Update: The patch is now live. You may need to restart Steam to begin downloading it. Original story: Ark's delayed 254 patch is due to arrive today, bringing with it the Tek Tier, which introduces science-fiction themed weapons, armor, and structures to the dino survival game. The new tech items can be acquired by besting boss monsters and learning Tek-based engrams, which will allow players to craft a number of new items using a futuristic (and massive) replicator workbench. Check out the trailer above. The update is due at 8 pm EST/5 pm PST today. Ark's new power armor promises a number of features and abilities, some of which can be used in conjunction with one other. The helmet comes with a couple of different view modes: night-vision and sonar (the latter of which allows you to detect both nearby friends and enemies even if they're obstructed by walls). Both modes can be activated at the same time, useful for midnight raids. The jetpack—as you might suspect—lets you fly, and works underwater as well. Power leggings will let you sprint at high speed, even across the surface of water, and it also turns you into a bit of a juggernaut: you can plow right through boulders and structures while sprinting. Power boots protect you from fall damage, and gauntlets let you

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This week on the Mod Roundup, Pokémon and Monster Hunter's monsters aren't the only new creatures you can find in Ark—now there be dragons as well, five different kinds you can tame and breed. Also, Fallout 4's cooking gets far more immersive with new sounds, effects, and animations. And finally, a mod for Skyrim makes learning spells a more complicated and rewarding process than it currently is. Here are the most promising mods we've seen this week. Dragontail, for Ark: Survival Evolved Steam Workshop link Modders sure like adding new creatures to Ark, and we're glad they do. How about some dragons, then? Here you go: five tamable, breedable, paintable dragons for you. Some are small enough to carry around, while others can be ridden, though none require saddles. These dragons don't replace existing creatures, and don't interfere with dino spawns. Better Cooking Stations, for Fallout 4 Nexus Mods link This mod makes a lot of really nice changes

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Back in November, we reported on Ark: Survival Evolved's Tek Tier update, which adds cybernetic power suits and laser cannon-equipped dinosaur helmets, among other things. Now, GameSpot reports that it arrives next week. The update launches on January 30. It comes with a bunch of new Tek Tier power armor sets, which can grant players several different abilities.  * Tek Vision: Identify AI enemies and creatures, in addition to players; * Tek Boots: No fall damage and the ability to climb up steep cliffs and slopes; * Tek Pants: Faster running speed; * Tek Gauntlet: Punching power increased; * Tek Rifle: Laser-shooting gun with long scope; * Jetpack; * Night Vision; The Tek abilities can be combined in various ways and are intended for Ark's end-game, and Studio Wildcard creative director Jesse Rapczak expects players to use them in boss encounters. Though you will need to defeat some bosses without the armor first, as they drop Element, a resource needed to construct the sets.

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Ark: Survival Evolved's patch 254, originally scheduled to arrive today, has been delayed 10 days until January 30. The highly anticipated patch will include Tek Tier 1 content, which will add endgame technology like power armor, jetpacks, and dino-mounted laser cannons. The patch also promises to deliver a whole mess of new dinosaurs, craftable lances for dino-mouted jousting, and most importantly (to me, anyway), hairstyles and facial hair that grow in real time. In a post on the Steam forums, Ark's 'Community Overlord' Jatheish Karunakaran posted the following: "We're going to be delaying the release of Patch 254 until the 30th of January. I know a lot of you are excited and trust me, we are too. This patch is much larger than we first anticipated and we need more time to work on it in development, and through internal QA process prior public release. However soon you will get to enjoy a hell of lot of new content, and we're cooking up an extra-special surprise feature for the patch!"  Meanwhile, Ark's free Primitive Plus DLC did receive an update today to v1.4, promising bug fixes, balancing, and new items such

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First Pokémon , now Monster Hunter. Modders continue their noble work to combine every game with every other game, as showcased by the efforts of garuga123, whose Monster Ark: Hunting Evolved allows you to play Ark alongside some of Monster Hunter's most iconic beasts including the Rathalos, Deviljho, Barioth, and more. It's surprisingly fleshed out. Originally I figured garuga123 had simply reskinned some of Ark's dinos to look like dragons, but they've actually imported the animations as well. Any Monster Hunter fan will tell you that these creatures' personalities are defined more by how they move than how they look, so being able to run around with a Rathalos and have it act like it does in a proper Monster Hunter game is fantastic. An interesting twist is that you can't actually ride any of these creatures but control them directly. The original intent of the mod was to roleplay as them—which I never realized was a thing that people wanted to do. Along with the animations, each monster also has access to a few of their signature abilities. As a Rathalos, you can shoot

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When you tame a creature in Ark: Survival Evolved, your work isn't done. You need to keep your pets fed, though that's usually not a problem. Most carnivores are happy with red meat or fish, and herbivores are typically content with a selection of berries. Fill a trough, park the animal nearby, and it'll eat when it gets hungry.  A few animals are more selective, like the dung beetle, which only eats poop. The beetle won't eat out of a trough like other animals, either: you have to stick the poop right in its inventory, but poop isn't exactly hard to come by since dinos and players are constantly taking dumps all over the place. There's even a key you can press to make yourself or your dinos poop on command. Dinner time! There's another creature that only eats one kind of food, and that's the Achatina, a land mollusk that I will just call 'snail' to keep it simple. The snail, too, needs to be fed manually, but it has a more refined palate than the dung beetle. The snail only eats cake. And isn't that the perfect life? Only eating cake? Cake doesn't just fall fully formed out of dinosaur butts. As you might imagine, cake doesn't just fall fully formed out of dinosaur butts, and it can't just be roasted in a campfire like a slab of meat. It takes a tiny bit of work,

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