‘ARK: Fear Evolved 2’ Hits PC But Not Xbox One With New Patch, Studio Wildcard Apologizes

ARK: Survival Evolved finally received the Fear Evolved 2 event on Friday. Unfortunately, the PC will be the only version of the game to receive the Halloween-themed event. Xbox One owners will not receive the event as part of the update to the console version of the game, forcing Studio Wildcard to apologize. It also cut back on some of the promised features for the PC version.

“Unfortunately, we weren’t able to deliver on what we had intended to do for this holiday release. Both Jeremy and Jesse (the founders and captains of our team) had to unexpectedly take care of some work out of the country which affected the development and simultaneous release on both platforms, as well as the content we were hoping to provide,” Studio Wildcard explained.

“Fear Evolved 2 will not be making its debut on the Xbox Console, and on PC the special attributes/effects related to Werewolves and Vampires will not be a part of this holiday event. We are hoping to be able to release these special effects in a future event, as we understand a lot of players were looking forward to experiencing it.”

Studio Wildcard is now targeting the Christmas Holiday event to come to both the PC and Xbox One simultaneously for the first time. ARK: Survival Evolved console players have yet to see one of the survival title’s special events.

“We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience and disappointment caused by the lack of the Halloween event for our Xbox players, as well as the missing content on PC. We understand the frustrations but we do hope that you enjoy the rest of the Xbox v744 content and on PC the Fear Evolved Patch,” Studio Wildcard wrote.

ARK: Survival Evolved owners on the PC can download patch 249 to partake in Fear Evolved 2 now. This Halloween-themed event gives players the chance to collect new items and fight the ferocious DodoWyvern on Scorched Earth or the DodoRex on The Island and The Center.

The new cosmetic items that can be obtained include Vampire Eyes, Werewolf Mask, and Clown Mask. Studio Wildcard intended for the first two to be part of the feature that would allow players to turn into vampires or werewolves, but that was pulled. The new masks join existing player cosmetic items from last year’s event, like Witch Hats.

Players can also find Scarecrows, Skelesaur costumes for their tamed dinos, Candy Corn drops, and more.

Xbox One owners aren’t completely left out. Update 744 is still planned to be released on Friday. Community Manager Jat expects it to be out around 5 p.m. or 6 p.m. ET, but veteran ARK players should know that it could be later too.

ARK: Survival Evolved update 744 for the console brings all of the content up from the last PC patch. This includes Explorer Notes available in 130 treasure chests scattered across the Island map and the Scorched Earth expansion. Discovering these will provide a temporary XP buff for player’s Survivor and the tamed animal they are riding when the chest is opened.

Xbox One players will also finally be able to wield weapons while riding their tamed dinosaurs and beasts. It will take some skill to maneuver the tame and accurately aim at the same time, but the community has often wondered why the gameplay doesn’t match the box art.

On the new dinosaur front, the alligator-like Kaprosuchus brings the phrase “leaping lizards” to life by leaping out of the water to attack unsuspecting prey. There is also the Chalicotherium, which is capable of digging into the dirt with it large paw to create boulders that it can fling like a mobile catapult. Finally, the Diplocaulus substitutes the functionality of SCUBA gear by allowing Survivors to suck oxygen in from a membrane so they can stay underwater longer.

Xbox One owners will see another set of performance improvements with this ARK: Survival Evolved update. Studio Wildcard is increasing stability with memory improvements while also scratching out another 7 percent improvement in rendering performance.

The addition of procedurally-generated ARKs will not make it into this update for the Xbox One, however. Lead Developer Jeremy Stieglitz’s patch notes state it will “take a bit longer to prepare for console.” This isn’t particularly surprising as the initial release of the map-making feature is experimental. It is missing some biome and features, plus the map generation process runs slow even on well-equipped PCs.

You can check out the full patch notes for the 744.0 update coming to ARK: Survival Evolved on the Xbox One below.

• All PC content thru v248 (except for Procedurally Generated ARKs, that’s going to take a bit longer to prepare for consoles!)
• Memory savings of approximately ~100MB for increased stability
• Render performance gain of approximately 7% using batching

Here is the PC content from patch 248 that will be included with the Xbox One update.

• You can now wield your weapons when mount-riding certain Dinos.
• New Mechanic: Explorer Notes
• New Dino: Kaprosuchus!
• New Dino: Diplocalus!
• New Dino: Chalicotherium!
• Render batching optimization for ~20% perf in structure-heavy areas
• Tree Platforms now have +70% HP and +50% resistance to explosive damage
• Neuter/Spay option for Tamed Dinos (irreversible!)
• Radial Wheel Menu text size now scales with number of entries (to avoid Diplodocus overload, etc)
• Spectators can now see player-talking moving lips & hear voice chat when in range
• Fixed player collisions onto big dino ragdolls
• Non-Drop-In Supply Crates (Cave/Underwater crates etc) no longer have decreasing Health over time (no longer auto destroy), but they can also not accept Inventory anymore and cannot be used to generate Boss Tribute Portals.

[Featured Image by Studio Wildcard]