I've been playing a lot of DayZ since I picked up ARMA II in the steam sale. For the uninformed, DayZ is an online multiplayer mod for ARMA II: Operation Arrowhead, where you play as a survivor in zombie apocalypse. You require food, water, warmth and good health to survive. You're at risk not only from the environment and zombies, but also from other players.

Althought the game is pretty buggy, and as far as I can tell is still in development, it is still one of the most enjoyable games I've ever played.

I have been playing almost entirely solo, however if anyone else plays DayZ (and preferably is in a GMT or thereabouts timezone), then I would like your company.

You get some pretty awesome stories arising from people playing DayZ, this video is a recent favourite:

—

During my first life in DayZ I had pretty bad luck in terms of loot. I survived for over an hour sneaking around the map, stealthily darting in and out of various locations, but no where did I find a weapon. Just plentiful supplies of empty tin cans. Fortunately I discovered a map, which, once I had managed to work out my location, allowed me to identify a likely location to find weapons. I headed towards a barn, listed as having "high value" items. Strangely, the barn had no zombies around it. Even so, I remained stealthy, and crawled up to the front door. It was then that I discovered why there were no zombies. Another player charged out the barn towards me with a hatchet at the ready. Before I could even stand up, he had hacked me to death.

—

On my second life I had another encounter with players. It started when I identified a castle on the map and decided to pay it a visit. I suspected it would be a risky place to turn up to, since many players would be attracted by the "security" of a castle. I had however found a gun, so felt I could risk it. I crept in through a hole in the walls, and made my way to the main tower.

Once in the tower I heard the sound of footsteps running towards me. Fearing a horde of zombies, I aimed down the barrel of my gun towards the door, and at that instant a human form suddenly burst through! Just before I was about to pull the trigger, I recognised they were not a zombie, but another player. At this point I froze; they were armed, and in a split-second would see me pointing my gun at them. I was under no assurance that they wouldn't kill me.

For whatever reason, I was not shot at. Perhaps he was out of ammo, or perhaps he was just optimistic. I followed him up the spiral tower stair case, glad of some safe company, and at the top I discovered what I think is the more likely reason for my life being spared. There was a group of three people, and had probably mistaken me for one of his friends. Now I was even more concerned, because they would notice I was not part of their group and might consider me a threat. Once again though, I was left unharmed, and they all shortly ran back down the stairs and off into the forest.

—

A slightly different experience was my third life. I was mortally wounded in a surprise attack from a stray zombie who unfortunately managed to knock me unconscious, and consumed a dangerous amount of my blood before I managed to come back around and pop his head off. The huge blood loss made my vision go extremely blurry, and very greyscale. Restoring lost blood is only possible through eating food or getting a blood transfusion. Blood transfusions require another player to administer it, so my only option was to eat food, and meat provides by far the best source of blood.

Since I had panicked in the zombie attack, my trigger happy finger had left me with just one bullet. I needed to use this one last bullet to kill an animal, and from my experience, animals are few and far between.

I scoured the nearby woods for a long while. The blurry greyscale vision made it almost impossible to see coherently; I regularly mistook trees for animals. Eventually I noticed a bunny bouncing about. This was my second encounter with a rabbit. In my first encounter I had full health, full ammo, and flawless vision - and yet I never managed to get one hit on that rabbit.

I ran after this rabbit for a while hoping it would eventually tire out, but unfortunately it was more persistent than real life rabbits. My only choice was to take a shot at it while it was running, zig-zagging through the dense woodland foliage. I knelt down and looked down the sight of my rifle, attempting to track the fast fuzzy blob as it ran behind trees and through ferns. Fortunately the white rabbit provided decent contrast against the dark surroundings, and I optimistically fired my only bullet. A splash of blood and the bunny keeled over! My life was saved. I skinned the rabbit, set up a fire, and cooked the meat. Eating it restored my blood to a high enough level that my vision became clear once again!

—

Now I shall return to playing more DayZ!