have PC and PS4 we will be avoiding publishing spoilers here and on our Facebook page. There will be two exceptions:
1 a completely impartial (as always, duh) review
2 a Let’s Play video on Xbox 360
In the meantime, we will continue our work mostly as a TR classics oriented fansite (as we always were tbh). We also will be hosting many more competitions and giveaways in 2016.

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Win the Rise of the Tomb Raider Deluxe Edition for Xbox One. Check this post for rules

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Don’t worry Tomb Raider fans, I’ll still be spamming you with exclusive interviews and other material in same quantities!

Feel free to add me on PSN, Xbox, Steam, Raptr, Playfire. My IDs are listed here 

Yes I do own 2 PS3s

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In June, Microsoft and Crystal Dynamics sponsored my trip to the USA to attend their presentation of the Rise of the Tomb Raider at E3 2015 in Los Angeles. I had an opportunity to meet some of my online friends for the first time and catch up with some of the people behind the new Tomb Raider at both E3 and Crystal Dynamics’ studio in San Francisco. You can find out more details about my adventures, read and watch exclusive interviews and see photos here

Excuse my accent  

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“Yes, Microsoft will be publishing Rise of the Tomb Raider on Xbox. Microsoft has always seen huge potential in Tomb Raider and they will get behind this game with more support across development, marketing and retail than ever before, which we believe will be a step in continuing to build the Tomb Raider franchise as one of the biggest in gaming.”

No details on PS4 or PC release and this statement is also as vague as it gets (only blind, deaf and completely brainless squirrel wouldn’t know that Microsoft would be publishing the game on its own console!). Personally I think it will be out on all the platforms in time

However people are still expressing their concerns over the “exclusive” announce last Summer. Here are some comments from the official Tomb Raider website. 

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