You there! Do you enjoy slaying the undead? Of course you do, so why not enter our latest competition and win the chance to kill more zombies than ever before? We're giving away five copies of Dead Island's new Bloodbath Arena DLC, which adds a new survival mode. Better yet, as these prizes are digital, anyone can enter! What are you waiting for?

Check inside for details of how to win.

Bloodbath Arena puts you under siege by infinite waves of zombies, by lasting as long as you can you'll level up and get loot that you can then use in Dead Island's single player campaign. It also adds the new 'brain wave bomb' which exactly as deadly as it sounds.

Right lads, here's how it is. We at PC Gamer are totally prepared for a zombie apocalypse, we'll just use Owen as a decoy while we beat them to death with left over competition entries, but we're concerned about you guys. So we want you to:

Tell us your personal plan for surviving a zombie apocalypse.

The five most practical, least practical, cleverest, stupidest and honestly-just-whichever-ones-I-like-the-look-of will win a copy of Bloodbath Arena.

Important Note: If you pre-ordered Dead Island, you should already have this for free, so let someone else enter.

Now here's the fine print: If you win, you'll get a private message and your name will appear in this week's winners, once you let us know you're still alive we'll send you your code. If you don't respond after three weeks we'll give your code to someone else.

Dead Island has been well and truly banned in Germany. Developers Techland join everyone else in expressing their lack of surprise at the decision. "This isn't unexpected," they told Eurogamer. "Germany has its unique regulations regarding video games and violence and the industry can only comply."

Turning the blood green won't help them with this one. Dead Island has been put on "List B" by Germany's Federal Department of Media Harmful to Young Persons. It's a list reserved for media that contains extreme torture or Nazi content. It's probably best not to think about what gets onto "List A."

"Both Deep Silver and Techland were aware of such a possibility from the very beginning," say the publisher. The reasons for the ban haven't been revealed publicly, but it's likely something to do with Dead Island's vast amounts of gore and dismemberment.

A place on List B makes it illegal for stores to sell the game in Germany and shipments heading into the country risk being seized at customs. In other news, the "Bloodbath" DLC for Dead Island is out now, adding infinite waves of splattery zombies and a weapon called "the brain wave bomb." Cartoon violence FTW!

The promised Bloodbath DLC for Dead Island has arrived on Steam. The pack includes four survival maps, described as being both "deadly and hazardous." In each map you must fend off infinite waves of zombies for loot and XP. These survival mode spoils can then be carried back into campaign mode and unleashed on the unsuspecting zombie citizens of Banoi.

There are leaderboards, too, and a new weapon called "the brain wave bomb," which sounds like it should cause an explosion of ideas and creative solutions to the zombie outbreak, but is more likely to involve the cooking of zombie brains. It costs £7.99 / $9.99, but if you pre-ordered Dead Island, you'll get it free, which is nice.

The first batch of Dead Island DLC, titled 'Bloodbath Arena', will arrive on the 22nd of November. The DLC adds a survival mode, pitting you and your friends against waves of zombies in four different arenas. Leaderboards are promised, as is the ability to carry experience earned in survival over to the campaign. There's also a new weapon, dubbed the 'brain wave bomb'. We don't know what it does, but it certainly sounds cool.

The DLC is priced at a steep £7.99, but will be free to anyone who pre-ordered the original game. If you haven't bought Dead Island yet, check out our Dead Island review to help you make up your mind. Alternatively if you prefer your content free and user created, take a look at our Dead Island mods post.

Check inside for some screenshots of the Bloodbath Arena DLC.

A report on Siloconera is saying that Techland have coined the "Dead World" trademark, strongly suggesting that a bigger, bloodier sequel to Dead Island is in the works. In spite of the fact that Techland put out the wrong version of the game on release day, Dead Island ended up doing quite well. It filled the deserted open world zombie survival niche quite nicely with some horrendous gore and a big, beautiful island. You can find out what we thought in our Dead Island review.

Techland have since released a number of chunky patches, fixing the many launch bugs, balancing the zombies and adding new weapons. A strong modding community have added some unique twists to the Dead Island formula, and can see the best results of their efforts in our round up of the top ten Dead Island mods.

While it's unlikely that Techland will expand the zombie apocalypse to encompass the entire globe, you'd expect an even bigger play area with the 'World' tag. What would you like to see from a Dead Island sequel?

Despite being slightly broken on release, Dead Island has scored legions of fans who enjoy nothing more than slaughtering zombies in its open-world island. We liked it. Thanks to a Halloween tie-in sale it’s currently sitting at number five in the Steam charts, and it's already got an impressive number of mods for such a recent game.

This is partly due to it being fairly simple to mod, and partly due to bits of it not working on release. Open up its PAK files in WinRAR, then tweak certain settings with notepad to your undead heart's content. This simplicity has resulted in mods which do everything from make zombies’ heads come off every time you hit them, to changing the game to make it more like Crysis.

To get started, it’s a good idea to backup your Dead Island profile and save games - you’ll find these in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\\91310\remote\out\profile s\default.pro and C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\\91310\remote\out\save\sa v_0.sav. Dead Island seems to have been built with modding in mind, so from here it’s simply a question of extracting the necessary files to C:\Users\\Documents\DeadIsland\out. If you don't fancy getting your hands dirty you can use the Dead Island Helper to enable and disable mods.

There is one caveat - if you’re playing a modded game on a VAC-enabled server, you could be banned. So make sure that you turn off VAC in the game’s settings, and ensure anyone you play with has it turned off too.

With this in mind, open up your Dead Island folder and get modding.

1. Still Alive Parkour



That’s Still Alive as in the song from Mirror’s Edge, not the song from Portal. As you’d expect, this parkour-tastic mod adds running, jumping, regenerative health and knockdown enemy assaults. Like Mirror’s Edge, Still Alive essentially turns Dead Island into a first-person driving game with legs instead of wheels, so you have to learn how to accelerate and brake without falling off cliff faces.

2. Benjamin318's Dead Island Better Resolution and Texture



Good old Benjamin318 (Did his parents really call him that? Is he the 318th in a series of Benjamins?) has upped Dead Island’s slightly muddy textures to higher definitions with his Better Resolution and Texture pack. Benjamin318 points out that they’re not high definition but still a vast improvement on the original, while also wondering, “WHY DOES EVERYTHING LOOK SO DAMAGED AND OLD?”

3. Amputator-Tots and Decapitator-Tots

For long-dead humans, zombies’ connective tissue always seems a bit too cohesive. Fortunately, this pair of mods ensure that the zombies’ limbs fly off (Amputator) and heads explode whenever you shoot anywhere near them (Decapitator). Just like they would in real life.
4. Crysis



Everyone’s favourite pretty-but-shallow military sci-fi shooter gets ported to the Dead Island island with this Crysis mod. It basically turns the player character into the slightly portly monochrome Spider-Man impersonator from Crysis, complete with the ability to throw people obscene distances and break people in half with your fists.
5. George Romero



George A Romero’s 1968 film Night of the Living Dead pretty much set the tone and rules for the modern zombie - watching it is actually part of the curriculum if you're planning on becoming one of the undead. The George Romero mod aims to implicate the living dead’s rules on the island of the dead, so you’ll face off against slow, limping zombies who you’ll have to shoot in the head.

6. Dark Gloomy Overcast Skies plus Ominous Thundering in the Background



This mod adds dark gloomy overcast skies plus ominous thundering in the background. Perfect if you like the atmosphere dark gloomy overcast skies with ominous thundering in the background generates, and, let’s face it, who doesn’t?

7. Punch Drunk and Fist of the Dead Island



Described as a fun fist/physics Mod, Punch Drunk lets you fight off zombies as if you were a drunk person. Warning! Do not operate heavy machinery or fight zombies while under the influence of alcohol. Fist of the Dead Island gives you utterly furious and speedy arms, with the ability to send zombies flying across levels.

8. Dawn of the Dead Island

Following the Romero mod, Dawn of the Dead Island adds realism and makes the game “feel more like Stalker in terms of gameplay.” Gone is levelling, and the focus is on merely surviving the zombie onslaught. The zombies are more shuffley, too, but still pack a deadly punch, and that’s on top of a whole bunch of character and game tweaks.

9. Gunslinger V2

If you’re finding Dead Island too tricky, Gunslinger V2 gives you unlimited ammo and higher rates of fire. OK, so it’s more of a cheat than a mod, but it’s still pretty damn cool.

10. Director’s Cut



We’ve covered this mod before, saying it “Rebalances the combat, skill trees and items to deliver better pacing and a requirement for headshot precision.” Since then Director's Cut has been updated to version 3.4, which adds some minor tweaks to an already brilliant mod.

That's our pick of the bunch so far, but there are plenty more out there. Feel free to add your favourites in the comments below.

Techland have been tackling the hectic task of getting Dead Island up to scratch head on with a series of post-launch patches. In recent weeks crashes and major bugs have been the focus. The latest patch marks a change of tack, and sees the devs rebalancing Dead Island's undead hordes, adding extra stuff in the form of new weapon blueprints, levels, and crate rewards, and boosting the XP rewards for those on a second playthrough. It's looking as though Techland made the right decision in delaying the upcoming Bloodbath Arena DLC pack, but how long will it be before we can finally play a polished, bug free version of Dead Island? Get the full patch notes below, via Eurogamer.

Gameplay improvements

Level cap raised to 60
New blueprints for weapon mods added
Infected damage reduced
Infected no longer interrupt player attacks
A series of improvements to subsequent playthroughs implemented: quest XP rewards adjusted, XP rewards for challenges adjusted, XP awarded for all quests completed in co-op
Purna's ammo carrying capacity increased by 50%
Character state from a save game can now be loaded when using the Start from Chapter option
New balancing option added: enemy levels can now be adjusted independently for each co-op player
Players respawn with more health
Lock pick skill level required to open a lock is now clearly indicated
Improved rewards in weapon crates
All weapon crates now contain rewards
Fixes and interface improvements

 
Bug fixes

Fix: players are no longer left without a weapon after dropping the equipped item and healing with a medkit.
Fix: equipped items no longer swap mysteriously after drinking an energy drink
Tweak: healing with medkits from inventory works better, makes smarter choices of medkits
Fix: loot from dead enemies is now always identical for all co-op players
Fix: Purna no longer finishes her Fury with fists equipped
Fix: map tracking after death
Fix: zone info in the quarantine zone (City of Moresby)
Tweak: respawn point selection is now smarter

 
General

Improved stability and network performance in co-op
V-sync option added
Quest and reward fixes implemented

 

The Bloodbath Arena DLC for Dead Island has been pushed back so Techland can spend more time fixing launch bugs. The devs made the announcement on the Dead Island Facebook page, spotted by CVG, and is good news considering the impressive selection of launch day bugs. A day one patch squashed many of them, but a little more polish would go a long way.

The Bloodbath Arena DLC will add a series of four survival maps that can be played co-operatively. It was due to arrive this month. Techland are set to announce a new date shortly. If you can't wait that long, spice up Dead Island with the fan made mod that adds devastating head shots and more spectacular close combat moves. In spite of the bugs, Dead Island is fast, bloody fun. See what we thought in our Dead Island review.

And so life (or un-life, I suppose) comes full circle. Game trailers tend to take heavy inspiration from film, and Dead Island's - while pretty damn incredible - was no different. Now, though, big-time film studio Lionsgate has nabbed the rights to give Techland's undead opus a movie makeover, and it's using the trailer as "primary creative inspiration." Can a videogame about the movie based on the trailer for a videogame be far off?

Gamasutra's got the full report, noting that The Mummy producer Sean Daniel and The Amityville Horror producer Stefan Sonnenfeld are heading up the project thus far. Currently, the movie's in the early stages of development, which - admittedly - is still a lot further than most videogame movies get.

"Like the hundreds of journalists and millions of fans who were so passionate and vocal about the Dead Island trailer, we too were awestruck," Lionsgate's co-COO Joe Drake said. "This is exactly the type of property we're looking to adapt at Lionsgate - it's sophisticated, edgy, and a true elevation of a genre that we know and love. It also has built in brand recognition around the world, and franchise potential."

We at PC Gamer, of course, had a blast with the game proper, but I have to admit that its most gripping narrative conflict - "Should I slice off this zombie's limbs or just decapitate him?" - would probably start to lose moviegoers' interest after the sixth or seventh hour.

Despite the fact that I'm pretty sure the only valid excuse for missing this thing the first time around is an actual, factual, non-fictional zombie apocalypse, here's the infamous Dead Island cinematic trailer:

Dead Island wasn't exactly realistic. What with the electro-swords, the nuns and the knifing zombies in the chest. If you prefer your undead to be a little more quasi-Romero-real, you'll want the "Director's Cut" mod, which rebalances the combat, skill trees and items to deliver better pacing and a requirement for headshot precision. Mod creator tnutz says he "tried to refine and highlight the best aspects of the Dead Island combat and tie it together into a deeper combat system where you are rewarded for properly assessing the situation and acting tactically."

The full list of changes and a link are below. They include: "Ground-and-pounding the head with fists is viable". Not that games are violent or anything.

The mod's available via the Steam forums. Here's the full list of changes.

Mod Highlights
- More involved and demanding combat. I tried to refine and highlight the best aspects of the Dead Island combat and tie it together into a deeper combat system where you are rewarded for properly assessing the situation and acting tactically

Fundamentals
- Precision strikes to the head give you quick kills

- Different enemy groups can make for very different feeling fights

- You can stay in control of big fights by taking advantage of each situation, and you don't have to spam-kick the whole time

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Tactics
- Normal attacks to the body work towards knock down, but do no health damage to Walkers and little to infected

- Weapon mods are useful and take full effect. A crit even to the body can make your enemies bleed out, burn to a crisp, or dance while being electrocuted

- Hits to a Walker's arms break and dismember them easily, doing little damage but setting up a killshot

- Strong blunt attacks to the leg will up-end zombies

- Walkers stay down for a shorter time, and randomly get up faster
- Skills affecting knockout might actually be interesting now

- Infected regenerate when taunting(and so do Rams), so be aggressive

- Infected take more damage from behind, an incentive to work together with a co-op buddy

- Ground-and-pounding the head with fists is viable

- Normal kicks are stronger against enemies you've maimed
- An uninjured walker will shrug it off quickly
- An armless or bleedingshockedburned zombie will often lose balance and fall

- A headshot from a pistol or rifle can take out a zombie
- A shot to the body has a small chance to knock them down
- Bullets have some penetration and can hit more than one zombie
- Shotguns are at least as dangerous as ever, and will knock-down and dismember satisfyingly

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Non-combat changes
- Better overall pacing
- Health items give 2x health. Don't be afraid to engage in a fight even if you can barely survive

- Improved loot tables - a reason to put points into lockpick (used Anime SchoolGirl's non-cheater edition)

- Increased Durability (mildly, to balance the combat style differences)

- Much Tougher Escorted NPCS

- Co-op experience is much closer to equal. Killers and assisters get full exp. Nearby people get 90%.

- Auto-aim for throws is back. See below

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Fun things to do
- Decapitate multiple zombies with one swing
- Headshot two zombies with one bullet
- Aim up while jump-kicking to send zombies arcing over a high railing
- Aim your jump-kicks so the ragdolls land on their heads or arms and they splatter
- Time your jump-kicks and thrown weapon extractions to combine them into one smooth motion
- Send some zombies flying to a watery death in the ocean with a sweeping sledgehammer blow to the legs
- Slice a Walker's leg to put them on a knee and then slice upward for a one-two decapitation
- Sever the leg of an oncoming Infected at full speed
- Shockburn yourself on an enemy you critted


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Auto-Aim I added back in auto-aim on the throws to not exacerbate the issue with losing weapons. Boomerang isn't a good enough fix since it's not nearly as fun as having to skillfully kick-remove your weapons mid-fight. If you like the challenge of arcing your throws, change line 54 in default_levels.xml to


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Installation: Extract to non-steam folder, e.g. C:\Users\\Documents\DeadIsland\out
So your structure is: "DeadIsland\out\data\AI" etc...

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A few things I would like to do when I can
- Add tiny amounts of ammo as a chance to drop in normal loot, so there's not feast or famine like vanilla

- Make guns more challenging - remove auto-aim especially.

- Increase spawn sizes as an option, especially for co-op
- Have a Co-op version with more lethal enemies, more spawns, etc...

- Make kicks to the head have a different effect than to the body (tried some things and failed)

- Re-balance the skilltrees (some worthless skills in vanilla are already more interesting though)