[An Ode to Rocket] Stopped playing PC games 6 years ago. Dayz brought me back.

[Nickisis 0]

I'm 36. I grew up in the age of Commodore 64s and 300 baud modems. Compuserve and AOL, Super NES and mall arcades. I played PC games most of my time growing up, and through my 20's.

However when I turned 30 I was on my way to getting married, had just purchased my first house, and the Xbox took up a lot of my gaming time. I had slowly transformed from someone that bought video cards to someone that bought "accessories". Monitors had been replaced by HDTVs and joysticks with controllers. Long story short, I had become a console gamer.

As time went by and consoles became mainstream and smart-phones arrived, I found myself barely even using my laptop. The desktop had long been stored in the back corner of one of my expanding families closets, hidden behind Woody, Buzz and Lego crates.

Diablo 3 release dates came and went every year, perhaps the last vestige that could possibly return me to PC gaming. Then a couple months ago they announced that the game would release on May 15th. I wasn't going to break out the desktop, those days had come and past. However, I might as well see how it ran on the laptop.

It ran, but at the lowest settings and with more choppiness than I could handle. I resigned myself to the fact that maybe I would purchase it, but I just wasn't feeling the old juice in the loins as I used to. Maybe PC gaming truly was dead to me. Forever.

And then I read a forum talking about some new zombie mod that had been released for Arma2. I knew about Arma, had read about it, seen video and screenshots, but had not been part of the PC scene when it arrived so didn't know much about it. I saw a link to a Youtube video, the infamous CHKilroy video most of us have probably seen.

I watched. I listened. I saw in front of me the perfect game unfolding. A game that did not attempt to replace reality, but instead mimic it. A game that I had dreamed of many times in my youth. Something that wasn't just run and gun, something that made you think, to have patience, to trust or run from your fellow man.

I had just been introduced to the world of Dayz.

Five days later I received a package via UPS. Inside I opened the new desktop I had purchased a couple days earlier. What Diablo 3 had not been able to convince me of, Dayz had.

I've returned to the world of PC gaming. I am about 20 hours back in. And I am excited. Very, very, excited.

Thank you Rocket, you did what no other game, not even the mighty Diablo 3 was able to. You brought me back to the world of PC gaming.

[acebane 268]

Welcome back. Day Z is amazing. Enjoy yourself while playing it!

Thanks Rocket, Dev Team, Server hosts and supporters.

[Drake Sigar 9]

Short paragraphs are dramatic.

Diablo 3 turned out to be shit.

Banana hammock.

(Seriously though, welcome back!)

[tyler_1111@hotmail.com 0]

yea diablo 3 is mediocre (note mediocre) polished but mediocre....

not really shit and can be fun who you play with.

still d3 and dayz is still THE game to game on PC ATM.

daytime play dayz

night time d3, too easy to die in dayz now at night youd just lose all your progress

[dallas 5195]

We knew you'd be back, welcome back Nickisis. :D

[Hesher (DayZ) 2]

I was about to give up on gaming altogether, no game could interest me and after I realized all the new releases I was hopeful and waiting for ended up being "meh" I thought maybe I just got too old for gaming (im 24) or that the gaming industry gave up on me and went all hollywood "lookz diz awzome trailer!!!".

But now I have played dayz for over 300 hours and I guess thats all I need to say.

[i wub pugs 16]

This review makes me sad because it's not like ArmA is a new game or anything.

Dear Day Z Heads,

Please stick with ArmA through the inevitable bugs and terrible reviews for ArmA III. It may take a year and a half to get the game right, but when you put it up against virtually any game from ANY genre, the title is head and shoulders above.

Let's all make the ArmA community bigger and better. Day Z has helped open the eyes of thousands of new players. I just hope you guys stick around to get this niche title the respect it deserves.

~Pugseh

[aLmAnZo (DayZ) 21]

I would really urge you to try the core game in all it's glory as well, Nickisis. It's a gem on it's own, and one of the few titles that have kept me interested for almost 2 years now. But it is best enjoyed together with a dedicated group.

Let me share some short videos with you:

And for single player, CWR2:

[Lex (DayZ) 1]

Similar situation to my own, except the last game I invested in was Battlefield 2. Loving this mod and just really wish I had a decent enough system to play it on something other than low