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Tag: Zombie Survival Game

  • ‘DayZ’ Standalone Alpha Released

    It has now been well over one year since Dean “Rocket” Hall announced that DayZ will be released as a standalone title. Since that time, fans of the ARMA 2 Mod have been impatiently pouring over regular updates about the game’s development.

    Today Bohemia Interactive officially released DayZ in an alpha state. That means that players can experience the game as-is while it is still being developed. The game can be purchased for $30 (30€) via the Bohemia website or via Steam as an Early Access title.

    DayZ is the game that helped to kick off the recent trend in zombie survival games. Originally an ambitious mod for military simulator ARMA 2, the game caught on during the summer of 2012 for its sandbox gameplay, persistent character progression, and permanent character death. Gamers were pitted against zombie hordes and each other in an attempt to survive a bleak zombie apocalypse.

    The standalone version of the game promises many upgrades from the mod, most notably improved animations and a more robust server architecture. Players will now be able to a more in-depth crafting system to upgrade weapons and clothing. The complex inventory system from ARMA 2 has been replaced with a more streamlined menu and inventory bar system.

    Most of these new features can be seen in the launch trailer for the game, which was posted today by Hall. In addition to the new DayZ standalone features the trailer does show off the extreme violence of the game and is probably NSFW:

    According tot the game’s Steam page, Hall and his fellow developers believe it will take more than one year for the game to even reach the beta stage. Fans with $30 and an eagerness to dive into the unfinished game, however, can now do so.

  • ‘Dying Light’ Visuals Teased in New Tech Demo

    Capcom has capitalized on the next-generation console launch with Dead Rising 3, a launch title for the Xbox One. On Friday gamers who buy an Xbox One will be able to get their zombie fix on day one.

    Reviews for Dead Rising 3, however, have not been perfect. It’s evidently clear that the game was originally being developed for current-gen consoles. For a truly next-gen zombie apocalypse experience, gamers might have to wait until developer Techland releases Dying Light next year. Techland is the developer behind the Dead Island series of zombie games.

    Dying Light combines traditional zombie mayhem with the first-person free running of Mirror’s edge. Earlier previews of the game show that players are expected to mostly run from, rather than fight, the zombie horde.

    Another big mechanic in Dying Light is that the game’s zombie transform at night, turning into even more powerful and dangerous creatures. Stealth and quickness will take on an even bigger role during the game’s night cycle.

    With day and night being such an important part of the game, getting the lighting right will be one of the most important aspects when developing the game. Luckily for the developers, next-gen consoles have much better hardware with which to render impressive lighting. Today Techland released a short teaser video showing off the lighting in Dying Light. Judging by the video, it appears that Techland has so far focused on optimizing lighting over textures:

  • ‘The War Z’ Renamed ‘Infestation: Survivor Stories’

    Late last year, an alpha for a game called The War Z appeared on Steam. The game was incredibly similar to an ARMA II mod called DayZ, which had taken the PC community by storm in the summer of 2012. Both games featured open-world gameplay that required scavenging to survive while avoiding zombies and either teaming up with, avoiding, or killing other players for their supplies.

    Many DayZ players felt slighted, believing that the developers of The War Z had quickly put together a zombie survival mmo to cash in on the trend, with even a name meant to confuse gamers. When it came to light that some of the claims about The War Z made it its Steam description were untrue, a flood of negative press flooded onto the internet. The game was pulled from Steam shortly after.

    Now, the creators of The War Z have been forced to change the game’s name. The re-branded title is Infestation: Survival Stories. It’s unclear whether the previous name was changed because it conflicted with the DayZ name, or if the impending release of the summer blockbuster World War Z may have something to do with it.

    The name change was announced on the forums at the now-Infestation-branded website. The only changes to the game, developers claim, is a logo change. The announcement, in full:

    Greetings Survivors!

    Effective today, The War Z has changed its name to Infestation: Survivor Stories. This change has come about primarily as a result of some confusion and trademark issues with a similarly titled property. While we were reluctant to rename the game so long after launch, especially with nearly 1 million registered players, it was ultimately decided to be in the best interest of our existing community as well as future players in order to eliminate confusion. Please rest assured that this will in NO WAY affect you as players. The only difference you will see is the change in logo and website. There will be no interruption of service or change in content.

    So, welcome to Infestation: Survivor Stories – have fun and stay alive!

    The creators of DayZ have not commented on Infestation, continuing the silence that they largely held to during The War Z incident last fall. The creator of the DayZ mod, Dean “Rocket” Hall, has been given a small team at Bohemia Interactive, and is currently developing a stand-alone version of the game.

  • State of Decay Sells 500,000 on XBLA

    State of Decay Sells 500,000 on XBLA

    A PC mod for ARMA II called DayZ gained steady popularity over the summer of 2012. Set in the zombie apocalypse, the game tasks players with finding food, tools, weapons, and medicine while avoiding zombies and other players who won’t hesitate to gun down a fellow survivor for supplies. If DayZ hasn’t entirely proven that the open-world zombie apocalypse survival game was a genre with a future, State of Decay now certainly has.

    State of Decay was released last week, in the midst of E3 and the full-on declaration of the new console war. Even with all of that distraction for gamers, Microsoft states that the game has now sold over 500,000 downloads via Xbox LIVE Arcade. Microsoft claims that State of Decay is now the fastest-selling “original” game for XBLA. Presumably, the “original” qualification leaves out the Xbox 360 Edition of Minecraft, which became so phenomenally popular on XBLA that Mojang is now selling boxed copies of the title for the console.

    State of Decay demonstrates that open-world zombie survival will have a future in gaming by showing that the genre does not have to be the player-versus-player wasteland that DayZ often seems to be. It’s a single-player experience, though players still have to scavenge and risk zombie attacks to survive, especially early in the game. The focus is to find fellow (NPC) survivors and work with them to build fortifications against the encroaching zombie hordes. Though criticized for technical problems, reviews for State of Decay have been generally positive.

  • DayZ Developer Diary Shows Game Creator Doing Motion Capture

    The last month or so has been a bonanza for gamers following the DayZ standalone game project. The zombie survival game has received regular progress updates including a video presentation of several in-game systems.

    Today’s update isn’t a huge info-dump, but fans of the game will be pleased to see that DayZ creator Dean “Rocket” Hall is putting himself into the game. Literally.

    A video was posted today to the DayZ development Tumblr blog that shows Rocket himself participating and creating animations in the Bohemia motion capture studio. He suits up and helps make some zombie animations for the game.

    The video also shows exactly what ideas the DayZ team has for zombies, which includes a “rage” state similar to the infected seen in 28 Days Later.

  • Latest DayZ Update Includes a Fashion Show

    The last developer update on the upcoming standalone version of DayZ included just about everything fans of the game could want to know. Dean “Rocket” Hall revealed that many of the proposed overhauls are complete and that others are being worked on.

    What the last update did not include, however, was a video of gameplay. This week’s update on the DayZ Tumblr blog has corrected that oversight.

    The first DayZ standalone video blog includes a look at configuration options, map improvements, and new areas, including swamps, an expanded military base, and an all-new island. There is also a long section that gives a basic overview of the new clothing available in the game.

    New loot spawn mechanics are also detailed in the video. Instead of piles of a few objects sitting on floors, loot can now be found on the tops of tables or other surfaces, as well as underneath objects or hidden away in hard-to-find locations. Unfortunately, the re-vamped inventory system is meticulously edited out of the video.

    In addition to the video blog update, Rocket mentioned that closed, internal beta testing has uncovered many bugs, and closed, external beta testing still has not commenced. He provided no date for when external testing may occur, but did promise to provide regular updates on the title’s progress.

  • DayZ Standalone Gets a Huge Progress Update

    It turns out that the sparse info about the upcoming DayZ standalone game released earlier this month was just a small taste of what the developers have been working on. Today, Dean “Rocket” Hall took to the DayZ tumblr blog and provided a vast amount of details covering everything from the game’s new server architecture to customizing characters and weapons.

    First off, the game’s lighting system has been improved and a volumetric cloud system has been implemented, which Rocket says, “adds a sense of realism when compared with the previous result.”

    The game’s art assets are also being quickly completed, with new objects such as wrecked vehicles and buses already implemented. Buildings have been redesigned and some new buildings have been created, with new textures that make them seem more damaged.

    The inventory system is far enough along that players can put on and drop different clothing items, which can all carry diseases and have durability ratings. Weapons are now customizable, and even individual ammunition magazines are considered attachments and must be kept in serviceable shape.

    The developers also want to include ways to support social organization within the game, such as tattoos or markings on weapons or other in-game surfaces. They are also experimenting with having all of the zombies on one server spawn at the start of server initialization to eliminate the meta-gaming the presence of zombies previously enabled.

    The server architecture for the game has been completely redeveloped, with a style closer to an MMO-type game. Rocket stated that this should help deter hackers by having the servers control character behavior and send updates.

    Character customization has become a priority for the development team, and will be “really the entire focus of our efforts for the next few months, prior to starting on vehicle customization and finally on base building at the end of the year.”

    It’s unclear if “end of the year” might coincide with the release of the game, or whether early versions of the game will be released Minecraft-style, as was planned. Rocket stated, as he has in the past, that the developers will take their time to get the title right. From the blog post:

    I feel fantastic about the situation, more than ever I feel like we’re doing something really interesting with this development. Now is not the time to rush things, but we do need to ensure our pace is kept up. Our development blog and getting players in and testing as soon as possible will be key in ensuring we succeed in making this a great game.

    An internal closed test on the game has already begun. In addition, the developers are now working with Valve to develop an new browser system, which will utilize Steam. A more public beta test will have to wait until the game’s server/client architecture is in place.

  • DayZ Standalone Details and Pics Released

    DayZ Standalone Details and Pics Released

    DayZ designer Dean “Rocket” Hall was quoted last year as saying the standalone version of the popular zombie survival mod for ARMA II will be out before the end of 2012. That obviously hasn’t panned out, and today Rocket took to the DayZ development tumblr blog to reveal exactly why the game hasn’t been released, show off some textures in screenshots, and tease players with what they can expect in the future. From the post:

    Put simply, DayZ Standalone isn’t here because we had the chance to go from making a game that was just the mod improved slightly, packaged simply, and sold – to actually redeveloping the engine and making the game the way we all dreamed it could be. This blew any initial plans we had dictated to pieces.

    Rocket goes on to say that a closed test for around 500 to 1,000 people will be released “imminently.” After getting the architecture debugged the developers will have a better idea of when the title will be released.

    As for changes from the mod, fans will be very happy to know that the inventory system has gotten a complete overhaul, which Rocket said will “fundamentally change the DayZ experience.” He states that the developers were inspired by Minecraft to “make the UI simple and effective, rather than flashy and complex.” In addition, items can now be damaged:

    You scavenge for items now, as individual parts, picking up pieces rather than piles, looking for cans on shelves or under beds. The new system opens the door for durability of items, disease tracking (cholera lingering on clothes a player wears…), batteries, addon components, and much more. If you shoot a player in the head to take his night vision, you will damage the night vision. The changes to this inventory system are huge.

    Progress on the art assets is coming along and can be seen in the photos that accompany the post. Progress on the revised Chernarus map, however, is being slowed by the fact that the lead designer of the map is currently in a Greek prison on espionage charges.

    Despite all of the delays, it’s a given that fans would rather have a complete game than a rushed one. The implosion of WarZ demonstrated that customer service, honesty, and quality are all more important for developers than shoving a game out as quickly as possible.

  • Official ZombiU Trailer Released

    When Nintendo announced ZombiU at this year’s E3, it seemed a bit out of character. The Wii has become a bastion of family-friendly console gaming in an era where gamers have grown up and are demanding more mature content. Perhaps for that very reason, Nintendo is making a concerted effort to gain more adult titles for the Wii U.

    At the Wii U announcement event in New York this morning, Nintendo confirmed that Assassin’s Creed III, Mass Effect 3, Darksiders II, Bayonetta 2, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will all be coming to their new console. Given that context, perhaps a zombie survival horror game from Nintendo isn’t so surprising.

    In conjunction with their announcement, Nintendo today released the official ZombiU trailer. It shows not only what the game will look like, but how players will use the Wii U GamePad to play it. It appears players will be able to use the touchscreen for inventory management, mini-map navigation, and aiming for certain weapons, such as the sniper rifle or a mounted turret.

  • DayZ-Like Zombie Survival Game Coming to Xbox and PC

    DayZ-Like Zombie Survival Game Coming to Xbox and PC

    A developer named Undead Labs this week announced that yet another zombie survival game is being developed, this time for a console. State of Decay will feature a DayZ-like open-world, sandbox zombie apocalypse wilderness for players to inhabit via the Xbox LIVE Arcade or PC.

    Undead Labs states on its website that players will have to find water, food, and shelter – all while battling the zombie horde. State of Decay seems to set itself apart from DayZ by focusing more on setting up fortifications against the zombie outbreak, allowing players to recruit NPC survivors and designate certain areas as a home base.

    Undead Labs states that the world of State of Decay will develop in real-time depending on the actions players take. Content will be dynamically generated and the zombie threat will be “ever-increasing.” What is unclear from either the trailer or the announcement is whether State of Decay will feature the nerve-wracking and dangerous player-versus-player (PVP) interaction that makes DayZ so exciting.

    DayZ itself is a mod for the Arma II military simulation game for PC that was released in an Alpha state earlier this year. In it, players spawn into a large, open world with little gear and have to dodge zombies and seek out basic necessities to survive. Other players are also playing simultaneously and competing for limited resources, meaning that some survivors turn to banditry as a way of life. State of Decay is the second DayZ-like zombie survival game to be announced this summer. In July, a game staying close to the DayZ formula called WarZ was announced by Hammerpoint Interactive.

    Check out the State of Decay announcement trailer below and decide for yourself which zombie survival game suits you best: