The DayZ Update
Oh, video game conferences– how I love and hate you at the same time. On one hand, it's very cool to get information about upcoming games from the various publishers who attend but on the other you have small development teams like the one associated with "DayZ" forced to take time away from development to attend.
For those of you wondering why 1.7.3 hasn't been released yet, look no further than the "GamesCom" conference that just ended in Germany as it's all-but-certain that it was the primary reason why we're still on version 1.7.2.5 of the mod.
But let's not dwell on what amounts to just another minor bump on the road for "DayZ." Let's instead focus on the fact that it's likely only a matter of days before we have a sweet new patch to put through its paces.
With valid information about the new version rather scarce over the past couple weeks aside from the downright obvious hints Rocket has been dropping about dogs being included in some capacity, I find myself in a bit of a speculative mood. Ergo, here are the top 10 things I'd currently like to see added, changed or refined in the mod.
- easier tent placement
- crossbow bolts as loot on zombies you shoot with said crossbow
- swimming without losing gear
- make zombie spawn-ins more realistic (i.e. don't just have them appear out of thin air or appear in the same spawn location and teleport to their proper location when the server gets around to it.)
- better/more effective pistols– perhaps somewhere between the 1-shot 1911 body kills of the past and the anno dump that's currently required with most handguns
- dogs as companions/pets
- zombified animals - dogs, boars, wolves, bears, cows... the works!
- radios for long-range communication
- better zombie animation/behavior - even slowed down, they're still too twitchy/glitchy. They still attack through walls and pathfinding is still often a problem. I know this has to do with them using the animal AI but maybe every so often one could use the human AI to make things more interesting? I know Rocket has talked about the idea of a "life cycle" for the infected. Perhaps newly infected could use the human AI then switch to animal as they exist longer or the zombie count goes up?
- security– anti-hack/anti-cheat improvements
I'm fairly confident that most if not all of these things are already being worked on by the development team but I find exercises like this fun and useful if only to help keep my critical and analytical thinking skills sharp. Of course, I'm sure I could come up with 10 more things to fiddle with almost immediately if all of this was addressed tomorrow but these are the "issues" that have most impacted my gameplay experience lately.
Speaking of gameplay experiences, here's another group gameplay video for you all.
And here's the episode I released late last week for those of you who missed it. Don't forget, YouTube and Twitter are your friends when it comes to keeping up with my video releases.
Finally, for those of you who are experiencing screen tearing and artifacting in "DayZ," there are reports that turning off "Threaded Optimization" for "ARMA II" in the NVIDIA/ATI Control Panels can resolve the issue. I haven't had a chance to confirm this myself but the "DayZ" dev team has tweeted a link to a reddit post about the issue that seems to be helping people on some hardware configurations. Here's hoping a patch resolves this for good without the need for GPU tweaks soon.
DayZ - http://www.dayzmod.com
Shout Out: Sanctum
Wanted to highlight another great co-op game from last year with this Shout Out. "Sanctum" is a hybrid of the tower defense and first-person shooter genres that expertly combines a lot of the best elements from both into a game that's just as fun and engaging to play alone as it is with up to three friends.
Those of you who read my "11 Best Co-Op Games of 2011" post will recall that "Sanctum" was #8. Since then, a lot of patches and DLC have been released for the game that have made it even better and I would seriously consider bumping it up a few slots on that list as a result if I were to do it over again today.
To help illustrate just how cool and crazy the game can get, here's a little video of me playing the last two waves on the third single player map, "Arc."
As you can see, you not only get to build and upgrade towers but define the path that the attackers take to their objective by building it yourself. This in my view is much cooler than simply dropping towers in pre-defined spots as it lets you get really creative with your gameplay without getting bogged down in overly-complex controls and systems.
I always really liked this game and it's only gotten better through copious post-launch support from the developer. If any of this seems at all interesting, you should definitely check it out. The thrifty among you should note that it is currently available for Mac and PC as a single purchase or discounted four-pack at a very reasonable price on Steam.
Sanctum (via Steam)
Opening the Taps
As you may already know, I've been thinking about ways to improve this blog for the past few weeks. As a result, I've decided to increase the frequency and diversity of my posts as a first step toward a more significant expansion later in the year.
What this means is that I will be doing away with the "Sit Rep" posts that I've been making for the past 10 weeks and instead turn "The DayZ Update" into its own weekly feature. This will allow me to post about other games at other times while still providing regular "DayZ" content updates on Mondays.
As much as I love "DayZ" and remain completely enthusiastic and excited about it, I don't believe it would be practical or sustainable to do a blog that focuses solely on it. Those of you who remember me from "Gaming's Edge" will recall that I play a wide range of games and I honestly don't see myself being happy covering just one in the long term.
The bottom line is that there will be more content here than ever before focusing on more games and gaming-related topics while still providing the weekly "DayZ" fix I know a lot of you crave. :)
Bonus content begins this week. Be sure to stay tuned and thanks to everyone who has been visiting on a regular basis. The extra traffic these past few months has done a lot to convince me that all the additional work required to expand "Vortex-1" is worth my time.
Like an infected corpse, the "Sit Rep" will rise as "The DayZ Update" starting next Monday! Until then, be on the lookout for some sweet bonus content here on the blog!
No comments:
Post a Comment