It speaks volumes of the staying power of DayZ when it gets top billing in Bohemia's new $40 Complete Collection pack for Arma 2. It's a more extensive (and slightly more expensive) way of nabbing the required content for the zombie survival mod beyond the $25 Combined Operations, but it's also the definitive accumulation of Bohemia's best.

Along with the core Arma 2 game, the bundle includes expansion Operation Arrowhead and DLC packs British Armed Forces, Private Military Company, and Army of the Czech Republic. Each DLC adds extra vehicles, weapons, factions, and maps, so you're essentially getting tinier Arma campaigns with the same degree of hyper-realism. More importantly, you'll have everything you need to jump into The Science Bear, PC Gamer's very own Arma 2 server.

Though DayZ helped propel Bohemia's games into newfound popularity, Arma 2 also thrives among dedicated communities seeking both PvP and co-op mil-sim experiences through custom missions and scenarios. For examples, check out the truly spectacular-looking videos recorded by Shack Tactical's Dslyecxi for choice glimpses into what hardcore Arma 2 looks like.

When the Patch Notes Fairy visits, she often provides precious accidental humor. The Sims 3 has consistently delivered this (version 1.4, from 2009: “Sims can no longer 'Try for Baby' with the Grim Reaper”), but today’s DayZ patch notes produced a few incidental laughs at the PC Gamer office. In addition to adding complexity to DayZ’s infection system, 1.7.5.1 includes gems like “Cutting down trees now attracts zeds,” a change that may endanger the livelihoods of apocalyptic lumberjacks everywhere.

Really, though, this is a great-looking and fairly comprehensive update. There’s new content, new or modified mechanics in play, and fixes to long-standing issues. All of these only affect the mod version of the game, but some of the improvements made may creep into the retail version.

A notable adjustment is that—if I’m interpreting it correctly—all weapons will now spawn with a limited amount of ammunition when you find them, slightly mitigating the tedious hunt for ammo players often have to perform after finding a weapon. A handful of new guns and vehicles are in, including variants of the Sa-58 and G36 assault rifles, pulled from Operation Arrowhead. ATV riders will be happy to know that the vehicles can now be set back on their wheels if you’ve ever (as I did in our weekend Arma 2 event) flipped one of the four-wheelers while cresting a hill at full throttle.

The Sa-58P (top) and G36K.

Eating and drinking has also gotten more dangerous, because DayZ. Animals no longer give the same generic “raw meat” item when butchered, and you can also eat uncooked animal meat, though it restores less blood and has the chance of giving you an infection. (And hmm, I wonder what the food item labeled "HIDDEN" refers to?) Drinking water will also need to be boiled to eliminate the possibility of contracting an infection. Also under the umbrella of "unsafe liquids," blood transfusions—the quickest way of restoring life—now have a chance to cause infection.

A run-down of the dozens of fixes, updates, and new stuff is up on the DayZ forums. If you’re looking to play the mod for the first time, DayZ Commander is the best current auto-updater utility.

Bohemia Interactive are renaming the main island of Arma 3 to Altis. According to their press release, Bohemia hope that the new name will reflect the Mediterranean identity of the island, but, "distinguishes it from the real-world Greek island of Lemnos, which has served as the main source of inspiration."

"In view of recent events, the team no longer feels passionate about using the previous name, 'Limnos', and hopes that the new identity, ‘Altis’, will help emphasize the fictional nature of the game." Those recent events, of course, being the 129 day detainment of Bohemia employees Ivan Buchta and Martin Pezlar, now released on bail.

"As part of the creative process, our virtual environments are often rooted in real-life locations and, during development, they evolve and grow along with our design," said Arma 3 project lead Joris-Jan van 't Land. "The resulting fictional environment is often close to its inspiration, but it's never exactly the same - nor would we want it to be. For us, 'Altis' echoes the Mediterranean heart of our island, but differentiates it from any undesired real-life connotations."

Atlis is a 350 kilometre square island, inspired by Greece's Lemnos. Bohemia stress that it was created based on publicly or commercially available data. Arma 3 will also feature a smaller second island, Stratis (approx. 20 km²), which will keep its name.

DayZ creator Dean "Rocket" Hall has shared his reaction with Eurogamer over the DayZ Origins mod for Arma 2 and its "inspiration" from Rocket's original zombie-survival creation. Though calling the naming similarities between the two mods "a bit problematic," he commended the GamersPlatoon community for "some awesome ideas."

"It would seem a shame to destroy that kind of creativity by me getting upset about the name," Rocket said. "So my thoughts for the moment are really, 'Wow, that's cool,' and then, 'Aww shucks, there go my DayZ: Origins plans!'"

Rocket's current focus surrounds the shaping of the standalone version of DayZ, but he admitted Origins threw a rusted wrench into plans to use the name for a possible spin-off project. "And now, if I were to do what I was planning, then it would forever get confused with ," he added. "But you can't encourage creativity on one hand and beat it with a stick with another."

We've got more info and even a download link for DayZ Origins if you're seeking an immediate survivalist fix (no, not that one). As for Rocket's standalone, the most recent development update went over interesting topics such as weather effects and diseased clothing.

The War Z may have ended up a rushed mess of a game, but people looking for DayZ style zombie survival action (yet inexplicably unwilling to just play DayZ) could now have a new title to try. Despite the name, DayZ Origins has nothing to do with Dean "Rocket" Hall's original, but instead is an Arma 2 mod "inspired" by DayZ. It also claims to give an ultimate end goal to the game of running around an open world, trying not to be eaten by the dead.

DayZ Origins runs on an adapted version of the Taviana community map. It features a remote island called Survival City, where rich survivors have built a safe haven protected by walls and elite mercenaries. According to the game's description, "if you manage to get in, you will have a chance at grabbing some of their finest weaponry and supplies."

Also included is "Patient Zero", a mutated super zombie, and the likely origin of the outbreak. "Capturing/killing this zombie might have the cure for the zombie infection."

Other features include ramshackle survivor-made vehicles - a counterpoint to DayZ's military hardware - that look like something cobbled together in Gary's Mod, as well as persistent levelling and lots of new building interiors to scavenge.

Here's a teaser trailer:



It looks like an impressive undertaking, and the need to team-up to assault Survivor City could be an elegant way of encouraging co-operation over a shoot-on-sight lone wolf attitude. Still, I'm not sure about the name. Piggybacking off of DayZ's success seems cheap, especially after the confusion caused by the similarities between War Z and DayZ. Sure enough, the YouTube comments page already contains people asking if this is DayZ Standalone, which can only exacerbate the problem.

You can download DayZ Origins here. More screenshots below.

Dean "Rocket" Hall has posted another development update on the status of the DayZ Standalone release, and by the sound of things, the team have been busy. "This is the first update when I have sat down and thought 'where do I start?' There has been so much going on with the development this month that it is hard to fit it all in a post here."

Fit it in he has, though, and the resulting post contains information on everything from volumetric clouds to diseased clothing. There's also a giant comparison shot of the game's new lighting system. "The result is pretty striking when combined with some of the other improvements we have made in the engine," Hall writes. "These improvements make the world really come to life, improving the visuals overall."



Rocket also talks about the game's new server architecture, assuring that the game will have some anti-hacking mechanics on launch. "DayZ’s game servers will function like servers in other MMO style games, that is the server will control the behavior and the sending of updates. No longer will your machine receive all the updates allowing their analysis by various cheats." The team are also experimenting with spawning all zombies and loot at the start of a server's initialisation.

There's a new clothing system, allowing you to put on and drop clothes of various durability. Clothes can also carry disease. In addition, the team are beginning to focus on a character customisation system. "The obvious starting point for us is to allow players to select the gender and race of their character. Beyond this, allowing ways for your character to become your own are key for us; from getting tattoo’s to finding unique clothing items, trying to deal with your own health aliments, etc..."

Rocket confirms that an internal closed test has begun, but stresses that the server architecture needs to be finalised before any public testing takes place. " have been working with Valve to ensure our new server browser system is working (we utilize Steam for this purpose rather than Gamespy as for ArmA2)."

Despite the progress, Rocket isn't yet prepared to make a guess at DayZ Standalone's release date. "We don’t know. We’re going to take our time. 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."

There are some new screenshots, embedded below. You can see the rest, and read the full details of the massive update, here.

Are hard-as-hell indie games enough to satiate our hunger for a challenge, or should mainstream developers quit trying to appease everyone and start really testing us? In this Face Off from our archives (originally published October 2012), Executive Editor Evan Lahti gives former Senior Editor Josh Augustine a hard time for his willingness to take it easy.

Make your own arguments in the comments—debate team captains: it’s your time to shine.

Evan: Focus testing is the enemy of experimentation and innovation. It widens the audience of a game by watering down the experience. Portal was harder, and better, than Portal 2, which forewent feats like mid-air maneuvering almost completely. Skyrim gave us a detailed wilderness where falling into a freezing lake meant nothing and dragons weren't much more than giant mosquitoes. Remember what dying was like in Diablo and Diablo II? You had to bravely fight back to your corpse to recover your gear with whatever rented junk you could pull together. I miss that brutality, and the feeling of, y’know, actually losing something.

Josh: And Diablo III offers that: in Inferno and Hell difficulty. Either of which can be played with permadeath on. Knock yourself out.

Evan: I’d love to, but Blizzard insists that I can only earn the right to play on a difficulty that can actually kill me by spending hours churning through Children’s Mode, erm, Normal. For every new character.

Josh: So you’re asking to die more? Dying isn't inherently fun or interesting. It’s not the secret sauce of game design. Even if games are a little less hard, it’s only because we’ve grown out of the binary win/lose states of the ’80s and ’90s. Those were motivated by a desire either to get people to put in more coins or to artificially lengthen 8- and 16-bit games that were otherwise short and simple. We’re in an age of gaming diversity and accessibility. More people are playing games; that’s great.

Evan: It’s not about dying more. It’s about wanting game design that uses difficulty creatively. Look at DayZ: you spawn in a 225km2 world with no weapon, no map, and no compass. You have to eat and drink. Everything is trying to kill you, and death is permanent. Almost every weapon has discrete ammo. If I’m good enough, I can read the stars to find my way.

It’s completely brutal, but more than 400,000 people flocked to it in just a couple months. It’s led Arma 2 to the top of the Steam sales charts for almost as long. Why? Because it does something so few modern games do: it respects your ability to figure it out yourself.

Josh: Difficulty’s out there if you want it. Super Meat Boy, Dustforce, Dungeons of Dredmor, Legend of Grimrock, Amnesia, Mount & Blade... all of these games are variously unforgiving. Dark Souls’ PC release is called the “Prepare To Die Edition.” Dota 2 and League of Legends are making judgmental, complex multiplayer games mainstream again. In Tribes: Ascend, I have to make mid-air skillshots at 225km an hour. What more do you want?

Evan: All the games you mentioned are from independent studios. They’re from the fringes. No one in the mainstream is embracing consequence-driven gaming, and as long as that’s the case, I think game design will continue to stagnate. I’m bored of regenerating health and checkpoints. And MMOs, honestly, they’re some of the greatest offenders of this because they were born from a model where players were paying an additional fee. Almost all of their design is based around appeasement. There’s no concept of failure or loss or struggle built into them. Every victory is just an eventuality: if you grind or pay enough, you’ll get what you want.

Josh: Even if what you were saying wasn’t a complete generalization (have you played TERA or Rift or DC Universe Online? They’re all totally tough)—a lot of people relish the social freedom and friendly atmosphere that MMOs provide by not punishing you dramatically just because you aggroed one too many cave goblins, or whatever. Difficulty isn't some one-setting-suits-all concept.

Evan: Challenge counts, and modern games are missing it. Without it, we’re just passively consuming content, going through the motions, acting out a puppet show of animations, particle effects, and sound. Even with immediate access to YouTube walkthroughs the moment a game is released, most developers are still desperately afraid of upsetting players or scaring them away. When I play something like DayZ, I feel feelings. My pulse changes. I regret decisions. I get mad. That’s valuable.

Josh: Well, while you’re getting mad that games don’t make you mad enough, I’ll be having fun.

Martin Pezlar (left), an artist at Bohemia and Ivan Buchta, Arma 3 Creative Director. Photo courtesy of Dean Hall.

Bohemia Interactive developers Ivan Buchta and Martin Pezlar, both of who were detained and jailed in Greece for nearly four months on charges of espionage, have returned to the Czech Republic today after posting a €5,000 bail ($6,672).

Despite the bail's allowance of traveling home for both men, the charges levied by the Greek government—which claim Buchta and Pezlar spied after they recorded footage of military facilities on the island of Lemnos—still stand, with a court date to be determined at the conclusion of the ongoing judicial strike. Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and Czech Republic Prime Minister Petr Nečas apparently negotiated a bail agreement after Buchta and Pezlar were denied appeal in November.

The community-led support site helpivanmartin.org posted a series of videos and snapshots showing a visibly smiling Buchta and Pezlar reuniting with family members and loved ones. In the past, the website's organizers has produced translations of Czech news coverage, which we hope will arrive later on. For now, here's a sample clip of the reception. Head over to helpivanmartin.org for more videos.

Ivan Buchta and Martin Pezlar, the two Bohemia Interactive developers detained and imprisoned on suspicion of espionage during a holiday to Greece, have been freed on bail this morning. Once paid, the pair will be free to return to the Czech Republic.

The community support site helpmartinivan.org has posted translations of Czech news sources detailing the conditions for their release. Bail was set at €5,000 each, with the deal apparently coming about as a result of conversations between the Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and his Czech counterpart Petr Nečas. According the Czech Republic's deputy ambassador in Greece, Miloš Kučera, "We have an unconfirmed report that both families have the money available and are discussing transferring the money to Greece with their attorney."

Unfortunately this isn't the end of Ivan and Martin's ordeal. Already the pair have spent four months in prison without charge, and Kučera has highlighted that court hearings will continue - although, that they are free to travel home is clearly a positive step. The date of further hearing is still unknown, as judges in Greece are currently on strike.

Thanks, RPS.

The standalone release of DayZ was supposed to be out before the end of 2012. With 2013 now upon us, and no sight of the open-world survival horror, you'd be forgiven for thinking that zombies had pounced on it while it was trying to vault over the ArmA 2 engine. Not so, according to Dean "Rocket" Hall, who has updated the DayZ development blog with info on the status of the project.

"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," Hall wrote. The plan now, he says, is to "immanently" release a closed test for 500 - 1,000 people, before rescheduling the date for the public release.

As to what the team has been doing with the redeveloped engine, Hall outlined many of the improvements you can expect to see. If you were worried that the standalone release would take away the complexity of the mod version, the team's plans for the newly implemented inventory should put your mind to rest.

"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."

Despite the extra info it carries (cholera? Really?) the new system should at least be more intuitive for users, switching from ArmA's mess of clicking to a simpler drag and drop interface.

The UI is also receiving an overhaul, thanks to the efforts of community member Kju. "He has been working with our CEO (Marek) and me to develop the DayZ UI. We have been greatly inspired by Minecraft to make the UI simple and effective, rather than flashy and complex."

Hall does note that progress on revising DayZ's island home of Chernarus has been slowed, due to the arrest and imprisonment of Ivan Buchta on charges of espionage in Greece. "Luckily," he notes, "through letters, Ivan is able to provide some input and insight into the development of the map. Regardless, the continued imprisonment of him and Martin Pezlar has a significant impact on our ability to redevelop Chernarus."

Finally the team have been putting "a huge amount of work" into updating the game's art assets. Hall posted a selection of screenshots, including pictures of the new interiors, which I've added below.













To finish, here's a man who clearly ran afoul of the new inventory system.