is 10 years old this month, a fact that makes me feel like a dinosaur. Studio Wildcard's dino-themed survival sim first appeared in the primordial soup of Steam early access in June 2015, though it didn't see a full release until two years later. In any case, to mark the occasion, to Evolved's next gen follow-up , which brings visual upgrades, an anniversary event, and a slightly questionable update to some paid DLC.
Let's kick off with the update itself, which migrates Ascended from Unreal 5.2 to Unreal 5.5 with the goal of improving performance, stability and visual quality. According to the devs, players can expect to see improved rendering, faster load times, and a smaller overall installation size, which given how beefy games tend to be these days is always welcome.
Finally, if you own Ark's Greek themed Astraeos DLC, this has been updated with a new island called Lemnokis. This landmass of redwood trees and ancient ruins introduces Ark's first ever duo minibosses, the giant boars called Kalydonios and Erymanthian, and also heralds the return of to the world of Ark. Apparently, the island was , who also seems to be the designer for Astraeos in general.
There's a trailer viewable above that shows off the anniversary event in action. I'll be honest, it looks to me like it was thrown together in about five minutes. This may have something to do with the inherent gaudiness of birthday party chic, admittedly, but the awful font at the top of the screen and slapdash sound-mixing don't help. Then again, , so I suppose it's an improvement overall.
The visual upgrade, anniversary event, and Astraeos update are all available now.