Day Z

[drfish]

So I'm about a week or two late to this party but holy crap is Day Z fun (and terrifying!).

I've got about 9 hours into playing it this weekend and it has been amazing. I can't tell a story as well as the professionals so I would start by reading the three diaries the Jim Rossignol wrote on RPS if you want a taste...

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/05 ... part-zero/
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/05 ... -part-two/
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/05 ... e-musings/

Extra credit interview with the mod's developer:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/05 ... -of-day-z/

What I can say for myself is that the last three hours I've played were absolute gaming magic (and the first 6 weren't half bad either ), working with a couple friends to do nothing but survive was so intense. At one point I was nearly dead and parked myself prone under a pine tree for 45mins while they went off in search of a blood bag to heal me. I had the unique advantage of being able to walk over and watch their screens while they went on the mission of necessity. Of course I could have just let myself die but thats not how we wanted to play and it was all the more fun for it. After I was patched up we headed out again only to encounter a small town and some dead zombies that let us know someone had gotten there before us. We picked a perch in a tall building before we made contact and declared our good intentions. We met them and traded, helped them take out some zombies, and then suddenly I was shot in the back and all hell broke loose as my teammates tracked down the bandits that had attacked us unprovoked and then got revenge for my death. Completely unscripted and brutally compelling.

Honestly it can be downright stressful but its the game that many of you have always wanted to play - but no one had made it until now. It makes something like L4D look like a child's plaything and I have to say that having no previous knowledge about Arma II it seems the perfect engine to make a zombie survival simulation based on.

Oh god, and playing at night, yikes, just insane... The first game we played was last night and since the servers simulate real time by default it was literally pitch black - there were no survivors.

I can't believe the alpha version of the mod already offers so much, if you're not ready to bite yet then at least keep your eye on it. BTW, if you're looking to buy Arma II so you can install the mod check the top ten best sellers on Steam because this mod single handedly put it in the number one seller spot eariler last week.

...I have just barely, barely, scratched the surface... Persistent saves across servers, repairable vehicles, 200+ square kilometer map, 50+ players in a server, searching for supplies, hunting, so much win... I am still such a noob...

[td1353l]

yea, im definitly getting this mod as soon as i have a few days off.

[drfish]

Really? Two weekends have passed and no one from TR has played Day Z yet?

[Forge]

Interesting. I'll have to look into Arma II's price, see if it's feasible to play this mod. It certainly sounds fun.

Edit: Hmmm, Arma2 is still 30$. Must pass.

[SPOOFE]

I'm like Forge: Mighta given it a try, but I don't have Arma2. Maybe if the mod gets some more development I may look into it.

[JohnC]

ArmA2 was like $15 recently as an Amazon download...

Edit: hmm, looks like they have increased the price very recently, probably because of all DayZ players...

[Forge]

Yeah, nothing says "hike the price" to a publisher like a spike in sales. Too bad that hike kills the spike most times.

Game publishing: The only industry that encourages a shorter 'long term view' than FOX TV programming.

[drfish]

ArmA2 was like $15 recently as an Amazon download...

Edit: hmm, looks like they have increased the price very recently, probably because of all DayZ players...

The $15 WAS the sale price. A lot of people holding out for Arma II to go on sale but FWIW I think its worth it right now. Arma II is still in the top ten on Steam (#1 again right now) so a lot of people agree.

[Forge]

I still have games from the steam Xmas on standby, I must still pass.

[travbrad]

I just bought ARMA II:CO and played Day Z for a few hours for the first time. It's an intense game and really challenging. After a few hours in most PC games nowadays I feel like I've practically mastered the game, but in Day Z I still feel like a helpless noob.

It reminds me a lot of STALKER actually, which is also one of my favorite games. The multiplayer and ruthless dog-eat-dog world makes it an even more daunting proposition than STALKER though. When you die in Day Z you lose all the loot, weapons, and equipment you've gathered (which you may have spent many hours gathering) and start back at square one on the coastline. This kind of brutal consequences may not appeal to some, but it's right up my alley. The map is absolutely massive too at 225km² (more than 5x the size of Skyrim, and you have to be a lot more cautious/slow when moving)

Obviously it's not terribly polished yet being an ALPHA, but there's no show-stopping bugs or anything. On that note, I heard one of the creators of DAY Z is actually from the Arma 3 team, and created Day Z as a side project. Considering it has an official developer working on it and the big sales numbers on Steam hopefully that will give them an incentive to keep developing it further.