pc: "The War Z" announced (Day Z standalone clone)

[II-zOoLoGy-II]

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/07/19/t...l-shooter-mmo-with-strong-parallels-to-day-z/

Well, that didn't take long. Someone announced a persistent survival shooter-MMO set in a zombie apocalypse. It has permadeath (as an optional Hardcore Mode). It has PvP and PvZ folded into the same experience. It has a hunger mechanic. It has a dude in a baseball cap. The War Z is undeniably inspired by Day Z, one of the best things to happen on the PC this year. But before you load your cynicism guns with copycat bullets, I wonder: is that really a bad thing?

The War Z describes itself as a Survival Horror MMO that immerses players in a zombie-infested, post-apocalyptic world in which a viral outbreak has decimated the human population leaving, in its wake, a nightmare of epic proportion. It'll be available unbelievably soon: Fall 2012 for $30 (coincidentally, the same price of Arma 2: Combined Operations), and it won't carry a subscription fee.

The game is being developed by Hammerpoint Interactive, a new developer. According to Sergey Titov, Executive Producer, they began development last fall. "The major difference is that DayZ is a fantastic mod for a hardcore military simulation game"; Hammerpoint Interactive Senior Game Designer Eric Nordin says in an interview with IGN about the game. "We are creating a standalone game, with the entire world designed around a zombie apocalypse, so that players feel completely immersed in that environment."

Here's a breakdown of features, taken verbatim from the press release:

Big open worlds to explore between 200 to 400 square kilometers
Two modes of play: Normal and Hardcore
Combination of first-person and third-person perspectives
Meld of PvE (player versus environment) and PvP (player versus player)
Strong Role Playing Elements
Multiple playable characters with customizable features
Unique social elements, including bounties, help requests, trap setting, etc.
Safe settlements where players can purchase, sell and store items as well as post notes for other players
Dozens of unique skills that can be learned and improved
Up to 250 players per game server
New weapons and items become available as players explore the game world
Full developer support with regularly scheduled, free content updates
Dedicated public servers as well as private servers that can be completely self-managed in game client
Single purchase, downloadable client with ability to play full game without subscriptions or requiring in-game transactions

Personally, I think DayZ running on Arma 3 will be much better.

 

[BlisteredHand]

Is Brad Pit in it?

 

[CMvan46]

Well I saw the follow up interview from the Day Z guy who said he is happy for the competition and blah blah but he also pointed out these are just promises at this point and it's going to be very very hard for a new developer to pull off all their promises well.

 

[mekonrider]

Good to see serious zombie games, rather than button mashers. Hopefully Steam will do a decent discout on Arma before the sale stops.

 

[sesselpupser]

it's going to be very very hard for a new developer to pull off all their promises well.

Exactly, Day Z would've been impossible without Arma II: CO which is the result of years of experience in making military simulators for the actual military as well as for gamers. For one thing I bet it's not cheap or easy to make such a huge map... It'll have to be pretty good to convince everyone who's bought into Day Z (are there many people left now who want to get it but haven't?) to switch over because all their friends are on Day Z already and they've spent ages learning the map.

 

[Ibonibo]

Well, we see how this plays out...

I love Arma and DayZ, but it has flaws that with Arma3 might go away, but we still don't know where DayZ will be going in the future. Hall talked about some "minecraft" model, so people would have to pay again, this alone could throw people off.

I wait and see how this whole thing plays out. If this goes the way the article says and has realistic weapon ballistics and realistic damage system, I'm very interested. If it has a stupid RPG HP system where you need 5 headshots to take one out, I'm off.

Is Brad Pit in it?

, nice one 👍, but that's World War Z, also coming out


EDit: Interview with the developpers:
http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/07/19/the-war-z-a-new-zombie-survival-experience

after reading that, it sounds awesome : it includes smell, zombie bites, stamina, you can get infected, clans, alliances, modable weapons (yeay)

Edit2: enlisted in the beta, see what all the fuzz is about. I mean DayZ is really great but lacks in so many ways a lot (PvP is so badly done, that everybody shots everybody, which is kind of lame of some people getting a good gun, going back where people spawn and then mown down weaponless people. There should be a feature to not shot everybody, like better loot finds if you help others,...)

 

[The Bman]

Sergey Titov

You mean the same Sergey Titov involved in the development of this game?:

 

[MeanElf]

Be fair, that's a really old vid from 2006 and Titov has been incorrectly associated as lead game designer.

Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing was developed and programmed in Ukraine by California-based company Stellar Stone; however, Sergey Titov was incorrectly credited as lead programmer due to his involvement in creating and licensing his proprietary engine to Stellar Stone via his company TS Group Entertainment.

That was back in 2003. Maybe I shouldn't buy GT6 because Kazunori Yamauchi was responsible for this: GT1

Anyway, I think that this new game also owes a little something to Dead Island and its follow up.

 

[Crispy]

Hmm, this looks like it could be very good. Maybe I can convince the girlfriend to get this game? I'll read some reviews and see if it really is better than Day Z.

 

[II-zOoLoGy-II]

First game play:

[YouTube]iu0JHSQ_ZU4[/media]

So, ya. Complete rip off of Day Z.

 

[TheDrummingKING]

Looks to me like a combo of Dayz, COD, and L4D. The Dayz part is obvious, but why it reminds me of COD is the hitmarkers and how easy it looks to aim and kill people, and L4D because of the blue glow around the things you can pick up.


I think I'll stick with the Dayz standalone.

 

[Phoenix]

I'll be trying this, but i'd rather wait for DayZ standalone.

 

[II-zOoLoGy-II]

I would honestly like to try it as well, but there is no way I will support someone who blatantly rips off someone who created something for the community and asked nothing in return from players.

It is a shame no legal action can and/or will take place.

 

[MeanElf]

When this was first talked about, multiple maps were discussed, including city and countryside. Okay, this one looks like the Day Z one but don't forget that the development cycle has been in play for as long or longer than the other.

Frankly, I find Blops and BF3 to be quite similar, with more than a few coincidental 'themes' running through both...

It's a zombie survival game - it's going to look quite similar. Dead Island has been the only one to change the situation - but it's still fundamentally the same as most other zombie games (that I've seen.) As DK points out, there are aspects from other games visible there too, so I don't feel it can be called a total rip-off just yet.

And isn't Day Z going to be a purchaseable game at some point?

 

[Phoenix]

And isn't Day Z going to be a purchaseable game at some point?

A little bird said the standalone would be released this year (2012).

But its not confirmed yet. As far as I know.

 

[MeanElf]

Cheers - thought I'd heard correctly.

 

[Ibonibo]

I would honestly like to try it as well, but there is no way I will support someone who blatantly rips off someone who created something for the community and asked nothing in return from players.

It is a shame no legal action can and/or will take place.

Ehhmmm, DayZ is a "ripoff" of an other game (which I forgot the name, something with 5, will look it up) that never saw the light, was a concept and was exactly what DayZ is now. (edit: called class 3 / class 4; 2 different concepts)

In developpement since 2009

That game got a release date now as a single player to test and later on a greater scale in MP. Now it's called state of decay

So it's clear that WarZ jumped the bandwagon of MMO Zombie, but the concept is nothing new and by the logic of DayZ fanboys, Rocket also stole the idea, which many of us talked and dreamed about so nobody stole on anybody.

Only thing WarZ was not started as a Zombie game, but jumped the wagon and switched the WarInc, or whatever to WarZ.


Back in the day, WWII shooters did the same thing, and thank god they did because we got so many great games out of it from different pubishers.

I will play WarZ beta to look if I like it, but will do the same with DayZ. If cheaters and PVP isn't handled in DayZ and something more is needed in the game cause after 2 weeks I got bored. Same thing over and over agin , no greater objective,...

 

[MeanElf]

Thanks for the info Ibonibo - good to see some perspective.

So, in the end, it's all relative. I think I'd like to try both too - hell, I'm thinking of getting a Wii U just for ZombieU though Aliens: Colonial Marines will be out on that platform also

 

[Ibonibo]

Preordered the meduim package,... next monday is gonna be busy

 

[Phoenix]

Got my hands on a beta 48 hour code from a friend.

Will try out the beta and decide from there.

 

[Ibonibo]

Wooop Woop,

tonight we start immigrating to Colorado, Chernus was getting to small....

 

[Ibonibo]

Yesterday, I had a funny moment:

I just spawned so nothing on me, found a hammer, 2 seconds later I see an other guy, sprinting towards me with a hammer in hand. He clearly wanted to kill me so I started running, jumping, trying to loose him.
But no he really wanted that second hammer.

So I started sprinting around the Zombies so they would follow me, and to an extend him. Got around 25 zeds rallied behind me, with him still on my tail.

Then I jumped up a trailer and he was alone with the 25-30 Zeds wanting him. I mocked him in chat for beeing that stupid. Then he tried to come up on the trailer, but I was standing there smashing his head in with my hammer.

Stupid bandit... lmao

 

[MeanElf]

Some interesting news on this front...okay, a lot of sour grapes in there too but the last part may be worth taking note of.

Click the image to read

I had to add this as an image as the post apparently has been removed - an ex forum Mod for the WarZ forum gives some insight into some of the dev's plans for the future.

I was actually looking forward to this...

 

[II-zOoLoGy-II]

War-Z is now available on steam.

If anyone has it lets us know how it is.

 

[Ibonibo]

I have it, not yet on steam as they give out steam keys via a website to those who bought it via their site, which is not online yet.

What do you want to know?

 

[Mr. S]

Thought about buying it but what MeanElf posted above changed my mind.

 

[Phoenix]

Well, WarZ is now on Steam, and on 10% off...

http://store.steampowered.com/app/226700/

I think its a cool game, with lots of potential...

They only need to get rid of the hackers, and release the public rent servers and everything is good.

 

[Ibonibo]

Thought about buying it but what MeanElf posted above changed my mind.

Apparently, that was all lies too, because he got banned and raged much...


My experience so far:

Dev. Team seems to be shady, there is a lot of shady stuff going on, from bans to insults, to broken promises,....

Game in itself is okay, for the price, it's okay.

Hackers are problematic, but let's see how that plays out.

The game:
Lots of things are still missing, but game is only in beta, so patience, but in itself it has potential if, and a big IF balancing is sorted.

Community:
One of the worse I had ever played with. Chats are full of insults, racist and 12 year old.
Every one plays bandit, so you get killed on sight, no matter how muuch or less stuff you have. Doesn't matter.

Now if you play as a group it start to get interesting, but the dev team charges to built clans. Again feeds the claim they are only there for the cash grab.

I play often alone and I am basicly done with the game in the current form.

Watch the videos on Youtube of PVp. They kill and leave all your loot, they just kill player for the sake of it.

I rarely find a weapon (due to server hoppers takeing away all the good stuff), if you find one chances you get shot in the back, or by a sniper are so high that I had many session, roaming around 2 hours, then I find a gun. Go to the safe zone and get killed by campers who kill everyone coming near the safe zone (happened a lot to me)

I would resume the game in it's current form right now as :
COD centerplaces with vast planes of nothing inbetween which take forever to cross.

95% of the player base just want to play COD on a massive map. That was basicly not what I paid for and therefor am disappointed. I will wait for state of decay as I fear DayZ can't handle the PVP problem too (PVP is okay but not if shot on sight on every occasion)

It's just a massive PVP.

If you not sure, wait till the games done and then look if you still want it. But if you really want, it's only 15 bucks and the first hours are really cool. Just expect a high curve of frustration following

 

[mekonrider]

Thanks for the rundown Ibonibo, I was thinking about getting this but I'll only bother if it's in the steam sale.

 

[sesselpupser]

Saw this earlier:

Not that it changes anything in my opinion, I was never interested in this. DayZ and The Dead Linger are the two I can see myself being interested in.