Ark: Survival Evolved is free on the Epic Games Store

As well as a load of old Samurai Shodown games for free, the Epic Games Store is this week giving away Ark: Survival Evolved for keepsies. That's the one with the dinosaurs. The survival sandbox is still one of the most-played games on Steam, five years after first launching in early access, so maybe you're curious to see what it's all about?

You have until June 18th to grab Ark: Survival Evolved from the Epic Games Store by June 18th and it'll be yours for keepsies. That's just the base game, none of the paid expansions - though you can grab the fancy player-made maps that Studio Wildcard have made official.

Speaking of, another modmap today became official. Polished up a little, Crystal Isles is now up on the Steam and Epic stores.

Crystal Isles arrives as part of Ark's fifth birthday festivities, which also include big bonuses to XP, breeding speed, taming, and harvesting. That'll help with Ark's interminable grind, if you don't already play on one of the servers boosted to the sky.

"While Ark can be a lot of fun – grabbing another player off of a raptor with an Argentavis feels bloody brilliant – it's rarely worth the hours of tedium," Ark: Survival Evolved review said after it left early access in 2017. Our Nate also had good things to say about the original game in his Ark: Genesis review (though he didn't have much good to say about the expansion):

"It really was a Survival game with a capital S, where the most basic existence was a struggle, and the greatest joy was in attempting treks through a vast and constantly surprising landscape, wondering how far you’d get before something pants-shittingly big burst roaring from a nearby treeline and guzzled you like a tin of meat-flavoured lager."

Which, yeah, that does interest me. The last time I tried Ark on a Steam free trial weekend, performance was so bad that I quickly gave up. Maybe it'll be a bit better now. Maybe?