Arma II - DayZ Mod

For the passed couple of days I've been playing a mod of a game called Arma 2. It's really cool, and has a concept I've wanted in a game for a very long time. It's an online zombie apocalypse sand box survival game (requires internet access), when you spawn you have no weapons or anything, just a flash light, bandage, pain killer, and an extra 8-slot backpack. To achieve better equipment, you must enter various buildings / cities / airfields / heli-crash sites, other players bodies, etc. and sneak passed the Zombies in hopes you can find some nice loot (markets have food + water, sometimes weapons, and hospitals have morphine injectors, blood bags, painkillers, bandages, etc.). If you die, you must start over with those starting items, there seems to be a lot of possible spawning-locations. Oh and yes, your character saves across server.

In this game you basically have to monitor your health, hydration, hunger, temperature, whether or not you're sick, if your character is panicked, if bones break or fracture, if you're bleeding, and the like. It's actually pretty realistic and well done overall in this field, I enjoy it. The game takes place in real time, so where ever your server is located, it'll be that exact time in game. Though zombies can easily overwhelm you, another huge fear is other players. While some may be friendly and even help you, some will also shoot you on sight. If you murder someone, it keeps track, and if you get enough murders in one life, your character will wear bandit clothing (unless of course you've found a Ghillie suit or something) to warn other players, until dead.

There seems to be a leaderboard system, though it's currently disabled, for those of you who want a competitive experience. It's based on how long you can survive, some people have lived for literally months without dying, it's crazy. There's only one map, but it's gigantic, I wish I could compare it to other games, but I don't know how. A lot of people on the official DayZ mod forums say that it's bigger than Skyrim and almost as big as Just Cause 2, but I can't say for sure.

The mod features a really awesome VOIP system, there's different chat channels in game: Direct (players near you can hear you or read your text), Vehicle, Group, and some servers have Global and Side Channel.

The game and mod are both graphically amazing, but very demanding. I have a i5-2310 2.9ghz sandy bridge quad core, 8GB DDR3 1333 MhZ RAM, Sapphire 7850 OC Edition, Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit, View sonic 22" 1920x1080, and this game is difficult to play at even normal / high settings. Unless you have like a Radeon 7900 series or GTX 670-690 and a I5-2500k or better.

Here's one of the many videos I watched before I bought this game:

Note: This video was created back in April so there has been quite a few changes since then. In this video, the player spawns with a Pistol and ammo, however in the newer versions, you no longer spawn with that.

I've been watching a lot of videos of the DayZ mod on YouTube, trying to get a feel for it. Can't decide if I'd get into it. Seems a bit too slow paced for my liking and it seems like it suits a hardcore gamer. One of those games that would benefit from a bit of online banter with friends, other than that, it doesn't offer much.