10 Video Games You’ll Still Be Playing Long Into 2016

6. ARK: Survival Evolved

Survival games evoke divisive reactions in the gaming community. A lot of gamers criticise them as being an easy cash cow for developers; just create a vast empty world, offer players the tools to survive, build structures, and murder their rivals, and watch the money roll on in. Does ARK do anything particularly uniquely or differently? Well, mechanically, no. You start off as a naked caveman, and and must gather wood, stone and other materials to make your way in the wild world. But wait a second. What's that big creature over there by the water? It's... it's a dinosaur! Sweet Jesus, it's humans and dinosaurs co-existing, just like every teenager has always fantasised about! ARK is still in early access and riddled with glitches, but that hasn't stopped players flocking to it in the millions. It seems that the opportunity to ride velociraptors across a prehistoric landscape while swinging a hand-crafted tomahawk around your head and a rifle on your back is quite literally irresistible. ARK is the biggest survival game released in 2015, and it's only going to improve as we head towards its full release in 2016. If there's one thing we learned in recent years, it's that people love a decent permadeath survival sandbox, and ARK is just that... with added dinosaurs and giant scorpions.