I had a review here, and it had many compliments, but then I read the most recent (as of this writing) news on Ark came out with the actual CEO saying he would love to, "let you review it twice: once before it ships and once as the finished product". So, Doug, your wish is my command. My old thumbs up review is gone, and here stands the review for the "Finished Product".

Starting out I had a lot of faith in this product, and Studio Wildcard, but since launch I've lost a lot of it. Where I once could sit back and say, "Well the game is Early Access", I no longer can do so. Now that this game is considered a full-production release it comes with a responsibility owed to those who have purchased it.

Put simply, this game is a hot buggy mess full of unoptimized code, ignored bugs, and poor management of what are jokingly considered "Official" multiplayer servers. Over the next few paragraphs I'm going to go through and break down that statement, but for the moment it's the best short explanation I can give of the current production release. While I do have a large amount of play-time in this game, the most of any of my other owned games, most of that time has been spent administrating my own dedicated server.

Talking simply about bugs and lacks of optimisation you need only look at the Ark discussion/forum areas. There you’ll read about everything from players being constantly timing out from servers, to flat out crashes which occur at the worst times, and even areas of maps where the video lag is so atrocious that you would think the location was programmed by a preschooler. Again, this could be explained away when the game was still in early access, but now that it’s considered a production release it’s a real problem. You can’t trust that just because your computer meets the system requirements the game will run fine on your computer. Mine, as an example, far surpasses their “Minimum” recommendations and even at the lowest settings there are some areas of maps where my computer drops to roughly 4-5 FPS for no apparent reason. The areas aren’t cluttered with objects or a mass of polygons. Hell, one area (Ragnarok map, by the green spire) is just an open field with a small river running along its edge. If I can play the game just fine in a thick forest with heavy foliage, then how the hell is it that an open field with nothing but grass drags my computer to a standstill? Simple, a lack of optimisation in the map. If you also add the fact that the development team seems to be focused more on adding content to the game, instead of fixing the content they already have, you just can’t find any excuse for the bugs and optimisation failures in this production release.

Another big flop with this game is the fact that, by its very nature, it’s intended to be played in a Multiplayer environment. That, alone, isn’t a problem. The problem lies in the lack of proper management on what is laughingly considered “official” multiplayer servers. From the first time you join one of these servers you’ll find yourself at a disadvantage. You’ll find the landscape marred by pillar after pillar, seemly doing nothing except preventing you from making the first step to survival, that being placing a campfire to make yourself some food. This method of claiming the landscape, called “pillaring”, has run rampant on every single official server. In most cases it amounts to bullying new players into either facing the impossibility of surviving alone, “buying” land from an already existing faction, or joining an already existing faction. All is not lost though, as there are a multitude of unofficial servers where pillaring is considered a banable offence. The trade-off is that most unofficial servers either run very high drop/xp rates, making the game far too easy, or run an excessive amount of mods, taking away from the “vanilla” Ark experience. That said, with a proper administrator in charge, these modded servers can be fairly enjoyable.

All in all, Ark seems to be one of those games that was first out of the gate with an idea that people seemed to latch onto. Unfortunately its fallen flat on its promises and each new content release shows just how far the development team is drifting away from what people loved about Ark. We started out with just dinosaurs. You were surviving in a prehistoric environment that, somehow, had advanced technology and a mystery behind it. This is what people wanted. This is what made Ark special. Then they added mythical dragons and griffins which, while really cool, completely broke the whole feeling of this being a prehistoric location. They’ve also gone and released a creature that has what can be laughingly considered a Cloaking Device. Next was a "Gizmo" style creature that could turn into a giant beast of destruction. I mean, where does it end? What’s next, an iguana with laser eyes? Then again, we've already got T-Rex armour with laser cannons on it. *eye roll*

It’s no surprise that recently a slew of Ark-like games have begun to spring up in Early Access. Developers have seen the mistakes being made by Studio Wildcard and are looking to fulfill the dream that Ark was supposed to be. There are several games on the horizon that look very promising, although I’m not going to name them here because that would be advertising. Personally, if you don’t have Ark by now I’d consider waiting to see what these Ark-like games bring to the table.

While I will still play this game, because I already own it, I simply can’t recommend anyone purchasing it now that it’s considered a “Production Release”. As I said, unless Studio Wildcard decides to really start pushing out the optimisations and bug fixes, I'd instead keep an eye on the other Ark-like games.

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For more no-nonsense reviews check out my curator page at;
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Like many, I played "It Takes Two" with my significant other after hearing other couples raving about how awesome it is. My girlfriend and I have been suffering with a closed international border (US/Canada) for a year now and video games have really become our "quality time" together. As such, the theme or feel of a game can significantly effect how well we enjoy that quality time together. It Takes Two was an exceptional experience in this regard.

It Takes Two is built solely on the fact that you need to work together, and the game design is one of the best I've ever seen. There are times where you'll have a full screen view of your player, but for the most part the game breaks you up into a split-screen mode. Yes, even if you are playing across the internet, you run in split-screen for a good chunk of the game. Screen "cheating" has actually become a major tool in this game. There are parts of the game where you absolutely have to watch your partner's side of the screen so you know when you have to adjust a platform, or flip a switch, or something that will allow them to progress. Only together can you move forward, which fits the game's title perfectly.

The story in the game is one of the best I've ever encountered. You can either take my word for it, or you can scroll over the following black areas to reveal story spoilers. The further you travel through the black, the more spoilers will be revealed. Stop when you've read enough. Just trust me, it's a great story... The story starts out with you, the parents of a young daughter, being caught at the beginning of what appears to be a nasty divorce. Everything is ready to go, you're ready to get lawyers involved, and you're arguing constantly. After your magical daughter-tears-induced transformation into a couple of dolls, you come to the conclusion that the only way to turn back into your human selves is to again make your daughter cry. In order to do this, you must destroy her favourite toy! Yea, next level parenting here, but it goes to show you how self-centred your characters mindset currently is. Through various tasks, and bosses that range from mechanical hornets to living vacuum cleaners, you eventually get to this toy. The game makes you feel like an absolute horrid human being (seriously, we have PTSD now... LOL) as you rip apart this toy one limb at a time and finally toss it from the highest point of your child's room. Of course, this doesn't help resolve your issue. You learn that the problem isn't your daughter, who cursed you into these forms, but yourselves. You've let your souls go dark, giving up everything you love just to exist, and that in turn has caused your lives together to spoil. Through the second half of the story your focus changes on renewing your love for your passions (gardening & singing) and in turn renewing your love for yourselves. The end of the story sees you return to your lives just in time to save your daughter, and closes out without a truly definitive decision if you're going to still get a divorce, but you get the feeling that they're going to work things out and be a family once more. Throughout this story you're guided by a book, but no ordinary book, this is the book of love! At first you'll absolutely hate this book because it's responsible for slowing your progress by throwing you challenge after challenge, relentlessly, like a die-hard therapist. Trust me, the book will seriously grow on you (like a fungus) and in the end you'll have a special place in your heart for the character.

Graphically, I love this game. The environments are amazing and make you go "wow" every time you encounter a new one. You'll seriously find yourself wandering around just to find cool little aspects to the world. Like one level you can actually "play" every musical instrument you see. Each world also contains a couple's mini-game, which you can stop and play as long as you want. One level it was chess (yes, you walk around the chess board and move your massive chess pieces around in a REAL game of chess) and another level had a snail race, where you rode snails and raced around an obstacle course. Another fun one was a photo-booth where you could stage your characters. There was a spa where you could hang out as a couple and get virtual massages by caterpillars... It was so much fun!

I spoke of the story before, but really this story is impressive in more than one way. You find as you work things out between the characters, you also seem to pick up life-skills that you can actually use with your real life significant other. It's like going to a therapy lesson for couples, and enjoying the experience. As you look at your character and say things like, "Get your head out of your butt and give them a break", you realise you're almost talking to yourself. You start to cheer every little step they make as a couple, and by the end you're cheering on your partner instead of their character. It teaches you important relationship skills. You learn how important it is for you to spend time together, but also how important it is to have and love your own hobbies. You learn the keys to moderation, how you need to give as much as you take, and work as a team. You learn how sacrificing for the family doesn't mean you have to give up the things you love. You CAN have your cake and eat it too. When the story was over we, my s.o. and I, really wished it wasn't. This was an amazing experience in a video game, and with 12 hours of play-time well worth the expense.

All in all I would have to give It Takes Two a major recommendation. If Steam had a 1/10 rating system, this might be the first game I ever give an 11 to. My only gripe, which isn't really about the game itself, is the fact that regardless if you buy it on Steam or not, you MUST install EA's Origin software and can only invite your other player through Origin. That said, the fact that only ONE player has to actually own the game? That's a game changer, and makes up for the requirement of Origin. All in all, for a company I kind of look at as the "corporate devil", EA did a great job on this one.