Recent reviews by BaK

shame it seems to punish independant thought.

i thought i'd gather some resources preemptively, but the game then decided i needed to harvest all the availible resources in the area, but didnt take into account what i already farmed. so i couldnt possibly reach the minimum value it requested, then i got the reward of a massive moral drop.

i dont mind punishing story mechanics, but punishing bugs are painful.

the game otherwise seems okay, rather old school with no voice track or option for automatic progression of dialog.

i hope they'll fix the director so it considers more possibilities, and we dont get punished for independant thought.

As a trek fan and gamer who's had enough of bad games, so that i'm now too picky, i'll be leaving this game for now, maybe a few patches down the line, and it'll be high enough quality for launch.

Not just is this paid software you can get free alternatives online, now they really insult us with a "dark mode" achievement and dlc which costs twice as much as the software itself, just to enable dark mode.

This tool itself is even on github. you can find it at your nearest search engine.

It's far from great.

its supposed to be a 'rebuilt from the ground up' version of Ark: survival evolved (A:SE). but in actuality, its the very old switch ported version that was converted to UE5, with a replaced texture/model of the raptor to make it look like there was a huge improvement, but 90% of its just the same old stuff.

UE5 is more demanding than UE4, so no shock it runs worse, but its quite a lot worse. while other UE5 games seem to be no where near as bad.

Then on top of this, the content, the really lacking content, it just makes it feel pointless to throwing to many hours at the game to just do the same thing you did in A:SE. honestly, i feel like A:SE is still the ultimate version, sure they used to say the reason for many bugs was the unreal engine limitations, but now they're on a newer engine, and they don't just have the same bugs, but extra bugs... and crashes. Maybe once they added more content and seriously patched up the issues and improved performance my opinion will change, but that's certainly not my case currently.

i cant recommend buying it, if you feel the want to get this game, you're better throwing money at A:SE, and playing this much more fleshed out and stable version of the game. and sure the looks might be *slightly* behind this version, but it'll push the limits of even strong machines when playing a well built up save.

tl;dr A:SA feels like a pointless money grab, just get A:SE.

Though admittedly a very early review, this misses out on one huge thing: surround sound scene depth. though the game suggests using headphones, and i'm sure i'm not the only one who doesn't want something in my ears or strapped around my head when trying to meditate, the 'wall of sound' from just the front speakers is pretty distracting, when the game both supports and uses surround fine, but the scenes are either all front speakers or on scene that has all the sound on the left, uses just the left side speakers.

it would have been amazing if the scenes took advantage of the sound depth and thunder was all around you and you could close your eyes and actually feel like you're in these places..... which i don't think you can really do if you've got something pushed in your ears or strapped to your head.

but i know i'm a minority, most gamers have headphones, and not full 7.1 surround sound, so i doubt this will get much agreement from people let alone being addressed, though i bet its a really small thing to do: make the sounds come from multiple points in this 3d word instead of just in front of you. So just as distracting as it would be to have headphones on, its just as distracting having this very artificial soundscape in just one direction. i fear this distraction will mean i just wont use this once the novelty wears off.

its a real shame in my opinion, but i guess the idea of logging meditation via the game is an alright feature. (you can turn off a lot of the guidance and stuff if you're not new to meditation, and just use the timer and the stereo sounds.)

Its a shame you cant add a neutral review, because this is how i feel at this time. but i expect i can come back later and make it negative if i cant keep to using this due to it being so distractingly directional.

-- aditional aded at 12 hours.

*** Warning for people with mental health issues ***

This is a meditation game, aimed mostly at helping you relax, but if you suffer anxiety or emotional distress from percieved failure, then this game might not be for you. if you accidently miss a day of meditation the punishment can feel distressing (in a game that otherwise seems to aim at being poisitive vibes only) and i cannot recommend it for this issue.

Always confused in which direction the enemy are? Add this decal to fix this issue once and for all!

Another classic in the room series, amazing attention to detail, fantastic visuals and stimulating puzzles. surreal and inspiring. A "cant miss" game just like the others in the series for anyone who loves this type of puzzle game.

The best controller I ever used. not just are the controls so revolutionary they blow console players minds, so the product ends up with mixed reviews, but its also designed around the PC and so its possible to use it even on games not designed for controllers, or to quickly work with games already designed for mainstream controllers, i.e. x-box or generic.

Not sure why this product is no longer purchasable, i hoping its not discontinued, as i planned on keeping one of these in my arsenal forevermore!

Build quality might not feel as solid as the more basic controllers like xbox, but mine gets knocked about and ♥♥♥♥ junked on top of it and has taken no ill effects from it, though i'll admit my actual use of it is limited. I will warn you not to use duracells though, as is a known issue with them brand of batteries... a pair decided to leak in my controller, luckily cleaned it up without any real damage.

The real flaw with this product in my opinion is the way you have to handle configuring the software, though its quite usable out of the box, i prefer to reconfigure the pads to do the job of the joystick, as i'm not a 'stick' fan. Once you work out how to use the rather cryptic software configuration hidden inside "Big Picture Mode" it gives you amazing power including macros and automatic reactions, like for example when you push your movement to the maximum forward momentum (via the touchpad/stick or analog buttons) you can add configuration to make it always push your sprint key automaticly for you! or if you run off the end of the touchpad instead of returning your thumb to the centre to keep holding it in that direction.

In simple terms, this controller is so revolutionary it is inconceivable for many players to realise its true mindblowing potential, and the hardware is so cutting edge yet integrated so flawlessly its easy to not realise how much technology is packed into this tiny bit of kit.

I would love to see a version two with a stronger feel build and better software that allows use of configuration outside of steam big picture mode, and even steam entirely, but regardless of this, i still feel this is the best controller ever produced and 100% worth at the very least trying if you are up for spending some real time playing with its amazing options for configuration.

A really good game with excellent gunplay mechanics, in my opinion, not worthy of all the abuse it gets in reviews. (And its not MADE by bethesda, they only publish it. Avalanche made it with ID's support especially around gunplay mechanics)

That said, it is hounded with a very very terrible bug: In the menu (especially the main menu, but also the inventory menu) it is very prone to crashing. Often crashing while trying to save or just after saving - thankfully the one little saving grace, it DOES have an autosave feature, saving you losing tons of progress. But its infuriating when they could just introduce a quicksave feature allowing you to save at a press of a key and avoid the whole crashing while saving the game issue.

There are a few other minor bugs, like invisible characters you can talk to, the menu system being clunky to scroll when you discover new things and it adds loads of exclamation marks for things you haven't read, especially when browsing these and trying to mark everything as 'read' it is prone to crashing, which adds for further frustration. Other bugs include the resource page not scrolling so if you have more than so many items, the list goes off the screen and you cannot see it. And then there is the confirmation key for a lot of things being Enter, when back in the menu is Esc, meaning you have to octopus across your keyboard - and the enter function is not even listed in bindings to rebind it to something less awkward.

But mostly, the game itself, runs smoothly, looks fantastic, and the abilities you can learn are most amusing, powerful, and not too hard to learn to use effectively in combat. I most enjoyed the gameplay, enough to not get put off by the countless crashes i had, i must have suffered over 100 crashes in my first playthrough, only one that i recall was NOT in a menu.

I would recommend this game only on the condition that you can handle the crashing without falling into a RAGE.

Handy bit of kit, but what the hell is with the build in advert "Click here for similar apps" on a paid for app, with no option to remove it.

Otherwise, it would be nice if the ping graph changed colour on ping spikes, and didn't always make the graph sit at twice the maximum of the highest ping - be if the chart only went so large if there was something that spiked that high.

The options dialog window has no ability to move, most irritating my multiple monitor setup, but not exactly function breaking i guess.

It would also be nice if there was more options for the alert, like customising the sound and volume, audio device would be nice too, though I know that's a rarity to find on most apps.

additional: The achievements don't seem to unlock.

A game that had tons of potential. Sadly they rushed released and left many things unfinished, like they were adding wild babys, but didnt get further than penguins, and lots of other things they left to the mod devs to finish for them. sadly this means official is stuck in this half finished feeling state, and will never get updated due to it then may mean unbalancing the worldwide cluster, something they dont want to do as they already had to 'wipe' the old servers due to the amount of cheaters and exploiters that were duping items and similar. Thankfully they had an nice excuse for this called release.... but they could only do that once. Their anti duping method added (on official) is awkward and confusing for the gamer and still doesnt completely eliminate the problem. All that aside its still one of the most in depth and complicated games out there, and will make you laugh, smile and cry. Personaly i'd recommend to new players, to try PvE, as PvP can be brutal and unforgving, though it adds a nice extra threat once you are competent. The hardest part is finding a good unofficial server, as official is even more brutal when it comes to PvP, and lacks any quality of life mods that can make the game way way more tollerable. And i dont just mean low latency, i mean active enough its not gonna shut down without being packed you cant get on, and admins that are fair and impartial and dont cheat/ban at their own discression, but instead only for actual rule infractions. Drama is a real part of Ark and you will likely have issues if you join large tribes with how people use different methods of play and the usual friction people have with eachother. Sadly PvP adds so much pressure (to grind and keep ahead of other tribes) especialy in a big tribe, that drama and being kicked from the tribe becomes a real problem for people just wanting to play. All in all, its still a better game than most that are out there.

narration.

so that was 4k hours, damn, add 20k more to that. a lot of the things i griped about in my mind are still there. but these things have been changed in ASA. however thats another (worse) game, and this is absolutely EPIC. background about me, i have run servers for this game for years, and also work for years with and still do... the ark community independently, helping with server setup, configuration and debugging. anyway, so here's my..

updated review:

now i'm 11 hours short of 25k hours, and its uninstalled. i look back with a kinda longing. its left in a working state admittedly. though its no longer getting updates, so we'd have to look at the plugin world or modding world to fix certain issues or exploits. but this is a pretty damn addictive game, so many different things to do (map dependant) and unless you put a lot of hours in you wouldn't ever understand the depth of the game, its like minecraft level depths, but not pixels or mining oriented ;)
i have to recommend it, if you have a high end PC with lots of fast storage space, good internet connection, and know a good private cluster to play on, with all the maps, you can get lost in this new reality. and when you're ready, open up to trading and see how far the rabbit hole goes! also has a very good wiki if you want cheat sheets or prefer reading!

i wish instead of abandoning this game, they ran it parallel, they'd still have one of the top 20 achieving on the steam player base - consistently - in players, between the two games, likely more! but this game has so much more to it, it still wants a beefy pc, but like, a decent gaming pc from like 2020 would still do fine, older for better end hardware. so this makes this a bit of a retro classic now i guess. with moders and plugin devs hopefully fixing anything in the future, this game might not be as dead as i so bluntly thought when i uninstalled it.

all combined, considering my hours and enjoyment of mastering the many systems.
An almost perfect game - which i don't expect - but only let down by not investing in removing more developmentally problematic issues.

conclusion

9.5/10
Do buy. especially if its on offer with all the dlcs! might be getting a little retro, but it still looks good, runs fine and can offer many hours of enjoyment!