‘ARK: Survival Evolved’ Free Steam Weekend Begins With A Massive Tournament Over The Weekend


For players looking to expand their horizons in gaming, ARK: Survival Evolved is a great survival game to get into. However, if you’re leery about purchasing Early Access games, given a lot of their reputation on Steam for not being very good, ARK developer Studio Wildcard is giving PC players a free chance to test out their game this weekend.

Steam periodically does their “free weekend” promotions with popular games on the platform, and the ability to have unfettered access to a title such as ARK: Survival Evolved can be enticing to those who have yet to pull the trigger and purchase the game. ARK isn’t an easy game by any stretch, but the way in which it blends survival mechanics with the fantasy of taming and coexisting with dinosaurs makes for an interesting game.

ARK Survival Evolved Unnatural Selection
Unnatural Selection pits ARK players against each other to win $20,000 in cash.

Fans who play the game this weekend will also be able to participate in the Survival of the Fittest “Unnatural Selection” Tournament. Hundreds of new official servers will be opening up in ARK: Survival Evolved to feature one-time-only “Extinction Event” Meteor Impact, as well as special items randomly found within Supply Crates. Some of these crates they will have a Steam code on it, redeemable for 50 percent off of the game. Even luckier players may get a free copy of ARK: Survival Evolved in a supply crate. However, in true PVP fashion, you need to be careful, because if someone else on the server kills you, they can take the code and use it themselves.

Also happening this weekend in ARK: Survival Evolved is the “Unnatural Selection” tournament, pitting four-player tribes against hundreds of competing players all vying for a chance to ride the Dragon and win cash prizes.

“This limited-time ‘ARK Survival of the Fittest’ competition features contestants dramatically descending from the sky onto the ARK in a circular formation via beams of light. There is a cache of valuable items in the center — do survivors dash for the goods and fight it out, do they run into the forest and hide, or do they freeze up from the sheer terror of death? A continually shrinking “ring of death” forces contestants ever closer together over time. The game is on — who will tame the Dragon and bend it to their will?”

ARK: Survival Evolved will run this tournament starting on 6 a.m. Eastern Standard Time Saturday, August 29 through 11 p.m. EST Monday, August 31. The winning team will split $20,000 four ways, with all 144 players making it into to the ARK Championship earning a $100 Steam Gift Card. The Final Championship will take place on September 1 at 2:30 p.m. EST and will be streamed on the official ARK: Survival EvolvedSurvivetheARK” Twitch Channel.

Also announced today, ARK: Survival Evolved will be updated on Friday, August 28 with full DirectX 12 support for Windows 10 users, giving improved gameplay performance. More news will come available after the patch.

Looking forward to the ARK: Survival Evolved free weekend, as well as the ARK “Unnatural Selection” Tournament? Sound off in the comments below.

[Images via ARK: Survival Evovled]

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