Be Excellent To Each Other

http://www.dayzmod.com/

This is the PC flavour of the month, it seems. It's a mod for ArmAII (which I don't actually have, but will probably now have to buy).

The basic premise is a big 225 KM^2 map, full day and night cycle, massively multiplayer (or at least, large player number servers), zombie survival game. You get one life. You're given limited equipment. The aim is to survive as long as you can. The zombies, however, are nothing compared to the cunts controlling the other human characters, who'll likely shoot you on sight lest you shoot them first.

It looks awesome.

Here are some videos:

The first one is fucking terrifying, because it quite accurately portrays what would probably happen in a zombie apocalypse.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSWRfI4SkWc


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOB7YGgREFg

I have ArmA 2 - I might check it out.

Do it! Apparently it's a bit of a faff to install, but there's a guide on the official site.

My work colleague is bumming this.

Looks good.

Apparently you need ArmAII CO (Combined Operations), which is bloody £24.99 on Steam! Isn't it ancient? Have they hiked the price up off the back of this mod?

myp - If you just have ArmAII, you need the expansion pack as well which is £14.99... CO is just a pack with both.

That's fine - I bought the complete ArmA and ArmA II packs for £19.99 in a sale.

It's only three years old.

Oh, is that what it is? I've seen chatter about it on Twitter, all positive, but hadn't yet googled the name.

Hmmm. Sounds interesting.

Yeah I think SinisterAgent was talking about it the other day. And Rab Florence...

Ah, fair enough. I'll take the plunge when I get some money.

BTW: Definitely watch those two videos above. Totally sells it if you're not already convinced. Would be great fun to group up and play this.

The text chat in that video is hilarious. Full of paranoid folk offering to trade weapons and items they've found, but scared they're going to kill each other.

http://dayzdev.tumblr.com/post/28904791 ... -beginning

Woo! I might play this now.

Ah sweet. I'll just wait for that, then. Might have a more capable machine by then anyway!

Or at the very least if the alpha is cheap I won't be spunking £30 on ArmAII only to discover it runs like shit on my PC.

I'm boggled that 'mainstream' people weren't interested by ArmA 2, given it's a modern military game which is THE THING IN GAMING RIGHT NOW, but throw in zombies and suddenly it's the best thing ever. We've been crawling through fields in ultra-realistic settings to avoid being seen, taking up to twenty minutes to safely traverse the distance between a stone wall and a farmhouse, in Bohemia Interactive games for ten years.

Still, good for Bohemia, ArmA 2 was at the top of the sales list for most of the summer Steam sale so far as I could tell.

Yeah they're doing really well off it. Over 1 million unique DayZ players was the milestone the other day, so they've certainly made some money!

I know of at least one person who bought ArmA2 in the sale having heard about it partly due to DayZ and is currently unable to put it (ArmA2, not DayZ) down.

Is it anything like the old Op Flashpoint games? I loved them.

Edit:

It's the same developer and ArmA is an offshoot of Op Flash. Mnnnngh!

Cold War Crisis is the one I spent a lot of time with. Was fantastic.

It's because it's got its own Tumblr, isn't it?

That's the only proper Flashpoint game. After it was released, Codebastards retained ownership of the name (hence Bohemia's sequels being 'Armed Assault') and misused it to plop out two spectacularly-missing-the-point 'sequels', OpFlash: Draggin' Riding and OpFlash: Menstruation Euphemism. Did you know that General Guba in the original games was modelled on Jim "Fantastic graphics! Amazing gameplay!" Darling?

It was indeed fantastic. The huge open world and tense, unpredictable action were a staggering achievement, as was the ability to use any vehicle or weapon you could lay your hands on. Emergent gameplay at some of its very best.

I'll never forget the time in the main (CWC) campaign where our mission was to assault a town and destroy two Shilkas to allow air support to help us mop up. The AI squad leader got most of us killed and I soon ended up trapped on the first floor of a house while the enemy swarmed around looking for me. We'd managed to destroy the two Shilkas, at least, so two SuperCobras were now circling over the town trying to elminate the enemy infantry. I could occasionally take potshots from the nearby window but it was a dangerous game. Suddenly, I heard a colossal explosion and peered out the window to see the two Cobras, in flames, plummeting from the sky. Their circuits around the town had finally overlapped and they'd collided in mid air!

The first Operation Flashpoint was epic, that level where you got split from your squad and had to make your way through the enemy infested woods alone, before making a run across open ground. Awesome.

As far as I could tell, the sequel was "20 minute creeping and then getting stuck in a tree clipping bug finder, restart now" Simulator.

Man, I might just bloody buy ArmA II and risk it running properly! We used to have a right laugh co-opping at LAN parties in Cold War Crisis.

I am up for ArmA 2 larks.

Bought the Combined Ops pack. Downloading now and then I'll grab DayZ. Hope it runs okay!

Frigging 15GB download. Still an hour left.

We're all playing ArmA 3 now (almost).

Do you fancy a game this week at some point then? And anyone else is welcome to join in as well of course - the more people you have in your group the better by all accounts!

This week is difficult. I could do next week, but you'll be playing Hong Kong Phooey by then.

I won't - I literally used the last of my "disposable" money buying this. It took me eight days to work up the courage to do it.

Next week then. I guess you mean DayZ and not ArmA?

Yeah I'm mega keen to try DayZ. I'm pretty excited about playing ArmA II vanilla now that I know it's a proper Op Flash game, but I'm itching to see if DayZ is as good as it sounds.

Quite tempted to give this a go too, not sure if my PC will hack it or not, though.

I'll have to reinstall it. It's a pain in the arse and buggy as hell, though.

What sort of rig you truckin' in? If it's comparable to mine, you'll find out by tomorrow if it runs or not!



What, DayZ or ArmA II?

DayZ. It's a faff to install. ArmA has bugs, but not like this.

It is basically pre-alpha though, so understandable.

Your face is pre-alpha

DayZ requires the patience of a saint. I'm yet to get a game that doesn't fuck up in some way.

I told you.

Since saying that, I've had my only proper game yet (for nearly two hours), and it was fucking magnificent.

It's buggy, yes, and ArmAII's inventory system was designed by some sort of spastic weirdo, and the basic controls are cumbersome and there are all kinds of problems commonly associated with a game of ArmAII's scope and size - for example moving around indoors is glitchy as hell.

But, when you get a good game like I just did, it's wonderful.

I spawned near the coast as you always do (BTW: You don't spawn with any weapons whatsoever any more), and made my way to the nearest cluster of buildings. Unfortunately they were all "pretend" buildings which means you can't go inside and therefore there's no loot. I was then chased by a zombie who bit me and drained me of a fair bit of blood. Fortunately you start with one bandage so I outran him and eventually got to heal myself.

Then I noticed a lighthouse. I ran over and found...

THIS!

Now I was covering some ground pretty damn quickly and I managed to find some large warehouse-y type buildings further along the coastline. I got off my bike and investigated. There was a lot of zombie activity and a few dead human players kicking about. There was also loads of loot. I grabbed a revolver and a hatchet, along with some other kit.

Then, whilst climbing up to the top of this massive building, I glanced out of the window to see some shit making off with my bicycle! Nooooo!

I gave chase on foot but it was futile. I attracted a few zombies but thanks to my revolver was able to get rid of them. Unfortunately I was now out of ammo, just in time for a human player wielding an axe and fending off a horde of zombies to come into view. He killed the zombies and I thought about whipping my own axe out and killing him, but he declared himself friendly and asked me not to shoot him. Little did he know I was out of ammo.

We set off together to find the next town, eventually happening upon a small farm with a few zombies kicking about. All the while I was chatting to my new found chum, but secretly plotting to off him before he offed me. I had my empty revolver out, and if he decided to start hacking at me with his axe, there would be nothing I could do about it. The only thing keeping me alive was the threat of my unloaded gun. The tension this game creates is brilliant.

I knew that at some point in the near future, we were going to find a stash of guns and ammo and the playing field would be levelled. At that point it'd be easy for him to betray my trust. But at the same time, he seemed like a nice chap in the game chat, so I was genuinely conflicted about whether or not to kill him when his back was turned.

As it turns out, the zombies from the farm swarm him and he takes some damage. He passes out and asks me to bandage him. I kill the last couple of zombies around us and then axe him in the face, stealing his tin of beans. Better safe than sorry! Poor Niko.

I've found another farm now and I've logged out in a barn. Hope I'm still alive when I go back!

*reinstalls*

Christ almighty I need this in my life. Hnnngh!

I hope you're not, you bastard.

The thing is, I totally didn't want to be someone who kills other human players when I first started. But I was an hour into my life and had a fair bit of loot and that just totally changed my outlook on the whole game. He seemed legit, but there was always the possibility that he was gonna kill me when he got the chance. It's so good!

It runs acceptably on my shite PC as well. Although I have everything set to low barring the resolution which is 1080p else it looks like shit on my monitor.

Ensure that your 3D and Interface resolutions are set to the same thing or it will look like shit.

Yeah I had that problem on my first go round! It's all good now. Still need a new PC though. I bet it looks great on max settings.

One of Bohemia's strengths is making games that look very nice despite being set to low detail. I have most of my settings turned down quite low to keep it fluid with a reasonable draw distance.

Nooooo! My character died. It was pitch black on the server this time because the 24 hour cycle is in real time. I suppose I could've gone on a Yank server to get more daylight, but I wanted to try out the dark. It's rough!

Got a double barrel shotgun and then an Enfield by the end, but I was very low on blood with no way of recovering. I had plenty of raw meat and some wood for a fire but I needed matches to light the wood and cook the meat! Damn!

I eventually managed to break my leg forcing me to crawl everywhere, whilst passing out periodically. I gave up and shot a zombie with my Enfield, bringing loads of them over to devour me.

So much for the 'prisoner's dilemma'!

Great tale, write more! I suspect I'd be too terrified to play this though.

Damn it! According to the Wiki, the town I was in had a frigging supermarket to the south, which is a definite source of matches. If only I'd known! It also had a parking lot with repairable vehicles. Stupid night time!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXTQhNQw ... r_embedded

(For context: DayZ's mic/text communication only works in close proximity now - like in Halo 3 for players on opposite teams!)

Brilliant! I hope that was you on your bike!