I’ve never been more excited at the thought of buying a game. Okay, that’s a bit of a lie—I’m terribly excited to play through Dragon’s Dogma once it comes out—but Day Z is something that really, absolutely should turn your heads if you haven’t heard of it already.

Maybe I’m so excited about it because this is something I’ve thought of before. A couple of years ago, I imagined a game where you could start in the middle of nowhere and slowly stumble around finding whatever you can to help you out as you try to survive a zombified population. Friends could join the same server, and you might be able to communicate and try to find each other. There might also be other people willing to join you but there might be others trying to ambush you because they don’t trust you. I’m excited because, though I lacked development skills, this is a game that turned into reality, and this is exactly what the Day Z mod is.

Day Z is a free modification for Arma 2 and the Operation Arrowhead expansion that does everything I just described and more. Appropriate for a hardcore PC mil-sim, Day Z is one of the most hardcore mods you’ll ever see. While many servers offer you people looking to band together to try and survive together, there are plenty of raiders who park themselves near spawn points to pick off hopeful newbies. If you’re lucky, you might be able to find yourself someone to help you at the hospital for blood transfusions, or to help you put together a car that you can drive around the map. Just imagine those raiders now, staring at your incoming headlights like a deer caught in… well, headlights.

All in all, Day Z is an exciting mod that cannot be properly described in a few short words. If you’re interested in learning more about it, jump right into it with your copy of Arma 2. If you want an idea of how good it is, consider this: When it came out and became more talked about, Arma 2 suddenly became one of the most sold games on Steam that week. Chew on that one for a bit while you bite your way back into Arma 2.

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