My feedback after putting in 34 hours since release:
This is a hardcore map and I love it. Like others, my first three characters died from dehydration/starvation. My last character has been alive for ~30 hours. I've been to the South and back, linked up with two separate friends, and generally went all over the map. I had to make tough decisions. I was about to starve to death, and on the verge of dying, I ate raw meat since I had no way to cook it. It got me sick but I survived. I was sick for probably 20 hours and searched no fewer than 10 clinics and couldn't find any antibiotics. I finally found some on some survivors I killed. I've gone on the best killing streak I've ever had in DayZ. It's so nice because the playing field is so much more even now.
Pros:
Survival (food/water/temperature/etc.) is no longer an afterthought. It is a constant struggle. You have to take risks that you might otherwise avoid. It's fun.
I initially didn't like how much it rained. It's finally starting to grow on me now. I would hold my raw food until I was stuck in a building during a rainstorm. Then I would take the time to cook or refill ammo or other sorts of things. The rain also can provide cover, and adds another element of risk/reward.
I like the way that military loot is spread throughout the map now. Sure, you can go to a base and likely encounter other players, or you can go to one of the many bombed/burned villages and slowly sort through them all and maybe find a diamond in the rough.
The map and the new surviving challenge is really synergistic with lone-wolf style gameplay.
Cons:
The harshness of the survival aspect may turn off new players (as others have mentioned).
I had several inventory-related bugs.
I wasn't able to find a single hospital while looking for a place with antibiotics.
EDIT: I found the field hospital area. To whoever designed and built that area, absolutely marvelous job. The whole area looked like barely organized chaos. Then I came across the mass graves... chilling. Fantastic work.
