Ark's New Giganotosaurus Is Basically A Dinosaur Hulk
You're gonna hear me roar
Colossal, strong, initially sluggish but quick to anger, growing stronger when enraged and even turning on allies? Aye, the latest dinosaur added to Ark: Survival Evolved [official site] is basically the Hulk as a dinosaur. The survive 'em up's latest Early Access update brings the Giganotosaurus, a honking great dino who'll be a little hostile even if you do manage to tame it, as well as swords and shields for fancier melee. Here, come see how nasty this new dino is:
Developers Studio Wildcard explain:
"While greater in size than most large predators, the Giganotosaurus is sometimes less dangerous when encountered in the wild, due to its sluggish speed. Even still, getting trapped or chased down by a Giganotosaurus often means certain death for nearly any creature. Taming a Giganotosaurus is a dangerous prospect. Its rage reaction, even when tamed, can sometimes cause it to briefly turn on members of its own tribe. Indeed it may even throw off its rider if it has been sufficiently angered! And yet, the sheer size and immense power that the Giganotosaurus possesses means that some factions endeavor to tame it as a fear-inducing "capital" beast of war -- even at great risk! Fighting a Giganotosaurus directly is always a bad idea, as its rage rapidly grows with every hit it takes. With this rage, it builds increasing reserves of energy to use, making its iron-jawed bites progressively more deadly and enhancing its stamina."
Sounds awful, that, and great. It's obviously meant to be a late-game challenge for large numbers of well-equipped hunters, or a terrible threat for people in the wrong place at the wrong time. Here, this forum thread has a few screens and a video showing old Giganoto next to smaller megasaurs, as well as looks at the new swords and shields.
If you pedantically insist upon stamping realism into a game about dinosaurs being alive on a sci-fi island, crying that a Giganotosaurus shouldn't be bigger than a Spinosaurus, 1) it wouldn't be the first inaccuracy in Ark, and 2) look how cool that dinosaur is.
Ark is still in Early Access, headed for a full release in June 2016. I'm still impressed by how frequently it updates, given how quickly most Early Access survival games run out of steam. That's not a steam/Steam pun, it's just an idiom, okay?