Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-95.23.111.72-20140618101650/@comment-68.7.118.206-20150716061336

I still think DayZ Standalone will fit the bill *if* you manage to be able to play it with friends or meet up with a group in a server by 'chance' somewhere on the huge map and they decide not to kill you on sight first. This game is 100% sandbox taking place on a huge map, it has RPG elements, FPS (hardcore servers), and the random encounters and/or fire fights can make your heart pound very hard.

The game does not have a city where everyone meets up for tournaments and what not, but it is an RPG where you loot, craft items. You have to find weapons - some of the non-military types are easier to find in cities but some of the military ones (like M4) can only be found in military bases, heli wrecks. For the military guns, you then need to find different stocks, scopes, grips, etc to make the weapon better. You also only get to use the ammo made for that weapon type and always need to be mindful of how many bullets you have/use. You can also craft bows and arrows, hunt wildlife and cook. They just implemented vehicles, you need to drink/eat/find and wear adequate clothing (weather affects you). The map 'world' is huge now, around 300 real square miles with every type of terrain, multiple big cities, airprts, and tons of smaller villages. All this with one load - everyone on the server is in the same 'instance' as it were. Zombies are scattered around and can be quite dangerous when 1st starting out. I've been in groups that have had both triumphant and tragic fire fights against other individuals and other groups. The game uses a voice/mic system for communicating with each other that is regional to the area you are currently in (and not the entire server) making for realistic communications.

Youtube search 'DayZ firefight hardcore'. There are 4 types of servers - regular public, hardcore public, regular private, hardcore private. Regular allows 3rd and 1st person, hardcore (what I like most) is 1st person only. Public is your items are saved that remain on your character on your body or pack and private introduced some persistant 'base' saving elements (still work in progress on base building). I prefer hardcore because it being 1st person, no one can 'look' around a wall while staying hidden. I've been in many intense fire fights joiened with friends against any number of unknown situations - I recall 3 of us being pinned down inside a log cabin by a sniper who shot me unconscious. My friend pulled a filled blood bag from my pack that I had pre-filled with my own blood earlier, performed the necessary medical procedure to revive me. We then all darted out of the cabin at the same time but going in different directions and eventually circled around, located the sniper on top of an apartment building and shot him dead. Then happily looted his Mosin sniper rifle complete with a long range scope. I've been in fire fights that ended peacefully around a camp fire only to have one person later go on a sudden shooting rampage and kill us all while our guards are down. Too many stories to list here, but I have never experienced this in any other game where I made both, many new friends but also many enemies. LOL

Now get this. They are currently working on making the Oculus Rift work with DayZ. There are already some people that are using it to some effect. If you didn't already know, Oculus Rift is the closest thing to nerve gear that we currently have. I CAN'T WAIT until that is fully working with DayZ, it's going to be insane!