Why do we need yet another DayZ clone?


What is it about…. What are you’re trying to do here that you think other – you know, like, the DayZs of the world and what not… What is it about having this kind of… The angle you’re taking, the thing that separates it away from those competitors, I guess.

I don’t know much about games journalism or the kind of industry auto eroticism event that is E3. So the premise of this post may be very naive. The quote above is my painstaking transciption of a question – if you can call it that – by Danny O’Dwyer of Gamespot to a Sony rep about the zombie-survival MMO H1Z1 being showcased at E3. I know from experiences that coming up with intelligent sounding questions on the spot can be exceedingly hard but just to be clear, the question was part of a sitdown interview, not a shouted drive-by question on the showroom floor.

My point isn’t that O’Dwyer should have prepared himself better – though he clearly should have, it’s not like it’s not an obvious question to ask – but that he seems to be tying knots on his tongue trying not to sound critical. Here’s the same question, put simply:

Zombie-survival MMO games are a dime a dozen these days. Why do we need another?

My wording, however, implies the possibility that Sony’s game is not only unoriginal but possibly superfluous in a too-crowded me-too-market. Which would be critical in a journalism sense (not in a ‘your-game-is-shite’ sense).

Which leaves me with the  – as I said, possibly very naive – conclusion that these kind of events truly are love fests between industry and game press that brook no critical attitude towards the wares on display.



My main gaming computer is currently down so any gaming gallivanting has to limit itself to whatever my (work) laptop is comfortable with. And while I could plug in a proper mouse, laptop gaming in my view is something you do on a couch with a scorching piece of meat plastic in your lap. And as little touching of the clit clit as possible. Whether using mouse or trackpad it’s just not really comfortable couch gaming.

That has meant lots and lots Spelunky. But even Spelunky can get a bit samey after 100 hours. So when the RPS impressions piece on Broforce mentioned that there wasn’t any targetting (or ‘run-and-gun’) I signed up.

I suspect the gimmick of using caricatured 80s action heros will wear thin soon (though it hasn’t yet) but the sheer delight in the absolutely classic over-the-top mayhem this little gem can produce will never fade, I hope. Surrounded by pathetically screaming, flaming enemies my bro strikes a nonchalant pose while spewing endless bullets acroos the screen, making the the very ground shake, bake and quake . And I’m grinning from ear to ear. It’s just fucking brotiful, bro.