Studio Wildcard has partnered with acclaimed director Jay Oliva (Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox) to executive produce and co-showrun an original animated television series based on the hit video game ARK: Survival Evolved.

Created and executive produced by the game’s creators Jeremy Stieglitz and Jesse Rapczak, ARK: The Animated Series is composed of fourteen 30-minute episodes and has two seasons currently in production in anticipation of a 2022 launch. Lead writers Marguerite Bennett and Kendall Deacon Davis have written the scripts for ARK: The Animated Series, which features an extraordinary voice cast, including Gerard Butler (300), Michelle Yeoh (Crazy Rich Asians), Devery Jacobs (American Gods), Madeleine Madden (The Wheel of Time), Deborah Mailman (Total Control), Zahn McClarnon (Doctor Sleep), Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange), Elliot Page (The Umbrella Academy), Ragga Ragnars (Vikings), David Tennant (Good Omens), Karl Urban (The Boys), Jeffrey Wright (Westworld), and Russell Crowe (Gladiator).

Studio Wildcard also announced today that Vin Diesel has joined the company as President of Creative Convergence and will act as executive producer of both “ARK II” and “ARK: The Animated Series.” Diesel will also lend his voice talents as Santiago, a fully rendered hero protagonist, who will cross over from the newly announced video game sequel to the animated television series.

From cutting-edge animation studio Lex + Otis and with music composed by Gareth Coker (Ori and the Will of the Wisps), ARK: The Animated Series chronicles the story of a mysterious primeval land populated by dinosaurs and other extinct creatures, where people from throughout human history have been resurrected. When 21st century Australian paleontologist Helena Walker awakes on the ARK after tragedy, she must learn to survive and find new allies, or die again at the hands of ruthless warlords, all while trying to uncover the true nature of their strange new world.

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What a year it has been for Xbox gamers.

Getting lost in the open ocean with Sea of Thieves, burning rubber in Forza Motorsport 7 and the added subscription based service of Games Pass which allows exclusive Triple AAA titles to be downloaded and played for free. Xbox also did a honourable nod to gamers with special needs with their Adaptive Controller.

With the next year just around the corner, let’s see what’s in store for the world’s most powerful games console as it leads us in to 2019.

Anthem is a shared-world action-RPG, where Freelancers challenge the wilds past the wall, exploring a vast world filled with savage beasts and ruthless marauders, but also teeming with amazing technology and forgotten treasures. Players will be able to join with their friends to unravel the world’s mysteries and defeat the forces plotting to conquer humanity. Throughout their journeys, players can outfit their Freelancers with powerful Javelin exosuits, each of which are equipped with unique weapons and abilities.

Freelancers can customize their Javelin with gear they earn and craft throughout the adventure, and leave a lasting mark on the world. Anthem is due for release from EA Games in 2019.

From the creators of ARK: Survival Evolved comes ATLAS – a massively multiplayer first-and-third-person fantasy pirate adventure. “ATLAS” will host up to 40,000 players exploring the same Globe simultaneously, with an unprecedented scale of cooperation and conflict. Join an endless adventure of piracy & sailing, exploration & combat, roleplaying & progression, settlement & civilization-building, in one of the largest game worlds ever! Explore, Build, Conquer!

This coming February experience the next gen of Crackdown. It’s time to step up your boom and stop crime as a super-powered Agent in Crackdown 3’s sandbox of cooperative mayhem and destruction, plus an all-new multiplayer mode where destruction is your ultimate weapon. “Crackdown 3” is available at launch on February 15^th with Xbox Game Pass and globally on Xbox One and Windows 10.

One of the hotly anticipated games on my list for 2019 is Devil May Cry 5 from Capcom.  brand-new entry in the legendary over-the-top action series comes to Xbox One in spring 2019, complete with its signature blend of high-octane stylized action and otherworldly and original characters the series is known for. Years have passed since the legions of hell have set foot in this world, but now a new demonic invasion has begun, and humanity’s last hope will rest in the hands of three lone demon hunters, each offering a radically different play style. United by fate and a thirst for vengeance, these demon hunters will have to face their demons if they hope to survive.

Also, Ubisoft will have you diving into a transformed vibrant post apocalyptic Hope County, Montana, 17 years after a global nuclear catastrophe in Far Cry New Dawn. Join fellow survivors from Hope County and lead the fight against the dangerous new threat known as the Highwaymen, and their ruthless leaders The Twins, as they seek to destroy and take over the last remaining resources by any means necessary.

Perhaps one of the more intriguing is the expected 2019 release of Gears of War 5, with Gears of War 4 still one of my go to games, having completed it several times over.

As Kait, journey across the biggest, most beautiful Gears world ever created. Play solo or with a friend in local split-screen co-op, or online co-op and experience every mode in 4K Ultra HD resolution with stunning HDR at a smooth 60 frames per second. Called Gears 5 it will be coming to Xbox One and Windows 10 in 2019 and will be available day and date to Xbox Game Pass members.

Keeping in tune with Gears 5 – perhaps the lighter and weirder announcement from Microsoft Studios is their upcoming Gears Pop, a new Arena Brawler mobile game that brings together iconic Gears characters in the distinctive Funko Pop! style. The game is being developed in partnership with Funko and inspired by the Gears of War vinyl collectible figures. It’s the perfect slice of mobile mayhem, available on iOS and Android in 2019.

Jump Force, which we have covered in a news piece before is slated, also for a 2019 release. This BandaiNamco title sees the greatest heroes and villains from the 50-year history of Shueisha’s influential Japanese Weekly Jump manga will battle against each other across iconic locations across Earth in this anime fan’s dream come true! Featuring the world’s most popular and classic manga and anime franchises including DRAGON BALL Z, ONE PIECE, NARUTO, and many others, players will be able to compete in hyper-stylish arena brawls set against familiar backdrops of famous landmarks around the world, including New York City’s Times Square and the Matterhorn.

Then – we have the juggernaut of fantasy cross-over titles; Kingdom Hearts III. Set in a vast array of Disney worlds, Kingdom Hearts follows the journey of Sora, a young boy and unknowing heir to a spectacular power. Sora is joined by Donald and Goofy to stop an evil force known as the Heartless from invading and overtaking the universe. Through the power of positivity and friendship, Sora, Donald and Goofy unite with iconic Disney-Pixar characters old and new to overcome tremendous challenges and persevere against the darkness threatening their worlds.

Next year is also going to see a reprise of the Metro series. Metro Exodus is an epic, story-driven first person shooter from 4A Games that blends deadly combat and stealth with exploration and survival horror in one of the most immersive game worlds ever created. Explore the Russian wilderness across vast, nonlinear Levels and follow a thrilling storyline that spans an entire year through spring, summer and autumn to the depths of nuclear winter. Inspired by the novels of Dmitry Glukhovsky, Metro Exodus continues Artyom’s story in the greatest Metro adventure yet.

If all of the above is not to your liking, there’s always Minecraft.

Minecraft: Dungeons is an action adventure game in the classic dungeon crawler style, where up to four players can fight together to defeat a relentless swarm of new mobs in a quest to save the villagers and take down the evil Arch-Illager. As an all new passion project for PC from a small, dedicated team at Mojang, Minecraft: Dungeons will be the first new title in the Minecraft universe when it releases in 2019.

Another one I am excited for, having loved the first Ori, is Ori and the Will of the Wisps. From the creators of Ori and the Blind Forest, winner of over 50 awards and nominations, comes the highly anticipated sequel, Ori and the Will of the Wisps. Embark on an adventure with all-new combat and customization options while exploring a vast and exotic world, encountering larger-than-life enemies and challenging puzzles on your path to unravel Ori’s true destiny. “Ori and the Will of the Wisps” will be launching exclusively on Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs in 2019 and will be available day and date to Xbox Game Pass members.

The oceans of Sea of Thieves will continue to wash over the Xbox gaming landscape in 2019. Sea of Thieves is changing in a big way with its fifth free content update since launch, ‘The Arena.’ Releasing in early 2019, ‘The Arena’ is an all-new competitive game mode that allows players to test their pirating skills in fast-paced matches against rival crews. Each match is a fun, frenetic and action-packed race to find treasure that brings together all the most exciting elements of “Sea of Thieves” – on demand. “Sea of Thieves” is available with Xbox Game Pass and globally on Xbox One and Windows 10 as an Xbox Play Anywhere title.

The Artful Escape of Francis Vendetti is a video game about great expectations, famous folk singers, lingering shadows, space Gods, hallucinogens, individuality, reptile shops, and wild imaginations. It’s an action, adventure, exploration, narrative driven, musical-laser-light-battle kind of game and is the debut release from BEETHOVEN & DINOSAUR.

Kick in some sci-fi action, The Outer Worlds is a new single-player first-person RPG from Obsidian Entertainment and Private Division. Lost in transit while on a colonist ship bound for the furthest edge of the galaxy, you awake decades later only to find yourself in the midst of a deep conspiracy threatening to destroy the Halcyon colony. As you explore the furthest reaches of space and encounter various factions, all vying for power, the character you decide to become will determine how this player-driven story unfolds. In the corporate equation for the colony, you are the unplanned variable.

Tom Clancy’s: The Division 2 will explode in to 2019. Developed by Ubisoft Massive and the same teams that brought you Tom Clancy’s The Division, Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 is an online open-world, action-shooter RPG experience set in a collapsing and fractured Washington, D.C. This rich new setting combines a wide variety of beautiful, iconic and realistic environments where the player will experience the series’ trademark for authenticity in world- building, rich RPG systems, and fast-paced action like never before. Play solo or co-op with a team of up to four players to complete a wide range of activities, from the main campaign and adversarial PvP matches to the Dark Zone — where anything can happen.

Throwing a bit of indie goodness in, Tunic from devs Finji is an isometric action adventure about a tiny fox in a big world. Embark on an adventuresome quest-about set in that place just beyond the farthest you’ve ever been! Explore ancient ruins, fight monsters and uncover mysterious secrets. The world is big and scary — so be brave, little one!

And finally in this 2019 Xbox round up is from the creators of Wasteland 2 and Torment: Tides of Numenera comes Wasteland 3! Following the critically acclaimed releases of 2014’s Wasteland 2 and 2015’s Wasteland 2: Director’s Cut, fans have been clamoring for a direct sequel.

Wasteland 3 will feature a deep and engaging story utilizing a newly-revamped dialog tree system from the celebrated writers of Torment: Tides of Numenera, along with a renewed focus on our trademark complex story reactivity and strategic combat that evolves on Wasteland 2’s deep tactical turn-based combat and unique encounter design. Play by yourself or with a friend in story-driven synchronous or asynchronous multiplayer to face difficult moral choices and make sacrifices that will change the game world.

So there we have it Xbox One gamers – here’s what’s in store for the next 12 months from Xbox. A couple of first party surprises and alot of third party goodness to welcome in another year.

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One of my favourite YouTube channels is 98DEMAKE. He takes modern games and reimagines them as PlayStation 1 or other vintage system titles. High texture detail is smeared into bland textures, lighting is drastically reduced, antialiasing removed and resolution dramatically lowered. These are fun jokes, what if scenarios about a past that never happened. How recognisable would each game be and how would the experience of playing these games change with only dramatically reduced hardware to support them?

That’s what I’m reminded of playing Ark: Survival Evolved for the Switch. There have been plenty of miracle ports for the Switch, from Fortnite, to DOOM to Warframe. These ports have blown away expectations of what can run on Nintendo’s hybrid console, with results far above what was previously considered possible. Specialised teams such as Panic Button have been able to wring out every last bit of performance whether docked or in portable mode. The common factor between those ports though, as far as I can tell, is that they were performant before they came to Switch, running easily on older hardware at higher frame rates. The same could not be said of Ark, which doesn’t have that luxury and still has difficulty running smoothly on the other current-gen consoles and even powerful gaming PCs. So it was always going to be a task that required a bit of divine intervention to bring Ark to Switch in a state that would justify the energy and money poured into the experience.

Unfortunately, there are no miracles here. To put it simply, Ark runs atrociously on Nintendo’s console. In Digital Foundry’s testing, John Linneman runs down the various ways that the developers have tried to cram a complicated open-world game onto the Switch’s downclocked Tegra X1 hardware. Draw distances are cut, textures lowered, shadow quality reduced, anti-aliasing changed, level of detail pop-in brought to right in front of the player and more. But most extraordinarily, resolution has been lowered in both docked and portable modes to, at times, levels not seen since the 16-bit era of consoles in the mid 1990’s. It looks incredibly bad in practice, with levels of detail of trees, rocks, the ground and animals shifting in front of your eyes. Not to mention the bugs that abound everywhere I looked.

At this resolution and with these cuts to the game, it’s almost impossible to tell what’s going on at any one time in the game. Ark simply wasn’t designed to operate at these low resolutions and detail levels, and a more bespoke edition of the game tailored to the strengths and weaknesses of the Switch could have given us better results – see what’s possible with FIFA or Farming Simulator: Nintendo Switch Edition – Ark even has a version for mobile that may have been a better fit.

So sure, technically Ark is on the Switch and technically it runs. In one sense I have to tip my hat to the developers for getting it to work at all. But it shouldn’t have been a port that saw the light of day. For $79 AUD it’s a blurry, low resolution, low detail game that unfortunately doesn’t show what Ark can be and can do given more powerful hardware.

Post-launch, we have seen a number of these miracle ports given resolution bumps and better performance as the developers become more familiar with the Switch’s capabilities – such as Rocket League, which has improved its docked and undocked resolution over time. Ark for Switch is in desperate need of these boosts for it to be more than curiosity or punch-line.

Ark for Switch: Survival Devolved?

The post Ark: Survival Evolved (Switch) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Ark Survival Evolved is one of the major games that used Steam’s Early Access to push itself across the line. Known for being a buggy mess, but also being adored thanks to its survival game nature mixed with Dinosaurs, and more importantly Dinosaur taming, it’s something I have wanted to check out for a while. Now it has come free to play on mobile, and I don’t know how much I want to play this game now.

Ark Survival Evolved plops you on an island which is large, beautiful and full of dinosaurs living their lives. Your job is to survive, get yourself better equipped than the underwear you have been dropped with, and start taming some dinosaurs.

The game has been out on console for a while, and it seems like it’s a fun take on the survival genre, so porting it to mobile phones, with its size and complexity is ambitious at least. The problem is how the game runs, but I’ll touch on that later.

The controls are well designed, using your touch controls to move around like a joystick, but they resisted the urge to put a faux one in place, which was the right call. Swiping in the right ways allows you open your items and menus, which never felt intuitive, but I got there eventually. With a bit more time with the game, I’m sure anyone could adjust to that.

When standing still, the game looks surprisingly good, with detailed plants and dinosaurs around. Unfortunately, the game moves, a lot, and as such it quickly becomes a rough ride. Frame rates drop from a barely usable degree to borderline unusable, regularly. The number of times I’d be moving towards something, touch to grab it, and after that moment see I overshot it, was frustratingly high.

The problem is that because the game is survival based, it needs to be fair enough that if you didn’t deserve to die, you shouldn’t. But so many times I would be running and lose my path because of the choppy framerate, or when I think I’m doing one thing, it does something else.

These issues were absolutely exacerbated by me trying to learn the game for the first time too. Trying to learn the fundamentals of the game, while the game struggles to show it to you, or respond, is immensely frustrating. If you are familiar with the game and can laugh at some quirks or aspects that go wrong, then it could work, but this isn’t a place to learn. For context I was playing this game on a Samsung A8+, so not a $1400 phone, but hardly a weak contender.

Ark Survival Evolved is free to play on iOS and Android, so it costs you nothing to see if it works on your phone better than mine, except your time. (Comment below if you have played ARK: Survival Evolved on mobile and let us know it worked well for you).

The post ARK: Survival Evolved (Mobile) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

During the Epic Games’ “State of Unreal” keynote at GDC 2018, Studio Wildcard announced that ARK: Survival Evolved is coming to Nintendo Switch, launching to digital and retail in Fall 2018, and gave the audience its first look at the game running live on the Switch.

Created in conjunction with co-development studio Abstraction Games, the award-winning open-world survival adventure where you can tame dinosaurs, conquer enemies and create enormous structures, now allows you to take your tribe anywhere – at home or on the go.

ARK: Survival Evolved on Switch includes the complete contents and features of the original game; from the massive and mysterious ARK island, to the more than 100 prehistoric- and fantasy-inspired creatures such as the T-Rex, Giganotosaurus, Rock Drake and Reaper. Hundreds of hours of exploring, crafting, survival and combat await players as they go it alone, or group up with thousands of other Survivors to explore the island and solve the mysteries of the ARK.

“The Switch’s handheld mode provides a fantastic new capability for survivors who want to fully immerse themselves in the vast worlds of ARK,” said Jeremy Stieglitz, Studio Wildcard’s Lead Designer, Lead Programmer, Development Director, and Co-Creative Director. “With this new version, Switch players can go directly from hunting and taming while sitting on the couch, to forming online tribes and searching out new conquests when on the bus, waiting in line, or wherever they happen to be.”

Studio Wildcard also announced that its partner, War Drum Studios, creators of the ARK: Survival Evolved mobile experience, sent out its first wave of invitations to the Closed Beta for iOS players.

Prepare for the ultimate dinosaur-themed adventure! Stranded on a mysterious prehistoric island, you must explore its vast biomes as you begin to hunt, harvest, craft tools, grow crops and build shelters to survive. Use cunning and skill to kill, tame, breed, and even ride Dinosaurs and other primitive beasts living on The ARK. Advance your technology from primitive stone tools to T-Rex-mounted laser cannons, as you team up with hundreds of players online or enjoy a solo Jurassic experience.

Since ARK: Survival Evolved‘s launch into Steam’s early access program in June 2015, over 13 Million survivors have been stranded on the ARK island, wandering into an incredible land to discover how to tame, train, ride, and breed the 100+ dinosaurs and primeval creatures roaming the land.

The post ARK: Survival Evolved Coming to Nintendo Switch appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Studio Wildcard announced recently an agreement with veteran mobile developer War Drum Studios (Bully, Grand Theft Auto, Auralux), to bring the entire ARK: Survival Evolved massively multiplayer survival experience to mobile devices.

Designed and developed by War Drum, ARK: Survival Evolved mobile is free-to-play and puts the genre-defining adventure in the palm of your hand, letting you join forces with tens of thousands of other dino-hunters. This on-the-go version features the full online survival experience contained in the PC and console versions of ARK, including a gigantic island to explore, 80+ dinosaurs and primeval creatures to tame and train, multiplayer tribe mechanics, and of course, crafting and building!

Today War Drum launched a limited Closed Beta on iOS, with a full worldwide launch anticipated later this Spring on the iOS App Store and Google Play Store.

Interested ARK survivors can go HERE to sign up for news on the game’s development and for your chance to participate in the ARK mobile beta.

Choosing from single-player or the persistent online multiplayer, ARK survivors will be stranded on a mysterious island, unarmed and beset with danger on all sides. Craft the tools needed to survive then build bases, and tame one of the amazing dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts, including gargantuan creatures on a scale never before seen in video games!

Fly a Pterodactyl squadron over the snow-capped mountains, race through the deep jungle with your pack of trained Raptors, tromp through a fortified enemy base along a convoy of gigantic Brontosaurus, or chase down prey on the back of a raging T-Rex. Players will quickly learn that dinosaurs aren’t the only dangerous creatures on the island. Other survivors are organizing rebel tribes to accumulate resources, experience, re-spawn points, and to construct sprawling villages and cities, with technology spanning the primitive stone-age to the modern electric-powered era and beyond. And they will fight to destroy anything they see as a threat.

Since its launch into Steam’s early access program in June 2015, over 13 Million survivor’s across PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 have been stranded on the ARK island, wandering into an incredible land to discover how to tame, train, ride, and breed the 80+ dinosaurs and primeval creatures roaming the land.

Full release date information is yet to be revealed.

The post SURVIVAL GAME – ARK: SURVIVAL EVOLVED – COMING TO MOBILE appeared first on Shane the Gamer.