ARK is one of a handful of survival games to rise above the fray of competition on Steam, partly thanks to its novel mixture of prehistoric wildlife and modern weapons. ARK isn't exempt to the issue many players experience in sandbox survival games, however: the perpetuation of an in-game culture that encourages many players, even peaceful ones, to fight whenever they encounter someone else. During our time at PAX this week I found a moment to speak with Jesse Rapczak, co-founder at Studio Wildcard, about the ARK team's attitude about kill-on-sight. You can find all of our coverage from PAX Prime 2015 right here.

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Every game under the sun, and quite a few of them over it, is getting Halloween-themed #content at the moment—but which to write about? Obviously any game featuring skeletal dinosaurs is going to get coverage, which admittedly is limited to Ark: Survival Evolved at present. The prehistoric survival game has been stuffed with yer traditional pumpkins and bats, yer slightly less traditional giant spiders, and with zombie dodos, a giant fire-breathing DodoRex, the aforementioned skelesaurs and more. Frankly, it's a hugely impressive amount of effort to put into a week-long seasonal event—I'm interested to see what, if anything, the developers have in store for Dino Christmas. Here's the 'Ark: Fear Evolved' trailer showing it all in motion: For the next week, the days will be shorter, and the nights longer, in Ark, so you won't be getting much respite from the forces of darkness. Here's what you're in for, from the Steam announcement post: "For the next week the ARK is undergoing a spooky seasonal change where the air is cooler, the days shorter and the nights longer, and a Blood-Moon shines brightly as

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If you've been reluctant to splash cash on Ark: Survival Evolved, then good news: it's free on Steam this weekend. The dinosaur age survival sandbox is ludicrously popular, and it's easy to see why. When Chris Livingston played he "chopped some wood, punched some birds, pooped out several large, round turds," which sounds pretty great. Other games are free too: Company of Heroes and its sequel, Company of Heroes 2, are both free for the weekend, and come with a 75% discount if you want to purchase. Mount & Blade: Warband is the fourth game to go free, with 66% taken off the usual price if you like what you play. In case it's not obvious, these games are free for the weekend only: come Monday you'll need to pay up if you wish to continue playing.

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Last month, the creators of Ark: Survival Evolved released Unreal Engine 4 mod support for the game. Now that people have had some time to practise there's going to be a competition to reward the best. You can make a new map or a new functionality/game mode. Your mod will be judged on originality/creativity, how it looks and sounds, and its entertainment value. Round 1 is partly scored by public vote, so start canvassing now. The grand prize is for $15,000 and an Alienware Area-51 with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 TI graphics card, second place gets $5,000, an Alienware X51, and a GTX 960, and third place gets $2,500 and the same card. Don't worry about the dollar signs; the competition is open to residents of the UK and some other European countries too. This isn't the first time Ark has handed out money to its players. A few weeks ago it offered $100 to players who could spot exploits in the game. If modding isn't your thing, the team also just released the Hunger Games-style <a

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D'awww, look at the wickle baby dinosaur, eating...eating my arm OH GOD NO. Ark: Survival Evolved's latest update adds tiny toddler dinosaurs like the above, plus the ability to breed dinos together. You'll be able to selectively breed better, faster, stronger, killier dinosaurs by doing this, which will be good news for us humans, I reckon. The update notes are here, and also make mention of a colossal new dinosaur that's been added as part of this patch. Mosasaurus, AKA 'The Terror of the Deep', AKA Mos to his mates, is now the largest creature in Ark's ocean. But I reckon you can take him. I mean, you've crafted that wooden spear and everything. Apparently, you'll be able to build "mobile aquatic bases" on Mosasaurus' back, which certainly sounds like something someone should try. Here's a bit more on breeding, from the link above. "We are very excited to announce our first pass of creature breeding and baby dinosaurs being pushed to the live game! Survivors will be given the opportunity to pair two members of the same species together, even across Tribes if you ve got a particularly well endowed creature, and the resulting

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Going by the title alone, there's no mistaking that survival of one sort or another is a central part of the Ark: Survival Evolved experience. But sometimes, it's not enough to just survive. Sometimes, "survival" means killing a whole lot of other people. Ark's new Survival of the Fittest mode is a to-the-death tournament in which combatants enter the field in a circular formation surrounding a cache of valuable items. It's a very Hunger Games-style setup, in which players can make a dash for the loot—making themselves targets in the process—or run into the forest and hide, leaving the others to battle for the gear. After that, it's a perma-death fight to the finish. And to ensure that there is fighting, rather than a whole bunch of cowardly huddling in dark corners, the field will slowly contract within a "Ring of Death" that will force competitors together. Survival of the Fittest will debut in a livestreamed tournament beginning at 12 pm PT on August 1, with 35 teams slugging it out for a $20,000 grand prize, plus various bits of kit from Logitech and Gunnar Optiks. During the tournament, which is scheduled to run for five hours, the audience can vote on Evolution Events, described as "powerful

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