Hey guys. Some of you may have noticed that ARK Early Access made it on to the XBLA Marketplace. You know, the persistent open world DayZ/Minecraft mash up with dinosaurs thrown in. You might have tried it out on Steam, or you might be starting on Xbox, but I’m curious; what do you think?
I’ve been following the game for a long time. The concept is probably one if my favorite ideas I’ve seen for a game. Granted it gets really unforgiving at times, but I think that’s part of the charm inherent to its genre. Plus, the idea of living in a world with dinosaurs is one that I’ve fantasized about since I was a kid. When I finally had the opportunity to try it, I knew I had to buy in. Even if its currently kinda poorly optimized (big groups of sauropod dinosaurs and a few other situations tend to make the frame rate chug) it’s still a heck of a lot of fun with lots to discover and figure out.
While the online aspect is most of what gets people jazzed about it, I’ve stuck to the single player. Mostly because I don’t want to deal with griefing or being taken hostage while I’m off doing real world stuff like sleeping. However, there is a setting for PvE only in there I’d be more than willing to try. In the spirit of jolly cooperation I’d probably like to play some ARK with you dudes. Get to places we would have trouble reaching alone, form a tribe, maybe test out possible cross-play. 
Yeah, I was always wondering who that chick was riding on the back of Riptor on my XB1 dashboard.
Once I get the resources to tame raptors, I’ll name a girl Riptor and I’ll name the male after a philosopher. Probably DaVinci. 
I think is a great concept, and I enjoyed the hour trial version I had, but I wasn’t completely sold on it. Maybe I needed more time.
It’s definitely one of those games you need to get into a groove to play. The good parts don’t really open up until you get to a higher level. Need to play a lot to unlock things like structures, clothing, saddles, weapons, etc. Until you clear the hump it just seems cruel.
I’ve entered the beginning of the iron age today. I’ve got 2 different bases both mostly made of stone with some spiked fences, as well as a raft and a pet Dilophosaurus named Dalila.
Luckily it’s pretty polished for an early access game, even if the frame rate gets unstable around big crowds of critters and sometimes the dinosaur pathfiinding bugs out and sends them straight up a cliff.
After playing a while though I can certainly see why people wouldn’t like it.
It was great when I played it, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, but Idk. Maybe I like more realistic survival games? Lol I love Dinosaurs though. It’s a very interesting game.
This is amazing though I’d still rather be a dinosaur then train one lol. Looks awesome though. I may try it.
@JEFFRON27 I really wish there were more games where you played as a dinosaur. It’s a vastly underappreciated and unjustly underrepresented style of gameplay. There so much you could do with it.
@TheNinjaOstrich Lol I can see where you’re coming from. I personally feel that any game that puts me in an impossible situation is better than one I could theoretically wind up in, but to each their own.
LOL Well the only other game I’ve played like this is Day Z, but I don’t think that’s coming at all… Lol It’s a bit scary how Zombies could be real.
EDIT: COMING TO XBOX ONE 2016!? 
I agree. Not enough games now-a-days where you can be something other than human/humanish I believe. lol It is severely underappreciated. And I also agree in the idea of a game putting you in a situation then one that’s supposedly more “realistic”
I picked this up. My brother is addicted. I’m trudging around through it. Great concept, but it is very unforgiving and awfully time consuming. I haven’t been able to play on a server with other people, so I’ve just been playing by myself. It’s tempting to set all the settings to increase your levelling (which is what my brother has done) but then you end up with too much easy success to make the game interesting.
It’s a great concept, but still a bit rough around the edges.
Dear Diary,
I remember all too well that my current dwelling on The Ark was not my first home. I once had a beautiful Cliffside abode overlooking a cove in the south eastern corner of the island. However, heavy predation had worn my moral quite thin. The final straw, however, were the Brontosaurus throngs that inhabited the beach below. Their mass seemed to be so much that it warped the fabric of time itself and made my vision jumpy and my feet unsteady to the point where I’d suffered a near death experience (translation: They made my framerate drop so hard it literally killed me.)
Today, however, I have concocted a plan to reclaim my home, and to be free from their time warping tyranny: Bronto Genocide. I shall incite their wrath and stampede the beasts into the great water, where their own mass and the jaws of mighty sea beasts shall tear them asunder (translation: I’m gonna get on my raft, pull their aggro with arrows, and lead them all into the ocean so they drown.)
I may not be here in the morn. I shall reclaim my old homeland, and become a master of death itself.
Wish me luck.
Sincerely,
Me.
Update: I’ve got 4 so far. Tactic is successful. Need to craft more arrows though.
I’ll be honest. I REALLY like this game, but I don’t see my self putting in much time to it. To get better in anything, you need time, and time is something I have a limited supply of. Lol plus, I don’t want to be that guy that is still stuck in the stone age, and some one like @Fwufikins has Guns, Lasers, and a Pet Brontosaurus named Brutus. 
I’ve actually only even approached getting gun technology today. I’ve unlocked a revolver and a flaregun but don’t have the resources to even get close to either. And the biggest critter I use is my Triceratops named Tessa, who’s really only good for picking berries.
Which…definitely illustrates your point. It’s taken me at least a week of playing nearly every day, and I’m still stuck in the stone age with 3 dinosaurs. There are people who have armies of Rexes and Spinos and mobile air bases on the backs of Quetzalcoatlus. I can’t imagine it’d open up much to people who want to play it casually unless you just make a private server/single player save where you turn XP and Resource gain up 600% 
Edited note:
To make things even more painful, the one time I’m actually looking for a raptor to tame it I can’t find own anywhere that isn’t populated by super predators 
#In Memoriam for Dude the Dodo.
Dear diary,
When I first began my new life stranded on th Ark, I had discovered a form of berry that could keep a subject incapacitated for long periods of time, and needed to test it on the local wild life. I knocked a Dodo unconscious, and fed him the Narcoberries. While he was unconscious, I nursed him back to health, and he took a liking to me. (Translation: tamed the bird.) I decided to name him “Dude”, because the only thing I could say when I saw him was, “Dude, did you just ■■■■ inside the house AGAIN?!”
Many a day passed, and we spent many a cold night huddled by the fire in my primitive hut. However, it quickly became evident that the Lardy Sauropod Time Vortex (Translation: Lag/framedrops caused by abnormally high numbers of brontos on my beach) I was forced to leave home. I took Dude out into the wilderness, where he would be able to be free and procreate as any other dodo would, and I said my goodbyes. From there, I flung myself into the ether (Translation: Fed myself to an Alpha Raptor up the beach and chose a new spawn) to find a new home.
Weeks passed (both IRL and in game) and my new riverside abode had developed into a well fortified zoo. Stone walls, spike baricades, and reinforced doorways guarded my collection. A dock for the raft I used to explore the island by sea, and the beginnings of an aviary from which I could launch aerial caravans to and from rich mineral deposits in the mountains. Whenever food was in short supply, I’d clear whole groves of vegetation with my Trikes, and the combined power of my dilophosaurs and a mighty carnotaur -not to mention my trusty crossbow- meant that fresh meat was never in short supply. I felt like I was at the top of the world…
However, in my travels, I grew homesick; nostalgic even. Not long ago, I took to the skies once more to go scour the coasts on my flying mount, when I came across the cliff by the southern cove I had once called home. I had expected to find little left of my abode, but surprisingly my home was still intact…
#And who should be waiting for me in front of my house, but good old Dude the Dodo himself, in the flesh!
I reclaimed him, and welcomed him back into my company. It took quite a long, treacherous journey to carry him back to the new manner, but it was mostly worth it. He settled down, nestled on my porch just like the old days. It was a blissful nostalgia trip.
…was…
Today, however, the joyous reunion with my old friend has come to a close. On my way to gather supplies to craft my first firearm, I opened the gates as usual… Only to find a swarm of compsognathus waiting for me outside. They swarmed into my base, attacking me and my livestock. While most of those in the base were hearty enough to crush them or even simply ignore them outright, there was still one casualty…
In the chaos, Dude the Dodo -my first and most faithful companion- had lost his life. I fear that, in the end, it was not the teeth of the invading swarm that did him in, but the pike I had used to fend them off. My guilt will be everlasting, my sorrow a scar on my heart and even my very soul.
We sang funeral choirs in his honor (Translation: I played “In the Arms of an Angel” on my phone. You know, the song from the sad homeless puppy commercials?) and I have decided that I shall create a memorial in his honor. His headstone shall be simple, but impactful.
Rest in Peace, my flightless feathered friend…
-sniffle- On a more positive note, I got a rifle today. Takes out a lot of lower level creatures like parasaurs and raptors with one shot. Helps to lessen the blow of Dude’s passing.
This is probably the most greatest ARK related thing I’ve ever rea-…
I MEAN…
Dude the Dodo will be missed. I will send my condolences.
RIP DUDE, May you fly again…
This game will devour your life… You can spend a whole Saturday working at irrigating your farm and then you realize you have been playing for a week and still don’t have metal tools.
Aww. Seems so interesting. I wished I had a higher budget for it. S3 is what I am saving for.
I have really put a lot of time in this game by now, it is absolutely brilliant! I was actually going to start a new thread but noticed this one existed so might as well post what I intended to here rather than starting a new thread all together.
Normally, I steer away from most Alpha games. They are sloppy, development takes forever, new additions to the game always seem minor rather than implementing something significant, the game never seems to get out of an Alpha state, and so on. DayZ proved this.
I can make the argument with Ark, but I don’t think it deserves it. This game is slowly coming with a 2-week deadline for content/patch updates. The most recent patch featured some bug fixes and minor content updates. At a steady rate this game is coming along, more then DayZ ever promised.
I will say this now, $35 - do it! Buy this game if you love Dinosaurs, well-done crafting system, and fun gameplay!
As for my experience, I tend to play in a private lobby with @oDragonSpirit or sometimes single-player if she isn’t free at the time. We both currently have 18 tamed dinos between us. 17, if you exclude a Gigantopithecus. Either way it has been a blast, named my tribe the Black Tiger Tribe and the xp boost was nice so we leveled up relatively fast. I am level 68 currently and Dragon is 54 I believe.
We have mainly stayed on the lower southern isles and build a wonderful stone home with a couple of nice touches like a fireplace and weapons locker. We made a raft to travel up north on the eastern shore but with territorial dinos, we had to turn back with a freshly tamed Spino to improve the quality of our raft. I plan to add stone structures and perhaps an arrow turret to combat any Alpha creatures who may be following us.
Here are some captures of our adventure thus far,
I also named my Beelzebufo “Rash”
