Recent reviews by FireByNight

I originally saw this game on a youtube channel that I am subscribed to, and was interested ever since. I picked it up during the steam summer sale and I gotta say that I love this game to death! It is so much fun! I have downloaded and played a few custom tracks as well and in game tracks and so far I am very pleased. The only thing that drives me crazy is zero gravity. haha I have no idea how to go in the direction I want. Other than that though, this game is tons of fun and I highly recommend it. its honestly makes me think of tron!

This game does not run on windows 8. Kinda annoyed that I cant get a refund for a game that hasn't worked since day one. Also misleading for steam to keep putting it on sale when the game doesn't even run in the first place. Buyer Beware!

I am recommending this game because I see the potential in it, and even with the numerous problems it is currently suffering from, it is a lot of fun. Unlike most reviews, I am going to start off by listing the issues that I personally have with the game first. Keep in mind that this game is in early access. When purchased, you should know and acknowledge that there will be bugs, and things will be broken. Afterall, that is the whole point of the game. Also, for the sake of comparison, at the end of this review I will also list my PC specs so you can get an idea of how your computer may run the game in its current state as well.

At the time of writing this review, the game has been horribly optimized. The ARK dev team has already ackknowledged this, and they stated that when they initially developed the game, their focus was on content, with optimization taking a back seat until the launch of early access. As of right now I am forced to play in 720p on the lowest graphics settings and I still only get around 20-23fps. If I jump to medium on 720p I drop to around 9-10fps. This is probably the most irritating thing about the game as it currently stands.

Ok the game also suffers from absolutely horrible loading times, it probably takes a close to 2 minutes for me to load up the world, and it literally uses up about 90% of my CPU while doing it. The reason that a lot of people think this is happening is because the entire world is loading at one time, and then it remains loaded. ARK is collectively close to 70 square kilometers I believe so that is alot of foliage and textures constantly being generated, which would also explain the terrible fps.

I have not tried to join a server yet, but I have attempted to host a server, and whenever I do it maxes out my computers memory and the game crashes leaving my with the cmd prompt up.

Graphics on low are really really bad, even for low. ARK has acknowledged this and said that they will be fixing it.

Now I know that I listed a lot of bad stuff right off the bat, and im sure you are thinking, why in the world does this game get a recommended rating? Well let me list off the things that I really like about the game, and the things that give me hope for it.

1. The game has been out for less than 2 days and they have already released 7 patches for it. This team is obviously dedicated to making this game good and fixing the issues already at hand. I think back to the only other time I have gotten an "early access" game which was cube world, and that developer never released a patch, so the fact that they have already done 7 should be acknowledged.

2. Even on low graphics settings this game is bringing out my inner child. Every time is see a dinosaur I just have to stop and look at it. They did a really good job of making you feel really small and insignificant when you start out. And let's be honest, in a world of dinosaurs, thats the atmosphere that should be set.

3. the overall game mechanics (minue fps) are actually really fun. The hunger and water is easy (maybe even to easy) to maintain, and the leveling system is really cool. I also really like that the inventory system is weight based instead of quantity. Makes it easier to travel around. Also, one thing that I have never cared for with survival games was the aspect of when you die you are done. I really enjoy that they give you a choice in this game.

4. ARK team has already said that graphics and optimization are their top priorities, and they plan on significantly improving within days- a few weeks. Even if you can't open it now, with the 17% early adopter discount, I would personally be willing to wait a couple days to possibly a week or 2.

So yeah, overall this game is broken, and if this was a full $60 game I would say that there is no way anybody should consider purchasing it, but for what it is, and where it is in the development process, this game has so much potential and could genuinly be the first really good dinsaur game we have ever seen.


My Computer.
2 gb ddr3 780mhz GPU
intel I5 4690 3.5ghz
8gb kington ram
1tb 7200 HDD
Z97x gigabyte motherboard.

Hopefully that will give you an idea of how well your computer can run the game. Hope this review helped out!

This is in my opinion, the best call of duty every made. nearly 7 years later and it is still the game that I find myself going back to. Treyarch did a phenomical job, and the WW2 era is something that I sorely miss in today's games. Not to mention that this introduced the world famous zombie modes. Some of the free zombie mods are worlds better than what you can get as paid dlc, or even full games from other sources or consoles. They really outdid themselves with this game. Heres to hoping for a W@W 2 this fall!