H1Z1

We've just passed the half-way point of 2018, so Ian Gatekeeper and all his fabulously wealthy chums over at Valve have revealed which hundred games have sold best on Steam over the past six months. It's a list dominated by pre-2018 names, to be frank, a great many of which you'll be expected, but there are a few surprises in there. 2018 releases Jurassic World…

Tagged with 2018, Age of Empires II HD, arma iii, Bless Online, Call of Duty World War 2, Final Fantasy XIV Online, NBA 2K18, sales figures, Shadowverse CCG, Steam, The Sims™ 3, Vamypr, A Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia, Ark: Survival Evolved, Assassin's Creed Origins, BattleTech, Black Desert Online, Borderlands 2, Call of Duty: WW2, Cities: Skylines, Conan Exiles, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Crusader Kings II, Cuphead, Dark Souls III, Dark Souls: Remastered, Darkest Dungeon, Dead by Daylight, Deep Rock Galactic, Divinity: Original Sin 2, Don't Starve Together, Dota 2, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Dying Light, Eco, Elite Dangerous, Euro Truck Simulator 2, Europa Universalis IV, Factorio, Fallout 4, Far Cry 5, Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, Final Fantasy XV, Football Manager 2018, For Honor, Frostpunk, Garry's Mod, Grand Theft Auto V, H1Z1, Hearts of Iron IV, House Flipper, Human: Fall Flat, Hunt: Showdown, Jurassic World Evolution, Just Cause 3, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Middle-earth: Shadow of War, Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom, NieR: Automata, Nioh: Complete Edition, Northgard, Paladins, Path of Exile, Payday 2, Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, Planet Coaster, Playerunknown's Battlegrounds, Raft, RimWorld, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Rocket League, Rust, Sid Meier's Civilization V, Slay the Spire, Smite, Sniper Elite 4, Squad, Stardew Valley, Stellaris, Subnautica, Surviving Mars, Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet, Team Fortress 2, Terraria, The Elder Scrolls Online, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR, The Forest, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, theHunter: Call of the Wild, They Are Billions, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, Tom Clancy's The Division, Total War: Warhammer, Total War: Warhammer II, War Thunder, Warframe, Warhammer 40000: Inquisitor – Martyr, Warhammer: Vermintide 2, Watch Dogs 2, XCOM 2.

H1Z1 continues to grow into its own as a bizarre group gaming experiment. The title, which split into two different games in 2016, has continue to split into even more sub-games this year. The current Battle Royale game mode has bolstered by Auto Royale, which allows single, duo, or quad teams to go Full Mario Kart on each other in a quickly diminishing map. And…

Tagged with auto royale, Battle Royale, Daybreak Game Company, H1Z1.

H1Z1, the battle royale 'em up that Brendan "Playerunknown" Greene worked on before making his own Battlegrounds, is now going free-to-play. Developers Daybreak Game Company have announced that H1Z1 will switch to free-to-play at 10am PST (6pm UK time) today, which is a surprise coming only eight days after the game left early access. It seems a sensible move, given dwindling playercounts in the face…

Tagged with Daybreak Game Company, free to play, H1Z1.

H1Z1 has rolled out a major new update today, officially bringing the survive-y Battle Royale out of early access. Along with it, developers Daybreak have added a surprising new variant playmode, called Auto Royale. Auto Royale is a blend of regular Battle Royale systems and perennial PlayStation favorite Twisted Metal.

Tagged with Daybreak Game Company, H1Z1: Auto Royale, H1Z1, H1Z1: Just Survive, H1Z1: King of the Kill.

This month's Humble Monthly is offering an early unlock of H1Z1 to those who subscribe. That'll cost you $12 / £10 at the moment if you fancy it. H1Z1 is currently available from Steam for £14.99 / $19.99, so even if it's the only game you want out of this Humble batch, you're in a good place.

Tagged with Humble Bundle, Humble Monthly, Deals, H1Z1, H1Z1: Just Survive, H1Z1: King of the Kill.

H1Z1: King of the Kill [official site] appears week-in, week-out in both our Steam Charts and in the list of the most played games on Steam, but it's come under increased competition and criticism for its bugs and problems since the release of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. Some changes addressing a few of those problems were added to the game's test server last week, and now a…

Tagged with Daybreak Game Company, H1Z1, H1Z1: King of the Kill.

Survival isn't enough for the youth of today, oh no, they must make sure everyone no one else survives. Battle Royale 'em ups have spun off from open-world survival games, bringing a faster, learner experience of rummaging in bins until you get a nice rod to stab a stranger in the neck. Heck, half of 'em are directly cut out from open-world survive games -…

Tagged with Daybreak Game Company, H1Z1, H1Z1: King of the Kill.

Multiplayer open-world zombie sandbox crafting building survival etc. H1Z1 [official site] is splitting in half, like a zombie who got stuck in a door and its torso is crawling onwards ever hopeful while its legs wonder what they're going to do with all these t-shirts. Look, it's first thing on Monday morning, okay, so you're not getting That Sparkling Alice O'Connor Wit yet. But from…

Tagged with Daybreak Game Company, H1Z1, H1Z1: Just Survive, H1Z1: King of the Kill.

H1Z1 [official site] is to hold its first official tournament on September 26th at TwitchCon, the streaming service's new event highlighting their community and broadcasters. It will use the Battle Royale mode, where groups of players are dropped into a world and then must duke it out until only one or a small group remains, like The Hunger Games with zombies. Or like Battle Royale…

Tagged with Daybreak Game Company, TwitchCon, H1Z1.

"That's nice, dear," is my usual response to boasts of big business numbers. They rarely reveal much interesting unless you're really into the nitty-gritty of #business (in which case, fair play to you). Why do I raise an eyebrow at news that H1Z1 [official site] has sold over one million copies? Well, while many (me included, probably) have muttered that the Early Access open-world zombie…

Tagged with big numbers, Daybreak Game Company, H1Z1.

A name change to the awkward-sounding'Daybreak Game Company' isn't the only consequence Sony's recent shock sale of its MMOy division SOE to management firm Columbus Nova. Barely more than a week after the acquisition, Daybreak is making lay-offs, reportedly including the long-time lead and public face of the Everquest games. "The operation of current games" won't be affected apparently, so while this is sad news…

Tagged with Daybreak Game Company, SOE, H1Z1, PlanetSide 2.

Let's get all this out the way first: yes, this post is about paying to access a beta of a DayZ 'em up that will be free-to-play when it properly launches. This may not appeal to you; that's fine. For the curious, let's continue. Sony Online Entertainment yesterday launched their open-world zombie apocalypse survival multiplayer game H1Z1. SOE are bigger and have more resources than…

Tagged with sony online entertainment, what's in your head?, Zombies, H1Z1.