Ark: Survival Evolved Goes A Bit Fantasy With The Center
New fantasy island!
Given that Ark: Survival Evolved [official site] is a multiplayer survival game where dinosaurs and mythical beasts roam a technoisland, you might expect its world to be a little more... unreal. In which case, oooh! Check out the weird impossible fantasy land added free with yesterdays update. The Center is a huge world with hovering mountains, unlikely grand rock formations, ancient underground lavaruins, underground forests, ice temples, a rocky lavaskull, and world-ending waterfalls, which all looks far more fitting! It's now live, with 100-player official servers to fight on and all.
The Center is a fantasy landscape sprawling over a whopping seventy square kilometres, twice the size of the regular Ark map. It's a little bit Avatar and a little bit Get All Those Cool Rings From That Naughty Eye. The Center is the first player-created map incorporated into Ark under its 'Official Mods' program. The Primitive+ mod is due to become an official part of Ark too. Here, look at The Center:
Ark: Survival Evolved is still on Steam Early Access, with a 33% discount bringing it briefly down to £15.40/18,75€/$20.09. Studio Wildcard, the creators of Ark, had previously said they'd properly launch the game this June, but last I heard it's now due around the Thanksgiving-Christmas holiday season. That's a fair delay but, unlike many Early Access survival games, this has certainly received a steady stream of updates. Wildcard also spun off Ark's Battle Royale-y Survival of the Fittest mode into a standalone free-to-play game.