Earlier this year, Studio Wildcard announced ARK: Survival Ascendeda remastered version of his popular dinosaur game ARK: Survival Evolvedeven though a ARK 2 is in development and was originally due to be released in early 2023… Originally scheduled for August, the new version dedicated to the new generation of consoles and PCs had been pushed back to October, without further details. After a first visual of great beauty, but captured via the mode Photobroadcast last week, we were still eager to see more and the opportunity was given to us during the Xbox Partner Preview this Wednesday evening with a truly impressive trailer.
And for good reason, it’s about trailer ARK: Survival Ascended launch event ! Even better, the game is available on Steam in early access now at the price of €40.49 instead of €44.99 until November 1st. It will remain like this until the end of 2024 with the gradual addition of content known to the community. Here is the description of this version developed by Grove Street Games And Instinct Games :
Meet a new dinosaur survival experience beyond your wildest dreams… as ARK is reimagined from the ground up to the next generation of video game technology with an Unreal 5 engine! You wake up on a mysterious island, your senses overwhelmed by blinding sunlight and brilliant colors bouncing off every surface around you, the azure waters of a verdant island lapping at your bare feet. A deep roar echoes from the misty jungle, causing you to do the deed, and you stand up – not afraid, but intrigued. Are you ready to form a tribe, tame and remove hundreds of species of dinosaurs and other primitive creatures, explore, craft, build and fight your way to the top of the food chain? Your new world awaits… step through the glass and join it!
FEATURES
ARK: Survival Ascend has completely recreated and redesigned the artwork and worlds of ARK to take advantage of the latest video game technology, Unreal Engine 5, using high-end graphics features such as fully dynamic world lighting (“lumen “), so light bounces realistically from off surfaces and provides realistic reflections, and advanced mesh streaming (“nanite”) of hundreds of millions of triangles for extreme detail.
New advanced physics systems such as dynamic water so each creature creates waves, ripples, splashes and bubbles as they move through fluids and fully interactive physics foliage where each blade of grass, bush and tree reacts to characters, explosions, projectiles, and physical objects. Corner a tree, and watch it crash into other trees and disturb all the foliage on its way down to the grass below! Detect an enemy moving stealthily through the grass as it shifts and swings in response to its presence. Demolish a building and watch the pieces come apart in a realistic way, interacting with grass and water as they fall.
ARK: Survival Ascend includes access to all ARK worlds, including Scorched Earth, Aberration, Extinction, ARK Genesis Part 1, ARK Genesis Part 2, and more. The Island is released now, subsequent expansion worlds will be added at no additional cost on a regular basis.
- The definitive survival experience returns better than ever – Design your survivor, form a tribe and tame, train, breed and roll dinosaurs in a living ecosystem. Monitor your food, water, temperature and weather patterns. Slowly relax outward as you harvest, build structures, grab crops, customize your visual designs, and move on to explore to discover the true nature of the island and the worlds beyond.
- In-depth quality of life reorganizes in all areas – Redesigned user interfaces, dynamic navigation for the path of intelligent creatures, wild babies, Photo mode, new camera systems, new map system, tracking system, new structures and elements, new creatures, and much more.
- Cross-platform modding – Download and play new custom player-created content, including new maps, creatures, items and game modes, via a new dedicated bowser mod right in the game! Enjoy a never-ending stream of new ARK content, as the community’s creativity and talent are fully unleashed for the first time on gaming platforms!
- Cross-platform multiplayer – Form your tribe online across different gaming platforms as you work together to survive and thrive on the Ark! Supports public online multiplayer for up to 70 players, private session multiplayer for up to 8 players, and local split screen for 2 players.
To get a minimum eyeful, the recommended configuration on Steam still requires no less than 32 GB of RAM, which is far from current standards. For example, a game like Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart only requires as much for its configuration Ultra Ray Tracing… Behind, a simple AMD Radeon RX 6800 Or NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 enough, with DirectX 12a processor AMD Ryzen 5 3600X Or Intel i5-10600KWindows 10 or 11 up to date and an SSD with at least 70 GB free. According to some early feedback, the game is very far from being well optimized…
On consoles, the launch is planned for this month of November 2023 from now on. The development team preferred to postpone the release of the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions due to critical problems that were discovered at the last moment. It’s not very reassuring, let’s hopeARK: Survival Ascended comes out in good condition on these platforms.
Survivors on consoles,
Last night, while continuing our internal quality assurance process for ASA, our team identified critical issues in the multiplayer version of the game that would have had major implications for the console versions of the game. Unfortunately, due to these issues, we have decided to delay the launch of the Xbox and PlayStation versions of the game until November.
We understand that this news is disappointing, and believe us, we are disappointed too. The team really aimed to release everything for all platforms in October, but we didn’t make it right at the finish line. We’re sorry about this, as we know many of you have been very excited about this launch and have made plans accordingly.
Next steps ?
For now, we are working on two paths. One of them is handling the PC launch and the other is preparing a patch for the console version of the game with the latest content/gameplay updates and fixes.
The extra time allows us to address these specific multiplayer issues and bring the game to PC specifications, which received a number of critical improvements as the console versions were undergoing certification.
We still plan to disable cross-play between Steam and consoles until we enter the faster certification processbut this decision could change depending on the current state of affairs with PCs.
The added benefit of this change is that it also allows us to ensure a smoother console launch, as we will have fought many of the initial fires with PC and will have a more content-rich and stable modding experience which has been battle tested when the game becomes available on consoles.
Finally, When the console version is ready to release, a new set of official servers will go live with bonus rates (for a while) to allow you to catch up in preparation for Crossark.
We know this news is far from ideal, but we will do our best to make the game as good as possible when it launches in November. We are truly grateful for your support and can’t wait to put ASA with cross-platform mods in your hands!
Studio Wildcard
You can find many beautiful visuals on the next page. If you don’t mind playing on private servers, ARK: Survival Evolved remains available and can be purchased at Amazon, to the Fnac Or at the house of Cdiscount.
| Alexandre SAMSON (Omega Law) Responsible Proofreader – Editor | ||
| Addicted to Assassin’s Creed and Destiny, big fan of RPGs and passionate about video game experiences in general. Reader of comics (DC) and various mangas (One Piece!). Chemist by training and Whovian at heart. | ||
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