DayZ's standalone version, the follow-up to the popular Arma 2 mod, is out now on Steam early access for $30. Unfortunately, DayZ creator Dean Hall was notified at the last minute that the launch trailer (below) that Steam pulled his trailer "due to censorship," but you can still watch it thanks to YouTube.

The trailer may have been pulled because of the suicide you see in the end, which we know is a new feature in the game.

As we've previously reported, Hall has made it explicitly clear that this is an alpha build of the game in the truest sense of the term. It is a work in progress, only a representation of what's to come, and filthy with bugs only players who want to observe and participate in the development process should buy into.

True to his word, Hall gave this warning top billing over any other cool features in DayZ. The main description of the game on Steam reads:

"WARNING: THIS GAME IS EARLY ACCESS ALPHA. PLEASE DO NOT PURCHASE IT UNLESS YOU WANT TO ACTIVELY SUPPORT DEVELOPMENT OF THE GAME AND ARE PREPARED TO HANDLE WITH SERIOUS ISSUES AND POSSIBLE INTERRUPTIONS OF GAME FUNCTIONING."

And only then does he describe the experience, a realistic, open-world survival horror hybrid-MMO.

Disclaimers aside, the descriptions of what's included in the alpha currently available on Steam is sure to get a lot of people to buy into it. It already has Chernarus, the 230km² landmass of deep forests, cities, and villages that severs as DayZ's playground, and it can already handle up to 40 players per server. Persistent player profiles, crafting and other staples of the original DayZ mode are also all in there to varying degrees. We'll see you there, but we won't trust you to not steal our stuff.

ho boy


Skip to 3.30 for straight to the point

this will be much better than war z rite.

Development on the standalone version of the DayZ mod has snowballed into more intense territory than anticipated. DayZ creator Dean Hall has posted an update on the DayZ blog to say that “The experience will be entirely new. There is virtually nothing that has been directly ported from the mod, everything has been redone. This wasn’t our original intention (hence the December deadline) – but it has evolved this way. We’re all glad it has!” Read on to find out what the team’s been tinkering with.

Hall says that character development is “the absolute core of our current design efforts.” New models for ethnic female characters have been added, and there’s more to come. “Until initial release, the vast majority of our efforts will be with expanding options for developing and customizing your character.”

Meanwhile, DayZ’s lead programmer is shifting the multiplayer engine to a “server-client MMO mode,” which will add a bit of much-needed stability. If you want to run games for your community, good news: “Private servers will be supported.”

Designer Ivan Buchta has also rejoined the team after the Greece ordeal, and is working on renovating the DayZ’s island. You can see the results in the latest DayZ screenshots below, spotted by Kotaku

The latest DayZ Standalone update dispenses with the technical round-ups of recent posts, and instead focuses on creator Dean “Rocket” Hall having violent and unnatural spasms. Because he’s doing motion capture work for the game. Not because he’s possessed or anything. Probably.

The twenty minute video takes you through the mo-capping process, and features select interviews with DayZ’s animation team. In it, you can learn Bohemia animator Martin Michalik’s favourite mo-capped animation for DayZ. Spoiler: it’s “defecation”. Wait, what?

Don’t expect a huge splurge of information about the status of the project. Still, it’s an interesting look at a particular aspect of development and, at the very least, is good for a cheap laugh or two.