Sandbox craft-o-survival mega-hit Ark: Survival Evolved [official site] stomps to a full launch next week, after two years in early access. After that long, ah, sure, schedules will get a little jumbled. So here’s the launch trailer a few days early, which I’m told reveals some of the mystery of why loads of folks are thrown onto an island filled with dinosaurs, mythical animals, spaceman technology, and dinosaurs augmented with spaceman technology. The answer, apparently, is not “Because it’s p. dang cool to have a load of dinosaurs stomping around.”

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Ark: Survival Evolved, the current king of dinosaur hill, is not a simulation of any kind. Saurian meanwhile, new on Steam Early Access this week after a successful Kickstarting a while back, is a survival game that similarly appeals to our first childhood love, but wants to be more Walking With Dinosaurs than Jurassic World. Which is to say, a dinosaur life simulation based on contemporary science’s best guess as the thunder lizards’ lifestyle. The release version so far is fairly short on things to do, but has some meticulously-recreated dinos, the option to pick a doomed fight with a Triceratops, and the significant risk of getting eaten by your own mother.

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The dinosaur island sandbox Ark: Survival Evolved [official site] was due to leave early access and launch in full next week, but it won’t. Developers Studio Wildcard announced over the weekend that they’ve delayed the launch from August 8th to the 29th, because things took longer than expected. That’s game-making all right. Over the next few weeks, in the run-up to the actual proper launch for real, Wildcard and chums will be working on performance improvements, fixes for bugs and exploits, and more. (more…)

Studio Wildcard have doubled the price of their dino-infested survival game Ark: Survival Evolved [official site] on Steam. The developers say that the price hike is “to ensure retail parity for the upcoming launch” which is on 8 August. … [visit site to read more]

After two years in early access, the dinosaur-riding sandbox survive-o-craft ’em up Ark: Survival Evolved [official site] will leave early access and launch on August 8th. It’s not clear how much this will actually change the game, as creators Studio Wildcard say they still plan to keep adding things after launch, but perhaps they’ll finally sort out Ark’s performance problems. And if wishes were raptors, beggars would ride, eh?

Before then, Wildcard are still busy. Today they launched Valhalla, a free fantasy-ish makeover mod and new island. It’s the first mod from the Ark Sponsored Mods Program, which pays modders to mod, to get be officially added to Ark. … [visit site to read more]

Sharks are cool. Lasers are cool. What happens when you mash them together? You get the latest update to ARK: Survival Evolved [official site], in which sharks can shoot lasers from a saddle on their back and giant bees roam the redwood forests. … [visit site to read more]

The makers of dinosaur-y sandbox survival game Ark: Survival Evolved [official site] have launched a scheme sponsoring mod development with actual real cash money. Every month they’ll pay fifteen modders (and teams) $4,000 ( 3.2k), with a view to potentially including their finished mods in the full game – as they have with others before. The first round includes everything from moonbases to islands inspired by albums. Mods can be huge for the long-term health of games, benefitting players and developers, so slinging them a big bag of bucks is a pretty great move. … [visit site to read more]

A cute new megasnail has arrived in Ark: Survival Evolved [official site] and it is useful for… what, would you guess? You’ve got it: Achatina Limusegnis mucus can be used as glue. That’s an easy one. What about the new ceratopsid Pachyrhinosaurus Mitisaura? If you guessed that it emits a calming scent when threatened, you’ve cheated and already looked at the answer you filthy rotter. I do enjoy the weekly routine of guessing what wacky gadgets dinosaurs are turned into with each Ark update. This week’s patch adds four of ’em and also kicks off a Thanksgiving celebration with deadly ‘Super Turkeys’. … [visit site to read more]

Iron Man-like supersuits of power armour are coming to Ark: Survival Evolved [official site], developers Studio Wildcard have announced, as part of the end-game ‘Tek’ tech tier. You might begin the multiplayer survival sandbox wearing grubby underpants and waving rocks and sticks, but eventually players will be supersprinting, jetpacking, superpunching in power armour, and riding dinosaurs caked in cyberguns like Dino-Riders toys. But it’s not all punching dinosaurs in the face; the Tek tier will also bring new buildings like undersea bases. Have a butcher’s at cyberdinos in this trailer: … [visit site to read more]

I am delighted every time a new Ark: Survival Evolved [official site] update turns a dinosaur into a wacky gadget. From Archaeopteryx hang gliders to sauropods you can build mobile fortresses upon, the sandbox survival game has a fascinating and violent Flintstones> logic. Procedurally-generated worlds are probably the biggest feature in last week’s update but I’m more interested in its new giant salamander. Can you guess what it’s useful for? Oh, y’know, you can ride it underwater and use it as a mobile oxygen tank by sucking air from bladders inside its head. Of course you can. … [visit site to read more]